More Leftist Nonsense from San Francisco
by Jeff Davis
The left-liberal campaign against tobacco, along with all the multiple multi-million dollar lawsuits, has always grabbed most of the publicity in the Big Brother Is Watching Your Consumption arena. However, we should bear in mind that there are many secondary targets in the Looney Left campaign to make sure we all eat right–or else.
San Francisco’s CBS affiliate, KCBS reports: “For years, the idea of taxing soda to beat back obesity has been tossed around in medical circles. But now, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is proposing a tax on beverages high in fructose corn syrup. Newsom says obesity accounts for tens of millions of dollars in city health care costs. He cites a recent San Francisco Health Department survey that found nearly a quarter of the city’s 5th, 7th and 9th graders were overweight and that high sugar drinks make up a tenth of a kid’s daily calorie count.”
The station goes on: “Newsom reportedly wants all big box retailers and chain drug stores to pay into his new ‘Shape up San Francisco’ program, which started this past summer with a walking regimen. This comes as the state of California is considering slapping caffeine-infused sodas, and energy drinks with warning labels, saying consumption can contribute to diabetes.” Anyone remember how in Orwell’s famous book “1984″ Winston Smith had to get up and do calisthenics in front of the telescreen every morning?
Okay, there is no getting around it. Full sugar soda pop is a lousy food substitute. It causes obesity, in kids and everyone else. It aggravates diabetes. Its empty calories are devoid of nutritional content. It’s a bad choice to make. But it’s our choice, and not the choice of a bunch of low-level wannabe Hillary Clinton clones. One of the prime Rights of Americans has always been the freedom to do what we want in the pursuit of happiness, even if it’s not good for us.
After taxing tobacco almost into oblivion, the Left has its sights set on full-sugar soda pop, then fast food containing cholesterol, neither of which, granted, are especially healthy to consume in a steady diet. Anybody dumb enough to live on nothing but full-sugar Mountain Dew and McDonalds’ Happy Meals probably deserves what he gets. But that’s one more bit of freedom that has been sliced away by the Clinton-esque nanny state. The ultimate goal, of course, is mandatory Vegan vegetarianism for everyone, with no doubt a good lengthy prison sentence for anyone who chomps down on a steak or a cheeseburger. They can serve their sentences in the cells next to the Holocaust deniers and Civil War Revisionists.
You will note that these liberals in San Francisco don’t want actually to ban these unhealthy foods. Oh, no, they want to make you give them money as a kind of toll or tribute for exercising your freedom of choice. And what will they use that money for?
Bear in mind that the ultimate goal in almost all left-wing “causes” of various kinds is to let liberals and Lefties get their hands on tax dollars. Some of the more egregious examples are the NEA teacher’s union–money for “education.” This usually ends up in the hands of the teacher-bureaucrats and very little of it filters down to the classroom.
This soda tax is another example. How much does anyone want to bet that little if any of the money from this sugar soda tax actually goes to health care? Instead the taxes will likely be frittered away creating more liberal bureaucrat jobs so more liberals can slither through life always on the public payroll and never actually have to get themselves cleaned up and compete for a real job in the free market.