Mayor Bloomberg is Taking Away Your Soda, Fatty!

NYC Bans Big Gulp

New York City’s Board of Health has officially passed Mayor Bloomberg’s insane soda ban. Starting March 12, businesses in New York City will no longer be allowed to sell sugary drinks in containers of more than 16oz. No word yet on whether Mayor Bloomberg plans to burp every New Yorker after they drink a soda.

The city won’t start handing out fines for violating the law until mid-June. Oh, and surprise surprise there’s controversy surrounding its passing. It passed the city’s board of health (which, something like this seems like it should be going before city council, but that would probably be a risk Commandant Bloomberg is unwilling to take) by eight votes to zero, but every member of the board was appointed by Bloomberg.

For those who don’t know, this Ban has been Bloomberg’s pet project for a few weeks now. He claims it’s all part of fighting obesity, and it’s certainly part of the larger pattern of his agenda, fitting with his smoking ban, trans fat ban, and requirement of fast food restaurants to post their calorie counts.

The difference between this ban and those other initiatives (which for the record I hate the smoking ban even though I don’t smoke, have mixed feelings about the tans fat ban, and support the calorie count requirement) is that this one is completely ineffective. In addition to being government overreach, this plan is plainly stupid.

You won’t be able to buy a soda that’s more than 16oz, so if you drink a 16oz soda and you’re still thirsty, you’ll need to buy another soda, which will end with you drinking more soda than if you could just get a 20oz soda. Great job, Bloomberg. The opposite of what you were trying to achieve.

Also, the ban is supposedly on all sugary drinks, but diet sodas and juices are exempted. Those can be just as unhealthy as regular soda. Also exempted are high calorie milky drinks such as Milkshakes and Coffees, which are often waaaaaaay more unhealthy than soda and higher in calories.

Congratulations, Michael Bloomberg, you’ve managed to create a law that infringes on personal liberty, infantalizes your populace, and doesn’t even make anyone remotely healthier. And you managed to push it through by getting it passed by an advisory board you appointed, so pretty much in the most undemocratic way possible. Well done, comrade, well done. What’s next? Forcing all New Yorkers to wear diapers? Will you personally wipe all our asses and then breastfeed each and every one of us?

F**k you, Bloomberg. I hope you get fat.