Super-Size Me Bloomberg

Before I speak to New York Mayor Bloomberg’s initiative to outlaw super-sized sodas at some locations (like movie theaters) and not others (like 7-11) I should acknowledge that not only does this not impact me geographically, I personally have never had a super-sized soda and I don’t like soda.

 

 

While it is my view that super-sized are not a smart or healthy choice, it is a choice. The idea that a mayor is so enamored of his point of view that he believes he has a right to impose it on everyone else is just plain dumb and offensive. It’s really rather weird that someone who is generally so bright as Bloomberg would choose to range so far from reality.

 

There’s quite a few things I wish other’s would not do. An adult league baseball player came to the plate a few nights ago in a game I was umpiring, and brackish tobacco juice was oozing down his cheek from the wad in his mouth. I kinda wished he wouldn’t do that, both for his health and so I wouldn’t have to look at it. This is America..the land of the free, which includes the freedom to make stupid choices.

 

I did tell the ball player that I hoped he would stop, just like I think it’s OK for Bloomberg to tell his constituents, consumers and vendors that he thinks we would be better off without super-sized sodas. Not only does Bloomberg have a right to that opinion, he has the moral authority to be influential, but that is where it stops. When he takes it farther, he distracts us from the health issue and sends us right to the freedom issue.

 

Me thinks if he does pass such a law, and I visit New York, in the style of Le Petit Prince, my very first act would be to buy an underground, illegal super sized soda, and drink my very first one, just because it is my right.

 

Posted 06 / 01 / 2012

 

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