Free Republic

Regulation: Cures for cancer and Ebola having been found, the federal ubernannies have decreed that sprinkles should no longer adorn kids' ice cream because they contain the trans fat that liberal groups once pushed for. Come the New Year, the Food and Drug Administration, ignoring the principle that in most cases it's the dose that defines the poison, will issue new regulations designed to remove even trace amounts of hydrogenate oils, commonly known as trans fats, from our diets. Trans fats have been in our foods since the 1950s to increase shelf life and improve taste. A small amount appears...

The (well-funded, I am sure) opposition to San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener's ballot measure to tax soda and other sugary drinks calls itself the Coalition for an Affordable City. Its website features owners of corner markets explaining how the proposed tax would hurt their businesses and expressing their bewilderment at City Hall's picking on hardworking merchants. I agree with every point they make, but there's a more fundamental problem with the measure. From the moment Wiener came to the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board last November with a group of like-minded earnest folk to tout this scheme, a little voice...

Hide your Big Gulps again, New York. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week his administration will pick up where former Mayor Michael Bloomberg left off and will continue the battle to ban sodas larger than 16 ounces. The city will appeal a state court ruling that pulled the plug on the ban last year. City lawyers will argue the case at the Court of Appeals on June 4, the New York Daily News reported this week. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg got plenty of headlines in 2012 when he declared war on Big Gulps and other large sugary drinks. The...

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been hit with two suits this week, one demanding information on his anti-gun campaign, and the other targeting his soda and fat bans. Both are Freedom of Information lawsuits from Washington groups that charge the mayor's office with delaying release of critical information about his efforts to start a national campaign to limit guns and boost the health value of food sold in cities. The public watchdog group Judicial Watch on Thursday filed their suit demanding emails between Bloomberg's office, his group Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Vice President Biden. The group charges that...

Another court ruling has taken the fizz out of New York City's ban on big, sugary sodas. A New York appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the city Board of Health exceeded its legal authority and acted unconstitutionally when it tried to put a size limit on soft drinks served in city restaurants. "The Board of Health overstepped the boundaries of its lawfully delegated authority," the court said in its decision. The state Supreme Court Appellate Division, with its opinion, upheld an earlier ruling that stopped the ban from taking effect in March. The rule would stop many eateries from...

For the record, I tend to think that a cigarette ban for minors may be appropriate. While I oppose prohibition for adults, I think it makes sense to say that adults shouldn’t be permitted to entice children into certain unhealthy choices. Of course, if such a prohibition is put in place, it needs to be justified by banning a substance that is clearly dangerous, not just “unhealthy” by some statistic that we know doesn’t apply to all people. If the evidence qualifies tobacco as such a substance, then I can see restricting it from children.But recent news about a new...

Bill Maher‘s recent comments about taxes, the Iraq War and Mayor Mike Bloomberg‘s proposed soda ban have caused some on the right to question whether the Real Time host is slowly drifting over to their side. Maher only fueled those suspicions when Jimmy Kimmel asked him about Bloomberg “efforts to protect us from carbonated beverages” last night. Maher went off on Bloomberg much in the same way he did on his HBO show several weeks ago. “I think it gives liberals a bad name,” he said. “It makes liberals look like bullies who want to tell people what to do,”...

New York City is asking appeals judges to reinstate a ban on supersized sodas and other sugary drinks, which was struck down by a Manhattan judge the day before it was to go into effect. The city had vowed an appeal and said Thursday that lawyers had filed it late Monday. In his decision on March 11, State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling said the 16-ounce limit on sodas and other sweet drinks arbitrarily applies to only some sugary beverages and some places that sell them.

WASHINGTON -- Apparently New York City's Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg whiles away his last hours in the mayor's palace daydreaming. He has been mayor for almost three terms and though his mayorship may not have been as heroic or even as effective as that of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, it has at least kept the city up to Mayor Giuliani's standards of cleanliness, law and order, and an approximation of sense of financial rectitude. So if Bloomberg is no Rudy Giuliani, at least he has done OK up until now. Now his daydreams are taking on the air of delusion. He...

Piers Morgan and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s want to be dictators and slave masters. Regulating a person’s diet is the regulation of a person’s life. Here was Morgan’s response to a guest who disagreed with him on sugary drink control:“I think people need [these types of laws] occasionally, particularly on issues like smoking, drinking, guzzling sodas too big for them, you know, eating 16 Big Macs a day, whatever it may be, the reality is we all need a bit of nannying about that. That’s why so many people are on diets. That’s a form of nanny state.”When governments...

Michael Bloomberg, AKA "The Soda Jerk" got a major reality check at the 11th hour before NYC's sodageddon (my word) because a judge invalidated his precious soda ban.

JUDGE BLOCKS BLOOMBERG'S SODA BAN — Calls It 'Arbitrary And Capricious' Kim BhasinMarch 11,2013 A judge has invalidated New York City's ban on large sodas, which was supposed to go into effect tomorrow, saying that the limits on sugary drinks are invalid, according to CNBC. The New York City Mayor's Office said it would appeal the decision "as soon as possible" in a tweet shortly after the ruling came down. Bloomberg's new sugary drink regulations, which were supposed to go in effect Tuesday, are "fraught with arbitrary and capricious consequences," New York Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling wrote. "It is...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has urged New York State to adopt his ban on large sugary drinks. The city has jurisdiction over restaurants, movie theaters, fast food restaurants and street carts, but not supermarkets or convenience stores that do not serve prepared foods. “The state should do exactly the same thing in stores,” Bloomberg told reporters including WCBS 880’s Rich Lamb. …

<p>Only you're probably not going to like his advice for losing weight -- just eat less.</p> <p>"If you eat less than 2,000 calories you'll lose weight," the mayor said on his weekly WOR radio show today. "If you eat more than 2,000 calories, you'll gain weight. Now some things metabolize more quickly than others. And everyone says I should go on this kind of diet or that kind of diet. Don't eat and you'll lose weight."</p>

Hunger is a force to be reckoned with; it is a motion that cannot be stopped unless it is quenched. But once hunger is sated, it comes again, often more urgently than before. This applies to hunger, in the typical sense, but also the hunger for life, money, faith and power. Once a taste is in your mouth, more is needed to fulfill you the following round. Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, has such a hunger. He has a complex need for power that doesn’t ever seem to be sated. This power hunger has reared it’s ugly head...

If only the little people would stop clinging to their freedom, the elites could improve their lives so much . . . During the push for ObamaCare, MSNBC gave Dr. Nancy Snyderman her own show to promote the cause. The show ended shortly after the passage of the law, but Dr. Nancy's still around, supporting other politicians in their quest for more control over people's lives. On Morning Joe today, Snyderman celebrated New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, claiming he showed real leadership by imposing a ban on big sodas. Snyderman sniffed off opponents of the law as simply having...

Legal challenges to New York City's ban on sodas larger than 16 ounces are unlikely to be successful, and the ban could spark similar moves in other cities around the country, according to experts. Thursday, after the city's board of health formally prohibited restaurants from selling sodas larger than 16 ounces after March 12, 2013, organizations around New York City said they would consider suing the city to get the ban overturned. Laura Palantone, a spokesperson for New York City Beverage Choices, a group against the ban, says the organization will "carefully review the regulation and explore our options now...

NEW YORK (AP) — Medical professionals who favor a proposed ban on large-sized sugary drinks likened soda companies to Big Tobacco at a public hearing Tuesday, saying the plan would protect the public, while opponents accused the city of playing Big Brother and wondered what tasty but unhealthy foods might be targeted next. New York City's health board heard hours of testimony on a proposed rule that would limit soft-drink cup and bottle sizes at food service establishments to no larger than 16 ounces. Medical experts spared no rhetoric in hailing Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal as a way to protect...

Lobbyists from Coca-Cola and other big soda companies have met with mayoral candidates and City Council members. Canvassers hired by the beverage industry are stopping New Yorkers on the street to solicit signatures on petitions. Facebook and Twitter pages tell readers to “say no to a #sodaban.” Confronting a high-profile attack on its fizzy products, the American soft-drink industry is beginning an aggressive campaign to fight New York City’s proposed restrictions on large servings of sugary drinks. Hoping for a debate about freedom, not fatness, the industry has created a coalition called New Yorkers for Beverage Choices to coordinate its...

Policy Order Resolution O-4 ORIGINAL ORDER IN CITY COUNCIL June 18, 2012 MAYOR DAVIS WHEREAS: High intake of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages increases the risk of obesity and diabetes; and WHEREAS: New York City has a plan to limit the serving size of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages sold in restaurants; now therefore be it ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to refer the matter of a ban on soda and sugar-sweetened beverages in restaurants to the Cambridge Public Health Department for a recommendation.