Posted on 06/02/2012 7:22:16 AM PDT by BenLurkin
NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered a full-throated defense of his proposed ban on large-size sugary sodas on Friday, calling criticism of the proposal "ridiculous" and saying his city is again leading the way in taking on critical health issues.
Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft-drink maker, assailed the proposal in a statement on Thursday.
"New Yorkers expect and deserve better than this,' the Coca-Cola statement said. "They can make their own choices about beverages they purchase."
Meanwhile, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, told The New York Post on Thursday that he was considering state legislation to thwart the measure.
"We may be getting too close to Big Brother," Silver told the newspaper. "I just think we ought to step back and look at the freedoms that we have been given in this country and reflect on them."
"You think this was bad?" Bloomberg asked. With the smoking ban, "everybody was opposed to it. today, virtually every major city in America does it ... whole countries!
"If people are yelling and screaming, there's nothing you can do about that. I mean, this is ridiculous."
"Nobody is taking away any of your rights," Bloomberg said later in the broadcast. "This way, we're just telling you That's a lot of soda.'
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonherald.com ...
I don’t know about that. I live in NYC, but I grew up in Mississippi, so I know redneck pretty well. Lemme tell you, when you get north of Albany, that’s as redneck as anything I ever experienced in the Deep South. The only real differences are the accents, sparseness of churches, and the fact that upstate NY has way worse food than the Deep South.
Rival gangs will fight each other for turf rights to sell illegal 20 ounce cokes.
Black market factories will spring up in abandoned warehouses producing the product. Workers will be forced a gunpoint to put duct tape over their mouth to prevent them from drinking the product.
Welfare moms will abandon their babies to drink the product in seedy apartment buildings taken over by the criminal element.
New Coke City, baby.
Disgusting. That’s what these freakazoids always do: have a “board” that gives legitimacy to their actions and makes the public believe the fiction of “public input.”
The only thing good about the idiot Bloomberg is that so far he has stood behind the stop and frisk policy. But this stupid stuff is making NYC feel like a police state.
I grew up on the Upper West Side, lived in NYC most of my life (with some periods on the West Coast) and moved to Florida a few years ago, not for retirement but for personal reasons. I go back to New York a few times a year, and when I was there last week, for some reason it really struck me that Bloomberg has made people doing perfectly innocent things (smoking on a park bench, for example) feel like criminals and feel that the entire government apparatus is focused on them. It was very creepy and I didn’t feel free or comfortable at all.
I dislike looking at obese people. I try not to be rude but in all honesty, it grosses me out. I rarely drink any soda and I never buy those huge drinks. But if there is one thing I hate above all else, it’s nazis. I hate this mayor and the precedent these nazis are setting. This is not “Nanny State”. It is a police state. With enough crying your dad will eventually fire the nanny. The nanny has limited powers. The nanny cannot lock you up. It’s only a matter of time now.
First they ban the big sodas then it will be all soda—Its a slippery slope—Stop it now before they will be regulating how much TP you use in the bathroom.
Well said, sir.
Your’s is the Post of the Day!
Exactly. Basically what they are saying is: "We'll listen to you say 'No' for three months and then we'll go ahead and do it anyway."
No!..you're leading the way directly to communism and bypassing socialism!......Jeez..the size of a soda..what's next the size of a pork-chop?
Free refills will be illegal, and these are a great goodwill item in a lot of places. The self-serve refill machines will have to go, making it more expensive for the businesses and more awkward for the tray-balancing customers.
There is a problem with Type 2 diabetes in the young. Wouldn’t it be better to tackle this problem through the schools, with an education campaign, instead of going after businesses? They could even “target” the overweight kids by giving them a letter or literature to take home, or send it to the home, without coercion or legislation.
It is not just large sugary drinks that make people fat. Give it the comprehensive treatment.
>>I don’t know about that. I live in NYC, but I grew up in Mississippi, so I know redneck pretty well. Lemme tell you, when you get north of Albany, that’s as redneck as anything I ever experienced in the Deep South. The only real differences are the accents, sparseness of churches, and the fact that upstate NY has way worse food than the Deep South.
Believe it or not, the South is more than rednecks. The fact that you go straight from NYC to Redneck is proof that you are more NYC than you are Mississippi.
I lived in Binghamptom for a few years and I’ve visited NYC a couple times, including spending a week there once. I know this doesn’t make me an expert on NYC or NY, but I lived in Binghampton for as long as I lived in Pocatello, ID and I know that I loved Pocatello and did not love Binghamptom. I’ve spent as much time in Chicago as I’ve spent in NYC and I prefer Chicago in every way over NYC.
But, this is just my preference and I’m glad you love it there, so when your elected officials in NYC decide that you can’t be trusted with a 32 oz drink (even though it may be a diet drink—but who cares about that distinction), I just laugh.
Mike, really, is New York City such a sylvan paradise that you and the municipal government have nothing better to do than ban the Big Gulp? Really? Is that your final answer?
If you lived in Binghamton, I’d think you’d know how to spell it correctly.
BTW, Binghamton was pretty much exactly where I was thinking of when I said that upstate NY is as redneck as anywhere.
That's some pretty whacked out thinking.
It was 35 years ago. You’re lucky I bother to spell New York right.
God Bless your daughter and I hope she does great there. If the s* is about to hit the fan please get her out safely.
Ouch!! (not really offended - more amused) I grew up west of Binghamton - west of Corning! (Bath) There are plenty of red necks yet also some well educated sophisticated types in the mix. For example my late Father was an engineer and successful artist. Some of the vinters around the lakes are of European descent and far from red neck. It really is a mixture - back in some of the rural hollows there are appalachian type shanties. The cuisine at some of the better restaurants is as good as anywhere. Western NY is somewhat different than northern NY (Adirondack area).
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