If anything, Lieberman suggests that the mayor's pop policy goes too far, saying, "I think we should focus paternalistic laws on children." Still, he writes, "Adults need help, too, and we should do more to regulate companies that exploit our deeply rooted appetites for sugar and other unhealthy foods."
I don't advocate encouraging people to smoke, but I do remember over the last 10-15 years, as smoking was progressively banned in bars, bar patios, other venues where people used to smoke and drink, and finally in city parks... as that was happening, people would joke: "just wait, once they have smoking totally banned, they'll move on to trying to regulate us into not eating unhealthy food."
Right on schedule, here it is.
Wonder when the new temperance movement will appear and lead the drive to re-ban alcohol? If you drink a lot it'll wreck your liver as badly as smoking wrecks your lungs, and it's worse for you than a Big Gulp.
I've either recycled plastic bags or reused them for garbage since the 1990s. For some reason certain types carry on as if plastic bags all end up in landfills and lecture us about carrying reusable bags.
I've either recycled plastic bags or reused them for garbage since the 1990s. For some reason certain types carry on as if plastic bags all end up in landfills and lecture us about carrying reusable bags.
The 2010 Superbowl's "Green Police" add comes to mind.
To be fair, there's a difference between banning a substance and doing less to encourage its use. Government subsidies for the corn market are insanely high. This leads to everything from needing to push for higher ethanol content in fuels, to needing to convince people to eat/drink vast amounts of sugar.
Personally I'm of the opinion that cutting back on corn and other agricultural subsidies would do a world of good for the American wasteline. Even then, you can't force people to be healthy (not that you should). Again, there's a difference between an outright ban (that never works) and putting in place incentives for healthier behavior.
I heard one guy on the radio complaining that if they made all of the sugary drinks too expensive, they'd have nothing to drink. I don't know whether or not he had heard of a newfangled drink called "Wa-ter (TM)."
This cyclist has a beef with a certain category of plastic bags, those from convenience stores. I've got a fair amount of experience cleaning up roadsides on my favorite bike rides, and two types of bags predominate: small grocery bags from 7-11 and the like, and ice bags from the same stores. Rarely are grocery store bags found.
My expectation is that the penalty applied to responsible society as a whole (evidenced by the responses here) would be better focussed on a small minority of the population, probably predominantly contractors and day laborers who must not have had mothers because no mother would raise her kids to throw out their lunch bag.
It would be expensive, but I applaud those judges who sentence litterbugs to a day of picking up trash, dressed in prison orange.