Back to Basics

UPI FILE

New Yorkers were not happy that Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted to ban “large sugary drinks.”

New York City is asking an appeals court judge to reinstate a ban on the sale of “large sugary drinks.” Attorneys are making the argument that the law is crucial to prevent a “serious health crisis.”

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks Coca-Cola venders should be treated like cocaine dealers.

Fortunately, on March 11, the day before the new law was set to take effect, State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling declared that the new regulation could not pass — not because it was an infringement on a basic freedoms, but because the new law was beset with loopholes. According to Tingling, the soda ban would have still allowed, God forbid, State-regulated convenience stores to sell “large” sodas.

Tingling deserves a modicum of credit: He said Bloomberg and the city’s Board of Health had overstepped their authority by not putting the ban to a vote in the New York City Council.

Attorneys who want to stop Bloomberg and his bureaucrats believe that the City has exceeded its authority.

“It was never about obesity; it was never about soda,” said Matthew Greller last week. He represents plaintiff National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State. “It was always about power. The question, fundamentally, is what is the power of a city agency.”

Gabriel Taussig, the head of the city’s administrative law division, agreed with the plaintiff lawyers, admitting: “There’s a lot at stake in this case beyond the sugary drinks issue.”

Sermons From The Mount

How large a soda people in New York can legally buy is just the tip of the iceberg. The real behemoth below the waterline has been built by President Barack Obama and the first lady.

The President has more power, but one can’t help but believe that he takes his cues from his wife, whose pet peeve is how Americans eat and exercise.

Parents in California are opposed to public schools giving yoga lessons to their children. That didn’t bother Michelle Obama, who announced that the White House determined to keep up the practice of its “Yoga Garden” as a part of its traditional Easter Egg Roll festivities.

More than 30,000 people visited the South Lawn of the White House for the 135^th annual Easter Egg Roll celebrations.

Part of the first lady’s efforts to promote health and wellness, “Be Healthy, Be Active, Be You!” was the theme of the Easter Egg Roll. “Come enjoy a session of yoga from professional instructors,” read the announcement regarding the “Yoga Garden.”

This may generate some ill will because yoga is the rage today. I tried yoga when I was young and fit. It certainly wasn’t “me.” And, frankly, it is not an effective exercise.

As some have pointed out, my photo reflects that I am 30 years and 60 pounds past my prime. However, I was once a competitive athlete (albeit not a very good one). But I was coached by and coached with people who were at the top of their profession. My eyes still work fine, and I frequently read about exercise and human physiology.

Because everyone should be able to afford to buy a condo at least as nice as the one Dances With Identity Theft lives in.

From NRO:

In a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions last week on “indexing the minimum wage,” Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren inquired of University of Massachusetts professor economics Arindrajit Dube, “If we started in 1960, and we said that, as productivity goes up — that is, as workers are producing more — then the minimum wage is going to go up the same. And, if that were the case, the minimum wage today would be about $22 an hour. So, my question, Mr. Dube, is what happened to the other $14.75?”

What happened to the other $14.75? Maybe it all got spent on tuition for one of Warren’s classes.

Why stop at $22? Why not $100, $200 or $1,000 an hour? Why does Elizabeth Warren hate the working class?

If productivity/performance is the measure for wages, Congress wouldn’t even get a paycheck. At the very least their salaries need to be garnished until the nearly $17 trillion is paid off.

Video via Weasel Zippers:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABM0_L_5vLw

Lawmakers from the Massachusetts State Senate submitted a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick on Wednesday, demanding the state government’s full compliance with the federal REAL ID Act, according to Maria Sliwa, spokeswoman for a public-interest group and sister of Guardian Angels founder and talk show host Curtis Sliwa.

The senators’ action follows the filing of a Public Records Request with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) by the Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License (CSDL) regarding that state’s low level of compliance with the federal identification regulations.

Enacted in 2005 during the Bush Administration, the REAL ID Act requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish standards for state issued driver’s licenses that would be used for “official purposes,” such as boarding a commercial airplane, obtaining a U.S. passport, and other activities requiring the verification of identity.

The Act was based on a recommendation by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, a/k/a the 9/11 Commission, which stated that, “[T]he federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as driver’s licenses.” DHS published the REAL ID standards in January 2008.

State Senators Robert Hedlund, Michael Knapik, Bruce Tarr, and Richard Ross urged “immediate action” to remedy their concern that falling behind on compliance with the law has made “Massachusetts a magnet state for criminals and others seeking to fraudulently obtain driver’s licenses under assumed or fictitious identities,” according to Maria Sliwa.

In addition, the Republican Senators noted their concern that Massachusetts will be “one of few states whose permissive driver’s license practices may bar residents from boarding airplanes.”

As a result of the passage of the REAL ID Act, most of the U.S. states’ governments have made significant progress toward securing their jurisdictions’ identification documents. A progress report released by DHS in August 2012 revealed that, “all states meet or commit to meet 83 percent of the material compliance benchmarks, which DHS believes may understate state progress.”

However, according to documents received through the Public Records Request by the non-governmental organization (NGO) CSDL, Massachusetts hasn’t made much progress in complying since 2009.

Although Congress passed the REAL ID program in 2005, the implementation of the full program has been delayed several times due to state opposition. While some states, such as North Carolina and Georgia, have supported the program, many states are opposed. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 25 states have passed resolutions rejecting REAL ID and it is illegal to comply with the law in 15 states.

DHS officials have noted that so far 19 states are currently compliant with the REAL ID Act. While all states have received a “temporary deferment,” DHS plans to announce enforcement of the REAL ID Act in the fall of 2013.

Brian Zimmer, President of CSDL stated, “Senator Tarr and his colleagues are right to be concerned. MassDOT is gambling with long odds that DHS will do nothing. Meanwhile, as more and more states move forward with compliance, Massachusetts will be left further and further behind.”

Rachel Kaprielian, the Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles, was also copied on the letter, according to Ms. Sliwa, who is a former New York City Police officer and adjunct faculty member at the Columbia School of Journalism. www.journalism.columbia.edu/profile/389-maria-sliwa/164

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is like a Roomba that has set itself for “nanny state” and is automatically going from place to place removing any and every potential hazard to your health — whether you want it to or not. Bloomberg’s latest area of concern is ear buds:

Mayor Bloomberg — who has already cracked down on smoking, junk food, trans fats, salt and super-sized drinks — is embarking on a new crusade: preventing New Yorkers from going deaf.

Hizzoner’s health officials are planning a social-media campaign to warn young people about the risk of losing their hearing from listening to music at high volume on personal MP3 players, The Post has learned.

“With public and private support, a public-education campaign is being developed to raise awareness about safe use of personal music players . . . and risks of loud and long listening,” said Nancy Clark, the city Health Department’s assistant commissioner of environmental-disease prevention.

The campaign, which will cost $250,000, is being financed through a grant received from the Fund for Public Health, the Health Department’s fund-raising arm.

The Hearing Loss Prevention Media Campaign will target teens and young adults, conducting focus-group interviews and using social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Jim Treacher: “You know a government is bloated beyond recognition when not only is there a ‘commissioner of environmental-disease prevention,’ but he thinks he needs an assistant.”

A city-wide ban on ear buds coming soon? Bloomberg will probably start with a call for volume control, but it’s probably too much to hope for that he’ll decide to dial himself down:

New York News | NYC Breaking News

PHOTOS.COM

It’s certainly not unusual for collectivist lunacy to come from Illinois. After all, the State provides us with (unpleasant) entertainment in the form of a police superintendent who threatens to shoot legal gun owners while his city leads the nation in homicides. It is home to a terrorist adviser to the President (Bill Ayers). It claims as citizens such brilliant luminaries as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the felon Jesse Jackson Jr. (and his felonious wife), his race-hustling father Jesse Jackson, Rod Blagojevich (the fourth of the last seven Governors from the State convicted of corruption) and the illegal White House usurper and fascist in chief. And then there’s Al Capone, whose crimes pale in comparison to those of some of the State’s political class. There are, of course, many more. But space won’t allow me to name them all.

Now comes this from the State with the most restrictive gun laws in the Nation (and likely the most criminals): a bill to require registration for sellers and buyers of gold. Text from the bill reads:

Creates the Precious Metal Purchasing Act. Provides that a person who is in the business of purchasing precious metal shall obtain a proof of ownership, create a record of the sale, and verify the identity of the seller. Provides that a person who is in the business of purchasing precious metal shall not pay for the precious metal in cash and shall record the method of payment. Requires the purchaser to keep a record of the sale for one year or, if the purchase amount is over $500, for 5 years. Provides that a person who violates the Act is guilty of a petty offense and subject to a fine not exceeding $500. Provides that the Attorney General may inspect records, investigate an alleged violation, and take action to collect civil penalties.

This ordinance is similar to a bill passed in Houston two weeks ago that required gold-buying businesses to photograph and fingerprint those bringing in gold to sell, photograph the items being sold and maintain an online database of the transactions.

The elites hate gold in the hands of the proles, as it demonstrates a growing recognition that the façade of government finance is collapsing. Elites say gold isn’t money. Meanwhile, central banks around the world are snapping up gold as fast as they can transport it; some nations are trying to get their gold out of the United States; and, back home, the regime is laying the groundwork for gold registration a little at a time. It’s all about gradualism, as I have warned you before.

Hat tip: Economicpolicyjournal.com

Litership

New York City Mayor Michael “I have a responsibility not to force anybody to do anything” Bloomberg is forcing people to do something again. City officials will start enforcing the “large sugary drink” ban on March 12 (violators will be fined $200 and sent to health nanny sensitivity training). Affected city businesses are receiving information on compliance. Among the rules: No two-liter sodas with pizza deliveries:

The city Health Department last week began sending brochures to businesses that would be affected by the latest ban, including restaurants, bars and any “food service” establishment subject to letter grades.

And merchants were shocked to see the broad sweep of the new rules.

“It’s not fair. If you’re gonna tell me what to do, it’s no good,” said Steve DiMaggio of Caruso’s in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. “It’s gonna cost a lot more.”

And consumers, especially families, will soon see how the rules will affect their wallets — forcing them to pay higher unit prices for smaller bottles.

Typically, a pizzeria charges $3 for a 2-liter bottle of Coke. But under the ban, customers would have to buy six 12-ounce cans at a total cost of $7.50 to get an equivalent amount of soda.

Bloomberg is still going to allow pizzas to be delivered? Unbelievable. It seems like the obesity from the pizza combined with the global warming from the delivery vehicle would be enough to convince The Nanny to put a stop to it. Maybe that’s next.

Here’s more, to be filed under “how come Mayor Bloomberg hates the environment?”

“We’re getting in 16-ounce bottles — and that’s all we’re going to sell,” a worker said.

He said the smaller bottles will generate more revenue for the restaurant but cost consumers more.

It will also trash more plastic into the environment.

The New York Post’s picture accompanying the story is worth a look.

Over a decade after thousands of New Yorkers were murdered by Muslim terrorists, the city’s mayor is declaring victory in the War on Salt. Next up he plans to wage a spring offensive on Styrofoam cups. After that, who knows?

We live in surreal times. In the Middle Ages, cats and rats were put on trial. In this modern age, we began by waging wars on poverty and drugs, both of which we lost, and have now retreated to fighting wars on food ingredients, the bags we carry them in and the containers out of which we eat and drink them.

There’s no telling what surreal enemy our wise and brilliant leaders will declare war on next. Shoes? Pepper? Umbrellas? Mathematics? The color blue?

There’s just no way to know anymore.

The United States has lost the War in Afghanistan, a minor matter that no news outlet can find the time to report on because they’re too busy covering a breaking story about a Republican Senator taking a sip of a water. Maybe a War on Water can be next. Was there a Styrofoam cup involved? It’s time for one of those hard-hitting investigations that reminds us what a tragedy it will be when the last newspaper is strangled with the entrails of the last news network and the media’s commitment to serious journalism is finally replaced by pictures of cats, wardrobe malfunctions and mutual accusations of racism. (And we won’t even notice when it finally happens.)

But who can find the time to fight a war against Islamic terrorists, when there are more pressing wars to be fought? Like a war on being fat.

Michelle Obama declared that obesity was a national security threat. And the Pentagon, which now exists only to ratify the latest leftist social experiment from the White House, whether it’s Green Energy, Gay Marriage or bombing the fattest state in the country (Michigan), issued a report agreeing that snack foods posed the greatest threat to the military since Global Warming and the lack of Tranny toilets on submarines.

The military has been unable to identify the Fort Hood Massacre as a terrorist attack and fires any instructor who talks about Islam as anything other than a wonderful Religion of Peace practiced by our closest allies in Saudi Arabia and on board a plane headed for the Pentagon, but the political generals are always ready, willing and able to jump on any truly serious national security threat. If only Iran began developing the world’s biggest chocolate bar, then the bombing raids would begin as soon as the chocolate enrichment process reached the caramel-nougat line.

Faced with a seemingly unwinnable conflict against the Soviet Union, American leaders began to retreat into smaller social wars that were actually far more unwinnable. Those wars have also gone the way of the dodo. The War on Poverty is one with the ages and the War on Drugs is usually only mentioned in a pejorative context.

But the same government that couldn’t get a small percentage of the population to stop doing cocaine and heroin imagines that it will somehow be able to compel 11-year-old boys to stop eating candy and drawing guns.

When the environmental left’s methods of “saving the planet” collide with the safety nannies’ agenda of eliminating every possible risk from our daily lives, the former usually takes precedence. When it comes to protecting the earth, suddenly a little risk is completely acceptable — provided it’s for the right reason:

Every time you turn on the lights, you may be putting yourself at risk, according to a disturbing new study.

Energy efficient bulbs are eco-friendly and can save you big bucks, but experts say that some could also have a dark side.

“When there is something in your house, you don’t perceive any danger, you wouldn’t get that close to an x-ray in a doctor’s office,” explained Miriam Rafailovich, Professor of Materials Science at Stony Brook University in New York.

Money saving, compact fluorescent light bulbs emit high levels of ultra violet radiation, according to a new study. Research at Long Island’s Stony Brook found that the bulbs emit rays so strong that they can actually burn skin and skin cells.

“The results were that you could actually initiate cell death,” said Marcia Simon, a Professor of Dermatology.

Exposure to the bulbs could lead to premature aging and skin cancer, according to doctors.
[...]
The compact fluorescent industry claims that the bulbs are safe, but admitted that they emit ultraviolet rays. The industry released a statement that said “the levels of UV radiation emitted are acceptably low,” and that they are safe under normal use.

Stony Brook researchers advised that customers exercise caution and stay two feet away from the bulbs at all times, while storing them in an overhead fixture or lamp.

Yes, stay at least two feet away from them, and don’t make any sudden movements. Are we talking about light bulbs, or Happy Fun Ball?

If you happen to break a CFL, the cleanup process is 21 simple steps — 22 if you count the prayer.

Fortunately I still have a stock of old-school incandescent bulbs large enough to light up Las Vegas for a decade. As for power sources, I’m going to do what’s best for the planet and start relying more on oil. If it’s good enough for Al Gore it’s good enough for me.

Americans are in love with anything on wheels. This is the country of the Corvette and the Hog where driving fast is considered a national birthright despite the toll in lives and pollutants. And most of the rest of us have come to accept that.

We may shake our heads at the billions wasted on gasoline, on air fresheners and dashboard ornaments that could have been used to feed the starving children of the world. But when tragedy strikes it is important for us to set aside the political rhetoric and have a serious discussion about assault vehicles.

Let’s talk about motorcycles.

Unlike cars, motorcycles have no practical purpose. No one commutes to work on a motorcycle. No one drives to pick up their children from soccer practice on a motorcycle. But for some people a motorcycle is a symbol of their masculinity and that symbol has become death on wheels.

Americans are in love with motorcycles. 9 percent of Americans own 11 million motorcycles as part of the 18 billion dollar motorcycle industry. Some Americans even own more than one motorcycle, even though one motorcycle is the most that any normal person could possibly need.

Motorcycle deaths have risen sharply in the last ten years and the motorcycle industry is to blame for preventing us from addressing this horrifying epidemic of highway death.

In 1994, there were 2,320 motorcycle deaths. In 2012 that number increased to 4,500 as the assault vehicles greased their wheels with the blood of innocent men, women and children.

1 in 7 US traffic deaths is now caused by the motorcycle. Or what we should properly rename the Assault Cycle. Unfortunately movies like Easy Rider glamorize motorcycle culture and the motorcycle industry preys on the vulnerable male psyche as riders chase after some escapist fantasy of personal autonomy.

Motorcycle culture has always been associated with violence and the escalating death toll now threatens our moral standing as a country. America was once known as a nation that the rest of the world looked up to, but now whenever I visit Lichtenstein or Luxembourg for an environmental conference, one of the first questions that I am asked is when Americans will join the rest of the civilized world in restricting the manufacture and sale of assault cycles. And I can only sadly shake my head while downing another Shirley Temple.

But perhaps tragedy will serve as a wake-up call. In Fairfield, California, an off-duty California Highway Patrolman is killed in a collision with a pickup truck. In Duarte, California, former MLB pitcher Frank Pastore died of injuries resulting from a motorcycle accident.  In Florence, Kentucky, a motorcycle driver lost control of his assault vehicle and collided with a utility pole. In Tarpon Springs, Florida, a woman riding as a passenger on the back of a motorcycle fell off and was run over by a passing vehicle. These are just a few of the deaths caused by assault cycles that have taken place in the last week.

We cannot meet these awful tragedies with apathy. Only immediate unthinking action will suffice. A serious dialogue must begin in which all options are on the table.