General derision continues from many quarters, if not all, for Mayor Bloomberg’s soda-snatch scheme. “Just don’t get caught with the weed AND a 24 ounce Coke” [NYT comment via John Elwood, Volokh] Baylen Linnekin finds it “just part of a typical news cycle in the Bloombergosphere” and points out that “The unsweetened juice of an apple — that symbol of New York City — contains at a minimum exactly the same number of grams of sugar per ounce (3.25 g) as Coca-Cola (3.25 g).” Ira Stoll suspects Bloomberg has surrounded himself overmuch with yes-men. More: George Will (“‘The essence of contemporary liberalism,’ ‘preposterous,’ ‘sinister'”)
Posts Tagged ‘soft drinks’
Dear Mayor Bloomberg…
When you’ve lost even the New York Times editorial page on a nannyism venture, maybe it’s time to rethink.
When even New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver comes off sounding libertarian and vowing to overturn your jumbo-soda ban, maybe it’s time to prepare a retreat.
Oh, well. At least you’ll always have The New Yorker.
Bloomberg’s soda grab: reactions
The NYC mayor’s plan to limit sizes of sweetened drinks meets with a hail of dead cats from commentators:
- “Bloomberg is right when he says there will still be lots of opportunities for New Yorkers to consume large quantities of high-calorie drinks, which means he does not even have a sound paternalistic justification for his meddling. … it is patently absurd for Bloomberg to claim he is not limiting freedom when he uses force to stop people from doing something that violate no one’s rights.” [Jacob Sullum]
- “Trans-fats –- we were told by New York City Mayor Bloomberg –- are an exceptional case because even the smallest intake hurts the human body. Ditto, it would seem, of salt and alcohol. But we all knew he wouldn’t stop there. And he didn’t.” [Stephen Richer, WLF]
- “It’s well known, for example, that the heaviest consumers of sugary drinks are adolescent males — who also tend to be the thinnest and most active members of the population. (‘Unfortunately, increasing sugar consumption [is] unlikely to make anyone thinner, younger—or male,’ [researcher Adam] Drenowski notes.)” [“Bloomberg’s Attack On Big Soda Lacks One Thing: Scientific Evidence,” Daniel Fisher, Forbes]
- “[Bloomberg’s] sarcasm about the inconvenience of buying two sodas is ironic, since that inconvenience is one thing that he’s counting on to drive the success of his plan.” [Mark White, Economics and Ethics]
- “I’m afraid this proposal is targeted more at class than obesity.” — Cornell economist David Just, quoted on NPR.
- “And speaking of the mayor’s commitment to freedom, who exactly is going to impose this sweeping ban? Not the people, in a referendum. Not a constitutional convention. Not even the city council. This ‘far-reaching ban,’ as the Times describes it, will be imposed on 8 million free citizens of New York by the city’s unelected Board of Health, all of whose members are appointed by . . . the mayor.” [David Boaz, Cato]
- And the inevitable Twitter hashtag, #BloombergMovieTitles: The Appropriately Sized Lebowski, I Know What You Ate Last Summer, The Taking of Pepsi One Two Three, There Will Be Blood Sugar Tests, Diet! Diet! My Darling, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Flan, Sixteen Carrots, No Country for Old Menus, and All That Bloomberg Allows (h/t @JoshGreenman, @bethanyshondark, @AnthonyBialy, @robsolo, @RobGeorge, @JoshGreenman again, @KerryPicket, @Fausta, and @Ericatwitts).
Food law roundup
- Bloomberg’s petty tyranny: NYC plans ban on soft drink sizes bigger than 16 oz. at most eateries, though free refills and sales of multiple cups will still be legal [NBC New York]
- Will Michigan suppress a heritage-breed pig farm? [PLF] NW bakers cautiously optimistic as state of Washington enacts Cottage Food Act [Seattle Times]
- Hide your plates: here comes the feds’ mandatory recipe for school lunch [NH Register] School fined $15K for accidental soda [Katherine Mangu-Ward] Opt out of school lunch! [Baylen Linnekin]
- Losing his breakfast: court tosses New Yorker’s suit claiming that promised free food spread at club fell short [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
- Amid parent revolt, Massachusetts lawmakers intervene with intent to block school bake-sale ban [Springfield Republican, Boston Herald, Ronald Bailey]
- Interview on farm and food issues with Joel Salatin [Baylen Linnekin, Reason]
- “Nutella class action settlement far worse than being reported” [Ted Frank]
- Under political pressure, candy bar makers phase out some consumer choices [Greg Beato] Hans Bader on dismissal of Happy Meal lawsuit [CEI, earlier]
October 28 roundup
- Alleged wife murderer “sues J.P. Morgan for cutting off his home equity line of credit.” Reason cited: “imprisonment”. [Joe Weisenthal, Business Insider via Fountain]
- Charles Krauthammer on the need to “reform our insane malpractice system. … I used to be a doctor, I know how much is wasted on defensive medicine.” [Der Spiegel interview]
- Popehat looks back on turning two, in customarily entertaining fashion [unsigned collective post]
- Sigh: “Chamber of Commerce Sues ‘Yes Men’ for Fake News Conference” [ABA Journal]
- Coverage mandates explain a lot about why health insurance is so much costlier in some states than others [Coyote] More: Tyler Cowen (autism treatment)
- Watch out for those default judgments: PepsiCo hit with $1.26 billion award in Wisconsin state court, says word of suit never got to responsible officials within the company [National Law Journal]
- Ohio appeals court: characterizing incident as “Baby Mama Drama” is not prosecutorial misconduct [The Briefcase]
- Ideological tests for educators? On efforts to screen out would-be teachers not seen as committed enough to “social justice” [K.C. Johnson, Minding the Campus]
CSPI: “Vitamin Water” not good for you
Mike Cernovich thinks the plaintiff suing over the sugar-laden beverage might have spared himself a lot of trouble by, you know, reading the label.
Update: Diet Coke sweetener class actions
We’ve been critical of would-be class action lawsuits claiming that Coca-Coca violates consumers’ rights by sweetening its fountain version of Diet Coke with a mixture of aspartame and saccharin, rather than aspartame alone as in the supermarket version. Now the Missouri Supreme Court has rejected class-action status for such a lawsuit, reversing a lower court; it “said the classification was overly broad, because it could have covered an indefinite number of people, many of whom did not really care how their Diet Coke was sweetened.” (AP/Kansas City Star, Apr. 15).
Vitamin drink said to cause priapism
A New York man has sued Novartis, maker of the health drink Boost Plus, saying he woke up the morning after drinking the concoction with a case of priapism — involuntary male sexual arousal — that landed him in the hospital. “The company would not comment, but its website “describes the drink as ‘a great tasting, high calorie, nutritionally complete oral supplement for people who require extra energy and protein in a limited volume,’ in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.” Reader Michael McK. suggests that word of the lawsuit may serve to increase the drink’s sales. (“Man Sues Over Long-Lasting Erection”, AP/Breitbart, Jun. 5).
Coke Zero “lawsuit”
For a viral marketing campaign, Coca-Cola pranked its own in-house counsel by sending improvisational actors portraying brand-manager employees to attorneys asking if they could sue Coke Zero for tasting so much like Coca-Cola; the results are on a series of videos on YouTube. So far none of the victim lawyers have sued. (Janet Conley, “Frivolous litigation: How Coke ‘punk’d’ its lawyers”, Daily Report, Mar. 23 (via BLT)).
Perhaps related: Mar. 6.
“Is caffeine addictive? A review of the literature”
AEI’s incomparable Sally Satel prescribes a soothing decaf for some of the public-health agitators who are beginning to rattle their cups about Starbucks and Big Cola enslaving our children and the like. (American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Dec. 6). See Aug. 18-20, 2000, Jun. 1, 2004, Dec. 5, 2005, May 29, 2006.