The South Beach Diet, California-Style
By Chuck Muth (09/25/05)
Leave it to the "Land of Fruits and Nuts" to come up with a piece of legislation which bans the sale of DIET sodas in order to fight...obesity. No, I'm serious. I couldn't make this stuff up, folks.
It was hoped by Californians that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would put the brakes on this kind of nanny-state, busy-body, social-engineering lunacy. "I remember watching the Nixon and Humphrey presidential race on TV," Schwarzenegger said at Republican National Convention last year, harkening back to 1968 when he first arrived in this country. "I heard Humphrey saying things that sounded like socialism, which is what I had just left." Schwarzenegger then recalled that what Nixon was talking about - "free enterprise, getting government off your back" - was what persuaded him to become a Republican.
Unfortunately, the governor recently suffered a relapse.
Schwarzenegger just signed into law a piece of typical California government-knows-best, feel-good legislation which bans the sale of sodas on high school campuses. And to give you an idea of just how anally-retentive the Golden State health-nannies are about controlling every minute aspect of your life, get a load of the language in this bill:
* Senate Bill 965 "Imposes restrictions on beverages sold to high school students on school grounds between 1/2 hour before and 1/2 hour after school." Apparently, sodas are only harmful during school hours. Wait 30 minutes after the last bell rings and...PARTY!!!
* The bill specifies that "Permitted beverages include water with no added sweeteners, fruit and vegetable drinks containing at least 50% juice, 2% or lower fat milk and milk substitutes, and electrolyte replacement beverages containing no more than 42 grams of added sweetener per 20-ounce serving." Seriously. That's how the bill actually reads.
* The bill also "Requires that the sale of all beverages on school grounds be approved by a school district-designated compliance official." Wonderful. How much is THAT new position at each school going to cost taxpayers?
And I can't WAIT to see how the new compliance officials enforce the inevitable "black market" of soda sales by enterprising students out to make a quick buck. (Pssst...wanna buy a Yoo-hoo?) Remember the old days when worrying about the "coke" police meant...cocaine?
According to the bill's supporters, this busy-body, government-knows-best soda ban is necessary because of a so-called "obesity epidemic" among kids. As the kids used to say...get real.
First, I'm not buying this Chicken Little hysteria about an "epidemic" of fat kids in the first place. In order to create the illusion of an epidemic, the health-nannies have made a practice of inflating obesity figures by grouping together both already-overweight kids with kids who are "at risk" of becoming overweight.
Um, ahem. We're ALL "at risk" of chunking up. To inflate to epidemic proportions the number of overweight kids by adding the number of overweight kids to the number of kids who "might" become overweight is dishonest.
Second, if the overall objective is to fight obesity - rather than stick it to greedy American beverage corporations who just want to get our kids hooked on their deadly products - then why pass an anti-obesity bill which bans DIET sodas? Hello, McFly?
But let's concede that there ARE more overweight kids today than there should be (and there are). Is that because of soda machines in schools? Hardly. More likely it's due to the fact that teens today have their couch-potato fannies parked in front of the boob tube or video game while chattering endlessly on their cell phones rather than taking a brisk walk outside or pumping iron in the gym.
Which is what's so disappointing about Gov. Schwarzenegger signing this bill into law. He should know better...from both a practical AND philosophical point of view. It's not surprising that a liberal, Democrat legislature in California would pass such a goofy bill. But a former body-builder such as Arnold should know that banning the sale of sodas in schools won't get fat, lazy kids off their duffs and sure won't stop them from drinking their favorite beverages. If a kid wants to drink a Coke at school, the kid will find a way to drink a Coke at school.
Heck, school officials can't even keep the ILLEGAL "coke" out of school lockers!
Gov. Schwarzenegger should have stood up for free enterprise and getting government off our backs by vetoing this government-knows-best socialistic bill. Let's hope other states and other governors don't suffer the same kind of relapse in judgment he did when proposed soda bans come before THEM down the road.
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