Cowboy Troy’s Take On NYC’s Proposed Big Soda Ban

Fresh on the heels of a new report that stated that 3.4 million people have fled the city of New York in the last decade, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his army of do-gooders are giving even more people reason to take flight - his proposed plan to ban big sodas. Oh, Big Brother!

Just like any well constructed idea to take away your freedoms, it's masked around a purported good cause - lowering the city's rising obesity rate. Uh, I guess shedding the weight of 3.4 million people wasn't enough. 

I'm getting sick of reading this stuff! It's seriously coming to a head with me as I finally start to realize there's never going to be an end to one select group of citizens trying to determine what's right and wrong for the rest of us.

It would be different if these were real issues of national safety or something similar. I understand certain bans and regulations are necessary...but soda...or salt...or Happy Meals. Really?! These are the most important challenges facing us today?! In some people's eyes, it really is. I feel sorry for those people. I have a hard time believing they can find any real enjoyment in their lives. Their happiness seems to derive from all of us being equally miserable.

Take our own proposed smoking ban - once again going before the city council, and once again being put up for a vote. It'll probably pass this time too, and regardless of your stance on the subject, one more piece of your freedoms will be chipped away. It doesn't matter that a majority of Casper businesses already don't permit it. It doesn't matter that other suitable compromises could possibly be reached without totally infringing on one's liberties. All that seems to matter is the agenda. Believe me, if it fails again, the issue will keep coming back until it doesn't fail. After time, unless it's countermanded and challenged, brainwashing does eventually work. Then we'll simply move on to removing something else that's deemed bad for us.

I don't want to dwell on this issue, though. Everyone knows, including smokers themselves, that the habit is bad for us. It's costly. It's stinky. It can lead to serious health problems. I don't appreciate the litter. However, it must not be too bad, because it's still legal.  And thank God for those smokers because they are paying exorbitant taxes and providing the money that funds not only smokers' health services and programs, but other services as well. 

Plus I'm from Wyoming and don't consider myself a weenie. Blow that stuff in my face! We're all gonna die sometime! Almost every other addiction, we view with compassion and empathy. Smokers are shamed like no other, and I don't believe it's fair.

I just thought I was done dwelling on the topic! Sorry about going off on a tangent. Back to the soda ban. It's to combat obesity, right? What's to stop people from just buying two, three, or four of the smaller drinks to meet their needs? Plus, it only seems to be soft drinks that are included. This is insane. People will just find a way and around it like they do everything else. I also find it ironic that we are constantly being told that more and more of our population, including children, are more hungry than ever, while at the same time we have a monumental obesity problem. I wish logic were taken more into consideration in the 21st century. I really do. In the meantime, people who aren't obese and still enjoy a giant soda (such as myself) also get to pay the price.

I think the next thing we should consider banning is over-reaching New York City mayors.