BAN EVERYTHING!!!
(click image) NYC First Nanny Mike Bloomberg and his self-appointed, rubber-stamping Health Board just enacted a law to ban all Trans Fat in New York. What's next, indeed. Street Food Carts? Deli Salad Bars? Farting? Ad ran in today's USA Today. UPDATE: As commenter jetpacks wrote, I mispelled (sic) "consumer" which lead me to the wrong page. Here's the right link.
previously in stupid NYC:
1. Office of Emergency Management Ad.
2. The MTA. Very Anal.
3. NYC's fancy package picker-upper.
4. 16 million eyes...
5. Phew! York.
posted by copyranter @ 10:05 AM
33 Comments:
That's because you misspelled coNsumer.
doh!
you misspelled misspelled
I ban myself.
Oh, Copyranter. I'd hoped you would be smarter than to believe an advocacy ad from a food-industry backed lobby group. Unless you wrote the ad, in which case, congratulations, it's very effective.
The reality is trans fats are good for nobody but the junk food industry. In Canada, we've severely limited trans fats, and we still have all the choice we had before... including the choice to avoid trans fats a lot more easily.
I don't believe what the org tells me. I just think government, in general, should stay the fuck out of citizens' lives. Warning labels? Fine. Bannings? Too far.
oy. I was raised in Chicago (the place that started this whole business) and live in Brooklyn now. I have no idea what to make of all this nannying. that said, the smoking ban has made my life better. sorry smokers. I'm one of those 99% vegetarians, but I see no reason to ban foie gras.
totally off-topic, but will you please make yr way to 27th/7th ave and tell me what the fuck is up with the big 50 Cent ad for Vitamin Water? I'll even take a picture tomorrow if that is out of yr way. see it every day and I am SO CONFUSED.
sure bb. take a pic and send it.
Additional Links:
ActivistCash.com
AnimalScam.com
CSPIScam.com
MercuryFacts.org
PetaKillsAnimals.com
PhysicianScam.com
Trans-FatFacts.com
Who funds you guys? How about some "full disclosure"?
The Center for Consumer Freedom is supported by restaurants (McDonalds), food companies (Sara Lee) and more than 1,000 concerned individuals (farmers/butchers). From farm to fork, our friends and supporters include businesses, employees and consumers.
Like I said, I don't care how shady the org is (which is pretty shady, apparently), their point is well-received by me. If you need your government to figure what the fuck is good/bad for you, you're in deep shit trouble, as are we all.
I came to Chicago from New York a year ago, and I can't go to a fucking bar here. It's like going back in time. Chicago bars look as outdated and uncivilized as those airlines from the 70's that let you smoke in flight.
Saying that, I don't trust corporate lobbyists who advocate for "consumer freedom". We all know their only concern is to make money. They want to put their cheap, killing fat in stuff that 90% of the time we don't know they have it.
Trust me, copyranter, you're going to thank the major in a year or two when you don't have to sit next to a 300-pound new yorker next to you on a plane flying coach.
Yeah, that's right, ryan anderson, let's all be afraid, very afraid, of those evil self serving private sector lobbies. Meanwhile we're all being tailed by a gaga big government dogooder, salivating to probe us good, real good, with his caring compassionate anal proboscis.
"If you need your government to figure what the fuck is good/bad for you, you're in deep shit trouble, as are we all."
Right on brother. Which why I'm all for bringing back leaded paint and gasoline. Who the hell does the gov think it is, telling me what kind of paint I can or can't use in my kid's room. The audacity of them, telling me that lead has been proven to be toxic and that there are viable substitutes. If I want my kids eating my leaded paint chips, well, that's my damn right.
Didn't they get the clue when they restricted the use of leaded gasoline? It so obviously led to the banning of kerosene, propane and oil... That stuff can be explosive you know. Can't they see that history is repeating itself in New York?
So you agree with me, anon. Glad to hear it.
Ranter wrote:
I don't believe what the org tells me. I just think government, in general, should stay the fuck out of citizens' lives. Warning labels? Fine. Bannings? Too far.
Perhaps we should bring back asbestos fireproofing as well! Damned goernment meddling...
Keep up the good work, copyranter. Perhaps more of your angry beat poetry is in order.
What an idiot.
AR
1st anon: there was no choice with gas. With your food there is.
AR—Andy Rooney? Keep up the brave anon crusading. Yeah, the government hopped all over that asbestos problem, just in the nick of time, didn't they? Advocacy groups—like the one that placed that stupid anti-trans fat ad (alright, not EXACTLY like that one)—are the ones who stopped asbestos, not our government.
My dad has asbestosis of the lungs. I know a shitload more about the issue than your "idiot" ass.
Congratulations to Bloomberg to have the courage to ban something that benefits only certain food inustries, and has such a huge cost on the community in general, health costs, obese unhappy people etc.
The government should concern itself with roads, rails, borders, postage, emergencies, running water (not Katrina style) and banning Taylor Hicks. As for the rest of the issue, it should leave each one to themselves.
I have really mixed feelings about all this. On one hand, I'm happy there will presumably be less trans fats used in NY restaurants. On the other hand, I'm with you, I think the government should stay the hell out of our personal choices. You just can't dictate people's personal lives. And when the government tries to do so, well it gets very scary.
Regarding more healthy NY'ers, they think people won't still chow down on fried food at home?
way back up to the Anon about Chi's crap bars: true. I really can't stand going back to Chicago, as I can't find a single place to hang out. yeah, I've still got my favorite restaurants, but I've not a thing to do after. I don't necessarily want some of the whack theme-y bars that are around NYC for people that "go out" on the weekends, but in most NYC nieghborhoods, I can find a bar that is good for me.
I'm mixed on the government interventions - as I said, I really enjoy the smoking ban in NYC, I was a smoker since high school, I finally kicked it cold turkey 4/5 yrs back and I can't stand it now. and while I encourage the gov to help us be healthier (yeah I know about fatties flying coach), this is one of those issues that if the gov't gets an inch, they may take a yard....
and I forgot my camera today, copyranter, so the pic will have to wait until monday. it's fucking cold. finally.
It's time to leave this country.
does anyone doubt mcdonald's and assorted fast feeders aren't also behind this ad? they usually covertly fund these types of efforts (or they hire pr dweebs to do it for them).
consider things from a different angle. no one is trying to mandate the food consumers eat. rather, it's an effort to keep fast feeders from deliberately harming the public. on an abstract level, it's not different than banning smoking in public buildings. or even mandating fast food employees wash their hands and wear hairnets.
Hey anonymous 12:39--
All the shit that's happened over the past 6 years, and THIS is what makes you say it's time to leave the country? I'm guessing you've used that one before, and it's time to make good on your statements.
I'm as opposed to Bloomberg's nannying as anyone else, but get a grip already.
What Copyranter and the rest of you seem to be missing is that they haven't banned transfat in NYC. They've banned transfat in restaurants. You can still get it in your supermarkets (no one's touching your crisco).
And the reasoning is simple - unless you're a chain, restaurants aren't required to list nutritional information in food. So you have no idea if your food contains transfats or not, and considering I have a hard enought time finding out if restaurants are using mayonnaise and butter in a dish (foods I hate like the plague for nonhealth reasons) I seriously doubt the waitstaff will anytime be able to answer the transfat question. Take frosting - frosting can be made with butter, animal fat, or crisco...only the latter has significant amounts of transfats, and you can't immediately taste the difference. Ditto with pie crusts, fried foods etc. In many ways this is just like smoking cigarettes in public, because the only way to opt out is to not eat out. Transfats btw are completely unnatural, virulently toxic and as far as health is concerned on par with cigarette smoking AND they add absolutely nothing to flavor/taste. They just make sure that food will last on the shelves until 2050 instead of, you know, spoiling the way food should.
So, considering that NYC gov pays like 45 billion a year in medicare/medicaid and has a vested interest in keeping healthcare costs down, that leaves two options - requiring restaurants regardless of size list nutritional information on all of their foods (which is virtually impossible given how frequently restaurants change their menus and the difficulty in getting accurate measurements), or flat out banning transfats. The latter is cheaper and easier over the long run, and has the added bonus of boosting health slightly across the board.
"It's basically a slow form of poison." -David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center on trans fats.
There you go guys. Not any healthier than poison. Of course cigs are in that too, but they get all kinds of fines and shit. And you can't smoke in NY bars. NY will be the best fucking place in the world now once they follow up these bans with banning sky-high rents.
Transfats isn't any healthier than e-coli. Would you be mad if your city banned e-coli if people would put it voluntarily on food?
yeah, I'm a knee-jerk Libertarian. OF COURSE the trans fat ban is a good thing. But Blooooooomberg's ex-smoker, Father knows best attitude disgusts me. like trying to ban Mr. Softee trucks from playing their tune. like the way he's going after people who buy their cigs online to avoid his over-the-top taxes. He thinks he's mister shiny white cape hero, when he's actually fucking the poor right in the ass. But, he's a bazillionaire, so what does he care?
i'll also repeat my contention that the organization that created the ad is being bankrolled by fast feeders. it's a standard tactic to hire sleazy, high-priced pr people to front these efforts. i don't have time to research the organization, but it's a safe bet it's not run by some fat, big-mac-loving jackass living in a trailer park. as even bloomberg's involvement shows, there's politics and big money involved here, folks.
yo, just did a quick google search. the organization behind the ad is indeed a front group bankrolled by fast feeders, big tobacco and more. one of its masterminds is a fucking political lobbyist. granted, bloomberg may be a politician too, but he's probably on the less-evil end of this dispute.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom
thanks, highjive.
I would worry more about this if I actually thought it might be regulated. Having worked in NY restaurants staffed by illegal aliens and and covered with health food violations, I'd be shocked if this provokes drastic change.
Trans fats are NOT food. NYC is right to ban it. Do some research on what trans fats are before bitching.
some of these posts are laughable. who the hell considers trans fats a personal choice. it isn't foie gras. it's poison and micky d's and kfc have no problem feeding it to our ignorant asses.
but not quite as "laughable" as bravely posting an anonymous criticism of other anonymous remarks on a blogspot blog.
Post a Comment
<< Home