Tom Toles for March 13, 2013

The whole drink thing WAS idiotic. It was almost as idiotic as the NRA position on defending unlimited firearms posession.

Now that Nancy Pelosi and BHO have begun subsidizing Americans healthcare, the large drink flap is just the tip of the iceberg. Here come your “rules” kids!

Troglodyte: “If you are dumb enough to overeat, or consume too much sugar, or smoke, or drink too much, or or engage in risky behavior, or too ignorant to know the risks, then you deserve what you get. Why should your country or your fellow citizens worry about you or try to help you? If you are dumb enough or ignorant enough to buy poisonous foods or dangerous products, why should the rest of us care? If you are dumb enough to travel to dangerous countries or go into dangerous neighborhoods, why should we try to warm you, or come to you aid if you get into trouble? If you are dumb enough not to properly fortify your house and arm yourself for your own protection, or prevent a fire from breaking out in your house, what is that to anyone else? If you are dumb enough not to read the fine print, or believe anything that you read or hear, or to fall for a scam or a con game, well that’s just too bad, boo hoo! The rest of us owe you nothing. You’re on your own. You want to be safe, and life a long and healthy life? Then get some ground, grow all your own food, don’t let anyone else come near, stay armed at all times, and never come out of your cave if you can avoid it. As long as you stay in your own cave, never leaving it unless heavily armed, and never trust anyone, you can do whatever you want! That’s freedom!” Modern Man: “We are all parts of an interdependent system. Real freedom can only exist in a well-governed polity, where risks are minimized by wise policies that forbid some things, limit other things, and discourage still other things. Where neither the will of the community nor the rights of the individual are unlimited or absolute, but exist in tension with each other, and a concerted effort is made to prevent both the oppression of the individual with unnecessary burdens and the thwarting of the community’s effort to better its condition by laws, etc.” Troglodyte: “Huh? More pin-headed double-talk. [Several expletives deleted here.] Freedom is doing whatever the hell I want to do, and to hell with everybody else.”

“Nine men in ten are suicides.” — Benjamin Franklin.

You don’t seem to understand or appreciate the potential of democracy in an educated society. This was the same failing that led Karl Marx into his extreme view of the world. You (unless you’re one of the very rich) are just as wrong as he was. Marx can be excused for his mistake since he was writing in the middle of the 19th Century when voting was still limited (mostly) to white rich men.

At least there is one judge out there that said this was bad law, but only because it was not a law that was evenly applied. That said, where do you find “tyranny” in doughfoot’s post?

Gotta hand it to you… you named yourself well.

Remember that Bloomberg is NOT a Democrat.You may continue your rants.

“Big Sugar” should be replaced with “Big Corn”. It’s not like there’s any real sugar in soft drinks anymore.

It’s about cost. If people’s bad behavior cost me nothing, I’d be fine with it. But it doesn’t. I end up paying for their obesity, diabetes, etc with raised premiums, etc..This is one of the reasons ObamaCare was passed – to get people to obtain preventative care – when problems are small and cheap, instead of using the emergency room, when problems have become big and expensive. .Troglodytes don’t understand that individuals and individual freedoms don’t exist in a vacuum. There is always a tension between the rights of the individual and the survival/benefits to the groups the individual is a part of..All of us give up certain freedoms, for example when we drive on the highway, because it makes the travel experience safer for all, and we in fact pay people (the police) to enforce our behavior. The right wing obsession with individual freedom above all else is the way adolescents think. It’s one-sided and disastrous.

How can you possibly think the gov’t can solve a problem it started. Stop subsidizing so much corn!!!! Your tax dollars are currently being spent making those gallon-sized cups of soda so affordable. Let sugar cost it’s actual market price.

One of the other points here is that “Big Sugar” isn’t even using sugar at all but chemicals which HAVE BEEN PROVEN to cause diabetes and a whole slew of health problems for people who consume products rich in high fructose corn syrup. Did I mention that this stuff is addcitive? It is also scary that the U.S. is the #1 consumer of this substance and that there are no warning labels that inform consumers that this stuff can and will lead to diabetes.

Instead Big Sugar has created websites and Ads that tell people that this stuff is harmless. Its not a choice when people put this in my food and drink that I consume and most of the time don’t bother telling me that this crud is in there. They need to regulate this stuff.

Without debating the issue of sugar consumption, or the political leanings/affiliation of the current mayor of New York, this comic is off base with respect to the court decision. It’s not about Big Sugar, it’s about the fact that the way the law was written, it was capricious and arbitrary – and it was. The judge even went so far as to recognize that such a law may be with local purview, but that when it is so uneven in it’s approach, it does not apply evenly and thus there is not equal protection.

“First, stop with the insults.”

It seems lost on the mud slinging faction that most people looking for an intelligent discussion or debate, rapidly skip over these nasty remarks as irrelevant and pointless. Unfortunately there seems to be no end to them attributing all the ills of the world to one political party or another.

Regrettably, America has established that political, economic and cultural deterioration is a bi-partisan exercise.

saywhatwhat: Marx’s error was from seeing the US and French revolutions as the only way to change. The south Asia satygraha “revolution” might have changed his mind. However, his analysis of the class struggle has held up quite well over the years – the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer until the poor have nothing to lose but their chains and rise up in revolt. The Republicrats seem determined to prove Marx right about the method of revolt as well.

Wait, you mean the right is blaming the democrats for this one? Why am I not surprised. Nothing is beneath them.

Wait till the White House tours start again and see how many trolls switch sides of the argument whether to have or not then.

It isn’t the White house that stopped the tours, it was the Secret Service.

The left worries about big sugar, making it the right size serving. Conservatives worry about big govt, trying to keep it the right size.Now seriously, which makes more sense?(Um, that would be us on the right, in case you’re not getting it… I can just see … )

Hey Toles, you original thinking, hard-working genius, half your liberal buddies did this one, too. Yeah, no marching orders.

Ignore the obvious truth about diet, die young. Have a plan, live well – be happy.God on his throne.And your choice.Chose!