Three years after the city banned smoking in restaurants, health officials are talking about prohibiting something they say is almost as bad: artificial trans fatty acids.
The city health department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would bar cooks at any of the city's 24,600 food service establishments from using ingredients that contain the artery-clogging substance, commonly listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated oil.
I guess this means no more cheese curds. Three points. First, anyone who stills claims that slippery slopes do not exist is an idiot. Yes, I realize it is a logical fallacy, but that only means that one must prove the validity of the slope; it doesn't mean such slopes do not exist. Government is diametrically opposed to freedom. They will take away as many freedoms as we will willingly cede.Many states and cities have duped the public into believing that the trading of the freedom of bar and restaurant owners to choose who frequents their establishments for the safety of smoke-free environments is a good one. So next goes the fat. I mean the trans-fat. Because we know they'll never go after all fat, the slippery slope being so obviously fallacious. Is this at all surprising? In five years, you may be able to get a veggie burger in the Big Apple.
Second, where are the pro-choicers on this one? A woman can do what she wishes to her own body, even though science has shown that this results in the death of the fetus within her. But she cannot smoke in the bar; nor can she, I'm extrapolating, eat something which contains artificial trans-fat. America makes so much sense some times.
Third, if we're all so intested in being safe, why don't we let the government run our lives completely. Just think, they could deliver our food to us. It would be free of whatever it is that we're not supposed to be eating and we would be safe, safe, safe. That's the direction we're heading. And as it is preposterous to pretend that the mass of men, intellectually, morally and spiritually depraved as they are, will suddenly care for freedom, we may as well bring on the autocracy. It can't be that far off.
2 comments:
Comments: New York, Autocratic Town
“Government is diametrically opposed to freedom. They will take away as many freedoms as we will willingly cede.”
I don’t think that the Government is diametrically opposed to freedom, they are just trying to look out for our own good, as we have proven that we can’t look out for ourselves, just look at all the self destructive behaviors that we partake in: smoking, drinking, drugs, chemicals (DDT and the like), crime, car accidents…
I for one enjoy the smokeless establishments that I can visit now as I live in a city that has enforced smoke free rules. But then again I don’t smoke and I think it is a noxious worthless habit. I also think that smokers smoke because they are weak. They can’t deal with the pressures of life and need the soothing comfort of nicotine to get them through the day. It also shows weakness in that they can’t quit. So what if nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs what’s a little challenge like quitting?
I see the smoking issue like this: you want to smoke fine but I don’t so don’t make me breathe your toxic waste. The smoking bans are not meant to reduce the freedoms of the smokers it’s to ensure the freedoms of non-smokers.
As far as the New York proposal goes generally people don’t know that partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is bad for them, the worst of the fatty oils as it is unnatural and our bodies don’t know how to process it thus it stays in the body and accumulates. Personally I think the proposal goes too far, if people want to be stupid and kill themselves let them. But I also don’t want to have to pay for their medical bills when they get sick.
I can’t see the proposal being enforced even if passed. Too many products have partially hydrogenated vegetable oil in them for New York establishments to buy raw ingredients that do not contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.
And thus, by your line of thinking, as soon as the good old government can prove something is bad for us, we should no longer be able to do it.
Like I said, bring on the autocracy; this slow demise is boring me.
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