L.A. & Cambridge, MA Jump on Bloomberg Ban-wagon

Only about six weeks after Massachusetts tried to ban school bake sales, the Cambridge city council has proposed a ban on large sodas/sugary drinks in restaurants:

Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, one of
America's most liberal cities (photo: Wikipedia)

"WHEREAS High intake of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages increases the risk of obesity and diabetes; and WHEREAS New York City has a plan to limit the serving size of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages sold in restaurants; now therefore be it ORDERED that the City Manager be and hereby is requested to refer the matter of a ban on soda and sugar-sweetened beverages in restaurants to the Cambridge Public Health Department for a recommendation."
 

On the West Coast, a member of the Los Angeles City Council has introduced a motion to ban soda in park and library vending machines. This councilman, Mitchell Englander, thinks soda makes teens not only obese but violent. He also admits that the ban would have no real effect, writing: "The elimination of sodas in RAP (Recreation, Arts & Parks) vending machines will not put an end to childhood obesity, but it is a small step in educating the public about healthier food and beverage choices."* All it's going to teach people is to go buy their soda somewhere else.

Of course, soda bought at public areas would just be the latest in a long list of things banned in California. L.A. and Cambridge are some of the most liberal cities in the country, but if you live in a red state, don't assume that you're safe from all this banning. Republican former congressman Bob Barr says, "My home state of Georgia — long a place where candidates and elected officials seeking re-election have earned their chops by railing against Washington busybodies — has succumbed to the notion that the role of government is to protect people by controlling them. From small towns to the bustling and largely Republican-dominated Atlanta suburbs, helmet laws and smoking and 'texting' bans are becoming the norm." We're not peachy keen about this nanny-state madness spreading any farther across the fruited plain.

*Jacob Sullum has a really good column along these lines, explaining how the real game is not to lower obesity but to set a "parentalistic precedent."