Rock and Roller Cola Wars, I Can't Take It Any More

Morning Jolt – March 12, 2013 By Jim Geraghty Here's your Tuesday Morning Jolt. Enjoy! Jim Rock and Roller Cola Wars, I Can't Take It Any More What's extraordinary about this decision is that in our Mad Hatter world of runaway government, it feels extraordinary: a judge telling the government it doesn't have the power to do what it wants, cries of "it's for the children" be damned. New York City's plan to ban large sugary drinks from restaurants, movie theaters and other establishments was invalidated by a judge on Monday, the day before the new law was to take effect. State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling in Manhattan called the regulation "arbitrary and capricious" and declared it invalid after the American Beverage Association and other business groups had sued the city challenging the ban. The decision was a blow to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had touted the ban as a way to address what he has termed an obesity "epidemic." Beverage manufacturers and business groups had called the law an illegal overreach that would infringe upon consumers' personal liberty. "We plan to appeal the decision as soon as possible, and we are confident the Board of Health's decision will ultimately be upheld," Michael Cardozo, the city's chief lawyer, said in a statement. Jacob Sullum has more: "Beverages exempt from the city's 16-ounce serving ceiling often have more calories per ounce than exempt beverages, even though fighting obesity is the official rationale for the restrictions. Tingling also noted that only certain businesses are covered by the regulations: restaurants, coffee shops, food carts, and concession stands. Convenience stores and supermarkets, meanwhile, would have been free to sell soda servings as big as customers wanted, including 7-Eleven's Big Gulp, the epitome of effervescent excess. The upshot would have been 'uneven enforcement even within a particular city block,' Tingling said. He deemed the drink diktat 'arbitrary and capricious' because 'it applies to some but not all food establishments in the City, it excludes other beverages that have significantly higher concentrations of sugar sweeteners and/or calories on suspect grounds, and the loopholes inherent in the Rule, including but not limited to no limitations on re-fills, defeat and/or serve to gut the purpose of the Rule.'" Ace notes: "Starbucks will continue selling sugary coffee drinks under the 'half milk' loophole, a special little loophole created by Bloomberg and his minions to make sure that the Crusading Liberal White People who support this ban are actually not affected by this ban. If Starbucks had been included in the ban, the shrieking from Bloomberg's Crusading Liberal White People supporters would have been deafening, and the thing would have been killed. So they made certain that the ban didn't apply to White People's Big Gulps, even though they contain nearly as much sugar and much more caffeine than Other People's Big Gulps." Jason Mattera: "Mike Bloomberg should be forced to reimburse every business that had to trash their Big Gulp cups." Doug Powers, writing at Michelle Malkin's place: "Oddly enough, I think Bloomberg has two yachts named 'Arbitrary' and 'Capricious.' Now the city's stuck with a bunch of 17-ounce inspection cups that the mayor will probably have converted into three bedroom loft apartments." Tom Maguire offers us a rallying cry: "There will come a day when sugary sodas are utterly stigmatized. There will come a day when no responsible adult will consume a soda pop, or give one to a child. But this is not that day. This day, we fight!" Hey, Bloomberg, tomorrow's not looking so hot, either. Sequester Scare Talk Crashes and Burns Well, that bit of White House messaging doesn't seem to be working so smoothly: The budget cuts in Washington have not hit home in America, at least not yet. A plurality of Americans think federal spending cuts will have no effect at all on them or their families, according to a new McClatchy-Marist Poll. At the same time, as many Americans think the cuts will have no effect or a positive effect on the overall economy as think the cuts will hurt the economy, the survey found. No, wait, it gets better: Nearly half – 49 percent – of registered voters said the current cuts will have no impact at all on them or their families. Another 39 percent said the cuts would have a negative impact, and 10 percent said they would have a positive impact. Independents and Republicans are more likely to see no effect headed their way. Among independents, 52 percent expect no effect, 39 percent expect a negative effect, and 7 percent expect a positive effect. Among Republicans, it's 52-36-8. Democrats are evenly split, 41-41 on whether the cuts will be negative or have no impact on their families. In a surprise, 14 percent of Democrats expect a positive impact for themselves, well more than independents or Republicans. (INSERT SPIT-TAKE HERE) Photo: cizauskas on Flickr But here comes another round of scaremongering: Twenty-three air traffic control towers in California are among more than 200 nationwide scheduled to close April 7 as the Federal Aviation Administration begins imposing $600 million in federal budget cuts. It was unknown which traffic control towers would be affected when the automatic federal budget cuts in the so-called sequestration kicked in March 1, but the FAA last week released a list of airports, mainly small and medium-sized, that will be affected. AAAAH! IT WILL BE JUST LIKE DIE HARD 2! SOMEBODY GET FRED THOMPSON! AAAAH! But in the middle of a New Jersey newspaper's coverage of the terrifying and scary cuts ("Dark Skies Ahead"), there's this little detail: Despite the fact that most airports in the United States do not have air traffic control towers, Essex County and Trenton-Mercer are near big international airports that have constant departures and arrivals, which cause crowded skies. Most airports don't have control towers? So just how many tower-less airports are out there? Oodles, to use the technical term: According to the 2011-2015 National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS), released by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), there were over 19,700 airports in the U.S. Of these, 5,170 airports are open to the general public with 503 airports offering commercial service. The majority of public airports — 2,829 — are designated as reliever or general aviation airports versus commercial service. This article from 2000 states that "only about 350 have towers that are manned by FAA air traffic controllers." Clearly, a tower-less airport cannot be a deathtrap, or else we would be hearing about crashes at these tower-less airports all the time. Oh, and how has the Federal Aviation Administration been spending its money in recent years? Airports have spent $3.5 billion in federal money since 1998 on projects the Federal Aviation Administration rated as low priority because they do little to improve the most pressing needs in the nation's aviation system, a USA TODAY analysis shows. The money comes from a program that is supposed to improve aviation safety. Priority goes to projects such as runways, taxiways and beacons. But the program also has funded terminals at little-used airports, hangars to store private jets, and parking areas that are free to customers, according to the analysis of FAA records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act . . . Pellston Regional Airport in Michigan used $7.5 million in federal funds to build a terminal with stone fireplaces and cathedral ceilings. The airport averages three departures a day. What, no granite countertops? Besides, aren't these the guys who are always getting caught sleeping on the job? A controller at a Miami regional tower fell asleep during an overnight shift. This regional center is responsible for controlling air traffic for most of Florida, as well as parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean. One controller slept for five hours while working a midnight shift at a Tennessee airport tower. A supervisor at Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport fell asleep for nearly a half hour during a night shift. At the time, the supervisor was the only air traffic controller on duty in the tower. An air traffic controller has been caught sleeping on the job -- while a plane carrying a critically ill patient was trying to land at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada. Similar reports at Westchester County Airport in New York. I'll bet the sequester has these guys losing sleep. A High Tide of Taxpayer Money Going to one of Soros's Favorite Groups Can you stand another "your tax dollars at work" story? You may need blood-pressure medication after this one: The Tides Foundation is a favorite charity of such big-name liberal donors as Teresa Heinz Kerry (ketchup heiress and wife of Secretary of State John Kerry) and Barbra Streisand. The two have given Tides more than $8.5 million over the years. And Tides has a lesser-known benefactor: You. From 2009 to 2011, the most recent years for which data is available, the government has given Tides some $28 million in grants paid for by American taxpayers. Tides says it's working to "promote and support emerging social change and educational programs." In fact, its programs are a checklist of liberalism's most ambitious agenda: the Open Society Institute of George Soros, AFL-CIO, the Iraq Peace Fund, the Arab American Action Network, American Civil Liberties Union, the pro- Castro groups United forPeace and Justice and Center for Constitutional Rights, along with groups opposing free trade and gun ownership while advocating green energy and government-funded abortion. The only silver lining is that federal grants are only a slice of the Tides funding; "every year, from Tides HQ, the organization pushes $300 million through a network of hundreds of left-wing groups." Watchdog.org notes, "Its latest tax documents show combined net assets of $215,755,973." ADDENDUM: Courtesy Alex Pappas, potential Senate candidate and actress Ashley Judd assesses the moral value of Apple products: My electronics, received as gifts or purchased, profit armed militias and support slavery. I am financing mass rape as I enjoy these ridiculously Global North ultra-efficiencies and conveniences, for large scale rape is the preferred predation mining interests use to humiliate and terrify local populations, in order to control resource areas. The UN notes that virtually every mine in DRC is militarized. This means little to no tin, tantalum, and tungsten is mined free of brutal exploitation, extortion, violence, rape, rape, rape. Think different! Get all the latest news, 24/7, at www.NationalReview.com Save 75%... Subscribe to National Review magazine today and get 75% off the newsstand price. Click here for the print edition or here for the digital. National Review also makes a great gift! Click here to send a full-year of NR Digital or here to send the print edition to family, friends, and fellow conservatives. Conservatives – stay healthy! Get plenty of Vitamin Sea on the next National Review cruise. Visit www.NRCruise.com for complete information. National Review, Inc. Remove your email address from our list. We respect your right to privacy. View our policy. This email was sent by: National Review, Inc. 215 Lexington Avenue, 11th Floor New York, NY 10016 575