From the “Holier Than Thou” department comes this interesting photo taken by Larry Fink for Wired Magazine. (link to larger photo)
What’s that he’s reaching for with his right hand? Why, it’s a Cheez-ItTM!
After gaining national media attention for spearheading an almost total ban on trans fats in city restaurants starting last July, Bloomberg was photographed in this month’s issue of Wired magazine munching on those very same dangerous fats…
The mayor’s food choice directly counters the guidance of his own Department of Health, which specifies on its Web site that “there is no safe level of artificial trans fat consumption.” The site also points out that trans fats are responsible for at least 500 deaths in the city every year from heart disease.
That should be cautious news for Bloomberg, who in 2000 had a pair of stents inserted in his coronary artery to remove a blockage. The mayor says he takes a baby aspirin daily to reduce the risk of heart attack.
Just so we’re clear. Mayor Bloomberg initiates a crusade against trans fats, for which “there is no safe level” according to his own administration, because apparently people are too stupid to make their own choices about what and what not to eat. Yet, he has no qualms about scarfing down a bag of Cheez-ItsTM (which do contain some trans fats [see also after jump]) despite the fact that Bloomberg has a history of heart problems. According to one of the people who encouraged and promoted Bloomberg’s ban on the noxious unction:
“Trans fats cause heart attacks,” said Julie Greenstein, deputy director of health promotion policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C., lobbying group that advocated the ban in the city. “Trans fats raise bad cholesterol and decrease good cholesterol.”
Greenstein said even small amounts of trans fats in the diet can add up and cause big problems over time.
“If someone is concerned about heart health, he should cut out trans fat completely,” she said.
And here’s Bloomberg in his own words:
“You’re getting an ingredient out that nobody is going to miss.” September 2006, regarding the ban on trans fats
“We’re not trying to take away anybody’s ability to go out and have the kind of food they want in the quantities they want, but we are trying to make that food safer. If we can do it without trans fats, you’ll save … a couple of hundred lives a year in New York City.” December 2006
Yet another example of “do as I say, not as I do” nannyism. If Bloomberg thinks he can make intelligent decisions about what and what not to eat, and taking risks with his health by eating junk food, even after having two stents placed in his heart, then he should grant that courtesy to everyone else.
It won’t happen though, because nanny-staters persistently tell themselves and anyone who will listen that their proscriptions are for the good of everyone. They proclaim with all sincerity that the “common good” requires their iron fist, and try to convince you that the velvet glove encasing it will ease the pain just fine. In reality, they simply think that those upon whom they place these restrictions are too stupid to think for themselves — in this case, that would be all of NYC — and that their benevolent intervention is necessary to protect such idiots from themselves.
But when it comes to their own lives, well that’s much more complicated you see. Nanny-staters need to drive SUV’s and fly on private jets. Wind farms despoil their landscapes, causing unnecessary disturbances in their relaxation time when they do their best planning to save humanity. And don’t even get me started on how devastating it would be for you comrades people if the nanny-staters can’t have their Cheez-Its!
“Comrades!” he cried. “You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.”
Squealer, Animal Farm Ch. 3