FREEDOM TO DRINK!

"The Food Police Are Back! Coke and Pepsi Banned in S.F.!" So says the headline at Fox Nation. Now, that's not quite accurate, because you can still buy Coke and Pepsi in some locations in San Francisco -- if I'm not mistaken, you can do so in thousands of privately owned stores -- but now you can't buy them at City Hall, dammit, and that's just unfair, as Todd Starnes of Fox News Radio notes (citing this story from the San Francisco Chronicle):

The sale of Coca-Cola is now outlawed at San Francisco City Hall. That means if you need to wash down that tofu turkey dog, you'll need to order a bottle of soy milk.

Mayor Gavin Newsome has issued an executive order banning Coke, Pepsi and Fanta Orange from vending machines on city property. The directive also includes non-diet sodas, sports drinks and artificially sweetened water.

That means you can no longer "Do the Dew" at City Hall. Dr. Pepper? Not welcome and neither is Mr. Pibb.

Even fruit juices have come under the mayor’s scrutiny. Juices must be made from 100 percent juice with no added sweeteners.

... according to the mayor, the city’s vending machines will be stocked with a wide variety of "healthy" alternatives. Imagine nursing a glass of rice milk or perhaps soy milk on a warm, sunny day....

The city's ban is believed to be one of the strictest in the nation and it's drawn the ire of the California/Nevada Soft Drink Association.

"This is all about choice," Executive Director Bob Achermann told the Chronicle. "There is probably nothing more personal than what you drink or eat. Singling out beverages in this whole equation of how to fight obesity is not going to be the answer." ...

The only thing about Mr. Starnes's ire that bothers me is the fact that he singles out Gavin Newsom and City Hall in San Francisco. I say this problem is widespread! I say we ought to be able to buy any beverage we want in any government building!

I did jury duty a while back. The worst thing about it? No bar! Why was my freedom to consume alcoholic beverages while adjudicating cases restricted by Big Brother government's insistence that I shouldn't be allowed to buy booze on premises?

Damn liberals!

This has bothered me for years. Why couldn't I buy beer or a mixed drink when I was in school? Or straight shots? It was just pure do-gooder nanny-state thinking! If whatever beverage I preferred to drink wasn't on sale, my inalienable rights as an American were violated!

The tea party people are right. We no longer live in a free country. Government should be required to serve anyone any beverage at any time on public property. Otherwise, this is a fascist dictatorship.