Thursday, August 6, 2015

The Last . . . Bite on Nutrition

Barring something unforeseen this is definitely the last I will be talking about the CB-17 and honestly I am going to keep it short because it has ALL been said.  Listening to the session from last week really only one sentence stood out as summing up the entire debate.

Councilman Fox, in a lengthy and relatively rambling defense of his vote not to override the veto, honed in on two key arguments.  The first was that old trope of stealing our freedom.  The second was that the bill, as amended, did nothing.  He tied those two together with the age-old “slippery slope” argument.  I am open to discussion on this but as far as I can tell the “slippery slope” argument is a fallacy 99.78% of the time.

So back to the one magical sentence, it came from Councilwoman Terrasa and it was the first thing she said “I find it hard to understand how a bill that does nothing takes away the freedoms you are talking about.”  The statement was followed by what sounds like fairly robust laughter from the studio audience and some mutterings of protest from Mr. Fox. 

It was a good line but it struck me as a pretty earnest statement as well and it highlighted the logical flaws in the opposition to the bill.  The arguments against the bill appear to be based on what opponents believed the bill was or based on other bills it looked like, not what was actually within this bill.  Truth be told, it is pretty difficult to see through to what the actual objections are to the actual legislation.  If you, Mr. Fox, object to what you believe will inevitably come next as we careen down the slippery slope, the appropriate time to argue is when it comes along.  Support for A does not in any way indicate permissiveness for B.  That’s a tired argument without factual support.[1]  Oh and just for the record, I agree that Diet Monster has no redeeming nutritional value for kids (or adults).  However, that still places it as a better option than those that have been found to be the leading cause of the biggest epidemic facing our children.  How gross Diet Monster looks or tastes or seems is simply not relevant.  Also I just tried Diet Monster and yeah it’s disgusting.  Anyway, all appears to be well that ends well and it will be interesting to see how such legislation is implemented in this environment.

With it being August, I suspect I will stay at a slowed down pace, hopefully still posting at least once a week.  I will shoot for some of those 30,000 feet issues or side projects I have been looking at.

[1] If you argue back with Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler, I’m throwing you out of my corner of the internet.

1 comment:

  1. As long as we're glorifying "zings", I personally find it hard to believe why Jen Terassa would be telling anyone how they should be eating. She clearly can't get her own waistline under control. Same goes for the other council members (including Fox, but at least he's not pontificating to others).

    The County Council chooses not to lead by example, they instead gorge on junk food and then pass laws paying lip service to healthy eating.