How to Avoid Bed Bugs, and Other Links
Austin Frakt on how to avoid bed bugs. Useful information.
San Francisco outlaws Happy Meals. No more free toy with meals that contain high levels of calories, sugar and fat.
Are organically grown onions, carrots, and potatoes better for you? No.
Life in San Francisco is becoming more and more like life in junior high school: soon they will tell you what you are allowed to eat, where you are allowed to walk, and when you are allowed to speak (after raising your hand).
So San Francisco joins New York as another nanny city.
I agree with you on the exchange. It’s going to be a nightmare.
San Francisco outlawed giving away toys with a meal that doesn’t meet certain standards for calories, fat, etc. I wonder if they can sell you the toy for a penny if you buy a kid’s meal that costs more than a certain price?
No surprise to me about organic foods. It’s just another fad.
Obesity accounts for 7 percent of San Francisco Public Health Department’s unreimbursed medical costs, according to the new ordinance. San Francisco has already invested considerable resources to fight this problem.
These include “Shape Up San Francisco,” a “multidisciplinary coalition” that provides an annual walking challenge; a “Safe Routes to School” program to encourage walking or biking to school; a “Rethink Your Drink” marketing campaign to reduce soda consumption; and healthy eating programs for families on welfare.
The new ordinance also notes that, “Despite these measures, childhood obesity rates continue to rise. . . ” So the obesity problem surpasses the competence of government, which shapes up as the primary beneficiary of ordinance no. 101096.
The real force behind this legislation is the San Francisco Department of Public Health, which has been growing for the last three years, fueled by the Healthy San Francisco program. This program taxes small businesses, primarily restaurants and retailers, that cannot afford to offer health benefits.
The public-health bureaucracy devoured $36 million of these taxes, for the fiscal year 2008-2009, while spending only $11 million reimbursing medical providers and pharmacies. The rest went to non-medical spending, including $8 million on salary and benefits for new bureaucratic positions.
It’s easy to understand this measure’s popularity with bureaucrats looking for fresh pastures: Imagine hiring platoons of inspectors to go around fining restaurants for handing out dolls and other trinkets! Ordinary citizens see it differently. Earlier this year, the California Restaurant Association – an interested party, to be sure – conducted a survey of Santa Clara County residents.
A full 80 percent of respondents said that fighting obesity was not a local government issue. Almost nine in 10 did not believe that local politicians are better informed than ordinary citizens about what restaurant food is healthy. Only one in 10 believed that local government should have the power to ban toys or gifts from restaurant promotions.
San Francisco supervisors did not test the waters with voters before going ahead with their own ordinance. It won’t reduce child obesity, but it will work wonders for the already considerable power of the Department of Public Health.
Earlier this year, San Francisco passed a $6.5 billion budget while running a deficit of almost half a trillion dollars. The city has increased fees and slashed services. It’s a shame that the city’s real problems, however, will have to wait while DPH squads prepare to raid restaurants for handing out baseball cards.
My good friend works for a pest control business in a college town. He said that bed bugs make up a substantial portion of their work now and that they spend most of their time fighting reinfestations. He told me recently that he thinks he just found the first case that he won’t be able to treat.
He offered the same advice about hotel rooms, so I check when I travel. Luckily I have not found any evidence of bugs.