I told another Bossier Blogger in an email last week that blogging was slow because the politicians seemed to be behaving themselves.Knowing that couldn't last, I just decided to bide my time. Sure enough, Robert Adley came through! (Note: don't get indignant if you are a 'friend of Adley', I've been nice to him the last two times I've blogged about him.)
He is proposing a bill to ban sales of energy drinks to kids under 16 because of the bad effects of caffeine. Now I don't think the things are good, don't misunderstand.
Adley is supposed to be a conservative, so what is this nanny government thing about? Doesn't he believe that kids' parents can guide them?
Besides, it would seem much more logical to ban them for folks over 50, they are the ones that are having the heart problems and strokes that caffeine can aggravate.
The legislative session will begin in 2 weeks.
H/T to The Norla Blog for bringing this to our attention.
I'm not going to question Robert's motives here. And, I'm going to confess ignorance as to the amount of caffeine in one of these energy drinks.
ReplyDeleteBut, doesn't the legislature have more pressing issues? And, what are you gonna do to enforce this? Are law enforcement officials really going to send around undercover 14 year-olds to Kroger or CircleK to see if they can score an energy drink?
I mean, if a 16 year-old goes to buy one of these things, and the clerk asks him for ID...What if the kid doesn't have a drivers license yet? I know two of my sons didn't get one until they were 18.
And, do you really want to lay the burden on every store clerk of checking for that?
Heck, when I was 8 years old, I was already up to three cups of coffee before school, and by 16, probably tripled that in a day. And just see how good I turned out.
Hmmmm...maybe Adley has a point (but I digress).
Maybe we should ban the sale of lollipops and M&Ms to kids, because sugar rots your teeth out, and chocolate makes you fat...I mean, a generation of young, fat, toothless, hopped-up caffeine addicts is definitely not what we want here in Louisiana!
Some studies suggest that drinking caffeine may be a contributing factor to children being born naked and illiterate. Jim what is this word down here below "nessb" I think I will type it in the blank and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteDarrell: "...naked, and illiterate."
ReplyDeleteBwahahahahahahahahahahaha!
But seriously or half seriously. Last year on another blog there was this discussion about legislating morality. A preacher said that it was against God's will to legislate morality. It interferes with the "free will" nature he gave to man to choose right or wrong. And so he said it would make God angry if we had laws that governed our behaviors. Well I asked if he was ok with laws against killing folks. He says yes. So my point was that all laws legislate morality of some kind. And who is gonna choose. Of course he vehemently disagreed and we went our ways. But where I was going with this was the outlawing of these drinks. Ah, are we interfering with the free will that God gave man? And Jim your point is if I am correct, conservatives are for less government interferance in our lives. I would agree in general, and some would say no laws against what I want to do. Well I may fall somewhere in between. There are areas of my life I don't want the government, but there are areas that the government seems to be a necessary evil. We just had a trial for the murder of my niece in which the suspect was found guilty. Government was needed to get this trial, otherwise their would have been a lynch mob in this area. "I just know some the people around here." Is it New York where they are telling restaurants to cut back on salt. I saw on the way out the door this morning on channel 3 something about taking cokes and pepsi's out of the schools. "My daughter like to flippped when she heard that". UhOh, I am gonna touch healt care. If the government totally takes over healthcare. And they see that because diabetes is on the rise, "It doubled from 1990-2002" and they see they need to save money, will they say to stay on government run health care you must keep your intake of certain foods below a certain amount. Oh and the only way for us to know is to track you. Well now I have gone the way of Orwell and big brother. I guess I better stop before I hit on another topic. "kabitied"? Jim where do you get these words?
ReplyDeleteDarrell, I had them put 'kabited' in there just for you ~
ReplyDelete(Good comment)
Andy, I'm with you, I drank coffee all the way through high school, and still do. Now it's 1 and a half cups in the morning and no more caffeine all day, but I'm good with that.
(Maybe I cheat in the afternoon every now and then)
Darrell: I think you and I are of just about the same mind. Laws, and government have legitimate functions. But, we've gone too far already IMHO.
ReplyDeleteJep Jim, One cup for me in the morning now...sometimes not even one. But, boy did I swill it as a younger man!
Government intruding into our lives came about because we would not govern our lives according to Godly principles. If everyone followed True Biblical teachings then our governor would be God and we would need no government or even police force. But it is a fallen world we have lived in since Adam and Eve so having a government is the blessing? we have for rebelling against Gods one command. Sorry for the religiosity of my view, but if you think about it, it is true.
ReplyDeleteSo Adley doesn't like caffeine, but he thinks cockfighting is okay?
ReplyDeleteHe has good intentions, but it's not the government's job to monitor the dietary habits of children. That's what parents are for.
Pretty soon Adley will try to ban the sale of doughnuts, twinkies, etc. to minors as well.
well while we are at it, lets ban all fast food restaurants, all candies, etc.
ReplyDeleteMatt: "He has good intentions, but it's not the government's job to monitor the dietary habits of children. That's what parents are for."
ReplyDeleteVery well put, that says it better than my blog post.
Jim, your posters are not the only ones to find this "bill" a waste of our tax dollar at work. It is ironical that I can recall only one person who has had the balls to come to this site to defend his principles attached with his name and that was Scott Smith. And believe me all those who have wasted our money and integrity are aware of your site and the comments given.
ReplyDeleteAnon you are so right, below from the Shreveport Times article response is just one among many similar posts.
ReplyDeletesuperfro wrote:
loriabe,
You are not helping Sen. Adley by telling us he proposed this legislation becuase you asked him to do so.
I regret your child's experience, but it sounds like you hardly have the type of evidence, scientific or ohterwise, that would merit banning this product. Was this particular product contaminated, was your child already ill or particularly susceptible to adverse reaction, is there an allergy, etc,
If some child has an accident in a convertible auto and the mother asks Adley to ban convertibles, can we expect a bill to be filed?
We have serious, real problems that affect ALL of us in this state.
Those problems are greater than the harm posed by energy drinks.
Let's hope others in the legislature take their jobs more seriously than Sen. Adley.
this is typical adley. he is so much smarter than the rest of us.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should all follow the great work the 26th's District DA's office is doing. Marvin is really making a name for himself, at least with the criminals, they all love him, sent him a Christmas turkey for nol prossing their cases.
ReplyDeleteSen. Adley, please worry about your own diet rather than my kids. I can put all four of them in one of your blue blazers that you sport a"round"...
ReplyDeletewhat a loon - seems a senator that thinks so highly of himself would find more important things to concern himself with
ReplyDelete