How much more brainwashed can we become?

Have you ever thought of a tax as being a "breakthrough"? Well New York Governor David Paterson is being hailed by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof as instituting a "breakthrough" with his 18% sales tax on soft drinks.

According to Kristof, people who drink soft drinks are obese, and this tax will decrease their consumption which will make them healthier which will improve the state budget. He says the biggest health care breakthrough in the past 40 years was not heart bypass surgery or the MRI or the CAT scan or new cancer treatment. It was -- are you ready for this -- the tax on cigarettes! The most promising cure for lung cancer, he says, came not from researchers but from politicians. Likewise, this tax on soft drinks may just cure obesity.

Kristof admits that other things besides soft drinks can cause obesity, so he supports taxing Twinkies as well. I can think of many other things that should be added to the "breakthrough" list -- ladders (people fall off them), stairs (people fall down them), bathtubs (people fall in them), automobiles (people have wrecks), skateboards (people crash on them), sewing needles (people jab their thumbs with them), pots and pans (people burn themselves when they cook), dogs and cats (they bite and scratch people), brooms and rakes (people trip over them in their garages and storage rooms), electricity (people shock themselves), rocking chairs (people stub their toes), shoes (people rub blisters on their feet), . . . . and ad infinitum. Maybe what we should really tax is Kristof's newspaper so people can save their eyesight by not reading his drivel.

"The Miracle Cola Diet." The Dallas Morning News; December 20, 2008; p. 17A.