Did I say common sense? Sorry, I meant stupidity. This week the Senate Health Commitee approved SB1000 which would require warning labels on sodas and other sugary beverages sold in California. California will be the first in the nation! The label would read:
STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAFETY WARNING: Drinking
beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay.
Huh. Who knew? The next thing you know the government or someone will come out with a study that says Americans like Pizza or something. But I digress. We Californians are fortunate that we have such wise stewards in our legislature who realize that Utopia cannot be realized without sufficient warning labels. We can’t credit them for all the warning labels California requires today though, the most ubiquitous of which are the “Prop 65” warning labels which you will find on everything in the state. Of course, I am exagerating (WRONG! I’m not!). Here a little backgound is in order: California has something called The Ballot Initiative Process. The idea is that We The People can bypass the Legislature if we choose, draft our own laws (“propositions”) and put them to a vote of the people. If they pass they become law. Power to The People! Right On! However… sometimes there is an idea so stupid even our legislators realize the can’t have their fingerprints on it, so they draft their own “proposition” and put it on the ballot. In this state, if you can sell something in Los Angeles and the SF Bay Area then you get to shove it down everyone else’s throat. This is how we got Prop 65, the purpose of which was to warn people of scary toxic chemicals that would jump out and murder them unless they were warned. Oh, and Clean Water! Surely you’re not against clean water? Anyway, now we have this warning on every building and product in California:
WARNING: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Turns out that everything causes cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm to one degree or another. True Story: one summer at Lake Tahoe I was waiting for a table at a restuarant. It’s Tahoe in the summer, so there are a lot of tourists from out of state and while we’re all sitting there, a young woman in another party notices the Prop65 warning posted at the entrance to the restaurant. Yes, there is one of these posted at every restaurant in California. She became alarmed; OMG look at this! We better go somewhere else! We’ll get cancer if we eat here! (on the shores of pristine Lake Tahoe, mind you). The locals started laughing and told her not to worry, that warning is on everything in this state. There are two things to take away from this if you’re a California State Senator reading this. First, “the locals started laughing” and second “that warning is on everything in this state”.
Prop 65 was passed in 1986. Here it is 2014 and we’re still figuring out which warning labels to put on what. That’s a lot of time wasted, so I’d like to offer this suggestion. Let’s just make one warning label for everything so we can be done with this and move on.
My suggestion:
You’re Welcome.