Following up on Bitter’s post about Bloomberg taking up a modern day temperance movement, Rational Gun takes a look at an issue by issue comparison, and I have to say that the parallels are creepy. I notice Rational Gun didn’t take a look at nanny state alcohol laws, but sure enough, Chavez is into that too:
On Monday, the national tax collection agency SENIAT announced changes regarding taxes on alcohol and cigarettes in an attempt to reduce their consumption. SENIAT Superintendent Jose Vielma Mora explained that the new increases in taxes on these goods are aimed at “lessening the moral, economic, and social consequences of their use.” Mora added that the communal councils will be consulted before granting liquor licenses in order to prevent alcohol consumption near schools, churches, or cultural centers.
I don’t know if Bloomberg is consciously trying to keep pace with the Venezuelan dictator, but he’s certainly doing a bang up job. Bloomberg is the kind of person I don’t believe can be trusted with power. Hopefully after this current third term, New Yorkers will be sick of him. The rest of the country sure is.
Under Chavez the once beautiful city of Caracas has earned the highest per capita murder rate in the world. But yeah, it’s all because of the cigarettes, Hugo, not the policies of your drug-running workers’ paradise.
A cabbie described Bloomberg to me like this: “He is Castro without a beard.”
Definitely the best one liner of 2011.