The Hot Dog Mayor of New York City
Diane Katz /
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the nation’s most notorious diet dictator, has been outed as a hot dog man (the ingredients of which include: Beef, Water, Salt, Sorbitol, Sodium Lactate, Hydrolyzed Soy, Corn Gluten Protein and Wheat Gluten Protein, Paprika, Natural Flavorings, Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite).
As noted by Slate, the same guy who’s trying to ban the sale of soda in cups larger than 16 ounces is a zealous devotee of the hot dog eating contest held each Fourth of July at Coney Island, N.Y. It is during said competition that contestants routinely down 50 to 60 hotdogs in 30 minutes, ingesting 19,000 calories or more at a sitting.
But the mayor is all for it. There is even video proof of his nutritional hypocrisy—a speech last summer in which he characterized the annual gorge as “a moment for all New Yorkers and all Americans to celebrate the inalienable rights bestowed on us by our forefathers: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For the contestants assembled here, that pursuit includes consuming as many hot dogs as is humanly possible.”
Unfortunately for the citizens of New York City, Bloomberg draws the line at beverage liberty. But if the mayor really wants to improve public well-being, he ought to propose a ban on politicians who can’t control their appetite for power.