Actually, it was one of the regulators who said they have to regulate every aspect of people's lives because common sense is not so common.
It's just so silly. How much plastic does a straw use? How much plastic is in a car? Do the council members drive cars? Of course they do. This reminds me of the Pharisees, who would refuse to carry anything on the sabbath so they wouldn't in their minds violate the commandment to "keep the Shabbat holy". It was silly, preening, self righteousness with no redeeming value. If you don't have any actual morals, and you're a profoundly stupid person, yet you still want to live in a delusion in which you are morally superior, you'll invent asinine standards like the Pharisees--or the Santa Barbara city council.
"We have to regulate every aspect of people's lives." That gives us a pretty good idea of what the speaker thinks of the "people", doesn't it? Ever since the popular democracy of classical Athens, opponents of democracy feared that it was little more than rule-by-the-rabble, and longed for rule by a better sort of person, whether Plato's philosopher-kings, hereditary aristocracies or today's oligarchical elites. The idea, as always, is that typical people can't be trusted to make their own decisions for themselves, that they will run amok if they are ever given that freedom, so they must be controlled instead. Once upon a time "liberals" stood for liberty, for the right of individuals to steer their own lives as they please, standing as well for the corresponding freedom from oppressive restrictions that would impose excessively on that right. Democracy is based squarely on that premise. But today, "liberals" have become the champions of new-style aristocracy, of power exercised by everyone who imagines themselves a better sort of person than masses in the common herd. University professors (smarter than everyone else, in their own estimation anyway), Hollywood celebrities (more popular in a weird high-schoolish way), the news media (they tell you what to believe and what to think), activists of all sorts (they are more morally "woke" than you) and government employees (those who wield the power). If the little people ever get out of control, no end of horrors will be unleashed on the world. A "basket of deplorables" one and all. Somehow over the last 50 years, "All Power to the People!" has turned into its exact opposite.
People don't understand that the best implementation of Power to the People is really Power to the Person.
"I do not think it is fair for the sea animals to eat our trash," said 9-year-old Weston Burwell. "I hope you protect our environment by eliminating these straws. Who needs them anyway?" Shame on his mother.
Restaurants are highly regulated (or I hope they are). What is it about plastic straws that makes freedom lovers want to make a stand?
That, and the "science" behind it is bollocks. https://nypost.com/2018/07/02/banning-plastic-straws-is-more-scam-than-science/
