More Government Regulations.

Approximately 3800 years ago - circa 1790BC - the sixth king of Babylon, Hammurabi created a code of laws that have, naturally, been named for him (for those in Alabama, this code is known as the Code of Hammurabi).

The code of Hammurabi consisted of 282 laws which were carved into large stone monuments, called stele, which would then be placed in a public place for all to see. One example that exits today is a 7 foot tall stele reportedly in the shape of an index finger. Considering that this finger stele is the handiwork of a "government", I suspect that it is actually a middle finger.

One would think that after nearly 4000 years of law making, government bureaucrats would have addressed every issue there is; you'd think that they would eventually run out of things to regulate. You'd be wrong, however.

As I pointed out yesterday [San Francisco Bans Soft Drinks] a clever politician can always fine something regulate. In that post, I related how San Francisco's mayor Gavin Newsom has issued a directive banning sugary soft drinks in vending machines located on city property. After writing yesterday's post, I learned from this article that the San Francisco Department of Public Health has issued a set of regulations for THC laced brownies, ice cream and milkshakes (and more) made in San Francisco's medical marijuana dispensaries.

These regulations deal with issues such as proper packaging, hand washing as well as each item have a warning that the item is a medication and not a food. Considering Mayor Newsom's war on obesity, I'm surprised that the regulations do not cover the amount of sugar in each marijuana brownie.

Years ago,when I was in my teens, I first heard the claim that "the reason why marijuana is illegal, is because they haven't figured out a way to tax it". As I pointed out in a post from two years ago, the notion that governments can't figure out how to tax something can best be described as dunderheaded. As if to prove my point, the Berkeley CA. city council has been discussing how to tax both medical and recreational cannabis.

San Francisco Bans Soft Drinks.

Thanks to the guys at Creative Minority Report I learned of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's ban of sugary soft drinks in vending machines on city property. [ Creative Minority Report: Illegals With Cokes ]

Delving further, I came across an article on the SFGate website. Newsom's directive, issued in April, "... includes non-diet sodas, sports drinks and artificially sweetened water. Juice must be 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice with no added sweeteners. Diet sodas can be no more than 25 percent of the items offered".

The directive is an effort to combat obesity.

Doesn't Newsom realize his new directive will adversely affect a soft drink which has the potential of being extremely popular with San Francisco residents ? - Leninade- With approximately 38 grams of sugar (all cane sugar, according to the label) and about 150 calories per serving, the "surprisingly satisfying simple soviet-style soda based on lemonade" (made by Real Soda In Real Bottles, Ltd) will certainly be prohibited.

A quick Internet search revealed the drink is available online. An ad for the drink mentions a mixed drink made from Leninade, ice and Vodka known as a CommieKaze. Perhaps Newsom should have one himself, put up his feet and relax.

The Last Airbender.

I couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my son J.P. had become interested in the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. I was a little surprised; although I knew nothing of the series, when I first started paying attention to what he was watching, I thought the series seemed to be geared towards kids a few years older than he.

While I've been off from work, there was a marathon of episodes showing on Nicktoons and the two of us spend lots of time together watching the show. I have to say that I enjoyed it.

Naturally, when we learned of the movie version of the series, we both wanted to see it. My wife Cathy had not been watching the program with us, but she was intrigued by the movie trailer and wanted to see the movie as well.

The film, in 3D, opened in our little town and the three of us went to see it last night. I won't go into the plot. We enjoyed the film. I'd say it fits in perfectly with the animated series and I'm sure fans of the series will be happy with it.

The only problem I had with the experience was the poor quality of the 3D. A few months back, the three of us were visiting friends in Greenville, South Carolina and went to see How to Train Your Dragon in 3D and were very impressed with the technology. However, that wasn't the case here in Rome; the 3D was lousy. We would have preferred to watch the film in traditional 2 dimension. I'm fairly certain that the problem lay with the theater here in our little backwater town; even the 3D coming attractions were off kilter. I'm sure that if one were to watch the movie in a theater which has state of the art equipment the 3D experience would beat the socks off what we had to put up with yesterday.

Never the less, I'd recommend the movie. I'm sure I'll get a copy of the DVD when it's released so J.P. and I can watch again (that will probably be timed to go with the release of the second part of the trilogy).

Taking it Back.

It looks as though I'll have to renege on my earlier statement that this blog will be put to rest.

As I mentioned earlier, I have started a new blog, Immigration Reformation. I was afraid that my Sorry, all the Clever Names are Taken blog was becoming too unmanageable. The problem with dropping this blog is that I have too many things I want to write about.

I'll continue to post on this blog as well as the others I've created. It's quite possible that I will create yet another one to cover strictly religion (particularly all things Catholic). In the mean time, the blogosphere is stuck with Sorry, all the Clever Names are Taken for a bit longer.

Update: I've updated this post by adding the photo of a pair of flip-flops on the left. This update was made after getting a comment from LarryD of ActsoftheApostasy which read,

"Flip-flopper! LOL!"

I received an email notification of the comment but the comment itself has not shown up on the blog. It seems Larry's having the same problem as well (see commenting issues on his blog).
I've had the same problem on my Immigration Reformation blog.

Final Post......an Update.

In what was to be my final post for this blog, I related how I believed that this blog had become the victim of "diversity".... that is to say that the rather loose and unfocused nature of this blog had begun to made it difficult for me to decide which subject to write about on any particular day.

I believe the solution to my problem is to "mothball" this blog while starting another which focuses on only one subject. The result of that decision has been the creation of Immigration Reformation. As one can tell from the title, the theme of the blog will, obviously, be immigration - both legal and illegal.

Chances are, I will start yet even another blog in the not-so-distant future in order to deal with other subjects of interest to me. For the time being, I hope those who read and followed Sorry, all the Clever Names are Taken will find my latest entry into the blogosphere as something worth reading - at least occasionally.