Trying to get a handle on politicians' harebrained schemes

Sometimes it is difficult to fully grasp the concepts espoused by elected officials. Often I just can’t get my arms around these things.

I can’t get my arms around the idea offered last year by Gov. Jerry Brown when he signed legislation intended to overturn majority votes in San Diego, Chula Vista and other cities. These cities adopted a provision preventing city councils or officials from requiring competition and limiting expensive project labor agreements. His message was that overturning the vote of a significant majority “preserves the right of all sides to debate what obviously is a hotly contested issue," he wrote. "Seems fair to me … even democratic.”

No one alleged that this violated a law or the U.S. Constitution or California’s governing documents. How can it be “even democratic” to legislate a reverse of democracy in action? I can’t quite get my arms around that one.

It was important to Juan Vargas, now a candidate for Congress, to propose that California’s Legislature approve a new license requirement. This one was for pet groomers. It would give pet owners “peace of mind,” said Vargas, if groomers were certified, the first political step toward licensing. Pet grooming does not keep me awake at night, and I just can’t get my arms around that idea, either.

An article in a magazine in a veterinarian’s shop dealt with rabbits, pointing out that this is an unusual kind of pet and requires different considerations. In passing the author said rabbits don’t even have the free-range rights of chickens. I’m really having a tough time getting my arms around that one. I didn’t know chickens have free-range rights.

Incidentally, as I was looking for confirmation, I found a site that claims a free-range chicken might be cooped up in a cage that has a view of the outside. According to this analysis, it is the ability of the chicken to look outside through a window that makes it a free-range bird. I must not even understand the concept of free-range.

I certainly can’t get my arms around the idea that even though in 1998 56 percent of those voting approved Proposition 215 allowing California citizens to use medical marijuana, the United States Justice Department has been plaguing marijuana collectives so aggressively that the cooperative in El Cajon finally gave up and closed its doors. Obviously, local citizens making local decisions is not sufficient protection from the all-encompassing federal regulatory apparatus. Regardless of one’s position on medical marijuana, that kind of hammer at the federal level is troubling.

The marijuana question centers on the federal government saying marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug with no medical value. That might at least give some support for federal intervention. It is, however, another example of wise national figures declaring that local citizens don’t have the right to abuse their own bodies, if, indeed, marijuana is a dangerous drug.

I am able to get the ends of my arms, my hands, around sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. Guess I don’t have to worry about that if I am in New York City after March of 2013. Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed prohibiting the sale of supersized sodas and other sugar-filled drinks because they make people fat. The city’s Board of Health agreed, and unless there is court action that overturns the ban, it will take effect next year.

Historians note that the effort to eliminate alcohol, which has proven to be a dangerous, addicting product used by citizens, failed miserably. There are liquor stores in abundance and, as it turns out, no prohibition on the size of the container.

Nothing in the soft drinks is illegal at any governmental level. The New York City mayor wants to tackle obesity, he said, and this is his way of starting. Regulating the quantity people can purchase at a single push of a drink dispenser lever is his first phase. What single-serving quantity of what otherwise legal confection or fattening fast food is he going to prohibit next?

I can’t get my arms around that idea, and next year in New York City, if this prohibition holds up, I won’t be able to wrap my hands around a large soft drink either. I guess I’ll just buy two medium-sized sugary soft drinks consecutively. That should protect my waistline.

Hawkins is retired after 35 years as a construction industry association manager. He was a broadcast reporter and news anchor in Denver. As a Navy officer, he saw action in Vietnam in the River Assault Squadrons and is the recipient of a Silver Star and Purple Heart. He can be reached at george.hawkins@sddt.com.