New York's latest public hearing shows yet again that the people who testify at these things are as self-selected a bunch as the famous Reader's Digest poll predicting Landon in a landslide over Roosevelt. What's striking, though, is the conflict between the city's proposal to ban trans fats and its proposal to require chain restaurants to conspicuously post calorie counts. Are people unable to make their own decisions, or do that they just lack the information needed to make them? And how many Big Mac lovers are there who would reconsider, if only they had a calorie count to consult?

More on the evils of obesity here, along with the cartoon below, which New York City Health Commissioner Tom Frieden may have taken a bit too seriously.

Which leads to our modest proposal for Bloomberg to take things to the next level, and start zoning obesity. (hat tip: Planetizen)

Or perhaps he could force the Mets to re-sign Vince Coleman and Bobby Bonilla to protect New Yorkers from the apparent relationship between championship baseball and crime. For the record, while St. Louis reprised its World Series put-down of Detroit to lay claim to the title of America's most violent city, the Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn held the number one slot for metropolitan areas.