New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s big recent ta-doo regarding placing a size limit on the sale of soda was in all probability sponsored by the soda industry because that is, in the long run, who it would benefit.

Let’s face it, the big soda companies would love to see you purchase instead of a one or two liter soda, six cans of soda and here in New York, if you buy and drink a one liter container of soda, your deposit charge would only be five cents. It would also be a heck of a lot less costly per drink than from a 16 ounce can or cup of soda served at a soda fountain in a fast food operation.

If you purchased six cans of twelve ounce sodas, your deposit charge would balloon to 30 cents. So my question is who is raking in these huge profits when you multiply such transactions times the millions of purchases every day of the week. Does Mayor Bloomberg legitimately care about your waistline and general health or is it more the case of taking in that additional 30 cent deposit fee he can pull out of your pocket and write it up as additional taxes for the City of New York.

I don’t believe for one solitary second that it is for any other reason than to put more bucks in the pockets of New York City tax collectors.

Have you noticed each time you turn on cable news channels there’s nothing going on of any substance? You try the broadcast channels and the same story exists as is the case on most radio stations as well. What’s going on here? Most of what used to pass for news information stations now wants to let you know about what so and so is wearing, who is pregnant and the most irrelevant small talk amounting to no more than a hill of beans which contributes virtually nothing to an individual’s ability to discover anything new that is going around state regions, the country or even the world. What’s happened to the news of the world? It’s no longer being reported and why not?

News coverage from the Middle East regarding the welfare of your sons and daughters no longer exists for whatever reason. They seem to have been able to quiet whatever small bits and pieces of news are able to trickle out of any of the world’s hotspots.

Turn to the price of gasoline and even such a controversial subject as something which affects almost all of us doesn’t have as much information available than one would think. How many motorists have given any thought to the fact that at the beginning of the busiest driving period of the year, the price of automotive fuel is actually dropping? Is there a huge glut of gasoline? The fact is there always was. This is not the issue. The issue, like it or not, is that come November, there will be a presidential election and gasoline is one of the election’s hottest subjects along with the state of employment. One way or the other, regardless which political side you might be on, gasoline will continue being an important issue right up to the time you enter the voting booth. Fuel for your vehicles is something that can and will be moved to benefit a political party. That is the most important reason why the price of gas has dropped recently and in some instances just under $4.00 a gallon.

Although you may not immediately make sense of this, you well know who is responsible: that’s right, it would be no one other than the federal government.

The White House, congressional groups [be they Republicans or Democrats] are responsible for the national volatility of the market for gasoline and will never be trusted by the American people in the future. It is now being discussed, including the costs, that what America needs is a far speedier rail system to move freight, trucks and other products from coast to coast and from Mexico to Canada. The beauty of this plan is by shipping trucks by rail, it would open American roads to automobiles and ridding the nation once and for all of dangerous road vehicles allowing families to move safely from point to point without the problems inherent in trucks dominating our roads.

A seven day trip by truck could be cut to an amazing 24 hours by rail. Are you kidding me? Is the World Serious? The price of gasoline could be cut by 80 percent making everyone happy. Up front costs would run in the neighborhood of seven billion dollars. We pay in foreign aid about $80 billion dollars a year. Cut back on foreign aid for two years and this too can be accomplished. Thousands could go back to work with such a plan.

Put people back to work as they would if our leaders demanded the steel industry was immediately resurrected. Steel for the Freedom Tower is being built by Germany and Japan. We send them our raw steel, they process it and ship it back to our shores. Isn’t that disgusting? I should say so. Allow us to manufacture our own steel and develop this high speed rail line and more jobs could be created than anyone thought possible. Don’t let our slimy politicians get their grubby little hands on these two projects or they would certainly find a way to destroy each of them.