Earlier this year, Davis, Calif., made news when its 5-member city council passed a law making it illegal for restaurants to offer a soft drink with any children’s meal. This type of ridiculous measure is guaranteed to generate headlines, but won’t do anything to address concerns about obesity.

The headline says it all, “In Davis, offering a kid a soda is about to be illegal.” They say this is about helping parents, but it’s not. It’s about the government becoming the parent and taking choices away from real parents. Taking choices off the table seems to be the overarching goal for many of these activists.

Who can forget Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to ban the sale of large soft drinks in New York City?

Last year, San Francisco banned the sale of bottled water on city property. This time they claimed environmental concerns despite the industry’s commitment to lightweight packaging and recycling.

The arguments may change but the goal remains the same: deny Americans the right to make their own decisions. And there are few things more un-American than that.