I can’t even believe this is happening:
A state lawmaker wants to ban restaurants from serving food to obese customers — but please, don’t be offended.
He says he never even expected his plan to become law.
“I was trying to shed a little light on the number one problem in Mississippi,” said Republican Rep. John Read of Gautier, who acknowledges that at 5-foot-11 and 230 pounds, he’d probably have a tough time under his own bill.
More than 30 percent of adults in Mississippi are considered it obese, according to a 2007 study by the Trust for America’s Health, a research group that focuses on disease prevention.
The state House Public Health Committee chairman, Democrat Steve Holland of Plantersville, said he is going to “shred” the bill.
“It is too oppressive for government to require a restaurant owner to police another human being from their own indiscretions,” Holland said Monday.
The bill had no specifics about how obesity would be defined, or how restaurants were supposed to determine if a customer was obese.
Al Stamps, who owns a restaurant in Jackson, said it is “absurd” for the state to consider telling him which customers he can’t serve. He and his wife, Kim, do a bustling lunch business at Cool Al’s, which serves big burgers — beef or veggie — and specialty foods like “Sassy Momma Sweet Potato Fries.”
Elsa agrees and is thinking of leaving the country:
This topic, the Mississippi Fat Ban has me stunned and mesmerized so I just keep writing. Excellent example of Saturn (restriction) in Virgo (diet) and Pluto in Capricorn (Shadow side of the government).
The bill won’t go anywhere, but I believe it’s quite possibly a harbinger of what we have to look forward to with the healthcare crisis and the potential repression of Pluto in Capricorn.
posted February 5, 2008 at 7:55 am
This is amazing for a couple reasons.
I am originally from Mississippi( but I am currently living in Alabama) and the fact that the bill was introduced by a so-called freedom loving Republican.
And a shall we say ‘stocky’ Republican at that. I bet if his BMI were calculated he would be considered obese.
Lynn, I think you need a multiple irony alert this morning. LO
posted February 5, 2008 at 7:59 am
It’s the sort of thing you’d get in a spoof, isn’t it.
Maybe they’ll also should also pass a law that anorexic teenagers can’t leave a restaurant till they’ve finished their meals
posted February 5, 2008 at 10:35 am
Roderick – this article did mention that fact, I guess the lawmaker doesn’t trust himself to go to a restaurant so he wants to penalize everyone.
This whole idea of legislating health is something that resonates with the Saturn (laws) in Virgo (health) theme, no doubt. I like DR’s idea too, just for the irony of it as you say
posted February 5, 2008 at 11:55 am
Lynn: Roderick – this article did mention that fact, I guess the lawmaker doesn’t trust himself to go to a restaurant so he wants to penalize everyone.
A Republican who doesn’t take personal responsibility?
What’s the world coming to
posted February 5, 2008 at 3:57 pm
ROFL, Roderick.
posted February 5, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Lynn, you said “I guess the lawmaker doesn’t trust himself to go to a restaurant so he wants to penalize everyone.”
Sort of what Republicans want to do with sexual behavior, and why conservatives are always the ones caught with hookers, kiddie porn, and underage girls.
This bill isn’t just to be snarked at, though, because it’s the logical extension of the kind of carrot/stick measures proposed by well-meaning people who think BMI is the sole Holy Grail of health. I know a guy who jogs every day and still takes Lipitor because high cholesterol and heart disease runs in his family. And then there’s Gary Taubes’ op-ed in the New York Times a few weeks ago questioning the whole cholesterol thing entirely.
We’ve been so bogged down in obsession with size that we as a society don’t have a clue what makes people healthy. Well, actually we do, but to do something about it would put a whole bunch of multinational corporations out of business!
posted February 5, 2008 at 7:56 pm
And now there’s a new study in Finland that says that overweight people actually cost governments less because they don’t live as long. SO maybe the governments will keep up their current encouragement of high fructose corn syrup.