Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Mississippi introduces new bill.

I don't see how this thing has any legs.

How do you enforce it? Certainly just eyeballing someone and saying "yay" or "nay" isn't an option. What else? Using calipers on all guests as they walk through the door to check their fat? Please. If I went to a restaurant and some pimple-faced, skinny wanker of a kid at the door tried to caliper me, I would have to b!tch slap him. Maybe not a teenager, maybe a well dressed, slick asshole type. Sure. See how long it takes for my San Angelo-ness to come out. Or...what, have a doctor at the door? Who foots the bill for this?

What if the restaurant serves a grilled chicken dish that the obese person wants to eat as a part of their new healthy diet in an effort to lose weight and become healthier? (wishful thinking, maybe...but still...maybe they can't cook!) Will they still be banned from the restaurant - or will there be new healthy places that the obese people will only be allowed to enter? How will this prevent the home cooked artery clogging, fat inducing chicken fried steak their mama's make from crossing their lips?

If you are going to try and use negative forces to reduce obesity, employ the same tactics as the ones imposed on cigarette smokers. People should have the option, they just have to pay for it. Tax twinkies. I don't care. Anytime you associate a hard cost with something, people will think about it differently. Doesn't mean they will stop...but it means they will have to budget for it.

I heard about this on the radio and while I think something definitely has to be done about the problem of obesity in our country, I just think this is another example of tax dollars put to really bad use. How about allocating more funds to build bike and walking paths? How about offering insurance incentives for people who stay active?

Positive options are much better than encouraging a stigma that can sometimes lead to greater issues. So many people are overweight because of emotional eating habits, can you imagine if their public ridicule (and don't think they don't feel that on a daily basis) grew with being blacklisted from restaurants??!?!? Good lord. They would just stay home and order in pizza to feed their disappointment. bad idea...bad idea.

Maybe this person (the one introducing the idea) was just trying to incite some conversation about the topic - but I highly doubt it. It shows me that our politicians aren't thinking at all. Who comes up with these bills?

Better yet, let's ask our presidential nominees what they would do to combat the obesity epidemic in America. I would be curious to hear that.

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