Idiots on Parade

[patgund]

Dear Gods, people actually come up with this tripe???

No fat people allowed: Only the slim will be allowed to dine in public!

"Lawmakers have proposed legislation that forbids restaurants and food establishments from serving food to anyone who is obese (as defined by the State). Under this bill, food establishments are to be monitored for compliance under the State Department of Health and violators will have their business permits revoked.

House Bill 282 was introduced in the 2008 Mississippi legislative session on Friday by Representative W.T. Mayhall, Jr., a retired pharmaceutical salesman with DuPont-Merk. Its co-authors are Bobby Shows, a businessman, and John Read, a pharmacist."

The full text of the bill is here(PDF). In part:

"(2) Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.

(3) The State Department of Health shall monitor the food establishments to which this section applies for compliance with the provisions of this section, and may revoke the permit of any food establishment that repeatedly violates the provisions of this section. "

Wow. The stupid, it burns......

Comments

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

I think that the American Diabetes Association should go kick their butts.

[roostur.livejournal.com]

Holy shit! These skinnys mean business!

[electorprince.livejournal.com]

This'll last about two minutes in the Big Court.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the restaurant industry will let them pass that. NOT.

[mistresshuette.livejournal.com]

Someone go sick NAAFA [National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance]. This kind of crap is precisely up their alley.

[khavrinen.livejournal.com]

And the fact that this entry is the one right after the recipe for "bacon candy" is purely coincidence, right?
:)

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Actually, yes

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

I read on another journal (damned if I can remember where), that part of the thought process behind this is that due to the high number of people on the Food Stamp program who have outrageous BMIs, this is an attempt to get them off (low-cost) carbs and get them to eat (pricy-ass) proteins. The mindset of the guy who proposed this is "fat person=food stamp user=unemployed=non-contributing member of society. Get the fat person skinny means they'll be employed and off welfare." Since, you know, all fat people are unemployed and on food stamps.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

One of the guys responsible for this claims that he didn't intend it to pass and just wanted it to be used to call attention to the problem of obesity.