There is No Human Problem that our Legislatures Don't Think They Can Solve

[Andrew Rothman]

This story's content didn't live up to the hype of its headline. And it certainly doesn't merit the outrage from the posters above.

Let's take a look, shall we?

States Look to Combat Obesity With Laws
...legislators nationwide are offering measures to encourage healthy food choices and ban the worst temptations.

So there are laws, huh?

Few ideas have become law yet.

Oh, wait. No laws yet.

But states have considered scores of bills this year that would, among other things: get kids exercising;

Phy Ed in schools! Why, those fascists!!!

warn restaurant eaters about fat, sugar and cholesterol on the menu;

Consumer information. Sounds good to me. It's not banning a thing.

and, ban sugary sodas and fattening chips from school vending machines.

But they can't point to a law.

In a Louisiana experiment, the state will pay for a few government employees' gastric bypass surgery — or stomach stapling — to see if it reduces health care costs.

A pilot program offering a medical treatment to grossly obese employees, to see if it's cheaper than continuing to pay for their Jabba-related health costs. Bastards!!

Under the laws that have passed, states will:
_Test the BMI — body-mass index, a ratio of height to weight — of students in six Arkansas schools, and send results home. Pediatricians say regular tests like this should be performed nationwide to track children at risk of becoming obese.

Screening for a disease. Like scoliosis. Sounds okay so far.

_Ban junk food from vending machines in California. New York City, in an administrative decision, banned hard candy, doughnuts, soda and salty chips from its vending machines.

So it's a CITY administrative decision, not a state or federal law.

Okay by me. Schools act in loco parentis, and have an obligation not to endanger kids' health. Any reasonable parent would limit junk food and promote healthy choices.

Further, they're not banning the items. If students want to bring junk food from home, they can. The school just says, we're not going to be the ones to sell kids the junk food.

I'm good with that.

_Require physical education programs in Louisiana schools, and encourage it in Arkansas and Mississippi. Though once a staple, such daily classes are now only required by state law in Illinois; other states let local officials decide or require exercise less often.

States determine a lot of curriculum. Sounds okay to me.

Public campaigns aimed at getting people to change their eating habits also remain popular. Billboards across West Virginia, featuring photos of bulging stomachs and couch potatoes, exhort people to "Put Down Chips & Trim Those Hips." Houston, Philadelphia and San Antonio, Texas have started "get fit" drives.

P.R. that encourages people to voluntarily get in shape? Fantastic. Good idea.

"There's a lot of fear and hysteria," said Mike Burita at the Center for Consumer Freedom, an advocacy group for the restaurant and food industry. "We're allowing government and these public health groups to dictate our food choices to us."

How? No one is dictating anything. Sounds like he is the source of the fear and hysteria.

Among his top targets is the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group that produces a steady flow of warnings about unhealthy food, from movie popcorn to Chinese takeout.

A private nonprofit that provides information about foods? Where's all the dictating?

"It's OK to have a cheeseburger and fries, but it shouldn't be a mainstay of your diet," Burita said. Exercise and education are the solutions, he said. "Kids went from playing dodge ball to playing computer games."

Exercise and education seems to be what most of the proposals are about. Where's the fuss, Gus?

Being healthy requires a balance of good foods and good exercise habits. You need both. I suppose if you were an exercise fanatic you could live off of Big Macs three times a day -- until the cholesterol killed you.

The skeptics are being heard. A Texas proposal to limit school children's access to snack and soda vending machines died after the state soft drink association complained. Most of the 80 or so obesity-related bills around the country also failed to pass.

Oh, goody. SugarSodaPAC beats down an attempt to get schools to act responsibly while our kids are entrusted to them. Viva Freedom!

The federal government is acting, too. The Bush administration urged insurance companies to offer premium discounts to people with healthier lifestyles. It has started giving grants to cities to target unhealthy habits.

Good! Why should I pay the same permium as Mr. Couch-Potato-Six-Pack-Big-Mac if I watch what I eat and work out regularly? (I said IF, guys. Hypothetically, I could exercise!!)

In West Virginia, the state agency that insures public employees has started offering exercise benefits and diet counseling, in addition to the state's advertising campaign.

Benefits and P.R. again. Where is the dictating? Where are the food police?


Use some critical thinking skills. I see no threat here. You want a threat, look at Homeland Security.

 

[Jeff White]

Mpayne,
None of this is the business of the government. Every penny we spend on nanny state BS like this is one less penny we have to spend on those things government is really supposed to do. Let them get a toehold in this area and it will just expand. The camel's nose is under the tent.

Jeff

 

[Andrew Rothman]

Jeff,

Not quite.

First, eliminate the private entities and their reports. Who cares? If they want to go to the work of exposing the shocking fact that a five-gallon tub of butter-soaked popcorn is -- gasp -- fattening, that's okay with me.

Second, let's look at schools. As long as we have public education, we damn well better do it responsibly. That means that the school has to act like a responsible parent. And that means not feeding the kids junk.

Yes, it's nannyish, but legally, the school is your kids' nanny during the time they are there. If you want to send Doritos to school with your kids, go ahead.

I know, some people think there ought not be public education. I disagree, but if we do, it must be done right. That means a limit on junk food and phy ed once in a while.

Third, public initiatives to improve health. They only exist because there is a net savings in public insurance costs when people are healthier. It's the same reason that kids could get immunizations at school. It's cheaper than measles, mumps or rubella.

I know, some people think we shouldn't have public insurance. But we do. Until we get rid of it, don't you agree it should be run as efficiently as possible? If there is a cost savings in getting people to get in shape (and there is!) then it's a good idea. The fact that people live better lives is just the gravy.




Hey, I am the biggest proponent of personal responsibility I know. I do have a soft spot for kids, though. What do you do about the human garbage that procreate and then don't take care of their kids?

The strict libertarian might say, let the kids suffer. It's their parents' fault.

I'm not entirely comfortable with that. Kids aren't chattel, nor do they deserve to suffer because their parents are losers. So public education, AFDC and Medicaid may be necessary evils to give kids at least a fighting chance. And if we're gonna do those things, let's do `em right, and do `em efficiently.

 

[Waitone]

Plundering of the tobacco industry began 25+ years earlier with common sense warning labels on packs of cigarettes.

Smoking bans began with common sense prohibition against smoking in certain isles of airplanes during flights.

All gun control is based on common sense provisions. . . initially.

Campaign finance control is a common sense response to excess money in the political system.


An attack on liberty is never a direct, frontal assault. It is always based on "common sense" needs to regulate corporate behavior.

 

[hops]

We need to get back to the time of part-time legislatures. They obviously have way too much time on their hands. Body fat is a good thing. One never knows when the food supply might be interupted.

 

[Correia]

Measuring the BMI to test health is like feeling the bumps on your skull to measure intelligence. According to the BMI I have been morbidly obese since I was 10. When I was in the best physical shape of my life and in superb physical conditioning with a resting heart rate of 45, blood pressure that would pass as good for a female five years younger than me, and excellent cholesterol, the BMI ranked me as morbidly obese.

I hate that stupid thing. My gosh if that is what they are using to measure obesity in this country no wonder the numbers are so freaking high. Anybody with more muscle mass than a stick figure comes up as obese on that ridiculous chart. I don't have any proof but I'm willing to bet that the BMI was created by really skinny people who in general are very angry at the world.

 

[Waitone]

The same goons that want to tell us what to eat want to include calorie count on menus in restaurants for each entree. Nothing more, just calories.

I don't think for a minute it will stop there but that is where they will start.

Orange juice is loaded with calories. Think I need to restrict my OJ intake because the calorie count is too high by some bureaucrat's estimation.

 

[Elmer Snerd]

Will they have midnight roadblocks where they can search and confiscate your car if your breath smells like Big Macs?

"Please exit your vehicle, sir. The meat-sniffing dog reacted, that constitutes probable cause for a search. Thank you for your cooperation."

 

[JohnBT]

The answer is clear, it's time for a

FAT TAX


No, not on people, but on the food when it's sold. That way the salad at lunch is still $4.95 but the dressing is another $4.95 and the money goes to health care and funeral expenses. Okay, I'm kidding about the funerals.

Want a $2.00 burger? Fine, plus a $2.00 FAT TAX and, oh, there will be separate taxes on the cheese, mayo, ketchup and bacon, too.

Fries? You can't afford 'em.

A dozen doughnuts? HA!!! Keep dreaming.


I read an article years ago that pointed out that an appetizer platter of chili cheese fries from a chain restaurant had the same amount of fat as SEVEN Big Macs. Might as well take a spoon to a can of Crisco.

John

 

[Jeff White]

The only way to fix this creeping encroachment on freedom is to get the government out of the health care business. Everyone should pay for their own health care, that way how they live is no one elses business.

Jeff

 

[bfason]

Might as well take a spoon to a can of Crisco.

Indeed. The other day I was at the grocery store and saw a can of CheezWhiz. It had a remarkable grip and rapid-fire trigger system that allows the user to "hose down" a cracker with cheese from a high-capacity canister of the type commonly used by junkfood junkies.

And besides, does anyone really need CheezWhiz?

 

[Don Gwinn]

Agreed. BMI is a good tool, but it's pretty limited. It has never listed me below "obese," even when I was a college football player doing an hour of running and agility in the morning and a serious weight program in the afternoon. At that time I could squat over 500 lbs and ran the 40 in about 6 seconds, which is not fast by college football standards but a whole lot faster than the average pencil-necked, genetically skinny couch potato can do it.

Now, of course, I am obese. But the government doesn't pay for my health care, so you can all relax about it.

 

[Glock Glockler]

The answer is clear, it's time for a

FAT TAX

This based on the flawed notion that eating fat causes one to be fat, which is not the case. Someone like Ted Nugent consumes a lot of fat but he is in excellent shape, as is my father, who is a strict follower of the Atkins diet.

That's one of the main sources of the problem, people like yourself who go charging in to make laws about things they dont know about.

Mpayne,

Do you seriously think that the govt wants people to be healthy and for them to be able to afford healthcare on their own?

As long as the govt is in the game you can expect the complete opposite of common sense and logic to be guiding it. 'Well, as long as we're involved. let's do it right' sounds similar to a college Marxist telling me that Communism hasnt worked because the right people havent been in charge.

 

[mountainclmbr]

With the government in charge of public schools, they will use ideas like this to maximize their control over students. When the government takes over health care then food issues will become a "government concern" and it will be used as an excuse to maximize control over all of us.

 

[jimpeel]

What group of Americans will you be trained to hate today?

Smokers; SUV owners; fat people; gun owners -- Jews?

 

[twoblink]

Someone should send Congress a dictionary so they can look up "free will" and "freedom"..

Or someone should send them Brave New World and 1984.. Oh, forgot, most of our congress is illiterate womanizers..

What they are doing is further encouraging non-responsibility on the part of Sheeple. Why think at all? Why don't we just plug them into The Matrix?

jimpeel.. "hate" is such a strong word, and incorrect at that. Marko has it closer..

Don't you mean "What group of American will you have a _WAR ON_ next"?

War on SUV's
War on Cigarettes
War on Fat
War on Poverty
War on Stupidity
War on Common Sense.. it's endless..

 

[ravinraven]

Nothin' ever got so bad.....

....that the law couldn't make it worse.--old family wisdom passed down from me to my kids.

And getting the law into the lunch box will make things so great.

I want to thank Mpayne for his excellent demonstration of the old adage "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." I also want to encourage ACP230 to get his book in the mail before it becomes history. It has already passed from fiction to non-fiction.

The business of gov't is to get "in your face" and into your wallet. No other concern. The so-called "caring" about health, safety and so on is merely the excuse used to get the "sheeple" to stand still for their daily fleecing.

So, here on THR we have a few hundred, maybe, who can see this. How do we wake other 250,000,000 up?

Methinks, we don't wake 'em up. We just continue into a police state situation, revolt, rebuild individual liberty and go 'round again. The cycle is about 200-250 years long. Look where we are. Look at the "sheeple" clamoring for the rule of tyranny--the natural form of government. Talk isn't going to straighten us out and there aren't enuf bullets available.

Enjoy the ride. Merry Christmas.

ravinraven