Friday, February 01, 2008

Bill Introduced to Mandate Restaurants Deny the Obese Service

MISSISSIPPI; HOUSE BILL NO. 282
An act to prohibit certain food establishments from serving food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the state department of health; to direct the department to prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese and to provide those materials to the food establishments; to direct the department to monitor the food establishments for compliance with the provisions of this act; and for related purposes.

Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi:
SECTION 1.
(1) The provisions of this section shall apply to any food establishment that is required to obtain a permit from the State Department of Health under Section 41-3-15(4)(f), that operates primarily in an enclosed facility and that has five (5) or more seats for customers.

(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.

SECTION 2.
This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2008.

http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2008/pdf/HB/0200-0299/HB0282IN.pdf

19 comments:

  1. Now that is fantastically moronic. Next up, deny the obese service at grocery stores.

    Typical government move - create a giant mess through stupid legislation, and then introduce stupider legislation to band-aid the situation.

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  2. Wow! This is the most 1984ish thing I've seen yet I think. I don't think it'll pass, the restaurants would go out of business, especially in Mississippi. It'll just drive their customers home and to their boxes of Macaroni and Cheese.

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  3. Anonymous12:41 PM

    Cui bono?

    Who or what benefits from this anti-obesity crusade??? Obviously not the restaurants. Perhaps so called healthy food manufacturers? Sure as hell someone would make money out of such moronic legislation.

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  4. Is that a joke? As far as I understand, fat people need to eat, too.

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  5. Did someone mistake Feb 1 for April 1? Please tell me this is a spoof.

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  6. Sandy Szwarc over at Junkfood Science blog apparently confirmed that it is indeed real....link to her blog is in my sidebar.

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  7. Yes it is indeed real. I posted about it last night. You can go to http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2008/pdf/HB/0200-0299/HB0282IN.pdf to see the pdf file.

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  8. Sandy Szwarc also posted today about the increase in diet pill prescriptions in England since their obsession with obesity. The sponsors of this bill are pharmacists. Things that make you go hmmmm.

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  9. Anonymous4:45 PM

    This bill hasn't passed, has it? Holy Sh!t.

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  10. EEEK! I'm blogging this...THANKS Regina!

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  11. They need to add a section to outlaw spoons too...and forks! Ignorance gone to seed!

    Ron, aka The Former Donut Junkie

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  12. How could this really work? What about people on vacation? This can't possibly pass.

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  13. Anonymous3:35 PM

    I think I am finally ready to give up my no party status (I left the Dems a few years ago) and register with the Libertarian party. What are they thinking?

    This bill can't possibly get passed into law, but it is very alarming that it could even get this far.

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  14. This is such nonsense. Obesity is most likely caused by a hormonal imbalance. Read Gary Taubes new book "Good calories, bad calories" where he proves his case with mountains of research.

    Now even if in some cases it's not a hormonal imbalance, it's about willpower to change your entire lifestyle to low-carb and exercise. How the hell is government going to do that?

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  15. Anonymous8:47 PM

    wow and who will tell the governor of mississippi he won't be able to go out and eat either

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  16. Welcome to the Libertarian party :D

    This is what you get when you decide the government gets to run people's lives. First they tell you to eat unhealthy carbs, then they try to micromanage your life when you get fat.

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  17. Unbelievable. This isn't actually in effect, is it? It's not going to pass?

    As if anyone is going to say "I'm sorry, sir, but you're over our weight restriction and I can't serve you." Would this also mean that restaurants couldn't hire people over a certain weight, or BMI?

    Things like this leave me utterly flabbergasted...and glad I live in Canada :)

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  18. I really thought this was a joke! UNBELIEVEABLE. And stupid on so many levels.

    Picture this. It's Tuesday. It's quiet. You need bums on seats in your restaurant. In walks a party of 10. With one extremely obese person. You're gonna refuse to serve him/her? And see all ten people and hundreds of dollars walk out the door and the seats stay empty?

    I don't think so. What sort of a mind dreamed this one up??

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  19. Anonymous10:53 AM

    I have to admit I was quite surprised when I saw a picture of Regina Wilshire and her husband. For people who are preaching the carb-free lifestyle and proclaim themselves as diet and health experts - they do not appear to be taking their own advice as they are both quite heafty and bloated.

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