One More Thing to Throw Bricks at Arch Villain Rick Scott For

But I’m LOVIN’ it.

Local Laws Fighting Fat Under Siege

Several state legislatures are passing laws that prohibit municipalities and other local governments from adopting regulations aimed at curbing rising obesity and improving public health, such as requiring restaurants to provide nutritional information on menus or to eliminate trans fats from the foods they serve.

…Florida and Alabama recently adopted such limits, while Georgia, Tennessee and Utah have older statutes on their books. Earlier this year, Arizona prohibited local governments from forbidding the marketing of fast food using “consumer incentives” like toys.

And this week, Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed the state budget, which contains sweeping limitations on local government control over restaurants.

…“We didn’t want to give those kinds of things a chance to become a problem for the restaurant industry here,” said Steve Crisafulli, the Florida state representative who sponsored the law limiting local authorities’ ability to regulate restaurants in their jurisdiction. “It’s always easier to take care of these things before they become an issue rather than after the fact.”

Florida’s provision was tucked into a bill that largely concerned amendments to state regulations on vacation rentals, and assigned the state the sole authority over “matters related to the nutritional content and marketing of foods” in restaurants and hotels.

…Mr. [Ken] Johnson [member of the Alabama House of Representatives] said tackling obesity was not the government’s responsibility. “Government isn’t shoving this bad food down our throats,” he said. “It’s a lack of self-discipline many times, and even if we, say, limited a hamburger to being no more than 200 calories, it doesn’t mean I won’t choose to eat four of them.”

Exactly. I like how Mr. Johnson thinks.

4 Responses to “One More Thing to Throw Bricks at Arch Villain Rick Scott For”

1. Dave E. says:

   July 1, 2011 at 11:53 am

   Holy cow, it’s practically an epidemic of common sense. I think I caught a little buzz.

2. Yojimbo says:

   July 1, 2011 at 2:21 pm

   Take a seat,Dave, crazy will be right back before you know it.

   Or limiting doughnuts to X calories doesn’t mean you won’t eat four of them.
   🙂

3. BeckyC says:

   July 1, 2011 at 10:07 pm

   Y’all are making me hungry.

4. Winston Smith says:

   July 2, 2011 at 5:48 am

   Common sense.
   There’s no antidote.
   Thank God.