[fearlessknight]

http://www.foxcarolina.com/health/bl...Adv9JbgesNukWb

Ridiculous Lawmaker of the Day: Mayhall Wants to Ban Obese from Eating

POSTED: Friday, February 01, 2008



W.T. Mayhall, Jr, Republican House member in Mississippi, has introduced a bill so obnoxiously wrong that I very seriously doubt it will make it out of the Public Health and Human Services committee to which it has been referred. HB282 is:

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 provision of this act; and for related purposes.

“Certain food establishments” means those with seating for 5 or more customers, so basically all of them.
First, this is so offensive that it barely warrants explanation of the offense. Let’s have a go at it, anyway:
1) It assumes that obese people should just not eat, that obesity is solely a problem of eating too much, and that banning obese people from spending their own money at private restaurants would do anything whatsoever to reduce obesity. This is unlikely to be true.
2) It circumvents the will of the owners of private restaurants to serve whomever they want. In Mississippi, it’s estimated that 30% of adults are considered “obese.” That’s a tremendous chunk of the customer base, with potential effects on local economies in a state that already struggles in this area. Aside from which, people making $2-something an hour and depending on tips are going to be really reluctant to tell people they can’t serve them because they’re “too fat.”
3) It smacks of civil rights violations, of not serving customers because of their skin color, and that’s somewhere I think the state of Mississippi does not need to go. I don’t want to Godwinize my own post, but damn.
4) It would practically require the weighing and measuring of every customer who comes through the door. Obesity is currently defined by the BMI, which is calculated by looking at height and weight. Eyeballing it for “fatness” is not going to do it. Presumably the restaurants would have to keep records of customers’ BMIs, and turn those records over to the government, in order to demonstrate compliance.
5) It ignores that the BMI is a screening tool, not a diagnostic one. The BMI serves as a proxy for health status, but cannot predict or determine all individuals with health problems. Obesity is not like measles - you can’t just see it and know someone is “sick.” As one expert on the project to reexamine pregnancy weight gain recommendations recently stated, “Not everyone in a certain range is at a healthy weight, he said. There are people in the 20-25 kg/m2 range who have all the manifestations and adverse effects of obesity, and there are people in a higher BMI group who could be called overweight or obese but have no adverse health effects.” In other words, there’s some serious arbitrariness here.
Representative Mayhall could have introduced any number of other bills if he was truly concerned about weight (and health) in his state. He could have asked restaurants to include nutritional information on their menus, expanded access to health coverage and healthcare, provided start-up funding for a public health or university-based initiative to study obesity, or expanded access to healthy foods, especially for low-income individuals. He didn’t. He piped up with this piece of discriminatory, bad business, unscientific nonsense, deciding that the way to address obesity was to prevent people from eating. #@&!

[fearlessknight]

Can any of you even imagine anyone having the nerve to do anything like this?

[DivineOblivion19]

That's totally fucked up. I can't believe that anyone ever thought this was a good idea. How about judging people who buy booze. They can decide who gets booze by looking at the person and deciding whether they are an alcoholic or not. That sounds like a great idea too!

[Wiggle_Butt]

Well if they pass this law then it is only fair that those Boney Ass super models should be force fed.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Wiggle_Butt Well if they pass this law then it is only fair that those Boney Ass super models should be force fed.

LMFAO....

[Renee']

Well if they pass this law then it is only fair that those Boney Ass super models should be force fed.

I almost spit my drink out on that one TOOOO FUNNY.

Well bills like this is a sign of the times we live in, people want to control everything and everyone based on certain bad life experiences instead of holding the individuals responsible for their actions.

Like this issue, we have this obsession in our society with weight, how much you should weigh, eating right massive diet pills ect.


Its up to the individuals who are that over weight to control themselves or not, not the governments or anyones.

I cant picture this passing I really cant but the thought that someone would even propose this pisses me off.

You see BSL leads to laws like this, think about it, its all the same principal if our society okays this kind of law making who knows what is next like stupid bills like this, it shouldnt even hit the paper it was wrote on.

[fearlessknight]

Originally Posted by Renee' I almost spit my drink out on that one TOOOO FUNNY. Well bills like this is a sign of the times we live in, people want to control everything and everyone based on certain bad life experiences instead of holding the individuals responsible for their actions. Like this issue, we have this obsession in our society with weight, how much you should weigh, eating right massive diet pills ect. Its up to the individuals who are that over weight to control themselves or not, not the governments or anyones. I cant picture this passing I really cant but the thought that someone would even propose this pisses me off. You see BSL leads to laws like this, think about it, its all the same principal if our society okays this kind of law making who knows what is next like stupid bills like this, it shouldnt even hit the paper it was wrote on.

I agree with you, but I also think it is more that this guy just flat out does not like heavyset people.....and will do anything to "not have to see them" and "make them feel discerned" basically becuase he can.....what a man huh!?

[Renee']

Well thats just it for what ever reason he doesnt like people who are over weight and it boils down to this proposing a stupid law but it all consists of ignorance like the other things we see ie BSL.

Stereo typing fear, hatred, taking bad continually reported experiences like you see over and over again with over weight people put aside the dog issue for a bit.


My mother in law is very over weight she lost the weight but gained it back but I love her dearly anyways. My best friend is fat, but she is my friend and I dont know what I would do with out her, both , I know dont eat the way they should but I look past it and because of them I look past over weight people I see in public.




Sad enough not all are like this I would hate to see a bill like this pass and picture going out with my friend or mother in law and see them publicly humilated like that because they are over weight.


This is why we all as a whole have to become more involved in the world around us and speak out, vote ect because there are people even in office stupid enough to think of this shit.

Again we live in times where there are people in office and even out of office who think this is acceptable its not.


You know,think I might shoot this ass an email ..

[Sergeant Major]

Originally Posted by Wiggle_Butt Well if they pass this law then it is only fair that those Boney Ass super models should be force fed.

Well I guess there goes my chance at the "Mr. Punyverse" title...

[Wyldmoonwoman]

If anyone tells me that I am too fat to eat a quadruple whopper with cheese and a super sized frys if I want one, I will have to cut them and you will read about me in the paper...

[Renee750il]

Two things we need . . . . more laws and more politicians