I Am A Flaming Liberal But This Is Just Plain Stupid!

Maybe you should make that a flamed broiled liberal.  But, this news upsets me.

As you might have heard, Los Angeles has placed a ban on fast food establishment in its poor areas.

Do not get me wrong.  We all eat too much of this junk.  We -- especially me and Roger Moore for that matter -- are too damn fat.  But, this is just crazy.

Upper class people can eat at Chili's but poorer people who cannot afford a $10 hamburger cannot eat at McDonald's.  Brilliant.

First, upper class people do not do things that are bad for themselves?  Come on.

Second, this is not the way to handle an obesity problem.  We are not communist who believe we can dictate to (as opposed to educate and reason with) people.  This is a personal freedom issue.

With this, Los Angeles is no better than the Republicans who thought the way to stop bankruptcy filings was to ban people from filing bankruptcy.  Or, to way to stop malpractice claims was not to do more to prevent malpractice, but make it impossible for people to sue doctors who unnecessarily harm them.

You have to think what is next.  Mandatory birth control?  Why not mandate a specific diet and the limit the number of calories a person eats each day.  Have the food police follow them and arrest them when they sneak an extra beagle.  I have the perfect name for this elite unit - The Food Taliban.

We cannot manage to restrict cigarettes, hard liquor, and other harmful vices, but we can limit access to a hamburger.

Mississippi has tried to legislate abortion clinics out of existence in the state using ordinances such as these.  The same people who are upset with this support such a thing as banning fast food establishments?

I remember years ago reading of a new community in Florida that wanted to limit the number of lawyers it had, so it prohibited lawyers from buying houses in its community.  The more legislative version of "the first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyer", which I think was the communities first choice.  The federal courts, as I recall, told them to stop it.

What is the next step, to limit cakes, pies and puddings within the city limits of Los Angeles, or at least for the poor people.  Because when they run out of bread we would not want them to eat cake.

As badly as we need universal health insurance and government protections, this is the exact crazy ass stuff the scares the bejesus out of sane people -- knowing there are government officials that will take their zeal too damn far.

It looks like the California Restaurant Association is going to mount a legal challenge.  Once again, we can only hope the courts will save us from our government.

Thank you Los Angeles for showing people why they cannot trust a more liberal set of policies.

Comments

[Rae Turner]

Chuck, I think you got it right in the last line. This isn't liberal, just stupid. I can see some conservatives doing the same thing based on obesity-related illnesses (hypertension, heart disease and diabetes principally) driving up the cost of Medicaid and health-care generally. Mississippi's Republican governor tried to address the issue by cutting people off Medicaid.

[michael anderson]

Chuck, even "flaming liberals" need to realize that the government cannot micromanage everyone's life without making things worse in the long run.