Our discussions of government gone wild would be a lot more amusing if we didn’t have to actually live with the consequences. That we do tends to mitigate the uproarious hilarity of the politicians’ effervescent insanity.
Awhile back we might have offered a dismissive chuckle to the Big Brother-ish New York City policy of banning restaurants from using trans fat. Personally, I avoid trans fat, as more and more Americans are doing.
But what business is it of the government?
The state doesn’t pay my food bill or my medical bills. Though, some politicians sure would like to make taxpayers pick up the tab.
Now Mississippi Representatives W.T. Mayhall and John Read, Republicans, and Bobby Shows, a Democrat, have pushed nanny government to new heights. These nabobs have introduced legislation to tell restaurants who they may or may not serve. If passed, House Bill 282 would force restaurants to refuse to sell food to those deemed by the state health department to be obese.
I don’t have to explain that discrimination on the basis of race or gender or creed — or even percentage of body fat — is just plain wrong. Everybody knows this.
Everybody but politicians, it seems. So, here it is in terms even politicians might comprehend: Obesity is unhealthy. But in America we believe in individual freedom. In other words, it’s your life.
Moreover, forced discrimination is the opposite of freedom. And even more deadly than obesity.
And definitely not that funny.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.