(H/T – Jon Ham, more discussion from Rick Moran and the Imperial Torturer and silent E, and lawhawk)
Mississippi House Bill 282, written by Republican W.T. Mayhall Jr., and introduced by him, fellow Republican John Read, and Democrat Bobby Shows, would prohibit restaurants licensed by the state of Mississippi from serving the “obese” under pain of closure by the state. That’s right; if this becomes law, 30 percent of the residents of Mississippi would be banished to the home kitchen. Don’t believe me? Allow me to pull the text from the bill:
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.
I probably shouldn’t be the one to judge, but if Rep. Read’s House portrait is still still accurate, he’ll be shut out of restaurants. Brilliance, bipartisan P-I-G. Sheer, unadulterated BRILLIANCE!
Revisions/extensions (6:42 pm 2/1/2008) – Sorry about the slight, silent E. I didn’t finish reading my seriously-overloaded reader before punching this out initially.
R&E part 2 (7:22 pm 2/1/2008) – Once again, I have to issue an apology. Somehow, I missed lawhawk’s run at this.
[…] Steveegg has the posted the bill. It’s a beauty!!! This entry is filed under What a Load…., Crap Legislation. You can […]
You realize the logical extension is to the grocery store/supermarket, don’t you? Every customer that enters will have to weigh in and if the BMI is at or above a certain level, he or she will be limited to buying only certain foods.
You laugh. That’ll never happen. 30 years ago, people would have said that about smoking being banned everywhere except your home and car, and that’s around the bend and even here in some cases.
I’ve heard it all now, that is the stupidest Law I have ever heard of. Mr Mayhall with all the injustice in the world today, baby being slaughtered, women being beaten by drug addicted husbands, children being molested by sick indiviuals. crime, hatred,and numerous other injustices, with the economy, people starving, why not instead of wasting your time and millions of OUR (TAXPAYER DOLLARS)with stupid silly laws like this.Why not pass a law to help the poor people, the children that are sitting in goverment home needing to be adopted. FOR SHAME Mr. MAyhall. I am glad you are not in my voting district, because if any goverment official has nothing better to do, may he or she needs to be refocused with a new job after all Mr. Mayhall you work for US the same people you are trying to pass a stupid law against!
Beyond the obvious photo of Rep. Read, there is something everyone has missed about the irony here.
John Read makes his living as a pharmacist. He doles out cholesterol-lowering drugs like Lipitor for profit. His livelihood depends on fat people in MS who don’t take care of their health and their heart.
Louisiana has its crooked politicians. We, in Mississippi just have idiots. What a claim to fame, huh? (looks for paper bag)