I'm Joeverkill, and this is Notes from the Right-Wing.
I live in Los Angeles, and while I still love L.A., I have a lot of gripes about the way this city is run. Smoking bans, oppressive parking laws, an overwhelming plethora of homeless people, gang members, and illegal immigrants... All indicative of a city where the liberals have taken the reigns and are trying their damndest to destroy all things wholesome and American.
Now the municipal mommy state is trying to ban fast food. From the Wall Street Journal:
Despite its health-crazy reputation, parts of Los Angeles are plagued by obesity rates that rival any city in America. Now, the city may join a growing roster of local governments aiming to put their residents on diets by cracking down on the fast-food industry.Jan Perry, a Los Angeles city-council member, is spearheading legislation that would ban new fast-food restaurants like McDonald's and KFC from opening in a 32-square-mile chunk of the city, including her district.
I love how the liberal health Nazis demonize fast food. The same people that claim to be champions of the poor and underpriveleged want to take away the easiest, most readily available, and least expensive means of obtaining food. These fatcat politicians buy their fat sons and daughters happy meals after their soccer games and say to themselves, "Hey why is little Billy or Jenny so tubby? I bet it's the darned fast food." And then they try to impose their values on everyone else, and it makes me sick.I can eat a full, filling meal at Burger King for about three dollars and fifty cents (two Whopper Juniors and small, refillable drink). For $4.99 at Taco Bell I can get a bean and cheese burrito, a crunchy taco, a queso crunchwrap, a bag of cinnamon twists, and a 32-ounce soft drink of my choice. In this day of the falling dollar, I call that simply amazing.
What no one seems to recognize about fast food is that it is the most cost-effective, time-effective, and efficient way to feed hundreds of millions of people. No, it's not the most nutritious food, but no one is telling you to eat it every day.
Jan Perry states concern that obesity rates in the area in which she plans to ban new fast food restaurants from opening are higher than expected:
The targeted area is already home to some 400 fast-food restaurants, she says, possibly contributing to high obesity rates there -- 30% of adults, compared with about 21% in the rest of the city. Nationally, 25.6% of adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Councilperson Perry is also ignoring the fact that obesity rates are higher among the poor, and the fact that they are much higher than the national average in blacks and latinos.
If you account for these issues, the difference between the national average and the area in question drops to almost zero.
Watch for a Right-Wing Rant on smoking bans in the near future. They piss me off too.
I'm Joeverkill, and this has been Notes from the Right-Wing.
5 responses:
This is ridiculous to me as well, but how is that woman ignoring your statistic at the end? isn't she specifically saying that obesity rates are highest among minorities and the poor BECAUSE fast foods are being marketed most to them? And that's why she wants to suppress them?
I'm personally wondering what counts as a banned establishment. If there's a local establishment making really unhealthy fast food, are they banned, or does it have to be a franchise?
Thanks for commenting, Mr. Bautista.
She is implying that the poor are fat because fast food is being marketed to them. My point is that drawing a causal relationship there is erroneous. It's unscientific finger-pointing, sort of like saying that since hunting accidents generally occur in heavily wooded areas, we should cut down all the forests to prevent hunting accidents. It ignores cohort factors and other variables. Studies suggest, for examples, that people of Native American and Latino descent are genetically predisposed to becoming obese.
Regarding your question of definition, the article states: [The City of Los Angeles] defines fast food as having characteristics including "a limited menu" and "food served in disposable wrapping or containers." So, yes, a stand that sells nothing but salads packed in plastic packaging would count as fast food.
this sounds ludicrous to me as well. while they're fully within their rights to do that (see 10th amendment), it smacks of nanny-statism.
while yes, there's bans and then there's bans (i doubt you'll see anyone complaining about a ban on rat poison in hamburger meat), fast food strikes me as a clear-cut example of caveat emptor: buyer beware. if we really wanna get fancy about it, nothing's stopping us from mandatory surgeon general's warnings on the packaging, a la cigarettes, a move i don't necessarily oppose.
you struck upon one of the more important issues of this whole problem - by and large, unhealthy food is more readily available and cheaper than the healthy stuff, especially in impoverished areas. if we're going to be putting civic resources into changing peoples' eating habits, wouldn't it be much better to try positive reinforcement rather than banning naughty things?
Thanks, Joe, for reminding everyone that liberals posess exclusive responsibility and blame for parking laws, homelessness, gang violence, and immigration policy. But you forgot hurricanes. As any Pat Robertson afficianado will tell you, tolerance of gays makes God angry so God makes hurricanes. So that's the liberals' fault, too. And by the way, "oppressive parking laws?" You mean "oppressive" like you have to park on the side of the street that isn't being cleaned by the street-sweeper that morning? Oooh, those fucking fascists! What gives them the right?
(You're incredibly dickish opening paragraph aside, I do actually agree that a fast food ban is a load of B.S. and I basically second everything analyst had to say in his response.)
You're welcome, Blood Zirconia.
And by "oppressive parking laws," I mean zoning areas in which it's illegal to park overnight, refusing to acknowledge challenges to parking citations, unwarranted towing of legally parked automobiles, failure to notify persons whose cars have been towed... all of which I've seen happen in this city. To call the city of L.A. "fascist" in respect to its parking laws is not an overstatement in my opinion.
Post a Comment