[Rhodes22-list] New Mississippi Law?

[Brad Haslett]

It makes sense to me.  Since all the 'nanny staters' want to protect us from
ourselves, this had to follow. One of the authors of this bill is from the
district where our company is located.  I'm going to send him a coupon to
McDonalds.  Brad

--------------------------

 Posted on Sun, Feb. 03, 2008
Obesity bill has tongues wagging By GEOFF PENDER
 glpender at sunherald.com

 -- In the unlikely event that it would pass, House Bill 282 would prohibit
restaurants in Mississippi from serving food to people who are obese.

"Anybody with any sense knows it's not going to happen, not going to pass,"
said Rep. John Read, R-Gautier, one of the bill's authors. "Mississippi has
been ranked the most obese state in the nation. With all the attention paid
to tobacco problems, this was to shed some light on another major problem.
This has been at least getting the dialogue going."

That it has.

The Florida-based Obesity Action Coalition has begun a campaign calling for
the withdrawal of the bill. Read said he's heard from people all over the
country, including national media.

"It's got people all over stirred up," Read said. "Nobody was trying to hurt
anybody's feelings here. If anyone's feelings did get hurt, I apologize."

Obesity Coalition President Joseph Nadglowski said: "HB 282 is the most
blatant form of obesity discrimination. This bill completely perpetuates the
negative stigma often associated with obesity."

Read acknowledged that he, along with an estimated 30 percent of the state's
population, would come under the bill's prohibition. That, he says, is
precisely his point - people need to tackle the problem with as much fervor
as they have cigarette smoking.

"Back in the 1970s, if I would have told someone that one day they wouldn't
be able to smoke a cigarette in a restaurant or anywhere, they would have
thought I was crazy," said Read, a pharmacist and member of the House Public
Health Committee.

The bill now sits in a Public Health subcommittee, where Read said he is
certain it will die without even a vote. The bill's primary author is Rep.
Ted Mayhall Jr., R-Southaven, and Rep. Bobby Shows, D-Ellisville, also
signed on.

The bill would direct the state Health Department to provide restaurants
with written criteria for spotting obese people, and have the department
monitor restaurants to make sure they are abiding by the prohibition.

"Look, this was just to shed some light on the problem," Read said. "It has
gotten people's attention."