Mississippi Pols Seek to Ban Restaurants from Serving Obese Patrons

The slippery slope. Government-mandated smoking bans created it and every pro-ban advocate said it would never happen, that it was just about smoking. But smoking bans transferred to government the authority to control one's personal choices in the name of public health. As anti-ban supporters feared and warned, the government will not stop at smoking. And they have not and will not.

Three Mississippi pols introduced a bill in the state legislature that would make it illegal for restaurants to serve patrons who are obese. While it has a slim, not obese, chance at passing, the bill is a chilling reminder of what is at stake when we transfer personal decisions to the government from the individual. The bill can be found at thesmokinggun.com here. An excerpt:

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 establish shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when it is determined whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.

Think it will stop there?