Quickie

Found this interesting mention in the WSJ afternoon report:

Stop Blaming Fast Food for Fat, Lawmakers Urge in Proposed Bill
U.S. House Republicans want Americans to stop using the fast-food industry as a scapegoat for the skyrocketing obesity epidemic. The House moved today to stop lawyers from blaming the health crisis on fast-food and other restaurants in a proposed bill that would prohibit many obesity or weight-related claims against the food industry. "Americans are eating themselves to death and looking for someone to blame,'' said Rep. David Dreier of California. The congressional debate came a day after the government said obesity could soon replace smoking as the top preventable cause of death. Democrats called the bill a Republican political ploy aimed at hurting trial lawyers and helping the multibillion dollar food industry.

I can't say I'm a big fan of Bush these days, but Democrats have to stop pissing me off too. Why do they care about trial lawyers? This country doesn't need anymore lawyers period, not to mention the "let's sue your pants off on a trumped-up charge" kind (a la Erin Brockovich's most recent BS--don't even get me started on how much I hate that woman; the linked article is an excellent one, but isn't nearly as scathing as I'd like it to be). And the multibillion dollar food industry is changing, due to popular demand (you know, that whole capitalism thing) rather than frivolous lawsuits. I scoffed when teens sued McDonald's for making them fat, and thought it was downright funny when France tried to blame them for the same thing as well ("Je prends plus de freedom fries, s'il vous plait"). While eating their fare may damage one's health, it's not like anyone had any misconceptions about that. People should be held responsible for their own actions (that goes for tobacco plaintiffs, too--I hate smoking but I don't think litigation is the way to get rid of it; that's what laws and stuff are for, and I'm tired of the press catering to the lawyers), and I guess that belief is why I'll never be a Democrat. (Goddamn it, politics again.)