Cardiologists...Report to Mississippi...STAT!

Lots of brouhaha lately over the New York City mayor's decision to try to promote health by limiting soft drink size...an attempt that eventually proved judicially wrong. New Yorkers can have any size soft drink they want...and go back for several refills if they so choose as well. This intervention into individuals' rights has not gone unnoticed, especially in Mississippi.
Mississippi residents have the distinction of having the highest (by far) obesity rate in this country. Of course, all that fried food probably has something to do with it, but the state legislators want to make sure that Mississippians continue to have the God-given right to coronaries, high blood pressure and can eat without embarrassment.
This week, the legislators passed a law (sure to be signed by the governor) that prohibits any city or county government from trying to regulate any aspect of the food industry. Thus, no provisions can be enacted anywhere in the state that try to regulate the size of soft drinks, the salt content in menu items, the amount of shortening in cookies, whether or not kids' meals can have tantalizing toys, and even the looks of the menus themselves.
"If a man wants to eat 20 Big Macs, he can eat 20 Big Macs," according to one lawmaker signing onto the bill. Also prohibited is any type of control on how the food is grown or prepared...genetic engineering is just fine by them. Pounding chemical in meat animals to fatten them artificially is OK, too.
Not surprisingly, the legislator who introduced the bill, Rep. Tony Smith, owns a barbecue restaurant and was spurred into action by requests from the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association, sellers of soft drinks, owners of convenience stores, the Farm Bureau, and the Mississippi Poultry Association.
Those are votes in the next election, folks, if the electorate lives long enough to make it to voting day.
I agree that government need not interfere too much in our everyday lives, but when we have so little self-control as to be eating and drinking ourselves to death, SOMEBODY needs to help.