Once in a while, you see something and figure it must be a hoax because the world cannot have gone quite so mad.

This was my reaction to a story Kym sent me about a bill in Mississippi proposing that obese people be denied service in state-licensed restaurants. Further, the restaurants themselves would have to determine whether any given customer is obese or not. Words fail me so let me use the introduction from House Bill 282 itself:

An act to prohibit certain food establishments from serving food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the state department of health; to direct the department to prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese and to provide those materials to the food establishments; to direct the department to monitor the food establishments for compliance with the provisions of this act

The three Representatives behind the bill, W. T. Mayhall, Jr., John Read, and Bobby Shows, ought to be ashamed of themselves. Have they forgotten what country their state is a part of? What that country stands for?

Read says “I was trying to shed a little light on the No. 1 problem in Mississippi” and claims he never expected the bill to become law. Presumably the Mississippi State Legislature has so little to do that he felt it appropriate to use government time and resources for a purpose they were not designed to serve. I was going to suggest what these three did was a complete waste of time and money, but it did serve one useful purpose. It revealed to everyone exactly how poor their judgment is, on more than one level.