Nanny Nanny! Help Me!

I’m stupid!

The King County Clowncil recently decided to follow NYC and other idiotic nanny-cities in banning transfats. They also went a step further and passed a law stating that as of August 1st, 2008, chain restaurants, from McDonalds to a regional steakhouse, will have to post all the ingredients of their culinary offerings on the menu for you.

Despite objections from restaurant owners and food-industry officials, the King County Board of Health on Thursday banned artificial trans fat and required nutrition labeling for menu items in chain restaurants.

With the vote, King County joins a handful of jurisdictions in the country to ban artificial trans fats in restaurant meals and becomes only the second to require nutrition labeling on menus.

While most restaurant owners and their supporters testified against the trans-fat ban — most said they’re already getting rid of trans fats but they simply hate mandates — they saved their harshest words for the nutrition-labeling requirement.

Chris Clifford, a Renton resident who said he’s owned several restaurants in King County, said very few customers need labeling to know that a 16-ounce steak rolled in butter is fattening.

“I have a six-letter word to describe them: It’s ‘stupid!’ ” Clifford told the board. “You can’t help stupid people.” Instead of menu labeling, Clifford suggested a “warning label” on the restaurant door: “Eating here is fattening and could kill you.”

On a more serious level, restaurant owners said the labeling requirement was unworkable and expensive, would possibly drive customers elsewhere — and pleaded for more time to find a less onerous solution.

And that, folks, is their goal. They want you to not eat at restaurants, or if you do, they want you to guilt yourself into eating something they would approve of. Really, I cannot see how anyone could believe that government gives one whit about a citizen’s health.

And I’m not the only person who knows this is true

So King County has decided to ban trans fats from restaurants. On the surface, it sounds great, but the reality is, it will increase the role of government in all our lives. City Councilwoman Sally Clark declared it is costing money to treat people with heart disease, and she doesn’t like that.

Well, what else do we ban? We could start with alcohol. My gosh, maple syrup, and candy, all sweets — why not have a “being overweight” tax? Wow! That would be a bonanza. Ice cream, butter, bacon, cheese.

Let’s see, what else drives up health-care costs for all of us? Unprotected sex, pregnancy, STDs, AIDS. Maybe we should ban having sex, too. Clark should be very concerned about what problems that creates for the health-care system.

Kathi Swarthout

But I love this one even better

When testifying before the King County Board of Health, Margo Wootan must have forgotten to mention that she and her activist group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), were instrumental in forcing restaurants to start cooking with trans fats in the first place.

When concerns were originally raised about possible health effects, CSPI wrote: “All told, the charges against trans fat just don’t stand up.”

But now that restaurants — largely on CSPI’s advice — have been using trans fat to cook for years, Wootan and CSPI just can’t pass up the opportunity to put in their 2 cents. The problem is, their 2 cents will end up costing Seattle restaurants thousands of dollars.

Before she goes around telling us what we can and can’t eat, Wootan ought to own up to her own role in putting trans fats in restaurants to begin with.

Trice Whitefield, Center for Consumer Freedom, Washington, D.C.

Oops! We were wrong! Don’t eat that. Just like the eco-socialists, the food authortarians get so high up on their high horse that they can’t see the truth.