“The Austin, Texas, city council will meet next Thursday to consider a resolution that could eventually ban ‘fast-food food restaurants from locating near areas that children frequent,'” reason.com reports. And not without reason. The report, I mean. The idea that another city council reckons it can regulate the restaurant trade to influence children’s diets is worthy of note—especially when the politicians proposing the putrid paternalism ply their perfidious plebianism in the right-thinking Lone Star State. Of course, we are talking about a Democratically-controlled council. But here’s the scary thing . . .
There’s a weird parallel between “fast food free zones” and a “gun free zone.” Lest we forget, the 1990 Gun-Free School Zones Act originated in Texas, in a roundabout way, courtesy Bush the Elder. In both cases, freedoms are surrendered “for the children.” So which comes first: the soup Nazis or the Nazi Nazis? Hard to tell.
Lest we forget, the Big Apple’s gun-grabbing Mayor almost managed to implement a large-sized soda ban (struck down by the courts). This in the city that has steadfastly refused to “allow” residents to exercise their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms for decades. A coincidence? I think not.
Bottom line: the clown could well be the canary in the coal mine. When they came for my chicken nuggets, I said nothing. I didn’t eat chicken nuggets . . .
You can have my french fries when you pry them cold from under my car seat….
ROFLMAO!
A Big Mac delayed is a Big Mac all cold and congealed?
Is SA’s city council less retarded? These are the same shit birds who have forced a plastic bag ban onto us…
A few years ago the Austin city arborist threatened to arrest my friend. His offense? He wanted to cut down a tree… in his yard… that belonged to him… whose branches were wrecking his roof. When my friend asked “what do I do about my roof? there is an eight inch thick branch ripping off my shingles and damaging my siding!”
The austin city arborist made him cut a f*cking notch out of his house to accommodate the branch.
This place is a trash can filled with Californians.
That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. They wouldn’t even let him trim the offending branches? I looked it up and saw you have to fill out an application to get permission. Did he do that and get denied?
From what I understand, the branch was thick enough that it would have harmed the health of the tree, and the tree itself was greater than 60 inches around (or some such nonsense) and could not be cut down.
Austin liberals.
You have to ask to cut down a tree in your own yard? That makes another state I am staying away from…
*City*, not state. The state is fine. The city is mostly fine, but an entrenched enclave of folk with their heads not quite screwed on right disproportionately run things.
I agree with you Hal. It’s time that idiot governor of ours stopped asking them to come to Texas.
Exactly!!! We as citizens of this great state of Texas need a campaign of stay home or stay away. No economic powerhouse here. No water here, only sand, cactus, and big rattlesnakes. I am sick of foreigners (Yankees) bringing in their bad manners, bad courtesy when driving and bad language. Back in the late 70’s I never heard anyone use our Lord and Savior as a cuss word. I could vent for hours on this subject.
Give me liberty or give me Big Macs!
I regret that I have but one set of clogged arteries to give to the Golden Tombstones…
Aw, Austin is pretending to be a real city by dressing up like New York.
Progressivism isn’t about guns or fries. It’s about control, and should be fought on every occasion when enemies of liberty arise.
its also about talking in a condescending tone with frequent use of high rising terminals
and talking with eyes closed…. don’t forget the closed eyes….. and raised eyebrows….
and saying “well, actually” a lot.
It called authoritarianism, and it lives on both sides of the isle
High capacity assault nugget clip magazines!
but seriously, i literally too my palm and put it on my face.
And so the fastfood wars begin. Shall we all go to taco bell?
NO!!! We need some of us left alive to fight…
One of my favorite movies… thanks for that laugh!
The force must be weak with me today, I completely whiffed the movie reference…
I did FINALLY manage to catch Jesse Ventura the last time I watched it.
Micky D’s. Near took me out with food poisening. Haven’t been back since. I agree that banning fast food joints is just power hungry pols doing what they do best. Whether it’s guns or burgers.
But in my opinion, admittedly biased, the assualt big mac is a greater threat to public safety than any AR/AK.
Given heart disease and overall American fatness, I’d have to agree.
True dat.
It’s MacDonald’s, not MAC-10- Donald’s. Nobody’s putting a gun to anyone’s head to eat there. Heart disease or not, people have a right to liberty to live their lives their way.
Actually, it’s not just your opinion – it is absolutely a fact that McDonalds hamburgers kill many many more people yearly than all types of guns combined. Heart disease is the number one killer in America, and fast food is a major contributor. Here’s a link to the CDC website top ten killers – guns don’t even show up, except indirectly under “suicides”: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm
I figure you already knew this, but I felt like it was worth reinforcing the point with commonly accepted statistics.
Oh, there you go, trotting out statistics again. Lies, damn lies and statistics. Can’t your hardened heart feel that it’s just wrong and that we have to fix it? Remember, everything’s unfair and it’s our job to level the playing field so that everyone has a chance to live a long, government-support life, devoid of personal responsibility or the need to make decisions. There are smarter people out there that can make the right decision for us so that we can get back to enjoying our warm and juicy Big Macs.
OMG. A call for bun control, on TTAG. OMG.
TTAG already has bun control….there’s been a moratorium on Israeli super models for a while now….
The soda ban was only struck down because it was not passed via the legislature, but done basically by ‘executive order’ by the NYC Department of Health and Human Services (or whatever it is called there). They said they had the authority because it was an ‘imminent threat’. The court found their idea of ‘imminent’ to be at odds with reality.
All this will accomplish is to put more air pollution out of the minivan tail pipes of the soccer moms driving the rug rats to their nearest (now further away) happy meal toy.
Soda ration is up to 18 oz from 36 oz doublegood.
This resolution could be a real whopper.
Groan. . .
Forgive me for being one of those “fast food is killing America” people, but with things like fast food it’s most likely impossible for these companies to start making their food healthy due to costs even in a time where healthy foods are becoming more common among the middle class. Low class people can’t afford the high prices so they have to eat pink slime every day. Maybe the people in PopSci will finalize those ideas like lab grown meat or vertical farming.
Eat at your own risk imo… What I find ironic is they’re probably serving even worse crap AT THE SCHOOL
Meanwhile, back in the city that invented institutionalized insanity, you’re an unfit parent if you don’t take the little bastards to MickeyD’s.
http://nypost.com/2013/11/07/psychologist-called-dad-unfit-parent-for-refusing-son-mcdonalds-suit/
Interesting link. If I had been the shrink, I would have testified that the ex wife was an unfit mother for 1) giving in to a child’s tantrums/insufficient discipline and 2) using the child immorally to punish the father through the legal system. But I guess that’s why I’m an engineer and not a shrink.
And just like the guns free school act, the result will be you can’t have fast food anywhere, because those little snot monsters need to be everywhere.
All McDonalds Playlands should be shut down immediately. And Ronald McDonald should be taken off the street and put behind bars–for the children.
Is this Austin or SF??
Put one check in the New Hampshire column….
The Austin city council has a long history of wishing Austin was San Francisco. That city’s become a liberal pimple on the buttcheek of the Lone Star State.
Yeah, they are starting to get out of control. No more grocery bags at the grocery store. Minimum wage has been raised to $11/hour if any government involvement or incentives were granted to a business. Now this? We need to fix them.
Yup. It’s partly the fault of the Californian expats that have been moving here for the past 2 decades and the locals that are drinking that crazy kalifornian kool-aid. Austin has been banning everything they can and even tried it with gun-shows, but were shot down because local laws cannot supersede state firearm laws.
Yeah well, I have a crazy-a$$, tree hugging, Brikenstock-wearin’, granola consuming ex-sister-in-law that is moving from Seattle to Austin this month with my niece “because it rains less there”. If any of the other folks who are moving to Austin are of the same variety as her then heaven help you. You’re screwed.
On the bright side, I’ve been to most parts of Texas in the summer and I can tell you once July rolls around you very well might lose her. She’s a sensitive soul with fair skin and I don’t believe she’ll be able to afford the sunscreen bill. Damn, she might move back here…
Yeah well, I have a crazy-a$$, tree hugging, Brikenstock-wearin’, granola consuming ex-sister-in-law that is moving from Seattle to Austin this month with my niece “because it rains less there”. If any of the other folks who are moving to Austin are of the same variety as her then heaven help you. You’re screwed.
On the bright side, I’ve been to most parts of Texas in the summer and I can tell you once July rolls around you very well might lose her. She’s a sensitive soul with fair skin and I don’t believe she’ll be able to afford the sunscreen bill. Damn, she might move back here…
uh, ever been to Chik-fil-a on a tuesday night? clowns handing out ballons and free ice cream. Fast food places *are* the places children frequent. Not because its convenient to get to, its not.
Speaking of clowns, city council members should be personally liable for lawsuits. What, you think the industry won’t file?
Sadly though, people will probably vote to reelect aforementioned clowns, voting is held at the school, and then going for a bite after, because the line was too long and its too late to cook. hey Tuesdays are free ice cream night at Chik-fil-a, and they have balloons.
I will submit to the authority of those that think they rule me. I will give up who I am and what I like at their word because they know best for me… said no (real) Albanian ever… said no (real) American ever… said no (real) freedom loving human being ever.
Any one remember the smoking ban? The only place to smoke in a restaurant was crappy Vic’s Diner in Oakhill. The world didn’t end then and the world won’t end because soccer moms have to drive a little further to get monkey mcnuggets to shove in their kids’ pie holes to shut them up between doses of Ritalin.
The smoking ban is/was a totally different ball of wax. Coincidentally, it was/is busy-body collectivists that pushed that just the same as a a “fast food ban.”
You don’t get to pick and choose liberties, you either love freedom or you don’t. Shove your, “But it’s nasty and I don’t want to see/hear/smell/taste/know about it someplace uncomfortable. Like the backseat of a Volkswagen…
“You don’t get to pick and choose liberties, you either love freedom or you don’t”
This!!
The point being overlooked by some is that McDonald’s makes a product available to a free market, if they’re curtailed by legislation, the market is no longer free. (for the record, I have no use for McDonalds, or most fast food, having only eaten there about 3 times in the last 15 years)
Meh, I see it as zoning. Some times it’s a good idea not to put the dingo farm next to the day care.
“…ban ’fast-food food restaurants from locating near areas that children frequent.”
You mean like the f@#$ing McDonald’s Play Space?
Mike Martinez (Austin councilman) has visited NYC many times. He takes money from Bloomberg and his group. He has made many statements about wanting serious gun control in Austin. Funny thing is he is a former Austin fire fighter and to a person all his former colleagues can’t stand him. Mike is in it for Mike and has sold himself to Bloombsold long ago. Here he is at a capital rally this summer.
http://youtu.be/dCUNsR6-xMQ
Drove all the way from Rhode Island and you had to stop at Austin…
Texas, the bastion of freedom I keep hearing about in the brochure….
+1
NO ONE NEEDS MORE THAN SEVEN MCNUGGETS IN A HAPPY MEAL! LET’S END THE MADNESS!
Those stupid California democrats keep moving into states like Texas,and Colorado and screwing them up.Oh ya Austin is a college town with liberal ,cancer breeding professors.Where is the bug spray?
Hopefully no pro-burger thugs will show up to bully a bunch of vegan soccer moms with their cheeseburgers!
Big Macs don’t kill people. Counter workers kill people.
And spoons make you fat.
Gun limits, abortion limits, fast food limits. I thought texas was a free state.
Yeah, because unlimited abortions are the definition of freedom.
Well, yeah. As long as you don’t buy a big Mac on the way….
Go away, troll.
Reminds me of this movie:
http://www.fathead-movie.com/
It was quite good. Tom Naughton makes a good point in the movie that absolutely no one forces him to eat at any of the local fast food establishments.
These types of laws are written for people who don’t want to do the hard work of parenting.
If you can’t tell your children no from time to time, you shouldn’t have had them.
-ted
when they outlaw super sized meals, only the obese outlaws will have super sized meals.
This reminds me of the “Free Speech Zone” at Texas Tech in the 90’s. If you had an advocacy group, protest, or wanted to get on a soap box you were only allowed to do so on a small patio. The rest of the campus was apparently outside the protections of the 1st Amendment.
Unhealthy diets kill more Americans than bullets and knives.
True.
But that shouldn’t give anyone any ideas that legislating diets is an option. No one is forcing anyone to eat Big Macs.