The Need to Dumb Down Fast Food Menus

In a continuing effort to demonize the fast food industry, a new study tries to make the point that even if such restaurants obey the law, they still can do more to get people not to eat the food they sell.  That makes about as much sense as a square bowling ball.  My comments are in italics.

Although Fast-Food Menu Calorie Counts Are Legally Compliant, They Are Not As Helpful To Consumers As They Should Be

(Sarcasm Alert!) That’s right.  I guess these restaurants should also offer free flu vaccinations and childcare to all those who purchase from their low-cost menu. 

Calorie listings on fast-food chain restaurant menus might meet federal labeling requirements but don't do a good job of helping consumers trying to make healthy meal choices, a new Columbia University School of Nursing (CUSON) study reports.

Huh? The purpose of a fast food menu is to get you to make healthy meal choices?  If you want to eat healthily, what are you doing in a fast food restaurant?

The study, by Elizabeth Gross Cohn, RN, NP, DNSc, assistant professor of nursing at CUSON, and colleagues, was published online in the Journal of Urban Health.  The researchers studied the calorie counts for 200 food items on menu boards in fast-food chain restaurants in the New York inner-city neighborhood of Harlem. Since 2006, the City has had a standard menu labeling law that includes some, though not all, of the new federal requirements.

Who knew that Harlem was a fair representation of all those who eat fast food?  This study will be quite valuable to all everyone living in rural America.

"Although most postings were legally compliant, they did not demonstrate utility," the authors say. "Menu postings for individual servings are easily understood, but complex math skills are needed to interpret meals designed to serve more than one person.  In some items, calories doubled depending on flavor, and the calorie posting did not give enough information to make healthier selections."

If your math skills are so poor you can’t double a number, you’ve got more problems than eating fast food.  What do these people want?  Something on the menu that states “If you’re a poster child for obesity don't order from our Big-fat Slob menu and get something healthy to eat for once.”

To collect the data, volunteers equipped with digital cameras worked in pairs and canvassed each designated area block by block to identify national restaurant outlets. A total of 70 menus and menu boards from 12 restaurant chains were photographed, and 200 food items rated.

So, whoever funded this study paid for these people to eat out every day for quite a while?  I think I’m going to study the effects of drinking beer and watching sports.  Who wants to fund me?

The researchers found that, while most restaurants studied have posted calorie counts, in the majority of cases there was insufficient information to make use of them at the point of purchase.

What do these people want?  Should menus come equipped with calculators?  What would be sufficient information?  Have on each of the menus “Eat this and die.  Enjoy your meal!”

Specialty pizzas were offered in wide ranges without a clear explanation as to how they differed since the calorie count was based on a standard size and standard set of toppings.

Who cares?  You want a specialty pizza you’re going to eat a specialty pizza.  After putting on my sunglasses lest I be blinded by their brilliance, I would like to explain to Elizabeth Gross Cohn, RN, NP, DNSc, assistant professor of nursing at CUSON, and colleagues that when you order a specialty pizza, you want to eat it and do not want to do a calorie calculation.  Do they think this motivates people to brag to fellow restaurant patrons about how they felt so informed when ordering their food!

"As further legislation is developed, we support the FDA in their commitment to having menu boards that are useful at all levels of literacy."

They’re crazy.  I don’t want the government involved with controlling menus.  Why should we make menus complex because stupid people spend too much time eating at fast food restaurants?  What do stupid people want?  They already control politics and big business. 

"In low-income communities with a high density of chain restaurants, and where educational attainment of consumers may be low, simplifying calorie postings and minimizing the math required to calculate calories would increase menu board utility.”

If the people in these communities are so intellectually challenged forget writing a menu.  Just use pictures that show happy faces and sad faces next to each menu item so they eat what the FDA and the people of this study think are proper.  The government has dumbed down our education system and now they want to do the same thing to our restaurant menus? When will it ever end?

Here is a link to the story

https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/fast-food-menu-calorie-counts-legally-compliant-not-helpful-consumers-they-should-be

If You Like My Humor You'll Love My Books. $2.99 Kindle Versions

Backpack Brutality

If you thought the world could not become any more of a crazy place, you need only watch politicians and the judicial system get together and prove you wrong. Case in point is the story of lesbians being charged with a hate crime for beating up a gay man. Yes, this is a real news story from Boston Herald.com. As always my comments are in italics.

LAWYER: LESBIANS’ ASSAULT ON GAY MAN CAN’T BE HATE CRIME

Three women identified by their lawyers as lesbians were arraigned yesterday on a hate crime charge for allegedly beating a gay man at the Forest Hills T station in an unusual case that experts say exposes the law’s flawed logic.

(Sarcasm Alert) What flawed logic? Why shouldn’t you be punished for the feelings you have as you pummel someone into oblivion? If you beat down someone to near death while shouting “Oh how I love you,” should you simply be let go to carry on about your business?

“My guess is that no sane jury would convict them under those circumstances, but what this really demonstrates is the idiocy of the hate-crime legislation,” said civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate. “If you beat someone up, you’re guilty of assault and battery of a human being. Period. The idea of trying to break down human beings into categories is doomed to failure.”

As someone who has served on juries, I can say there are times when sane and jury don’t really go together. (Sarcasm alert) What fun would the judicial system be if everyone was actually treated fairly based on a competent interpretation of the law? Think of how fewer lawsuits would be filed and how many attorneys would be out of work.  It would change our legal system forever.

Prosecutors and the ACLU of Massachusetts said no matter the defendants’ sexual orientation, they can still face the crime of assault and battery with intent to intimidate, which carries up to a 10-year prison sentence, by using hateful language.

“Someone who is Jewish can be anti-Semitic,” said ACLU staff attorney Sarah Wunsch. “The mere fact that someone is a member of the same class doesn’t mean they could not be motivated by hatred for their very own group.”

That makes sense. You can hate yourself.  I wonder if I go out and beat up a middle-aged white guy who’s been married for decades because I hate middle-aged white guys who have been married for decades if I would be charged with a hate crime? It shouldn’t matter that I beat him up because he tried to beat me up or physically harm me. What’s important in the legal world is what I’m feeling as I beat someone. I’m looking forward to the day when we have legislation to punish causing envy.  This will be where people can be brought up on charges for making others upset because of all the stuff they own. 

"The defendant has been found innocent of assaulting someone because that person had a car the defendant always wanted."

But Carolyn Euell, 38, mother of two of the defendants, Erika Stroud, 21, of Dorchester and Felicia Stroud, 18, West Roxbury, told reporters the alleged attack “can’t be hateful” because both her daughters are lesbians.

Prosecutor Lindsey Weinstein said the two sisters and one of their domestic partners, Lydia Sanford, also a defendant, viciously beat the man Sunday, repeatedly punching and kicking him after he bumped them with his backpack on a stairwell.

He bumped them with his backpack?

With our judicial system, I’m surprised that the backpack wasn’t brought up on charges. I think the backpack instigated the entire incident. Maybe the backpack secretly hates gays!

She said the victim, who suffered a broken nose, told cops he believed the attack was “motivated as a crime because of his sexual orientation” since the three women “called him insulting homophobic slurs.”

Does this man walk around with a sign telling the world about his sex life? I know guys like to brag about such things but… gee. How did the girls actually know?

But attorney Helene Tomlinson, who represented Sanford, told the judge her client is “openly identified as a lesbian ... so any homophobic (conduct) is unwarranted.” She said the alleged victim was the aggressor and used racial slurs: “He provoked them.”

Wow! Homophobic slurs, racial slurs they probably even said some very hurtful things about his favorite television shows. If they know his sex life, they probably know that as well.

Felicia Stroud’s attorney, C. Harold Krasnow, said, “They don’t know what his sexual orientation is, just like he doesn’t know what theirs is.”
Krasnow later noted the low bail the judge gave the women, $100 to $500 cash, and suggested the prosecution’s case was weak.

Why would having a weak case stop them? They’re getting a lot of free media coverage so it all balances out.

Civil-rights attorney Chester Darling agreed. “No one should go to court. It’s knuckle justice,” he said. “It’s a fair exchange.”

But Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said prosecutors will have no problem proving the women committed a hate crime, even if they are lesbians.

“The defendants’ particular orientation or alleged orientations have no bearing on our ability to prosecute for allegedly targeting a person who they believe to be different from them,” he said.

I say the prosecutors should charge the racist, homophobic backpack for the crime! The backpack should serve jail time and when released be required to go to sensitivity training. If the prosecutors of this country work together they can stop the inevitable plague of racist, homophobic backpacks that are sure to bring the judicial system to ruin. (If Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley is reading this the previous sentence might be considered sarcasm. Please don’t bring me up on sarcasm charges. I have no defense.)

Here's a link to the article.

https://www.bostonherald.com/2012/02/25/lawyer-lesbians-assault-on-gay-man-cant-be-hate-crime/



If You Like My Humor You'll Love My Books. $2.99 Kindle Versions Available