By Sandy Sand
Correspondent
Our intrepid leaders want restaurateurs to be food police, so what's next? Moms posting calorie counts in their kitchens?
L.A.'s never-stay-home mayor, Antonio "Mr. Photo-op" Villaraigosa, and the city council have time to ban mylar balloons, the paparazzo, fast food joints in certain parts of town, plastic bags and raise taxes and not spend the money for its dedicated purpose, but they don't have time to go after the gangs that run the city.
They aren't the only ones who go after the safe and the frivolous; the state legislature, which couldn't balance a budget if they had an elephant scale are at it, too.
If State Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Van Nuys, has his way, he will be the Calorie-in-Chief Policeman, because here he comes again telling us to count calories, but who's counting?
According to the Los Angeles County Health Department, hardly anyone, especially the denizens of fast-food restaurants, and they want to ram calorie-counting down their throats, and force-feed us unwanted reminders of how fat we're getting.
The means to their end is beleaguered businessmen who are already stuffed with enough rules and regulations to choke a horse.
Now they want food entrepreneurs to post calorie counts, too. Unfortunately, New York City restaurateurs lost this same food court fight, setting legal precedent.
Correspondent
Our intrepid leaders want restaurateurs to be food police, so what's next? Moms posting calorie counts in their kitchens?
L.A.'s never-stay-home mayor, Antonio "Mr. Photo-op" Villaraigosa, and the city council have time to ban mylar balloons, the paparazzo, fast food joints in certain parts of town, plastic bags and raise taxes and not spend the money for its dedicated purpose, but they don't have time to go after the gangs that run the city.
They aren't the only ones who go after the safe and the frivolous; the state legislature, which couldn't balance a budget if they had an elephant scale are at it, too.
If State Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Van Nuys, has his way, he will be the Calorie-in-Chief Policeman, because here he comes again telling us to count calories, but who's counting?
According to the Los Angeles County Health Department, hardly anyone, especially the denizens of fast-food restaurants, and they want to ram calorie-counting down their throats, and force-feed us unwanted reminders of how fat we're getting.
The means to their end is beleaguered businessmen who are already stuffed with enough rules and regulations to choke a horse.
Now they want food entrepreneurs to post calorie counts, too. Unfortunately, New York City restaurateurs lost this same food court fight, setting legal precedent.
It doesn't seem fair to put the bite on only the fast-food places. All
restaurant should be included for the scales to be balanced. The
California Restaurant Association is sponsoring Assembly Bill 2572
that, in part, would allow nutritional information be printed in
brochures, on posters or tray liners instead of on menus and menu
boards.
You gotta eat up the tray liner idea. By the time the food's on the liner, it's too late to order differently, and according to a report by former mayor Jim Hahn, 65 percent of L.A. residents are functionally illiterate anyway.
A much better idea would be to have cash registers shout out calorie counts as each item is rung up.
L.A.'s wild and crazy Councilwoman Jan Perry, was skewered and turned into hamburger in her bid to limit the number of new fast-food joints that could be built in South L.A.
Like someone who can't say 'no' to a second helping of dessert, Perry isn't listening to 'no' by her constituents, she brought her nonsense motion before the council again after it
sizzled on the back burner for several weeks.
The council passed her 'interfering-with-market-place' resolution, and banned the building of fast food places for a year.
Sane, sensible and encouraging local businessmen and increasing employment would have been to build a few super markets in the area, of which there are none, and make it convenient to food-shop, so maybe more people who live there would stay home and cook up a few healthful meals.
Perry and Padilla must have done lunch at the Cheese Cake Factory, and gone on sugar high to join forces and have both their measures be put at the top of the we-know-what's-better-for-you-than-you-do menu at the same time.
Here are a few suggestions for new laws to police fatties for "their own good."
The council and mayor love taxes more than we love our super-sized-to-choke-an-elephant burgers, so tax the calories...a penny tax on every calorie.
If that messy mile-high succulent, to-die-for burger contains 1,500 calories, that's $15 in tax. Add another 2,000 calories for the fries, onion rings and milk shake, and the city coffers get a Whooper-ing $35.
Mandate the installation of wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling mirrors in all restaurants.
Or they could simply widen doorways.
Place a 10-percent extra-large luxury tax on all clothing X-large and then some.
To help relieve L.A.'s horridly congested traffic, place an extra five-cent a gallon gas tax for the milkshake-guzzling public, because it takes more fuel to haul them around and adds to extra wear and tear on our already potholed streets.
All the health police who love to spoon-feed us absolutes on what we should eat must have full-length photos of themselves -- in profile -- published in every news story where they're quoted telling us how, what, where and when to eat.
For those who don't need calorie counters, posted signs are yet another eye-blight to sift through, and the rest will be annoyed by the unwanted guilt-trip reminders...you can count on that.
You gotta eat up the tray liner idea. By the time the food's on the liner, it's too late to order differently, and according to a report by former mayor Jim Hahn, 65 percent of L.A. residents are functionally illiterate anyway.
A much better idea would be to have cash registers shout out calorie counts as each item is rung up.
L.A.'s wild and crazy Councilwoman Jan Perry, was skewered and turned into hamburger in her bid to limit the number of new fast-food joints that could be built in South L.A.
Like someone who can't say 'no' to a second helping of dessert, Perry isn't listening to 'no' by her constituents, she brought her nonsense motion before the council again after it
sizzled on the back burner for several weeks.
The council passed her 'interfering-with-market-place' resolution, and banned the building of fast food places for a year.
Sane, sensible and encouraging local businessmen and increasing employment would have been to build a few super markets in the area, of which there are none, and make it convenient to food-shop, so maybe more people who live there would stay home and cook up a few healthful meals.
Perry and Padilla must have done lunch at the Cheese Cake Factory, and gone on sugar high to join forces and have both their measures be put at the top of the we-know-what's-better-for-you-
Here are a few suggestions for new laws to police fatties for "their own good."
The council and mayor love taxes more than we love our super-sized-to-choke-an-
If that messy mile-high succulent, to-die-for burger contains 1,500 calories, that's $15 in tax. Add another 2,000 calories for the fries, onion rings and milk shake, and the city coffers get a Whooper-ing $35.
Mandate the installation of wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling mirrors in all restaurants.
Or they could simply widen doorways.
Place a 10-percent extra-large luxury tax on all clothing X-large and then some.
To help relieve L.A.'s horridly congested traffic, place an extra five-cent a gallon gas tax for the milkshake-guzzling public, because it takes more fuel to haul them around and adds to extra wear and tear on our already potholed streets.
All the health police who love to spoon-feed us absolutes on what we should eat must have full-length photos of themselves -- in profile -- published in every news story where they're quoted telling us how, what, where and when to eat.
For those who don't need calorie counters, posted signs are yet another eye-blight to sift through, and the rest will be annoyed by the unwanted guilt-trip reminders...you can count on that.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.
Has anyone noticed how lardy the Vichy mayor is getting these days? Phew! And don't forget, each pound that he is putting on is costing taxpapers around $1M when you considered that most of his 3 meals per day are devoured in London, France, Israel, China, Mexico, El Salvador, New York, Chicago, etc.
The mayor and city council are re-creating the days of the Roman orgies and debauchery - and we are underwriting them!
Stop the DEBAUCHERY!
Ron, I couldn't help myself but I had to giggle. This whole food police business has us all goofy as we ponder how really stupid our form of government has gotten. Maybe calling our population the educated term for stupid is the right answer. Are the pols right? Have we lost our minds? Are we easy prey?
Reading the comments every day, the pols do have their supporters (hired guns, perhaps?) but the people are finally waking up to the fact that we have a real problem, even if it seems silly, and now we must think seriously about how to reclaim our city.
Proposition R went to court this month - this was the incredible legislation that got people to thinking what was right (term limits) was wrong. I used to think our language is precise.
Now I realize that language can be made to misinform us when written deliberately in that way. There is another one I remember: the one that reduced a tax from 10% to 9%, ONLY THERE WAS NO TEN PERCENT TAX. Those people are con men and belong in jail. Little kids feet are hurting because Mom cannot afford a new pair of shoes that would fit the growing feet.
Teddy Howell
Yes, Teddy. One of the oldest tricks in the political playbook is to word a ballot measure backwards so a 'yes' vote is really a 'no' vote, and vice-versa.
The DMV used to do the same thing on the written driving tests to see if people understood what they read. Guess too many people failed the comprehension part, so they stopped doing it.
You are right, there was no 10-percent phone tax, but now there is a 10-, 11-, 12- or 13-percent tax, because with the passage of the phoney phone tax they can tax more services like those on the internet.