There are a lot of things wrong with this rationale, not the least of
which is that unhealthy food can be bad for you without you gaining a pound.
We see fat and thin people and we assume that the thin people are healthy,
and that they eat healthy, but it ain't necessarily so.

Ain't that the truth. I go out of my way to avoid fast food as much as
possible - I'd estimate I end up eating fast food two or three meals a
week. And as much as I dislike cooking, I do cook dinner most every night
(I get home before Nancy does, so I get to take care of dinner). I like
to think that we eat reasonably healthy, but it has still taken more work
than I care to remember to lose 25 pounds over the last year. I am sure
that fat old me eats better than a fair number of skinny people but I'm
still a long way from getting skinny.

But also, what are poor people supposed to eat??! They depend on places
like McD's for cheap and *convenient* food. How'd you like to come home
after 8 hours at your minimum-wage job, have some kids to feed and no
spouse to help out, and you have no time or energy to cook, plus you
don't have a car and the nearest supermarket is 2 miles away. You're
going to take a bus to buy some vegetables?? Don't think so. You're
going to take your kids to Mickey D's!

I'm not saying this is a healthy scenario, but people depend on it, so
you can't just take it away from them without offering an alternative.
Because you can bet that while the gov't is happy to ban things right
and left, they're not going to spend a penny making sure that people
have other choices in its place. Oh, sorry, it's not government's job to
*take care* of its citizens - you're on your own, bub.

Yep. Another example of government seeming to think they can legislate
"better" (for some values of "better") behavior without considering the
social conditions that drive the behaviors.

But I wonder if this is really going to fly? There was a major
groundswell of support for banning cigarette smoke in public places.
Will there really be support from the public for this? And what about
the fast food lobby - didn't they try to fight it?

I'm hoping that it is going fail due to public outrage. Assuming that the
public can rouse themselves out of the widespread apathy that seems to
define "public" these days.

Meanwhile, we're still being exposed to pesticide spraying and toxic
waste, but by god, we're gonna be thin!!

And tainted Chinese imports, and mercury in our fish, etc. but Big
Government will save us from those evil ClownBurgers