Eating away at our own responsibility

Since the federal government has learned long ago that you can't motivate personal responsibility, our friendly health officials are now aiming for the restaurant industry in their attempt to encourage a lean and mean America. The feds want the restaurant industry to down-size, not super-size your portions at the drive-through windows of America.

When will they learn?

Don't be alarmed but we have an obesity crisis in this country. At latest count, 64 percent of Americans are overweight and a whopping (pun intended) 30 percent are obese. For more years than I care to count, the feds have warned us against eating burgers, fries and pizza. And after all those years of warnings, the three most popular eating-out items are burgers, fries and pizza.

Now let's try plan B.

So since we apparently don't listen, the feds now want the nation's 900,000 restaurants to serve smaller portions and give us even more information on the foods we eat. All of that doomsday information hasn't done one lick of good thus far, but we might as well try it again, say the feds.

Consumers advocates (by the way, do you personally know any consumer advocates?) point the finger of blame at the restaurant industry. We're fat, because McDonald's made us fat, so they say. More salads and fruits, say the feds. Force the restaurants to print in detail what harm each and every menu item will have on our bodies. That's the latest plan in the "War on Fat."

Haven't we forgotten one small factor in the battle of the waistline? How about personal responsibility? How about our inability to push our flabby fannies away from the table? Why blame someone else because we're too lazy to cook and too stupid to read?

Don't blame the restaurants. Blame that person in the mirror. Blame genetics all you want but it's not genetics that puts your butt on the couch instead of out working in the yard or taking a stroll.

In the end we will become a blameless society. Nothing will be our fault. Whatever we do or don't do will be the responsibility of someone else. And before it's over, the feds will find a way to tax our way into a total state of irresponsibility.

Just out of curiosity - when was the last time you heard a consumer advocate blame the consumer for the problem? Eat an order of fries while you think of your answer.