OT, this is pretty amazing, in that the oft used, but never used against big bad tobacco, the personal responsibility word card..
I guess a fat ass & clogged arteries are different, in regards to health, than black lungs...
It just couldn't all be about the $Benjamins, could it? Lol....
Also, since this is Illinois, home base of MCD, it is no surprise>
Lawmaker seeks to ban obesity suits against fast-food chains
October 30, 2003
BY DAVE MCKINNEY Sun-Times Springfield Bureau
SPRINGFIELD -- If you've got a bulging waistline from a lifetime of super-sizing it, that's your problem, not society's.
So says state Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago), who proposed a new state law Wednesday to prevent Illinoisans from suing fast-food chains, food manufacturers and distributors over claims that their products caused their obesity.
"Obesity has been a problem. We're finally recognizing the toll it takes on us in both lives and money, and it's a problem that needs to be addressed," Fritchey said. "But at the same time, there's an issue of personal responsibility involved, and we have to acknowledge that."
The Illinois Commonsense Consumption Act -- the name Fritchey has attached to legislation he'll introduce in January -- is the latest push by the restaurant industry to limit its legal exposure from a wave of obesity-related lawsuits across the country.
Oak Brook-based McDonald's, for example, was sued in federal court in New York last year by two teens who alleged the chain contributed to their obesity. Last month, the case was dismissed.
Congress is already considering at least two measures that would do essentially what Fritchey would like to see in Illinois. Louisiana is the only state to adopt such a law, which it did last year.
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And thanks for the read good on little Cox, just amazing...
In 1995, Magnequench was purchased from GM by Sextant Group, an investment company headed by Archibald Cox, Jr-the son of the Watergate prosecutor. After the takeover, Cox was named CEO. What few knew at the time was that Sextant was largely a front for two Chinese companies, San Huan New Material and the China National Non-Ferrous Metals Import and Export Corporation. Both of these companies have close ties to the Chinese government. Indeed, the ties were so intimate that the heads of both companies were in-laws of the late Chinese premier Deng Xiaopeng.
At the time of the takeover, Cox pledged to the workers that Magnequench was in it for the long haul, intending to invest money in the plants and committed to keeping the production line going for at least a decade.
Three years later Cox shut down the Anderson plant and shipped its assembly line to China. Now Cox is presiding over the closure of Magnequench's last factory in the US, the Valparaiso, Indiana plant that manufactures the magnets for the JDAM bomb. Most of the workers have already been fired. |
