{"id":5441,"date":"2004-03-11T07:03:42","date_gmt":"2004-03-11T14:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/03\/11\/cheeseburger-cheeseburger-cheeseburger.html"},"modified":"2004-03-11T07:03:42","modified_gmt":"2004-03-11T14:03:42","slug":"cheeseburger_ch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/11\/cheeseburger_ch.html","title":{"rendered":"Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger …"},"content":{"rendered":"

I see the House passed, 276-139, the “cheeseburger bill<\/a>” to protect fast food manufacturers for frivolous law suits. I’m not sure that’s a good idea.<\/p>\n

Why not? You think those sorts of law suits are stupid, right?<\/i><\/p>\n

Well, yeah. They’re a perversion of the justice system, and only discourage personal responsibility. <\/p>\n

So why not this bill?<\/i><\/p>\n

I worry when I see particular industries getting a bye on liability. Seems like a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n

You think tobacco companies should be sued?<\/i><\/p>\n

Tobacco companies sell a demonstrably and manipulatively addictive product. They also, for decades, stonewalled any scientific effort to show that the product is harmful to you. The only thing addictive about french fries is that they taste good, and not even Ronald McDonald says they’re harmless for you.<\/p>\n

So why not this bill?<\/i><\/p>\n

If the suits are truly frivolous, they’ll get tossed out. That’s what’s happened before.<\/p>\n

Though it costs these companies money to defend themselves. And money for insurance against the off chance that some yahoo judge will actually let something like this go by.<\/i><\/p>\n

Yeah, but it’s … inelegant. I’ve disagreed with taking court action “off the table” in other contexts, too.<\/p>\n

But that’s money that could go toward jobs — not just flipping burgers, but restaurant management, suppliers, constuction workers, folks at the home office …<\/i><\/p>\n

I know. Though it’s a bit disengenuous to claim that the 12 million jobs in the restaurant industry are at stake with these sort of suits.<\/p>\n

So what’s your beef (so to speak)?<\/i><\/p>\n

It just seems like, even if it’s a good idea to forestall such suits here, it sets a further precedent for blocking them in far less defendable areas.<\/p>\n

So you’d rather let unelected judges …<\/i><\/p>\n

Well, judges in a lot fo jurisdictions are <\/i>elected. But even where not, they tend to be more immune to either populist grandstanding …<\/p>\n

… a funny thing for someone who believes in representational democracy to say …<\/i><\/p>\n

… or campaign-coffer stuffing, at least compared to legislators.<\/p>\n

Well, what does the bill actually block?<\/i><\/p>\n

The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., would:
\n– Prohibit many obesity or weight-related claims against the food industry.
\n– Still allow claims to go forward if state or federal laws had been broken and as a result a person gained weight.<\/p>\n

Given that there’s been increased emphasis on these sorts of suits — both by lawyers hungering for some big crap-shoot wins, and by Nosey Nelly “food activists” who want to legislate nutritional morality, don’t you think it’s appropriate to draw those sorts of boundaries?<\/i><\/p>\n

Maaaaaybe. I just don’t know. It rubs me the wrong way. I mean, if it’s true in principle, maybe what we need is a general <\/i>“personal responsibility” clause in the legal system, rather than one that cherry-picks just one industry at a time. If the law is broken, then they’re liable. If not, then they’re not.<\/p>\n

Except that would get back to the tobacco industry.<\/i><\/p>\n

Except they’re rat bastards.<\/p>\n

Right. Well, there you go.<\/i><\/p>\n

(Yes, I have these sorts of conversations with myself in the car.)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I see the House passed, 276-139, the “cheeseburger bill” to protect fast food manufacturers for frivolous law suits. I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Why not? 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Diet trends...","rel":"","context":"In "Food & Drink"","block_context":{"text":"Food & Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2636,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/25\/suing_our_own_f.html","url_meta":{"origin":5441,"position":2},"title":"Suing our own fat asses off","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-May-02 11:17am","format":false,"excerpt":"When tobacco companies were first beginning to worry about suits filed against them, they claimed that the next step was law suits against makers of sugary, fatty food. Dismissed as...","rel":"","context":"In "Food & Drink"","block_context":{"text":"Food & Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3090,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/08\/11\/wolves_foxes_an.html","url_meta":{"origin":5441,"position":3},"title":"Wolves, foxes and henhouses","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Aug-02 1:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, follow me here. A whole bunch of states sued Big Tobacco. Reason for the suit? The extraordinary costs of smoking-related illnesses, as paid for by the taxpayers for folks...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23083,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/15\/unblogged-bits-sat-15-oct-11-0530.html","url_meta":{"origin":5441,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Sat. 15-Oct-11 0530)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 15-Oct-11 5:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... The Birth of the Atomic Cheeseburger Breaking His Promise To Create 700K Jobs, Gov. Rick Scott Now Says 'I Don't Have To Create Any Jobs' | ThinkProgress - Ideology, again, trumping reality and practicality.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13144,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/07\/10\/continuing_the_fight.html","url_meta":{"origin":5441,"position":5},"title":"Continuing the fight","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Jul-08 9:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"While the approval of the FISA bill is a significant blow, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who have been at the forefront of law suits against the telcos just...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}