Of Happy Meals & Obese Children

Friday morning I saw that the Center for Science in the Public Interest was threatening a lawsuit against McDonald's if they didn't stop including a toy in the Happy Meal--and really shockingly, McDonald's, instead of rolling over and begging not to be hurt, told them where to put their threat. 

My reaction?  I don't normally go out to eat where I work now, but not finding anything worthwhile in the leftover containers in the fridge at home Friday morning, I decided to walk down to the McDonald's half a mile from my office for lunch.  If McDonald's is going to show a level of courage in responding to the left that American corporations seldom do, I might as well reward them.

Obesity is a real problem.  Child obesity is a tragedy.  But let's stop pretending that this is because McDonald's has a toy in the Happy Meal.  It's not like kids for whom the Happy Meal is intended are getting there on their own.  Mom and Dad are taking them there, and buying it.  If there's a problem, it is a parental problem.  Leftists insist on blaming corporations and free markets because the alternative is admitting that the same idiots that elected Obama lack the sense or the strength of will to say "No" to a five year old.

Once I reached McDonald's, I ordered the McDouble Mini Meal.  It cost $3.17 with sales tax--and a McDouble is about what a cheeseburger used to be before the Big Mac Attack started.  Is a Big Mac excessive?  Absolutely!  Unless, perhaps, you are a teenager who is burning 3000 calories a day, as many teenaged skateboarders seem to do.  Even a McDouble is a bit much to eat every day: 390 calories for the sandwich, 19 grams of fat.  But let's not confuse the symptom with the cause.  Freedom is not the cause of the problem: a lack of self-discipline is the problem.