In what must be a first, Brazilian Judge Joao Ghisleni Filho ruled that a former franchise manager must be paid $17,500.00 because he gained 65 pounds while working for McDonalds Restaurant for over 12 years. The unnamed employee claimed he had to sample food each day to meet quality standards and to appease “mystery clients” that McDonalds hired to secretly inspect the restaurant. The unidentified man’s biggest gripe — McDonalds had the audacity to offer free lunches to employees.
U.S. consumers spend about $150 billion dollars on fast food that is marketed to children and to lower income adults. McDonalds claims it presents healthy choices along with its high fat-high sodium offerings. In 2003, a New York family sued the hamburger giant alleging that, by manipulating the taste of food, fat and sugar content, and its aggressive marketing to children mislead consumers about the nutritional value of its food and led directly to their daughter’s obesity. A federal judge threw the suit out of court, but the Industry responded with a so-called “Cheeseburger Bill” to ban such suits in the future. The Bill passed the House in 2005 but stalled in the Senate.
Over one half of all American adults are considered obese, and hundreds of thousands of deaths are attributed to obesity. Will “Big Fat” become the next “Big” like “Big Tobacco” and “Big Oil.” If we’re looking in Brazil, the answer might be just wait and see.
–Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Source: Yahoo News
FFLEO,
If you aren’t on the NoFly list, would you like to join us? Watching the green guy handle all those Italian women should be an educational experience.
Blouise,
Life permitting, I would be honored.
Blouise,
From that video of yourn’, Ol’ Walt’s discripiton is…”He’a a Tramp’ and it painted our hero as quite a ‘GAY’ dog…”
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…Buddha! And Blouise, if Walt is correct, you will be well chaparoned whilst vistin’ Itlay with our great ‘GUY’ Buddha.
I juss could not resist.
FFLEO,
Love that dude’s voice!
I think Buddha would be great company in Italy and here” why:
Blouise,
Since you menttioned 4 queens n’ poker, I bet you got ol’ Buddha sangin’ this song and a duet in Itlay is juss around the corner…
Buddha,
Everybody wants to go to Ireland … I want to go to Italy … would you go with me?
Four Queens beat all of ya … I am a very good poker player … I really am … proof? … I hate Texas Hold’em
BIL:
”
Hey . . . would the Three Kings be considered Christmas prescients?
lol
Oh, sometimes I slay myself.”
********************
No, but it beats two Jack*****. You slay me too–often! 🙂
Byron –
You are absolutely right, of course. But if the magic dust of “personal responsibility” were to suddenly start raining from the sky, the water running in the gutters would be from lawyers crying real tears.
Unfortunately, the “entitlement thinkers” in society feel the need for a government to continue the parenthood that their moms & dads left off. In the perfect context of Halloween, these adults see the Bogeyman on every street corner. In ‘Mr. 65-pound weight gain’s case’, he not only approached the Bogeyman, he implored the ogre for a job. The got hired & gobbled himself into obesity.
What chance did this poor innocent nibbler really have? This fiendish McDonalds-Monster-of-the-Munch had the nerve to promote “El Chubo” to manager, where at least part of his job description was to ensure his store displayed a “Caloric Intake” chart on the wall, for the safety of the customers, also lured in off the streets against their will.
“Gee. They never told me calorie counting was for employees, too? Who’d have thought?
So damn them. And damn anybody, who has the nerve to take advantage of our abject lack of self-discipline.
Any bets at all El Chubo isn’t using some of his righteous winnings for some serious dining out?
Wait a minute . . . this just in from Fox News: “El Chubo is now a spokesman for Jenny Craig.”
Blousie:
TED is definitely a good website.
Tony S:
cigarettes have been know to cause cancer since at least the 30’s. When I was in 6th grade (1968) someone gave a demonstration with a vacuum cleaner a 5 gallon water jug and 1 cigarette. That one cigarette turned the entire 5 gallons of water a blackish brown. It cured me of the idea of ever smoking cigarettes or weed for that matter.
If I died of lung cancer from smoking cigarettes it would not be the fault of the tobacco industry unless I was clueless and couldn’t think for myself. At some point personal responsibility has to come into play.
Blouise,
TED may be the smartest website on the planet.
I find it infinitely interesting.
Buddha,
WOW! I just went to TED …. yet another reason to put off cooking dinner!
Hey . . . would the Three Kings be considered Christmas prescients?
lol
Oh, sometimes I slay myself.
Thank you for noticing, Blouise. 😉 And mespo is indeed a cornucopia of good things. He not only turned me on to TED, but many other good websites from Latin grammar to cooking over the years.
Buddha Is Laughing
1, November 1, 2010 at 5:08 pm
You sit under a Christmas tree wrapped in festive paper?
Now there’s an unusual hobby.
====================================================
Mespo is the gift that keeps on giving … and you are very silly!
You sit under a Christmas tree wrapped in festive paper?
Now there’s an unusual hobby.
anan. nurse:
“Is mespo prescient?”
****************
Why, yes. Yes he is!
I apologize for the broken link above. This one works and should take you to the same article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=McLibel
No thread about fast food and the law is complete without at least a passing reference to the infamous McLibel case. Fast food won the battle in the courts, but were beaten badly in terms of public opinion. The defendants, who had defended the decades-long case in abject poverty, begging on the streets to raise money to pay the filing fees and representing themselves in court to keep costs down, then triumphed against the British government when the ECHR in Strasbourg ruled that they did not receive a fair trial.
An utterly majestic, almost Mandelan story of tenacity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's_Restaurants_v._Morris_%26_Steel