Every day something new from this house of idiots and their liberal feel good supporters.

Can you come up with any more new ways to kill businesses?

For Pete's Sake! You tell me where and when I can smoke (to keep those around me safe and cancer free), you tell me I have to wear a seat belt (to save myself), NOW you tell me that you are going to point out how many calories I eat when I choose to go to a restaurant (to protect me from thinking that the double quarter pounder with cheese is ACTUALLY on my diet)..... Thank YOU government for giving so much CARING as to what goes on in MY life!!!

Thank you for the clear up!!! It was sarcasm, guess I should have made that clearer???? *eyeroll*

If you smoke, don't wear a seatbelt and eat all this junk food then clearly you need to be told/forced because you are not intelligent or wise enough to make the smart choices on your own. And your bad choices cost me money in increased health care costs and reduced services from my Tax Dollars and all kinds of other social costs and those are often bourne by the governement and the governement is We the People so really it is just me telling you to smarten up and stop being such an idiot and making things worse for me and all of us that make ood choices.

Obesity is a national epidemic and if [some] people really knew what was in what they are eating (along with calories, fats, sat fats, salt and carbs data) some might just order smaller sizes or make different choices of forgo this junk all together and that would be a very good thing. But I think this rule should apply to more than just fast-food restaurants, at least chains as well and maybe even larger regualr restaurants as well but fast food and chain restaurants are the biggest culprits where they engineer food for maximum consumption with the least reagrd to healthy content.

That said: I'm all for calorie counts being very readily available to customers but I think it is going way overboard to force this info to be right on the menu board, especisally since calories alone is so not the whole story. Instead, all the other detailed nutritional data (like fat, sat fat, carbs, sugars, salt, and protien and vitamin content) should be available as well (just like on mass-produced supermarket products). Bleieve it or not, these chain restaurants really are mass-producers anyway, they just have a very large, distrubuted and localized final manufacturing platform. Thus, all the required data is already known and centrally controlled plus it is usually even availabe online as it is.

So I say there must be a chart available in every reatil establishment that list it all and it should be right there on the front counter (not available upon request through a phone call or just posted on the internet). Also, a master copy should be posted somewhere quite visible in the store/restaurant very visible from the area where arders are made (including on the wall outside where drive-thru folks would see it). It would also be nice if such data for individual items was printed right on all the uber-wasteful paper products that are used to wrap or serve this horrible food . Furthermore, this should be a national requirement, not a state by state thing. The cost to add text to paper product is very low (they change their info on them all the time for whatever the flavor of the day pop culture item is that they are hawking). Also, the cost to have a stack of printed lists avilable in store is very low and I can't imagine the cost of a Nutrional Content board, separate from but near the menu board(s) would be very expensive either, maybe a few hundred dollars and then the occaisional paper updates to it that would be generated by the national company anyway.

What some of these people do not understand is that be it smoking, no seat belts, helmets, or obesity cost the rest of us because of higher health insurance costs. Smokers already pay a higher premium.

Lower health insurance is what what will help business. The national chains are already posting calorie counts in other states.

Discloure helps everyone. Remember those McDonald's fries that used to be cooked in beef tallow? It was great for business in the cardiac units of large hospitals.

greg: Using sarcasm I'm sure is something that a SUPER GENIUS like yourself NEVER does. But no it's not anyone's job to FORCE or TELL me what to do when it comes to my own body. And boo-stinking-hoo for your costs. I pay my health, car, house, etc. insurances. I pay for my cigarettes (if I chose to smoke) I pay for my car. And NEWSFLASH I also pay for my own groceries and healthcare. If you are looking for a place to be a SELF RIGHTEOUS butt-head who thinks that YOUR WAY is the RIGHT WAY go ahead and use this site for that... BUT also know that I am not the only AMERICAN who chooses to think you and everyone else who PUSHES the way you think MY life should be onto me should get out of the glass house.

Well said berquis. I picked up on the sarcasm there and agree 100% with you.

And yes people, I freaking smoke and don't wear my seatbelt. Oh no. And, I love McDonald's once in a while.

What do you do pump gas or sell beer.

careful mainah.... you are going to be put in the same catagory as....(dare I say it?!!?? the obese, idiots, do I have that right greg?) like me! :)

Telefunkinu...if the question was poised to me... I am a secretary at an oil company. I am a member of the school board. I drink coconut rum, I don't like beer much. Thank you for asking.

Berquis, No actually it wasn't. Someone posted as IworkforIrving. It just got deleted.

ha ha, sorry let my attitude run a way a bit...:)

Lol. An obese idot. I am far from obese Mr. GregDavid. I am also in the process of quitting smoking because *sighs* the damn prices are too high and yes, I know it is bad for me....I do not need it thrown in my face or preached to me. I too pay my own healthcare costs thank you very much.

Berquis coconut rum is the best. At least we don't suck down that Allen's crap.

No problem.. Miller lite and Crown rule..........

"If you smoke, don't wear a seatbelt and eat all this junk food then clearly you need to be told/forced because you are not intelligent or wise enough to make the smart choices on your own"

Ahhahaha.....I am not intellignet or wise enough to make decisions for my own body. Hmm....I wonder how your mind works when it comes to other things. You must be a man. No offense to any other man, but, you know, clearly male-ish attitude there.

For the record, obviously I am a female.

Yeah, I get the smoking thing... I have cut back from just over a pack a day to litterally 4-5 cigarettes a day only because people like gregdavid and winfromoob have made it so that as a FREE AMERICAN i can't smoke anywhere and can't afford to pay for them anymore. And what makes me so angry about this is now I can't even enjoy a big-fatty-yum burger without having someone wave the amount of calories in my face!! That's as stupid as eating a steak and having someone run by your table with a picture of a cow! I KNOW WHAT IT IS.... I STILL WANT IT EVERY NOW AND THEN WITHOUT THE GUILT TRIP..... THANKS!

it's nice to know you have nothing better to do with your 'immediate crisis'.............fools.... don't gum up the courts with this trivia BS!!!

If we want comprehensive health care reform, the kind that actualy promotes health instead of simply managing sickness, then we have to get at the heart of the causes and many of them are based on people making bad choices as regards eating, drinking and smoking, that they are brain washed in to making by big corporte food providers and anything that hits the big food providfoers hard and makes it tougher for them to do business and make a buck is always a good thing. And if the costs get passed onto the customers then that is good to becasue its about time they have to pay for their bad choices that cost me more in taxes and helth care!!!!!!

Info that shows how bad the food is for you will reduce its demand and consumption which is good for the other busoinesses that will provide the better food. It is a zero sum game and that that hurts the purveros of bad will help the purveyors of good and that is always a good thing. Tyhe next thing we nedd to do is heavily regualte the advertizing these purveyors of ill health can do and they must be forced to only show picture of the food as it is when you upen up that wrapper, not some perfect version that is not even edible and also heaily air brushed. We eat based on the pretty pictures and fancy ads that lie to us but if they are forced to only give us truth then we will stop eating the junk!!!!!!!!

Wow... what a sad little man...

Gregdavid. What are you talking about, brother?! It's not Uncle's place to tell me what I can and can't, ya know? Now, they shouldn't be paying to fix me when I break myself. You are perfectly right there! Is there anyone who doesn't think an Olive Garden fetuccini alfredo dinner is LESS than 3,000 calories and a ton of fat??

Greg David...........MOVE TO CANADA.....If you want reform health care go where it's supplied. I'm sick of all you friggin liberals telling everyone else how to live their lives. .....and that's all we've heard from liberals when Bush was in there....whining about how their freedom was challenged....but now we have the frigging GOD ALMIGHTY.....Oh hail down to the great one and do and I say but not as I do..........it's different. Well, I'm sick of it because we are losing more freedom and will never get it back......yes greg david......THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY OR IT"S SUPPOSE TO BE.......

Obesity is considered (for some reason that I can't explain) a principal cancer risk factor in Maine, which, by the way, has the highest rate of cancer in the U.S. This is not an endorsement of this bill, but it is relevant information.

Buckling your seatbelts, driving less, wearing a helmut, eating right, exercising more, and saying your prayers at night are probably all good for you and the environment. I just don't pay my government to legislate me into doing those things.

See this is the problem when the government starts forcing everyone to pay for everyone.

Now you have all these other people who have a right to tell you how to live because they have a financial horse in the race when it comes to how you live.

This problem is not fixed by Nationalized health care. It is made worse since then people like gregdavid will have an even bigger stake in your health so he and others like him will have more say in your life.

They will justify raising taxes on everything they don't like and regulating everything they can't tax out of your life.

Hope you all like Tofu.

Couldn't have said it better myself, newportres. And I hate tofu.

GREGDAVID..... I do smoke and I haven't been to the doctor in years. I can still run a six minute mile and work out every day. I never wear my seatbelt because it is much more dangerous to be wearing a seatbelt if you are T-boned, which is a majority of the accidents in the state of Maine. I drink when I go out and I enjoy that as well. If I want to go to the chain restaurant and eat a cheeseburger I know damn well that it has a lot of calories. I choose to do all these things in moderation and using common sense. I am perfectly healthy and I don't rely on the state for anything except taking my tax money, SO STAY OUT OF MY LIFE!!!! It is people like you that keep on voting in all the stupid nanny laws in this state.

Great News Maine Lawmakers!!!! Now , finally , the obesity problem in Maine is solved.....WOW.......See how incredibly SIMPLE that was? You guys are geniuses!!!

And this creates jobs how? The liberal agenda of more & bigger govt sure is effective, huh? The nation is still losing 600,000 jobs per week, 2,400,000 per month & 31,200,000 per year & it doesn't even make the news. When was the last time we heard anything about job creation? The Augustanites are completely out of touch & out of control. We need jobs, who gives a Baby Ruth about menus!

Duh...Sledman...the menu printers will have jobs. Geesh.

Ya & knowing our state poli's, they'll buy newly printed menus from Canada on Irving paper LOL.

Let's keep wasting taxpayer's money and send them all back again to waste more time. What about trying to get jobs and make it easier to start businesses in this state

Biggest problem with America: The Freedom to be an idiot. The only problem with democracy, it also includes stupid people with their dumb voices counted equally. Time for a take over by the elites!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, we are real and we are no longer a secret cabal and we are coming to take your guns and your bibles and your drugs and your junk food and your booze and your cigarettes and your SUV's and your motorcycles and your trucks and your snowmobiles and all your toys and everything else you have. Watch out, here they come.

WinFromOOB says: "Smokers already pay a higher premium." Yes, but not enough even if you count the high taxes on the cigarettes themselves. If anyone should be denied health care, it should be the smokers and the obese and persons who have car accidents becasue of reckless driving and get hurt not wearing belts. Would be a great way to do social darwinism from the bottom up rathetr than the top down so ast to let the people who make bad choices more quickly and easily remove themselves from the equation rather than having to ship them off to concentration camps or, as we do now, make the rest of us pay for the extraordinary costs that they run up..

gregdavid, are you F'ing serious?! You need to be told/forced by big nanny government to eat healthy, quit smoking, and wear a seatbelt! You're the example of where these moonbat liberal lawmakers get their dumb as rocks ideas! People are HUMANS and can make up their own damn mind if they want to smoke, eat healthy, and buckle up. Although I buckle up and don't smoke, its a PERSONAL CHOICE - just like those who don't smoke and buckle up have a choice and responsibility.

It's no wonder why this state and country is hell bent on attacking our freedoms that our Founding Fathers worked so hard to establish.

How many more, Ms. Speaker? How many more of our holy liberal constituents will be forced to go into McDonalds and order a double cheese burger and not know the calorie count!? How many more of them will have to suffer at the hands of restaurant businesses who are out to make money!? I contend, Ms. Speaker, that Americans need to be STOPPED from getting obese and we need to tax every fat American for eating, drinking, sleeping, farting, etc. Let's push the GO GREEN initiative while we are at it, Ms Speaker!

Read gregdavid's comments very carefully. He is voicing the genuine motives behind this legislation. It isn't about reducing health care costs or informing the public. This sort of legislation is advanced by people who want to control our lives. They want to dictate every aspect of every choice we make. They want to abolish freedom and replace it with a sort of beneficial fascism with a smiley face (to quote George Carlin).

Gregdavid and his like-minded friends who run the legislature look down upon people who chose to live their lives differently than he does. He hates you and me and everyone else who doesn't wear the smiley-faced uniform. He thinks you are stupid and ignorant. He thinks he can run your life better than you can. He thinks like a king or an aristocrat. To him you are mere peasants and he is the lord of the manor. This thought process will inevitably lead to more laws regulating our lives and less freedom. Fewer choices of how to live, where to live, and ultimately who can and cannot live. This is very dangerous. Our freedom is at risk.

"Another supporter, Rep. Anne Perry, D-Calais, said advocates are trying to coordinate their efforts with other states that are also passing calorie-posting bills."

have you ever seen the portly perry? it's obvious she hasn't read a label. i don't say this to be mean it's just so hypocritical to legislate laws like this. the only suprise i have is that dennis damon didn't co sponsor this bill.

enough already, stop HAMSTINGING maine businessess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good going Maine,,,you are on the right tract,,,, Maine a big big joke

There's more to come, hope all you MORONS that voted OBAMA are happy.

If you are so worried about what you are eating....then DON'T GO OUT TO EAT!!!!!!!! Stay home and stop bothering everyone else. Why oh why do these people keep getting voted in. Oh, yeah, I know, because of people like gregdavid, winfromoob, etc.. gregdavid, you certainly have the right to your own opinions, which is why the freedom of America is so great, but don't try to make every body like you. That is why we got out of England. The government should not be here to make decisions for us like a parent with their toddler. The government is there to preserve our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is way too much government now, due to people like gregdavid that have been brainwashed into seeing the "good" of a socialistic society without recognizing the very severe problems found in EVERY socialistic country. Leave this country or leave our freedoms alone!

I did vote Obama and think that he is doing a pretty good job considering what he came into, I don't like every choice he made but some are sending us in the right direction. I DO NOT believe that McCain and that stupid airhead he ran with could have done better. Everyone downs the choices Obama has made for us, while completely forgetting that NOONE else offered up any options that would put us in a better place..

And thank you fellow posters! I knew I wasn't the only "smoking, obese, moron" (pi$$ off for those of you who think so) in the US!! :)

Gregdavid, would you please get a life. Posting calorie counts at restaurants is going to do nothing to end our obesity problem. But if all these laws make you feeeeeeel better.....check back in ten years and see if we're all still fat.

"Everyone downs the choices Obama has made for us, while completely forgetting that NOONE else offered up any options that would put us in a better place.."

How do you know that not approving to spend our way out of debt would not have put us in a better place or at least a place no worse than we were?

None of the other options were even considered.

newportres: I would be glad to hear what YOU would have done if given the opportunity. I can't wait to see your name on the next ballot! I promise to give a non-bias ear and see what you can do for us! :)

Do you people really think that your health insurance will go down if this goes to law?? I'm still waiting for my auto insurance to drop because of the seatbelt law. NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!

gregdavid - "anything that hits the big food providfoers hard and makes it tougher for them to do business and make a buck is always a good thing".

And when you have taken away Capitalism, and made every one thin, healthy, and smoke free, where are all your tax dollars going to come from? Better be careful what you wish for it just may come true and then you and your control freak buddies won't have anything to complain about.

BTW, the border is wide open, I suggest you move to one of the mony facsim and/or socialist countries that are out there. The Country I live in is suppose to be ruled by one thing and that is the Constitution. If you actually knew what it said you'd know the Government only has 20 things it is suppose to have their hand in and it sure has hell isn't calories on a menu board in a private business.

WE PAY YOU PEOPLE TO DO THINGS LIKE THIS!!!!!! THIS IS CRAZY!!!! WHY ARE YOU WASTING TAX PAYER MONEY ON STUPID CRAP LIKE THIS FOR???

OH, ALL YOU IN THE HOUSE SHOULD BE DISAPIONTED IN HOW YOU PUT TAX PAYER MONEY TO WORK!!! NO WOUNDER THE STATE IS IN THE SHAPE IT'S IN!!!!!! JUST, KEEP ON DOING STUPID THINGS AND SINK US DEEPER.... IT'S CRAZY...... SMARTEN UP PEOPLE!!!! PUT OUR DOLLARS TO WORK FOR US.... DON'T WASTE IT ON CRAP LIKE THIS!!!!

Pretty soon, they'll pass a law telling us when we can crap.

gregdavid said; "Biggest problem with America: The Freedom to be an idiot."

If it wasn't for that you might be out of a job.

Oh Thank GOD the best politicians money can buy are investing considerable effort and time to look out for my best interests instead of fixing the myriad of REAL problems we have. I watch what these fools we have in government do every day and just shake my head.

I'm not going to bother to type a long-winded rant, rklindell said everything I was thinking and probably phrased it better.

HEART OF THE CAUSES ARE POLLUTION....MERCURY IN OUR WATER WAYS, OIL SPILLS, 15 MILLION PLANES A DAY DROPPING THEIR FUEL OVER OUR HEADS INTO OUR ATMOSPHERE.....ARSENIC IN WELLS.... LABORATORY TOXIC LEAKS INTO OUR OCEAN'S COASTLINE.... BEES, BEING TREATED WITH GOD' KNOWS WHAT , LET LOOSE TO ROAM THE EARTH..... TAKE YOUR PICK????? LUNG DISEASES, CANCERS, (NEW) BRAIN TUMORS, ALERGIES IN CHILDREN GALORE!!!! WHICH FACTOR ARE YOU GOIING TO CLEAN UP FIRST IF ANY AND WHEN WILL YOU GET TO THE REST OF THE TRUE REASONS, PEOPLE ARE SICK....NOT YOUR HIGH SCHOOL THINKING, THAT A CIGARRETT OR A DRINK WILL KILL YOU FIRST?????? SOME RETARDED JOKE THAT IS.....CONGRESS!

ONWARD ZIONISTS......YOU WILL EVENTUALLY TAKE ALLLLL..................MAY YOU CHOKE ON IT FOREVER THIS TIME!!!!!!!

SINCE "WHEN" DO I HAVE TO ANSWER TO SOMEBODY FOR WHERE I SPEND THE LITTLE BIT THE GOVERNMENT GIVES BACK TO ME IN MY 7.25 PER HR. PAYCHECK.....ARE YOU TOTALLY RETARDED????????????????? THIS IS THE STUPEDIST, CONTROLLING, COMMUNISTIC, APPROACH TO ANY HELP PROGRAM.... THE INSURANCE COMPANIES HAVE LED YOUR BUTTS LONG ENOUGH...TIME TO SAY nooooooo................... THEY CAN START REMOVING SOME OF THEIR HIGH POSH FLOORS FROM THEIR CONGLOMERATE BUILDINGS AND HOLDINGS..... LIKE THE REST OF US....STOP KISSING ASS, IN PLAIN ENGLISH!

I KNOW PERSONALLY THAT A CLAIM CAN BE WORTH 100,000.00, BUT THE ADJUSTERS ARE TOLD TO SETTLE IT FOR 10,000.00 .............SO STOP FEEDING THE PIGS WHOM HAVE RAPED US FAR TOOOOOO LONG....

Love watching the ignorati defend the indefensible. Clearly barely one HS diploma among the bunch of you.

I hope every non-seatbelt wearer gets front ended this weekend. Then I won't have to listen to your ignorance anymore. But please, die slowly on impact so you can have a moment to reflect on your poor choices. An accident where a seatbelt saves your life is 60 times more lilkely that one where it takes it. Statistics don't lie, only idiots do.

And smoking makes you 30 times more likely to get a terminal illness like lung cancer. So smoke away but please, die quietly at home, and don't come asking/begging for medical services because you no longer deserve them.

And obesity is now not only an adult crisis among the odd few but a childhood one and type 2 diabetes among children is skyrocketing where it was not even seen much at all only a few decades ago. But, eat away at all the junk and stuff it ino you kids but please, die before you (and your children) reproduce so that you all can't keep spreading your ignorance and stupidity on ad infinitum.

It's so sad watching someone act like such a BABY because they have opinions that make them out to be a JERK... "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me... " Are worms healthy?

Actually, I have slightly more than a HS diploma. These ARE problems, gregdavid, but I don't pay my government to fix them. When my government pays me, they tell me what to do (another reason to reject the welfare state). But when I pay the fovernment, they do what I tell them to do. And this ain't it. And democracy IS the freedom to be stupid, as long as it doesn't cost anyone else.

Posting calories to promote good health sounds as sensable as stating condoms promote virginity !