Last week the Illinois Senate soundly defeated a proposal to ban trans fats in foods. The bill failed by a vote of 40-13, due in part to the hard work of the doughnut caucus.

Senator Mike Jacobs lamented the loss of his old trans fat filled Oreos, which taste better than Nabisco’s, current, ostensibly more healthy version.

Not lost amid all the funny remarks was the main point- Americans should be free to choose what they want to eat. Jacobs didn’t want Illinois to become a “nanny state.”

It seems a little late for that argument. With Americans already being told by their government what they can and cannot smoke, drink, drive, snort, wear, teach, say, watch, grow, and buy, what difference can a little trans fat ban really make?

In fact, New York City banned trans fats back in 2006. The bantransfats.com advocacy web site has been so overwhelmed with new information that the owners have stopped updating the site.

There are those (a phrase I have borrowed from our president) who are calling for a new constitutional amendment stating that “the Right of the People to ingest shall not be infringed.”

Good luck with that one.

Elastic Beanstalk