[DiverDude]

Ricky, Ricky.....they're not banning the Happy meal -all they're saying is stop using toys as 'kiddie crack'. The Happy meal isn't going anywhere -but it won't have a toy in it anymore.

Plus, while you argue that won't stop people currently buying Happy Meals, new kids are being born all the time and maybe if there's no toy, they won't be so drawn to START eating Happy Meals (and that's what Micky D is worried about).

Besides, like I said before, this goes way beyond burgers. Booze, smokes, drugs (prescription and recreational), Starbucks.....these are all things that, when consumed to excess, create problems. Problems for the consumer and society as a whole (through costs to the healthcare system). Yet these are all legal (except perhaps the recreational drugs but work with me here !).

And even if it DID step on someone's 'rights' somewhere, would you rather have an obese kid with his 'rights' in tact and in the hospital at age 12 for bariatric surgery (you wanna know how many tax dollars one of THOSE costs ?); or a relatively healthy kid with his nose 'out-of-joint' because there are no toys in a Happy Meal ?

I'm not in favour of losing civil liberties, but we have more liberties than we need and WAY more than we can handle. You want to censure the vote or tell me how many children I can have -we'll be talking ! But toys in some corporate giant's meal boxes !? Pffft..... we all have better things to do.

<dismount soapbox>