The 'root problem' is pandering, foolish parents who won't say 'no' to their fat little brats.

You can't legislate away ignorance.

you know grimace and the hamburglar were the real problem and as far as I can tell mcdonalds already got rid of them after the unfortunate incident with mayor mccheese.

I'm with Ron Swanson on this one.

On the one hand I wouldn't want the proposed restrictions to apply to all businesses. On the other hand McDonalds is not all businesses and laws protecting consumers from giant corporations are necessary.

D, "root problem" is a literary device (metaphor) used to distinguish abiding growing-condition problems. A tree (the parents) produces damaged fruits (children; also McDonalds) because of damaged roots (bad education; food climate). Parents' actions are the waving branches of the grown tree in the wind; they can only reflect root problems and not be them.

Metaphors are beautiful tools! Even when overuse has ablated their meaning they still illuminate human thought. I think you see now how Sarah Mirk was not simply throwing around a stock phrase but drawing a beautiful picture of an orchard (United States) whose soil (education; also McDonalds) is not healthy for growing things.

How bout a petition to ban canvassers and THEIR predatory marketing? (Eh, eh? See how I turned that around?)

Americans kids' declining attention spans aren't helped by canvassers leaping into our line of vision to break up our rarefied moment of focus. And since obesity and pollution are strongly linked to the sedentary commuter lifestyle, why bully and irritate people when we choose to walk, live and work in central urban spaces?

Whatever, Sarah. We all know you moonlight as Charlie Chickpea, and are using your influence to neutralize other mascots. We will not be strong-armed by your Hummus-based cabal.

Then 'literary devices' should apply to literature and not busybodies telling me how to live my life.

You CAN legislate away ignorance.
It's called education.

I'm not sure I care enough about rights for corporations to feel split- shut the clown down, who's really going to care? And if someone does, am I wrong to say "get a life"?

They should get rid of Ronald McDonald, then follow by getting rid of the toys in happy meals -- hell, they should change the name to "sad meals" --, then get rid of the playgrounds. While all that might not work, the final solution should be to eliminate the french fries and replace the beef with broccoli burgers. That should finally keep kids from begging their parents to go to McDonalds.

@ Fruit Cup - we should all live by Swanson Code:

"I think the entire government should be privatized. Chuck E. Cheese could run the parks. Everything operated by tokens. Drop in a token, go on the swing set. Drop in another token, take a walk. Drop in a token, look at a duck."

First off my children thought that McDonalds provided public restrooms on the highways and were surprised that other children would eat food from the bathroom place.

Smirk just hates cancer kids since Ronald McDonald is the public face of the McDonald's (Kroc) family's children cancer support project the Ronald McDonald houses.

Rights for "corporations" are rights for you.

There are two types - those who want the government overlords to have more power to tell you what to do -

and those who don't. One of those sides has a gun to your head.

They want names for their mailing lists, which means if you signed up, you'll get much more spam (both e-mail and snail mail).

Food cart food is probably worse for you than McDonalds, but it's nommy instead of barely edible...

I don't understand why they think that a worldwide corporation is going to care about what one franchise owner thinks. Sure, he owns 14, a lot for Portland, but that's ridiculously minuscule.

El Stunto, I'll buy your premise that education can effectively combat ignorance, but it still seems to fall short of beating laziness.

And that's what I've seen to be the big problem. I used to work with a woman elsewhere in Oregon who had a two-year-old and another baby on the way. One of our coworkers used to go over just to cook for her family because she couldn't imagine that the extent to which the parents cooked was boxed mac-and-cheese or PBJ sandwiches.

Mostly it was Carls Jr, Taco Bell, etc. For the two-year-old and the mom eating for two. They knew better, but there was a real block in breaking out of their routine. Then that coworker moved away and I'm hoping someone got this couple a simple-meals cookbook.

And D, you should really read Matt Taibbi's Griftopia if you think that "corporations" and "government overlords" are different folks.

@ C.C: Everything one needs to know is on the Swanson Pyramid of Greatness:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/1…

Why don't liberal do-gooders just cut to the chase:

1) Find people who are actually in the current act of enjoying their lives, and
2) Take a piss on them, right then and there.

marketing to children is a scheme that works, and fostering sympathy and fondness for corporations and their icons among people when they are young and vulnerable (and then sticking the clown as a figurehead for their charitable work) is a way of blinding people to the immense power that corporations like this have - which extends not only to factoring into children's obesity (and that of adults, and of people who don't have as many monetary resources for whom fast food is often one of the only options), but to environmental destruction (where do you think all the cows are stored before they get turned into big macs? ....the rainforest....), among many other problems.

keep up the good work - speak truth to power!!

professorkate, please please save me from myself!

I am much too stupid to navigate the modern world for myself, or take care of my own children. So I would like a bunch of preachy liberal arts graduates with no useful skills, or worthwhile things to do with them, to take up these causes, in order to make sure that my child doesn't get to enjoy a happy meal once every two months.

The day that I pull up to the drive through and my five-year-old asks for a happy meal, only to be informed that "no, I'm sorry, some very lonely, very bored, social engineers got them banned within the city limits", that will truly be a day of victory for you and yours. The only thing that would make it better is if you were personally there in the parking lot to come up to our car to harrangue us for ten minutes about how we don't know what is good for us. That would be the cherry on top.

PS. WORRY ABOUT YOUR FUCKING SELF!

@ Blabby, out of curiosity, when you type the phrase "liberal do-gooder," can you actually see the needle on your "Coot-itude" meter move?

Because I feel like I can.