If you’re throwing a Thanksgiving party, you might want to have your guests sign a legal waiver allowing you to serve unlimited helpings of turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce without fearing you’ll get hit with a big fat lawsuit.

That’s the advice of the Center for Consumer Freedom, which has drafted a release form called the “Thanksgiving Guest Liability and Indemnification Agreement” to prevent sue-happy guests from slapping the host of a feast with an obesity lawsuit.

The agreement makes eaters agree not to haul the dinner host into court for the failure to, quote: “provide nutritional information, warn of potential for overeating, or offer healthy alternatives

Yes, I am a libertarian, but…

I don’t think such indemnity agreements should be enforceable. I am sure that other unthinking libertarians like Yazad will claim that there is nothing wrong in the conduct of such dinner hosts, but I think that they are being too dogmatic and ignoring the very real obesity problem in the USA. In the three weeks that I’ve been here, I’ve seen a lot of fat people and so I know everything about the obesity problem that this country is facing. It is difficult for someone sitting in India to understand the problem.

The fattest people here aren’t just “fat” by Indian standards. They are so fat that a new category of “fat” has to be coined for them. They are literally double the size of a normal human being, (and when I say “literally”, I mean “literally” literally)

Now think of those fattest of the fat. How did they get that way? The obvious answer is, “eating too much”.
But my point is, these fat people did not wake up naked one morning because their body had burst to double its previous day’s size and their clothes got ripped off in the process.

They must have spent years eating and getting fatter, without once deducing that there was a causal relationship between eating and getting fat. Or perhaps they understood it, but could not resist temptation. In either event, it is clear that there are psychological issues involved. I think it is a mental health issue and the government should do something about it.

I don’t think those dinner hosts in question should be allowed to get away with such arse-covering agreements any more than tobacco companies should be allowed to get away with warnings about cigarettes.

Guests to dinner are generally hungry and will sign agreements without thinking. Besides, dinners are social occasions and there is lot of social pressure to eat and not be a spoilsport. It is unrealistic to expect that people who can’t resist a burger can resist pressure. I think that such agreements should be illegal and any undue pressure to get it signed should get you thrown in jail.