Friday, October 7, 2011

FL GOP jobs plan: Deregulate dwarf tossing

Someone must have dropped him on his head.
Is this man insane?

The Palm Beach Post News reports a Florida lawmaker thinks regulation is getting in the way of job creation:
Rep. Ritch Workman (yup, that's his name), R-Melbourne, filed a bill this week to bring back "dwarf tossing," the barbaric and dangerous barroom spectacle that was imported from Australia and thrived briefly in Florida before it was outlawed in 1989.
"I'm on a quest to seek and destroy unnecessary burdens on the freedom and liberties of people," Workman said. "This is an example of Big Brother government.
"All that it does is prevent some dwarfs from getting jobs they would be happy to get," Workman said. "In this economy, or any economy, why would we want to prevent people from getting gainful employment?"
Little people disagree. According to the Post News,
"The people who were thrown were alcoholics with low self-esteem," said Robert Van Etten, 62, of Stuart. "Many of them were injured. One committed suicide."
Van Etten, a 3-foot-5-inch engineering consultant and former president of Little People of America, has worked with his wife, Angela, for years to educate people about the physical and psychological dangers of dwarf tossing.
Workman admits dwarf tossing is "repulsive and stupid." So are part-time lawmakers who earn $30,000 a year to propose legislation that harms vulnerable people -- and adds insult to the injury by calling it "job creation."