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Legalizing Dwarf Tossing

chknwing

By chknwing,
in Huddle Lounge

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chknwing Mentor

chknwing

Posted
Posted

It gets my vote.

It's better for dwarfs to be flung around a barroom for cash than to stand in the unemployment line, according to one Florida state lawmaker.

Rep. Ritch Workman, a Melbourne Republican, has introduced a bill to undo the ban on dwarf-tossing to help boost jobs in a place where unemployment is 1.6 percentage points above the national average.

Dwarf-tossing, an event in which bar patrons throw little people in protective gear across bars onto mattresses, was banned in Florida in 1989 after opponents complained that it was dangerous and dehumanizing.

While Workman agrees that the practice is "repulsive" and "stupid," he also thinks the ban inhibits job creation.

"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?"

He didn't immediately answer messages left at his Tallahassee and Melbourne offices.

Workman's bill repeals provisions that prohibit holders of alcohol licenses "from allowing the exploitation of persons with dwarfism."

Carolyn Fiddler, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said the bill highlights Republicans' lack of understanding of what drives employment growth.

"It's a really telling symptom of the larger theme that they push, which is that government is the greatest obstacle to job creation," she said in a telephone interview from Washington. "This shows how absurd that notion is."

Almost 840,000 fewer Floridians are working than when employment there peaked in 2007. Job losses were caused in part by the collapsing real-estate market, which left home prices in the second quarter of 2011 lower by 42 percent than their 2006 peak. The unemployment rate in August was 10.7 percent, while the national rate was 9.1 percent.

Amy Graham, a spokeswoman for Republican Governor Rick Scott, who was elected in November promising to bring 700,000 jobs to Florida, said in an e-mail that his office hadn't reviewed the legislation "so it wouldn't be appropriate for us to comment."

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/10/07/2670382/fla-rep-dwarfs-better-off-tossed.html

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