Yum, right?

You may have heard that Wisconsin State Representative Dale Kooyenga is spending his precious time targeting a decades old, loophole-riddled margarine discrimination law that no one really pays attention to or even knows about. Only in Wisconsin, ya der hey, you betchya, uff-da! From CBSnews.com ...

The 44-year-old law that's little known to most diners is celebrated by some as a colorful part of the Dairy State's past, even inspiring the state Historical Society to sell T-shirts reprinting the language of the law on a yellowish, buttered-colored background.

But the law, so marginalized that the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers doesn't even refer to it in a timeline of significant action affecting the industry, has a loophole: Restaurants can abide by it simply by serving both butter and margarine.

"I literally Googled 'stupid Wisconsin laws' and this one came up as No. 1," said Republican state Rep. Dale Kooyenga, a 32-year-old accountant from Brookfield who wants to undo law he calls silly, antiquated and anti-free market.

Most restaurant owners are aware of the law, but it's not something that the industry talks about ...

– CBS News, 9/19/2011

Wisconsin actually banned the sale or use of margarine way back in 1895, and that law stayed put until 1967 when Wisconsin looked around and felt awkward because none of the other United States had a weird fake butter law. And since Wisconsinites were just driving to Minnesota to buy their margarine anyhow, lawkillers killed the law. But just to make sure everyone knew that we still don’t like that margarine, we made the “no margarine in restaurants” law (unless you have butter, too, OK?) and set the penalty at up to three months in jail (but let’s not worry about that so much, OK?).

Rep. Kooyenga’s pro-margarine crusade hasn’t spread to many sympathizers – only 11 other lawmakers out of 132 have signed on as co-sponsors.

 

Paula Deen, y'all

BONUS! Paula Deen approved quotation:

"Restaurant owners are in business and are successful because they give customers what they want and in Wisconsin that's generally butter." – Pete Hanson, director of government relations for the Wisconsin Restaurant Association