Mickey Dees invites CSPI to new and exciting vistas of pain.

(H/T Hot Air Headlines) And may I be the first to offer the hope that CSPI takes them up on it?  I do so enjoy a good savage beating:

The Happy Meals toys are staying, according to a letter McDonald’s brass delivered Wednesday to a health watchdog group that criticized the popular kids’ meals and how they are marketed.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest last month threatened a lawsuit against the fast-food giant to get it to dump the toys that accompany Happy Meals.

Forget it, McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner said, defending Happy Meals in the written response sent to the Washington, D.C.-based group.

The letter is here, and is well worth your time to peruse.  A sample paragraph:

We have a long history of working with responsible NGOs who are interested in serious dialogue and meaningful engagement; and we are open to constructive feedback. You say you want a dialogue with McDonald’s, but your tactics and inflammatory rhetoric suggest otherwise. CSPI’s twisted characterization of McDonald’s as “the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children” is an insult to every one of our franchisees and employees around the world. When CSPI refers to America’s children as “an unpaid drone army,” you similarly denigrate parents and families, because they are fully capable of making their own decisions. You should apologize.

Continue reading Mickey Dees invites CSPI to new and exciting vistas of pain.

The Scotsman Abides.

It’s not doing its usual insane growth, but Mickey D’s isn’t losing money, either:

McDonald’s profit tops view, sales growth slows

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp reported a quarterly profit that handily topped Wall Street estimates, but said it saw growth in some overseas markets soften as a U.S.-led recession went global.

Shares of the world’s largest hamburger chain were down 0.5 percent in afternoon trade after falling as much as 2.6 percent earlier in the session.

McDonald’s posted a 5.8 percent rise in worldwide December sales at restaurants open at least 13 months.

The results are still ahead of most other restaurant operators, but mark a slowdown from the company’s own November and October results, when McDonald’s said same-store sales rose 7.7 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.

Continue reading The Scotsman Abides.