Republicans & Conservatives: Archives

Oh comeon… That article was hilarious! All too real my foot. Let’s just laugh once in a while.

I fell out of my chair laughing…does that make it the fat guy’s fault that I hurt myself? Where’s my lawyer?

I have to agree w/ the first two posts here!(wow an actual agreement w/ Zeek and Big Kahuna…let’s celebrate!)

First of all NOTHING will save these types from themselves! All options mentioned are only temporary and you will be obese again if you don’t change your lifestyle!

Why doesn’t someone in Washington do something to help me? I have to sleep every night. Don’t they relize how that is screwing up my life?
Loved the article.

As sad as it is, there are actually people out there who would love to take him under “our” wing and have the government pay for treatment for him and others like him.

DON’T LAUGH.

Remember the round boys have sued McDonalds and the courts took their complaint seriously. We had a woman at the office who was so fat that her ankles literally buckled – twice. She required expensive surgery paid for by insurance. Everyone pays for her lack of discipline.

Some people are working hard to make fatness a disability that would be protected under the ADA. And many fat guys are convinced that it isn’t their fault.

The reason this article is funny is because it is close to the PC reality. That is also the reason it is frightening.

You are so right, The Onion is only marginally funny….that is your point, right?

How is this relevent? Yes an era of victimization ummmmm like the religious right they are sooo crucified in America right? No voice unable to get their message accross on the 1400 nation-wide if not worldwide radio and TV networks. PLEASE REPUBS check thine own laundry before thine spouts.

OOOOOH and how’s about that pro-altruistic liberal bias that the squeeky wheels have been droning on about for the last ten to fifteen years that never existed. What victims are the wealthy…will they ever be heard???

OR how’s-about the political correctness battle cry? Political correctness is there to keep your teeth in your mouth in the workplace really. And the reason it pops up in advertisements is because that is based on focussed marketing not a liberal agenda…Oh but wait you’ve been victimized by that too. Oh we liberals have really slammed in the crucifixial nails huh?

Keep a watch out for our black helicopters in Montana, yes never mind that that’s actually a republican supported DEA effort monitoring the Canadian border, you are the victims remember?

SHALL I GO ON?

First of all NOTHING will save these types from themselves! All options mentioned are only temporary and you will be obese again if you don’t change your lifestyle!

You are wrong in saying “NOTHING will save these people”, but right in saying that a lifestyle change is the only true way to save oneself from obesity.
The US government’s only responsibility is to help aid to reverse that trend by doing these things:
1. Educate our children about the consequences of eating too much, eating junk food and not exercising enough, etc… and maybe to educate adults as well in an effort to change the habits of our society at large.
2. Larger labels for nutrition facts and ingredients on manufactured food would also help the American population greatly.

Yes Warren, you have it sooo riiight! Woooo!

NOW TEN MORE…NINE MORE…EIGHT MORE!!!! Energy people I want to see some energy!!!!! Oldieeeees!

The U.S. Government has no responsibility to help people lose weight. It might be good public policy to educate etc, but using the “r” word is incorrect. It allows people to move the responsibility off themselves.

Some very small percentage of the population has a real gland problem that makes them fat. The rest are fat because of their own choices. They are not the victims; we are. The fat guys drive up the cost of health care. They squash us all in airplanes and buses. In many workplaces, they become disabled and require those little scooters that get in the way of everything.

The key to weight loss is just to eat less and move more. The rest is commentary. No mystery. No secret knowlege. And everybody knows this.

On the plus side, fat people who live in places without a lot of big trees are popular with small kids on hot sunny days for the shade they throw.

Fat people have been destroying our grocery store aisles atleast since the late seventies. Have you every mistakenly picked up a loaf of low-sodium bread or diet puddingpops? I freakin’ hate that!

If anything those fat bastards owe each of us atleast five grand in inedible crap that we were too lazy to take back.

On disabilities- sometimes it’s just being practical to label something a disability. For on thing, it might be true- the person may have glandular problems that makes proper weight control problematic, or become so excessive as to render the person unable to make a living. But for ordinary folks, Jack’s advices is good.

On the policy side of things, we may want to cut agricultural subsidies and controls that cheapen red meat and corn sweeteners. We’re making it cheaper to be irresponsible and excessive with one’s diet than we should be.

My personal experience with my weight has taught me a degree of compassion for those who have these problems. I’ve had my highs and my lows. But it’s also taught me that there’s a huge element of discipline to the whole thing.

concerned,

If anything those fat bastards owe each of us atleast five grand in inedible crap that we were too lazy to take back.

Are you aware of just how hypocritical this is? You’re “too lazy” so they should pay you? I’m just so struck by irony right now…

Am I the only one who sees the irony of the repubs of this column playing pin the tail on the presumed-to-be PC enthusiasts and not seeing their own party’s claims to being victims themselves? I’m aware that’s probably a run on sentence and all but it is a bit presumptuously black-kettle to say the least. Agree?

Whether it’s media that doesn’t support their viewpoint in entirity or thoughtpools on college campuses. they have claims to victimhood real or imagined. THE ASS-KICKER BEING government-guided and corporate-guided intervention being the remedial solution they propose.

Hello is this thing on?

Yes Zeek I am quite aware of it’s logistical ironies, it’s called a joke. I am too lazy to take back said item thus having bought an item I as a thinner person do not require with no ambition to return it. five grand would be the summative amount in a general ratio in contrast to what a person of thirty roughly would have spent on goods deemed inedible and/or of being of crappy taste by proxy of being dietetic.

Rest assured the irony was indeed not lost, thank you for your concern.

I worry about labeling anything a disability because under our laws it makes others responsible for it. Everyone has some disability compared with other people. An ordinary person is disabled when compared with a highly conditioned athlete. I also make a distinction about things that are at least partially under the individual’s control. It is harder for some people to lose weight than it is for others, but it is under some control by everyone.

Calling things a disability can also lead to actually making it one. I lived in Norway for four years. Norwegians (at least back then) are just tougher than Americans on average. You find almost no fat people in the whole country. Genetically, they are identical to many Americans who in fact emigrated from Scandinavia. The food is not that low calorie, but the difference is that people walk instead of drive. In America, when a person has trouble walking (not can’t walk, that is different), he gets a little scooter. In Norway when a person has trouble walking, he gets crutches. This may seem cruel, but the guy with crutches can often walk as fast as an average person. He has a disability, but he is not disabled.

So many things are lifestyle related. Diabetes is increasing because people have bad habits. Heart disease can hit anyone, but it comes often from bad habits. Various kinds of cancers (most obviously lung cancer) come mostly from bad habits. AIDS results from lifestyle choices in most cases. We can complain about the unfairness of these afflictions and should not “blame†the victim, but we also need to understand that the victim has (or had) the power to prevent them. Maybe our compassion should be tempered. After all, if we treat the fat guy as a victim, we might be encouraging (or at least not properly discouraging) several more to follow is wide path to perdition.

Lateralist

Please go on, your blog is more hilarious than the one that started.

Lateralist…

No one wants to waste their time with you…but please go on and on and on…

What it all comes down to is self control. Legitimate medical problems are different and should be handled like any other medical problem.

Here’s obese education 101:
1)Eat less
2)Exercise more.

Everyone wants that magic bullet!

I know first hand, me and my two sisters recently(Dec.) opened a fitness center and people want to come in once a week and ride the bike for 15min. and expect a miracle! They complain and complain and when you hit them w/ facts about what it takes to become physically fit they blow you off!

Rest assured the irony was indeed not lost, thank you for your concern.

I was just very very f’n concerned is all 8|

The issue with disabilities is being able to get help and accommodations. The problem of disability that you complain about sounds like a cultural an in some ways infrastructural problem.

As a person with Asperger’s Syndrome, essentially a very high functioning version of autism, I know what it is to live in that grey area of being smart enough and able enough to get by in the world, but having significant problems (in my case social skills, time management, tunnel vision attention, personal space issues, and difficulty with chaotic, informal systems) that prevent me from fully realizing my potential.

Now, the times I have tried to live my life without acknowledging the need for help, or the need to get accomodations, things have ended up badly, particularly since my high functioning nature lets many problems get dismissed as personality issues rather than neurological issues.

I think that for people with weight problems, disability should be an option only when there is no volitional control over it (as with glandular problems), or if it has become a medical condition that overwhelms a person’s ability to function.

Otherwise, though, I think people should do what it seems is the consensus on this site to do: eat well and exercise.

Cliff,

My point is this; the right has made multiple claims to being victims and thusly to pin it on the left as the gov-intervention or corporate intervention cry-babies entirely. Let me throw out a concession to the right yes there is an ultra-liberal strain that has asserted to re-regulate everything to fit with the ills of society as they see it and to this I have a problem with the left on several points. Being that regulation isn’t the answer in most cases and not constructive or even for that matter cost-effective. Beaurocracy is an idiot giant often bereft of logic.

BUT the right has made many veiled and unveiled assertions to being victimized and in need of such measures of intervention (governmental and otherwise). My contention is that victims reside all over the political map and fcourse some claims are genuine and some should line the floor of a bull pen somewhere.

There is no age of victimization just people bitchin and looking for remedies from hierarchical superheroes. So the right asks is this what we’ve come to and the answer is that it isn’t anything remotely new, at all. It’s a trite point to assert an age of victimization everyone wants big brother to fight all of their battles for them INCLUDING the right-wing.

Am I wrong?

Lateralist,

My point is this; the right has made multiple claims to being victims and thusly to pin it on the left as the gov-intervention or corporate intervention cry-babies entirely.

So has the left. Wow, they’re all a bunch’a cry babies, big surprise.

BUT the right has made many veiled and unveiled assertions to being victimized and in need of such measures of intervention (governmental and otherwise).

Uh, hello? The left does this all the time too. No one side is perfect, and the “other” side’s imperfections do not make your’s any better.

Am I wrong?

No, you’re just not telling the whole truth.

Zeek,
I’m impressed!!

Your absolutely correct, no one side if perfect.

The concern with not helping anybody out because it might turn people into virtual welfare queens is somewhat justified, but also somewhat misleading. Some parts of the ADA deal with workplace accomodations and tax write offs for those employees they have that are disabled. In that, it improves the optimum efficiency of the system by employing those whose talents might otherwise be lost to the system. If someone were to say obesity should not be so accommodated under most circumstances, I’d agree. The problem comes where the folks here dismiss disability claims on the basis that they believe everybody involved is a slacker or a sissy for not toughing out the system as it is. The problem with pure competition is that it never takes an optimum shape, just that which requires the least energy to maintain. That may not always be an ideal or sustainable state for a society to deal with.

There are many things that can be done to actually help people who have a weight problem, but I like the government’s approach to cigarettes best. Warning labels that make sense. Nutrition labels that you can read and understand. Examples? Sure.

How about these warning labels…

THE SURGEON GENERAL HAS DETERMINED THAT: Eating this will make your ASS FAT!

THE SURGEON GENERAL HAS DETERMINED THAT: If yo eat this, you’ll NEVER fit into a size nine…EVER!

Or…

THE SURGEON GENERAL HAS DETERMINED THAT: IF YOU EAT THIS, YOU’LL HAVE TO DO 270 SIT-UPS, 730 PUSH-UPS, OR RUN 76 MILES TO BURN IT OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM.

Oh, wait! If forgot. We live in PC times. With that in mind…

THE SURGEON GENERAL HAS DETERMINED THAT: If you eat this very fattening food, it’s not your fault. You can blame government, society in general and anybody or anything…because it’s not your fault. Feel good about yourself. Have a joy-joy day. Live long and prosper. Na-nu Na-nu.

Or how about real-life nutritional labels like:

THIS PRODUCT IS NOT FOOD. IT IS CHEMICALLY ENHANCED, ARTIFICALLY FLAVORED CRAP!

You know…real life labels. Labels that actually tell you what’s in the food you eat.

Just a thought…

Jim T.

AWESOME!!! I love it!

I would actually offer my tax dollars to those types of labels!:)

Jim T.

That was hilarious!

Jim T,

Awesome post! If you ever decide to start selling food products with those labels, I’ll buy the just for the entertainment value!

I have heard people called overweight, heavy, fat, obese and morbidly obese.

With the exception of a very small segment of the population with bonifide medical problems, nobody fits into these catagories because of faults other than their own.

I sympathize with people who are “overweight” if they are making a genuine effort to reduce. That effort however must be at their own expense and risk.

Those who simply are eating themselves to death IMO bear no further discussion.

I tend to agree that education as to the pitfalls of pysical and mental harm of obesity is a viable answer. That education however can be part and parcel of the public (or private) educational system.

A huge problem is that obesity invites health problems, most of which are severe. Then, the insurance, both private and Medicare have to be used. This obviously is a contributing factor to rising health costs.

“Eat, drink and be merry” - responsibly and in moderation.

Wow Zeek thanks for making the same point I just got done making this morning. Both do it, wow man you are a clever one can’t compete with you, you’re just too swift—catchin’ people in everything(sarcasm).

And then Kevin agreeing with you what an exclamation point to a point already previously made this morning.

How does one call the republican kettle black with you fellers around?

(applause)…(Elvis voice)Thank ya…Thank ya…Thank ya verry much…

Now, ‘Cilla, han’ me that peanut butter and ‘nanner sammich…

Just because this whole topic has been a little fruity…here’s a joke for ya’ll!!

Subject: difference between potentially and realistically

A young boy went up to his father and asked him, “Dad, what is the difference between potentially and realistically?”
The father thought for a moment, then answered,
“Go ask your mother if she would sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars.”
“Then ask your sister if she would sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars,
and then, ask your brother if he’d sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars.
Come back and tell me what you learn from that.”
So the boy went to his mother and asked,
“Would you sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars?”
The mother replied, “Of course I would! We could really
use that money to fix up the house and send you kids to a great University!”
The boy then went to his sister and asked, “Would you sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars?”
The girl replied, “Oh my God! I LOVE Brad Pitt I would sleep with him in a heartbeat, are you nuts?!?!?! “
The boy then went to his brother and asked,
“Would you sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars?” “Of course,” the brother replied. “Do you know how much a million bucks would buy?”
The boy pondered the answers for a few days, then went back to his dad.
His father asked him, “Did you find out the difference between potentially and realistically?”
The boy replied, “Yes… Potentially, you and I are sitting on Three Million Dollars………….. but, Realistically,……… we’re living with two Sluts and a Queer.”

Lateralist,

Wow Zeek thanks for making the same point I just got done making this morning.

No problem. Next time, if you stop beating the dead horse, I won’t have to.

Both do it

And yet that was not the way you were framing it at all. Hm, maybe you should stop pretending that you’re just as hard on the Democrats as the Republicans because you’re not.

How does one call the republican kettle black with you fellers around?

Do you have a point? Or do you just enjoy repeatedly using the simile, “call the kettle black?”

Traci,

Over the passed few days I have been getting the heck knowcked out of me in these threads simply because I am a right wing conservative.

Your post was brilliant about the million dollar deal. I loved it.

Steve~

Keep your head up boy! I’m in your corner! (That could be a very scary corner though!)HEEHEE

Lateralist,

Zeek said it all… (Thanks Zeek)

Steve,

Over the passed few days I have been getting the heck knowcked out of me in these threads simply because I am a right wing conservative.

Sorry if any of that was me. I certainly hope you don’t feel I’m bashing anyone simply because of their political typology.

Lateralist,
I’m sorry I didn’t give you the props that you so obviously need to feel good about yourself. I don’t hang out with people who need my blessing to feel better about themselves, so forgive me for not feeding your own insecurities with positive reinforcement.

I love the onion. I agree, that article feels a little too close for comfort, doesn’t it? As does this one:

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4123

“In a striking departure from centuries of American belief in rule of law, President Bush gave his approval Monday to a limited experiment in public vigilantism “to see if it works.” “

“I’m not sure vigilantism is in the best interest of the nation,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said. “Vigilantes are bad, aren’t they? I read The Ox-Bow Incident in high school. They ended up hanging the wrong guys in that book, I think. That sort of situation could lead to a major problem for the government.”

————————

heh, heh.

I got something pretty simple. You know those labels you see on most food products?

Well, have the fast food restaurants put that stuff out there on a chart: Big Mac, 600 calories, 400 from fat, etc. People may still eat it, but at the ghost of mister Kilocalorie will be haunting every bite.

Matt Hogan:

I just finished reading your post, Thank You for one the most entertaining pieces (Sad but true) I have read this year, I am still laughing.

As Always,
Wayne

Zeek,

“Sorry if any of that was me. I certainly hope you don’t feel I’m bashing anyone simply because of their political typology”

No Zeek, everything is cool. I was just being sarcastic. A day or so ago I was the only conservaitive in a thread (or at least the only one voicing my usual radical views) and could hardly keep up with you guys. It was fun, I don’t mind at all. Keep it coming.

Stephen,

Well, have the fast food restaurants put that stuff out there on a chart: Big Mac, 600 calories, 400 from fat, etc.

Let’s face it man, the happier people are when they eat their McGreaseburger, the happier McDonalds is. The would fight tooth and nail any such law that would require them to put the food nutritional facts on the food packaging itself because that sort of stuff is bad for business.

Well, I’m gonna go eat at McDonalds for dinner tonight, so I better phone my lawyer.

It’s increasingly evident that we aren’t capable of saving ourselves.
We don’t take responsibility for anything anymore.
We blame everyone else, but ourselves.
We are fat, lazy, apathetic, complacent, and it’s all someone elses fault.
It’s just down right sickening.

Well, don’t worry…help is on the way.
Soon, obesity won’t be a problem, because there won’t be enough food, or energy for electricity, or jobs to pay for any of it. And if you have a job, you won’t have gasoline to put in your car to get to work, or the grocery store. You’ll have to walk. The pounds will start falling off like crazy. And, we can blame everyone (all of us) for letting it happen. It is all our own doing, but only we can undo it.

Zeek and Stephen:

Actually, when I was a kid, I recall McDonalds voluntarily putting up such nutritional information in at least one of its locations. I don’t remember it really hurting their business.