No sexy kittens.

For the first time in ages, Alan and I are going to a Halloween party. Actually, we’re going to a killer Halloween party, Theatre Bizarre’s “The Initiation” at the Masonic. Costumes are mandatory. The ticket says those that obscure identity entirely are preferred. So. Hmm.

Alan, ninja shopper, immediately hit Etsy and fell hard for the plague doctor getups. He likes the idea of placing aromatic herbs in the snout to cleanse the miasma from the air, probably a good idea among the throngs at the Masonic.

As for me, he suggested this rabbit mask, perhaps worn with my black wool tail coat and my riding boots, for a March hare vibe, although I think it would also be arresting with a black velvet cocktail dress I might be able to wedge myself into. The price is ridiculous, but we’ve had a little good fortune lately, and I could justify it as an art purchase, as I’d certainly hang it on the wall afterward. Who doesn’t want a demonic leather rabbit face looking down on them in the living room?

Looking through the rest of the offerings from this particular shop, I wonder what sexual proclivity I might be advertising with my rabbit mask, unbeknownst to me. The rabbit is a symbol of fertility, after all. I’d hate to be followed home by some sort of Furry variant.

The Theatre Bizarre documentary trailer is online, and is entertaining, although you are warned of an outburst of profanity toward the end, so — NSFW, unless you’re using headphones. But some great imagery.

Sweet, sweet Friday. I thought you’d never get here. Only about three hours of assorted this ‘n’ that, and then the rest of you is mine-all-mine. The school year schedule has settled in, with a couple of new activities that virtually guarantee I will never nap again. Although Kate is the one I feel for — her homework load is ridiculous. On back-to-school night the counselor said two hours is standard for a student with a basic course load, and add an hour for honors classes. Her extracurricular is music, but not at school; she was prohibited from auditioning for jazz band because she’s not enrolled in the music program. (During what hour of the day? I wondered.) So she’s doing the youth program at the DSO, which is going to be great, but is demanding at a whole new level.

I guess it’s pointless to object, because this is The Way Things Are These Days, but it still bugs me. Every so often I read something worrying about the things teenagers can see on TV these days. TV? If your kid has time to watch TV for longer than a few minutes at a time, he’s not doing his homework.

So. Before I leave, a few words about fat.

When Mark Bittman wrote, the other day, that the campaign against fast food will have to be conducted at the cultural level and patterned after the one against smoking, I shifted in my seat a little. That’s partly because I enjoy an Egg McMuffin from time to time, and also because if you’re waging war against corporations in the name of public health, the collateral damage is going to be human.

Many fat people will tell you their condition is the last acceptable prejudice, and I don’t doubt it. People who would drive nails through their tongues before allowing it to speak the word “nigger” have no problem casting casual slurs at fat people, seeing it not as a thing one cannot change but as a character flaw. They have a point. We all know how to lose weight, and to the extent we don’t, well, it’s our choice. I’d argue that we all have character flaws, and if we’re lucky, they’re not visible to the world. We watch baroque pornography online, or harbor vile thoughts about others. We’re wearing our special underwear right now. We cheat on our taxes. We stole our best friend’s girlfriend, or maybe we just had a quickie that one time. We dream, late at night, about getting in the car, draining the bank accounts, and heading west without a word to those left behind.

This is all prompted by a discussion I find not just ridiculous but offensive, i.e., is Chris Christie too fat to be president? Michael Kinsley:

He is just too fat. Maybe, if he runs for president and we get to know him, we will overlook this awkward issue because we are so impressed with the way he stands up to teachers’ unions. But we shouldn’t overlook it — unless he goes on a diet and shows he can stick to it. … Controlling what you eat and how much is not easy, and it’s harder for some people than for others. But it’s not as difficult as curing a chemical addiction. With a determined, disciplined effort, Christie could thin down, and he should — because the obesity epidemic is real and dangerous. And the president inevitably sets an example.

There are many reasons to think Christie shouldn’t be president, but this isn’t one of them. And oh, I know — I’ve chuckled at fat-Rush Limbaugh jokes with the rest of you. And I laffed out loud at Cooz’s most recent expression of lyrical genius, filed just moments ago. But I’m going to decline to participate in the fat-bashing this time.

(Oh, and Michael Kinsley? How casually you state that fixing disordered eating patterns is less difficult than “curing” a chemical dependency. You quit heroin by not taking heroin ever again. A fat person trying to lose weight still has to eat. A while back my health-care searching kicked up a story out of Australia, in which a number of fashionistas told the truth and nothing but the truth about what they eat. One drinks hot water all day long before sitting down to a 1,200-calorie dinner. Another confesses to taking a daily over-the-counter cold medicine, because her doctor told her it would boost her metabolism by a tiny amount. That’s as fucked-up as any McDonald’s habit.)

Let’s end the fat hate. Just for a while, to see how we like it. And because I’m not totally dour on the subject, I’d like to unearth one of my favorite SNL sketches of all time, Bill Clinton at McDonald’s:

I love it because it gets to the truth about both Clinton and so many fat people — they are that way because their appetites, for everything, are large. I always thought Clinton’s fondness for chunk-making food was an expression of his essential generosity and love of people. Not to mention salt and grease.

So, some quick bloggage:

Lance Mannion considers Archbishop Timothy Dolan, darlin’ of the right.

You all were right about Officer Pepper Spray yesterday; I just wasn’t keeping up with the story. Jon Stewart takes it one step further.

And now, I’m off to (almost) start the weekend. Enjoy yours.

Posted at 10:14 am in Current events, Detroit life, Same ol' same ol' |
 

66 responses to “No sexy kittens.”

  1. moe99 said on September 30, 2011 at 11:06 am

    I had lunch with my ob/gyn last spring. She was downtown attending a medical seminar on obesity. It is the largest, unaddressed medical issue facing physicians these days. It causes a host of other medical conditions including diabetes and cancer. It’s not simply a social problem, it’s a medical problem as well. Perhaps someone could delineate for us the fine line to walk between ignoring it and addressing it.

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  2. Catherine said on September 30, 2011 at 11:13 am

    My sister is an OB and she says the same thing, Moe. Besides the accompanying medical conditions, doing a c-section on a 350-lb woman is no easy task. Sometimes she has trouble finding the baby.

    Now every time I steal one of my kids’ fries, I’m going to say, “Intercepted by a warlord.”

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  3. caliban said on September 30, 2011 at 11:34 am

    Obesity is neither just a social problem, nor just a medical problem, it’s a massive economic health care problem in the USA.

    Gov. Christie can haul his fat ass around talking about balancing budgetws on the backs of the poor, the elderly, and children and and lie like a GOPer rug, but people like him are a gargantuan part of the problem. But he’s ignorant as a flaming sack o’ turds, so why isn’t that good enough for children in NJ? Meanwhile, American obesity epidemic costs a lot more than WIC or SCHIP, that people like Christie and Newt and Rush would all choose to bankrupt. That is some self-referential bullshit hypocrisy, right there.

    And I’m buying myself that rabbit mask. Silflay hraka:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wie8q-CdY5k

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  4. Jason T. said on September 30, 2011 at 11:39 am

    I just wanted to highlight part of that quote from “Even the Liberal” Michael Kinsley:

    we will overlook this awkward issue because we are so impressed with
    the way he stands up to teachers’ unions.

    Won’t someone please save us from the hordes of rampaging schoolteachers? These animals want health insurance and pensions and regular, generous raises! Who do they think they are, congressmen and investment bankers?

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  5. LAMary said on September 30, 2011 at 11:48 am

    A couple of things, being fat doesn’t make a person a dangerous driver or an abusive spouse like alcohol does. It doesn’t support a criminal underground like drug use does, and there are actually healthy fat people. My grandmother lived to be 87. No diabetes, a little high blood pressure, but overall pretty healthy until she hit that “everything starts shutting down” phase happens when you’re elderly. My dad on the other hand was 6’7″ and weighed 220. Not fat at all. He died at 60 from alcoholism. The fact he never killed anyone while driving drunk amazes me. His drinking caused problems for at least a dozen other people on a regular basis. And while he never was an economic burden on anyone, if he hadn’t been a wealthy man he certainly would have been.
    His judgement was impaired by his addiction. Everyone around him had to deal with his addiction. My grandmother on the other hand had a hard time resisting marzipan and finding clothes she liked.
    Also, while an obese pregnant woman is problematic, a drunk or drug addicted pregnant woman brings a much bigger set of potentially tragic issues to the situation.

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  6. coozledad said on September 30, 2011 at 11:49 am

    That rabbit mask is cool. I like the plague doctor outfits, too. I never thought about how much they look like commedia dell’arte costumes until I clicked the link. Per Alex’s comment earlier this morning, maybe the idea of clowns has always been a manifestation of public dread. I didn’t drop quite enough acid to buy the whole “collective unconscious” thing, but sometimes causation and correlation do seem to overlap. Maybe that’s what they were talking about when they warned about flashbacks.
    Roy is on fire today, as usual, and the commenters are trying to distill the essence of Republican humor. I think it veers limply between the closely spaced poles of “Haw haw if you so smart why ain’t you rich?” and loosening the lids of saltshakers. It’s sad really. These people are trapped in a Dennis James telethon the whole of their natural lives.

    I don’t know if you read this, Nancy, but a hat tip to one of Roy’s regulars, Mrs. Tilton. I’ve never read anything that quite gets at the essential vileness of the Koch Brothers, and by extension, the soul of the Republican Party, like this story. They’re vulgar, preening and stunningly undereducated for all that money and privilege. God’s own dupes, too. If I had another 70 years to live I’d make a career out of separating these idiots from their cash. But it’s life-affirming to see others on the job.

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  7. LAMary said on September 30, 2011 at 11:53 am

    Off topic, did you notice that “Josh Jennings for Congress” got an award? That’s the first thing I supported on Kickstarter. This place got me started on throwing a few dollars to projects regularly.

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  8. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 30, 2011 at 11:58 am

    Caliban — hat tip to “Watership Down,” and last I checked, Richard Adams is in his 90s but still with us. His “The Girl in a Swing” is a stunning book that is altogether unappreciated, maybe because it’s Stephen King meets Charlotte Bronte. Just an amazing piece of writing — as is “Watership Down.”

    Hazel lives!

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  9. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 30, 2011 at 12:08 pm

    Back on thread: Sunday is Ken Burns time again on PBS, this time with “Prohibition.” There’s so much to say on this subject, and he will no doubt get to most of it, but on our conversations about food and fat and addiction, watch what Burns will have to say (all too briefly I’m sure) about the Temperance movement’s history.

    What’s little known is that Temperance has deep roots BEFORE the Civil War. Joking, including my own, aside as to the Whiskey Rebellion and my revolting ancestors, but the distillation of grain products was both necessary, yet highly compulsive in early America, especially on the frontier. Says the guy with a nearly empty bottle of Maker’s Mark in the pantry.

    The amount of hard liquor drunk on the American frontier startled observers like de Tocqueville, Mrs. Trollope, and Dickens. Early Mormonism and Methodism each adopted fairly rigorous views on hard alcohol consumption — which morphed into anti-wine & beer stances only later, with contortions Burns will discuss in the series about the odd side-effects of Prohibition — because of the degree of damage they were seeing in the social fabric.

    Some scholars wonder about the whole “Albion’s Seed” tendency of the Scots-Irish settlers, along with the genetic vulnerability of Native American people, to create a culture of addictive consumption. There’s a midcountry bubble of serious drinking that turned into serious eating which now is accompanied by serious prescription abuse which adds up to make you at least go “hmmmmm.” We just don’t do anything by halves, it’s all-in or walk away, and our patterns of habituation, whether Kentucky bourbon, more gravy, or breaking into grandma’s house for Oxycodone, all have some close parallels.

    For what it’s worth.

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  10. alex said on September 30, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    I remember in college when studying the Canterbury Tales, particularly the Wife of Bath’s tale, she was described as gap-toothed and fat. The prof explained that both attributes were considered very sexy in old England, particularly obesity, as it was associated with wealth and a life of ease.

    Today you can’t be too rich or too thin, so the saying goes, and obesity is associated with poverty.

    I know some people who have a genetic predisposition to heaviness, so I don’t think fat-bashing is fair, but we do have a serious public health problem with no easy solution. People who feed their children fast food and junk food exclusively might as well be plying them with cigarettes and alcohol; it’s just as bad for them. I’ve been told by health care professionals that there are people who put Mountain Dew in baby bottles and think nothing of it.

    These days, trying to educate those who need it most is called “elitism” and “nanny statism,” but I sure hope that somehow we can raise public consciousness to the point that businesses like McDonald’s will feel compelled to tell people to eat responsibly, just as the booze makers remind people to drink responsibly.

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  11. moe99 said on September 30, 2011 at 12:13 pm

    LA Mary, you make valid points, but 2/3 of the American population is either overweight or obese, which makes this problem far more widespread, although not as immediately dangerous, perhaps.

    http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2010/July/16/FT-obesity-workplace-costs.aspx

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  12. caliban said on September 30, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    Jeff, Girl in a Swing is as spooky and creepy as any Stephen King book, tremendously atmospheric. If you enjoyed that, you should read The Black House, by Paul Theroux, but mainly in daylight. Bewwy Scawy, as Data said. Of course, the great ghost story novel is Turn of the Screw.

    I read something that said that the characters in Watership were based on real people that Adams fought alongside in WWII. The anthropomorphic characterization is a pretty amazing achievement, I think. Personally, my favorite is Plague Dogs, with Snitter and Rowf. I love that book.

    Speaking of books, whoever it was a few weeks ago that brought up Mary Doria Russell, thanks. I’m in the middle of The Sparrow, and it’s terrific. Only things I could compare it to are other great theological novels like the Perelandra books and War in Heaven. Fascinating science fiction with erudite and thoughtful reflections on the nature of Faith, with dialogue in the heroic sf mode of Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. Superb book.

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  13. nancy said on September 30, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    I grant you everything about obesity as a public-health problem. I’m only pointing out that fat people are not only people, they are some of the best people I know, and I don’t think pointing and jeering is a very productive strategy to deal with the problem.

    I once saw a teenage mother go to the counter of a Wendy’s and ask for Hi-C in a bottle for a baby no more than three or four months old. The kid behind the counter looked college-bound, and asked her if she was sure about that twice. She finally got pissed, and he did as she asked. Just another dinner-hour moment in modern America.

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  14. maryinIN said on September 30, 2011 at 12:19 pm

    One problem with Christie’s weight (for him as a candidate) is that it can’t be hidden. I’m not excusing them if they are, but Obama may or may not still be smoking, GWB may or may not have been still drinking, and we wouldn’t know for sure, but Christie’s lack of self-discipline (some would say addiction, some would say gluttony) is out there for all to see. And yes, he looks and sounds like someone who says what he wants, does what he wants, eats what he wants and don’t dare question him, he’ll bite your head off if you do (like the lady who asked the question about his kids’ schooling). Maybe the attitude is one of self-defense from years of being the butt of jokes? One late-night humorist is being especially pointed in poking Christie right now, wonder what that’ll bring.

    I have wondered what the rest of Christie’ family looks like. Sometimes the poor dietary habits are family-wide. If true of this family, I do feel bad for his kids (any kids actually) as they aren’t old enough to make better decisions until the damage has already been done. In their case I imagine it’s painful to see a parent criticized for something you probably realize is a quality of yours as well and that it seems like it could have been prevented at some point, so why didn’t the parents prevent it? What a complicated situation. Maybe his visibility will be illuminating for some people and that would do some good. Unless attitude gets in the way.

    All that said, we all know that lack of EXERCISE is a main component of obesity. That needs to be addressed in multiple ways, too.

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  15. brian stouder said on September 30, 2011 at 12:19 pm

    And Jeff, my understanding is that a major part of Burns’ docu will focus on the societal jujitsu by which the religious/moral movement became an irrepressible political tidal wave, changing our Constitution for a decade and a half before getting deleted.

    Rachel Maddow made the point that we have pondered before, on other issues: when people put “rights” to a vote, they almost always vote to take them away. (coupled with the Mark Twain quote about how the most pressing moral shortcomings that need to be addressed are other people’s!)

    edit: which is to say, this is why I take TeaParty talking points seriously; these people have caught a bolt of lightening, and they intend to use it (think debt ceiling/gov shutdown extremism. We’ve seen this sort of righteous “damn the consequences” political thinking, before!)

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  16. nancy said on September 30, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    Oh, and “Prohibition” is based almost entirely on Dan Okrent’s book, so if you read it, you already got most of the information. I’m sure Burns will have many wonderful visuals, however, not to mention that great ’20s music.

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  17. Little Bird said on September 30, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    Aren’t the folks who are loudest about others butting out of their dietary choices also the same people who want to decide my reproductive rights for me? Which one seems like a more private personal issue?

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  18. adrianne said on September 30, 2011 at 1:03 pm

    Bill Clinton, he of the “are you goin’ to eat those fries?” fame, is now a thin man, thanks to his heart surgery and Chelsea’s inveighing on him with a vegan diet. Somehow he looks fragile to me, not very healthy, but what do I know?

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  19. coozledad said on September 30, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    I can’t read anything about Timothy Dolan without thinking of this: Curiously, it still fits after all these years.

    Fleming knelt down, squeezing his hands under his armpits, his face contorted with pain; but Stephen knew how hard his hands were because Fleming was always rubbing rosin into them. But perhaps he was in great pain for the noise of the pandybat was terrible. Stephen’s heart was beating and fluttering.

    –At your work, all of you! shouted the prefect of studies. We want no lazy idle loafers here, lazy idle little schemers. At your work, I tell you. Father Dolan will be in to see you every day. Father Dolan will be in tomorrow.

    He poked one of the boys in the side with his pandybat, saying:

    –You, boy! When will Father Dolan be in again?

    –Tomorrow, sir, said Tom Furlong’s voice.

    –Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, said the prefect of studies. Make up your minds for that. Every day Father Dolan.

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  20. Jakash said on September 30, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    “We dream, late at night, about getting in the car, draining the bank accounts, and heading west without a word to those left behind.” Oh, it’s supposed to be nighttime when I do this?

    This is off-topic, but the winds have been howling in Chicago, resulting in waves off Lake Michigan causing havoc on the bike path that runs beside it. Here’s video of some bikers and joggers who will be reporting “the sea was angry that day, my friends.”
    http://www.nbcchicago.com/weather/stories/Huge-Waves-Knock-Down-Bikers-Close-Path-130848718.html

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  21. Jeff Borden said on September 30, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    As evidence that a large girth is anathema in modern politics, I would point to Mike Huckabee, who has lost and kept off an enormous amount of weight over the past several years. (There is still a Christmas photo of him and his family from years ago floating around and, folks, that was a family of very, very large people in both generations.) Given Huckabee’s interest in the White House, I would wager he lost the weight for both his health AND his career.

    I should never be allowed to weigh in on the weight issues of others because I’ve been blessed with a metabolism that mostly allows me to eat what I like and not gain weight. Perhaps this is nature’s balance for robbing me of my hair? I can’t imagine what it must be like to be craving a cheeseburger or an Italian beef, but substituting a container of yogurt or a salad with oil and vinegar.

    The only time I get irritated in on airplanes and the el, where very large people spill over into my space. Whether or not this is an actual bias, I can’t deny thinking to myself when standing in line to board your average cramped, dirty airliner that I hope the huge guy in front of me is not my seatmate.

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  22. LAMary said on September 30, 2011 at 1:46 pm

    It’s lack of exercise but it’s also the huge numbers of calories people take in. I’m 58, and when I was a kid there were no microwaveable hot pockets or fast food places. You ate home made food together at the table. Even if breakfast was bacon and eggs, it wasn’t accompanied by a mochaccino with whipped cream. At least at our house whipped cream was something special, as were cake or ice cream. French fries were exotic. Dinner was meat or fish with two vegetables and some boiled potatoes. There were not many fat kids, and I don’t remember any fat adolescent boys at all. Now, I drive past a middle school every day on my way to work, and I see kids who weigh at least 350 pounds.
    I think some of it has to do with people not being grown ups anymore. It used to be that grown ups considered some things treats. No treats anymore. Every day is like a birthday party, where you can eat anything you want. They market Disneyland to grown ups, video games to grownups, and I see more adult women than young girls wearing Hello Kitty shit. Movies are comic books and recycled TV shows.
    And yes, I’ve seen someone put Pepsi in baby bottle. Hell, they sell baby bottles that look like Seven Up and Dr. Pepper bottles.

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  23. caliban said on September 30, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    Fascinating good news. I think somebody needs to hire either Robert McCall or the Jim Cavieziel character from Person of Interest to protect this guy from the power industry and the oil companies.

    Christy claims to be 5-11, around 270 but he looks more like 5-8, 3bucks+ to me. I don’t despise this guy for being a tub o’ Guts, I despise his intensely anti-social political ideas and his bloated hypocrisy on social issues.

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  24. Jakash said on September 30, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    “A fat person trying to lose weight still has to eat.” To me, this is the crux of the problem.

    Jeff B., you ARE blessed to have such a metabolism. As my metabolism has changed, so have my eating patterns. If I ate like I did when I was 20, I’d weigh twice what I did then, I imagine. Instead, as each decade passes, I try to adjust my diet, always in the direction of less and less fun stuff, with the unsatisfying result that, instead of twice as much, I weigh maybe 30 pounds more than I used to. I can eat the salad and the yogurt instead of the cheeseburger and the Italian beef, and I do, for the most part. But what I have a problem with is not eating way too much salad, or whatever virtuous foodstuff I have in front of me. I’m good on going cold turkey on things, but you can’t do that with eating. Certainly, I’d have to also admit that, while I exercise, I’m not nearly as athletically active as I used to be, so it’s not JUST the food component involved.

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  25. Jolene said on September 30, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    Long-term weight loss is almost impossible to sustain. The statistics on losing lots of weight and keeping it off are beyond daunting, and Mike Huckabee is no exception. He did lose a lot of weight, but check out his show on Fox or a recent photo; he’s regained much of what he lost.

    The body treats calorie reduction as a threat to survival, slowing down metabolically as food is withdrawn. There’s no doubt that both our eating habits and our (non)exercise habits are problematic, but nature is not on our side either. It’s not just the U.S. We are way out front, but the rest of the world is getting fatter too. Michelle Obama’s emphasis is right, as prevention–however difficult–is easier than losing weight as an adult.

    Speaking of throwing a few dollars toward causes you support, today is the last day of the quarter, which means that political campaigns are pushing hard to beef up their totals so that they can sound formidable by reporting big numbers. The Obama campaign is offering a dinner w/ the prez to four people drawn from the ranks of current contributors–not good odds, of course, but a better value than a lottery ticket.

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  26. Linda said on September 30, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    As a former fat person, I would like Mr. Kinsley to screw himself sideways, up the ass, with a pineapple. I lost 100 lbs, and am keeping it off (4 years running), but it is damn hard–pretty much another part-time job. In order to do it, I’ve had to cut my eating seriously below what a normal skinny person would eat, and work out 5x a week, and it’s still hard. And, as was pointed out, I still have to consume the stuff that’s hard to control several times a day, which people with substance abuse issues don’t. And you know what? I know lots of fat people who run their lives well, and who I would put in charge of this country in a minute. Lots of skinny people are a mess with money, or a mess on their jobs, or a mess in some way that doesn’t offend the current aesthetic taste, so everybody thinks that they are fine. Screw you seriously, Mr. Shallow. The size of your body is not who you are.

    If you ever told me that the dumbest thing ever written about the campaign would come from Michael Kinsley, I wouldn’t have believed you. But it’s like the universe has gone into full bizzaro mode in the last 5 years.

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  27. Chris in Iowa said on September 30, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    Thank you, Linda, for saying some things I’ve wanted to say all day.

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  28. Jolene said on September 30, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    On a lighter note, did you all see this picture of Michelle Obama shopping at Target? She’s said to have bought dogfood and toys for Bo. I like the picture, but, if I were she, I think I’d use my incognito shopping opportunities to do something a bit more exotic.

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  29. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 30, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    Cooze, continue to forge in the smithy of your soul our uncreated conscience. There may not be a demand for it in the marketplace, but like Nancy’s mask, we can always at least hang it on the wall of our study and glance at it from time to time. Welcome, O life! L’chaim.

    On the other hand, I thought Robinson’s column was just plain lazy. Look, dislike him and critique his Romneyesque approach with a Jersey Shore ‘tude, but that was even more slothful cheap-shotting-ness than Kinsley’s airball.

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  30. Judybusy said on September 30, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    Jakash, thanks for the video–it looks as if some of those people could have gotten seriously hurt, so I hope they’re all OK.

    Thanks, Linda for adding your experience. Losing weight does take a lot of effort–in 1997/1998 I lost 25-30# as a side benefit of doing the Twin Cities to Chicago AIDS Ride two years in a row. While training, I rode many, many miles 5 days week and the second time, began spin classes four times a week. It got me hooked on spin classes and lifting weights. I’ve been able to maintain since then, but I am a bit more like Jeff Borden, though, in that I don’t have to work hard to maintain.

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  31. Jolene said on September 30, 2011 at 5:42 pm

    A better article re Chris Christie’s fitness for the presidency by Ezra Klein.

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  32. caliban said on September 30, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    Jeff (MMO) Have you read Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, no not that annoying pure D Doofus Mark Halperin, about the development of NYC (as much as anything). He has another novel called Refiner’s Fire, that I think is even better. Nobody in my family agrees. There was a time we all read the same books based upon each others’ recommendations. We knew who was trustworthy. We developed fictional loyalties, had monumental arguments, in which I was usually ganged up on. For some reason, I always think the best book is the one everybody else places second. V is better than Gravity’s Rainbow. Both are great novels, but V is better-written, by a mile. Certainly more concise, and I’ve read both more than four times. Engine Summer is slightly better than Little, Big, which is truly awe-inspiring. So what started me on that tangent was the Joyce reference, to which Mark Helprin wrote the great expansive retort. Mr. Helprin, who served flying fighters for the Israeli Air Force, has also waged war on the theft of intellectual property inherent in current internet use and practice. He wrote a book on the subject which, agree with the thesis or disagree, anybody with a literary sensibility would have to admit is brilliant: Digital Barbarism.

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  33. maryinIN said on September 30, 2011 at 6:00 pm

    I would never say (or think) that fat people are less able to run their lives or do any job well, including president. Non-fat people can and do have plenty of unseen circumstances that would disqualify them or give us pause, if we knew. I am not obese, but I do weigh more than I should or would like, and I have relatives who are in the obese category. So I have seen and felt the struggle to lose significant weight and it is daunting. My concern for everyone overweight is the health consequences which are documented, the cost to families and society that poor health and/or early death bring, and the higher quality of life that could be attained both for individuals and society as a whole if money now spent on spiraling medical costs could be diverted to other needs, like education or mental health.

    This is only anecdotal, but…My mom lived for years in a retirement home, then assisted living. Everyone there was a ripe old age, of course. I recall seeing very, very few, if any, obese people in these places. The normal weight gain you’d expect to see from aging and suddenly living less active lives, yes, but no one that I ever saw entered there really obese. I did draw a conclusion from this observation, unscientific as it was.

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  34. caliban said on September 30, 2011 at 6:46 pm

    Well, MaryIn, Gov. Lardass proved he couldn’t handle the job. didn’t he? I wouldn’t be willing with a shotgun to my head to claim this guy isn’t some asshole that doesn’t think he should be fed before those Blind shitheel GOPERs that thing somebody is still trying to stw

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  35. caliban said on September 30, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    WHAT WE SAY/ no ahit

    what hilarioud sh9t. Q43n 23 nm040nw. Please forgivw, but thT Aholw ia A Dt YOU Xn possivly be. @3n kissing Is anyb0dANot what I’d clain. What you said I didn’t mean whatevwe, Tou be NQ5bb8 ag7v49 o93 797ldb8b qt74,n697BN2

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  36. MarkH said on September 30, 2011 at 7:26 pm

    A little early for this from you, Caliban.

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  37. alex said on September 30, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    I’m living proof that smoking is possibly worse than weight, having had a heart attack at a relatively young age very likely due to the former. Heredity can play a part also, however. Though my parents both managed to be healthy and remain so in their old age, and smoked and drank hard spirits fairly well into middle age, each of them has one parent who died young of vascular disease and it’s quite possible I got those genes from either or both of my parents.

    It’s amazing what growing up on vitamin D whole milk, peanut butter, etc., has done for the Boomers and Gen-Xers. My brother and I, and all of our first cousins, are much taller and bigger-boned than the previous generation. Our parents, for the most part, are tiny, wiry little people.

    And I have no idea what environmental factors could be contributing to it but the current generation is having children with horrible asthmatic conditions like nothing that was this common when I was growing up. I wonder if the inhalers and things we didn’t have back then are saving a lot of lives that wouldn’t have made it past infancy otherwise.

    None of us knows when our number is up. I’m just thankful for the life I’ve had and hope to be around a while yet.

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  38. nancy said on September 30, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    Alex,

    Alan did some reporting on asthma some years back, and I recall that it was a disease that skewed high and low, lots of poor kids in urban shitholes and well-to-do ones in clean suburbs. As it’s basically an allergic reaction of the bronchii, the thinking goes that it hits the first group because they live in allergen-rich environments — roaches, lead paint, bad factories, car exhaust. The suburban kids seem to be victims of their own cleanliness. They don’t get enough exposure to environmental toxins to build up any immunity.

    I also recall that the thinking was very unsettled, however, and all the above may be crap. Although poor kids do suffer disproportionately, mainly because it’s a chronic disease that requires careful management, and all the odds are against them.

    But yeah, I remember asthma was something you saw here and there when I was growing up. Now it’s practically an epidemic.

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  39. Suzanne said on September 30, 2011 at 8:49 pm

    I certainly weigh more than I should, although not obese. It’s a combo of age related metabolism slowdown and the fact that I really hate to exercise. That said, I worked a temp job a while back and the only positive about it was that it made me feel thin. Cubicle sitting computer work combined with frequent trips to the snack machine for Twinkies and HoHos to eat on break before or after the cigarette made for a whole bunch of obesity. I wanted to stand up and scream “Eat something healthy!!”

    As for alcoholism, out here in rural Indiana, the stories of homemade whiskey drunk by the vat are local lore. People still don’t really consider out of control drinking a real problem. I sometimes wonder if these small rural towns will someday die from the weight of their own inbreeding.

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  40. KLG said on September 30, 2011 at 9:03 pm

    A couple of things:
    The Egg McMuffin is the only thing at MickeyD’s that resembles real food. They are delicious and are no worse for you than Eggs Benedict.

    What LAMary said. Back in my day (I’m only a little older than the proprietor), a full serving of Coke came in a 6.5-ounce bottle. Or about five Big Gulps (without ice). The 10-ounce bottle was “king size.” And there were no free refills of soft drinks in restaurants. No Super-sized orders in the relatively rare fast food joints.

    I teach in a medical school whose goal is to prepare primary care physicians. Bittman was right on the money. Fat people are going to take up most of my students’ time in the clinic.

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  41. coozledad said on September 30, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    My brother was asthmatic. None of the other three kids developed it, despite my mom’s heavy smoking. He likely inherited it from my grandmother, who lived ninety years with the assistance of an inhaler in the pocket of her sack dress.
    He also developed type 2 diabetes with peripheral neuropathy. The whole family’s arteries are garbage.
    Me and my elder sister have insufficient thyroid function. She opted for surgery and took synthroid for years. Her mood swings were worse than mine, apparently. I can’t even imagine what that was like for her and her former spouse. I quit taking thyroid medication because the dosages varied so widely between different pharmacies. I’d pick up a load of pills, take one and plunge into a heat like a freshly picked tomato. Not a sexual heat: more like a thirteen beer hangover heat. Sometimes I think there’s a link between insulin resistance and asthma, hypothyroidism, hypercholesterolemia, Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis, and arthritis.
    It’s probably mostly to do with insufficient cross breeding, and the steady erosion of telomeres. Diet might stave off death a few additional years, but you cannot petition your genetic heritage with prayer.

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  42. Linda said on September 30, 2011 at 9:58 pm

    The stuff about giant-sized servings leading to obesity have lots of validity. Someone (whose parents ran a luncheonette) noted that the lunch his folks served was usually a two oz burger, on a small bun, with 3 or 4 oz of fries, and a 5 oz coke. Now that would be called a snack. “Healthy” muffins are half as big as somebody’s head–it’s like eating a half loaf of bread for a snack.

    What makes me go hmmm is the efforts of employers to get their employees healthy. It often involves food nagging and smoking bans–but never adequate rest. My neighbor’s 2 daughters are hospital nurses, and they work crazy-long hours. That may be why so many nurses seem to live on junk food and cigarettes. Hospitals, try hiring enough people and let your staff get enough sleep–which is shown to have a relationship with weight and overeating.

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  43. alex said on September 30, 2011 at 10:28 pm

    Pancreatic cancer is another one of those things that used to be rare and has become commonplace. My father’s brother died of it. He was a chemist who had a career in both pharmaceuticals and processed foods. He worked for both Searle and Kraft. He was probably a guinea pig for the temporary lobotomizing effects of your Prozac and the essences and dyes of your Cheez Whiz, and lord only knows which one fried his innards. (His big claim to fame was developing foods for the space program that could be compact in size, provide all necessary nutrients and be sucked out of teensy packets of vacuum-packed plastic.)

    It has been noted that breast cancer is an affliction of western nations. Women in Asia don’t have it at the same rate as women in the U.S., but Asian women living in the U.S. are as prone as the Americans. Some theorize that it’s the pesticides on produce.

    Living in the Misinformation Age as we do, a good rule of thumb is to be skeptical of those telling you what you want to hear, which is what marketing and advertising and PR are all about.

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  44. Deborah said on September 30, 2011 at 10:41 pm

    I know this is maddening to some people but I have been on the thin side most of my life. As I’ve aged I’ve acquired a tendecy to accumulate more but I fight it probably because I’m so unused to it. My daughter Littlebird and I have completely different body types. She has breasts and hips and I cant even imagine what that would be like. I am always curious about how people percieve themselves and thier bodies, this has always been a mystery to me.

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  45. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 1, 2011 at 12:30 am

    There’s a suspected link between obesity and chronic low-grade sleep deprivation, which is interesting on soooo many levels.

    Caliban, love Mark Helprin — I’ve read both, and “Antproof Case” which went over a line for me, but I liked Bolano’s “2666” so it may just have been circumstantial. Helprin wrote the best speech Bob Dole ever delivered about Bob Dole, on the occasion of his (regretfully, obviously) resigning from the Senate to show his sincerity about running for President. Right gesture, wrong messenger, and Dole went on to do Pepsi and Viagra ads. But Helprin’s still writing, and teaching writing, with the glorious counsel: “write what you don’t know.”

    For fiction, I can’t imagine why you’d want to do otherwise.

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  46. Dexter said on October 1, 2011 at 1:22 am

    ROCKTOBER! This link takes you to a story about the Olde English D.
    One fine day I sat beside a stranger in Cleveland, watching the Indians play. He had a prominent Chief Wahoo tatted on his calf. He had another on his shoulder. He said essentially the same things this lady is saying about Detroit. Cleveland pride. I like people who love their cities. All good people.
    http://www.freep.com/article/20110930/NEWS01/109300444/Tigers-D-logo-shows-Detroit-pride-tells-story-over-time?odyssey=mod|mostview

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  47. Crazycatlady said on October 1, 2011 at 1:43 am

    I am obese. After a summer of feeling ill, and some frightening health symptoms, I had a sort of epiphany. I found out my diabetes was way out of control. My fasting blood sugar was in the upper 200’s. Normal fasting is 100. My cholesterol was at 300, and I can’t take statin drugs(Zocor) because of my liver problem. After fretting and feeling sorry for myself, I made several changes. I became a vegetarian, and I started eating whole grains, legumes and vegetables. No meat except fish three times a week. Steel cut oats only, with flax seed meal. A natural way to decrease cholesterol. 1 egg a week. Dairy foods are strictly non-fat yogurt, fat free cottage cheese, small amounts of milk. In a couple of months I have lost 35 pounds and feel great. I haven’t been to the nutritionist yet, but I think I’m doing good. And I enjoy trying new veggie recipes and cooking fun stuff like Indian food my family doesn’t like! And, of course, portion control. I feel full longer and am mindful of boredom eating. So I feel happy about my new path. And I will be healthy enough to take care of my spouse who won’t change his diabetic ways even when (not if) he becomes sicker as time goes on. I didn’t work as a nurse for 26 years without seeing EXACTLY what happens when the sugar finally catches up to you!

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  48. Crazycatlady said on October 1, 2011 at 1:51 am

    Oh, and speaking about Christie being too fat for the Presidency. Remember a few years back when Mike Huckabee was trying to run for president in 2007/2008? He had lost quite a bit of weight back then, and was rather svelte. He has gained most of the weight back.But he’s still a huge douchebag. So, fat or skinny, a jerk is still a jerk!

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  49. caliban said on October 1, 2011 at 5:52 am

    Christie is only too fat to be President because he wants to starve children by defunding WIC and wants to deny them health care for being fat pieces of shit while he gets health care and he thinks SCHIP is is a drag on the economomy. His fat ass ass is is a drag on the economomy. Can’t really say he’s the entire drag, but his inner Jabba is fairly well-known. He wants to starve children that benefit from WIC and he wants them to die if they benefit from SCHIP. He’s an asshole that would have croaked without public support. How is it possible that a Christian nation is down on feeding the poor? WWJD you assholes?

    And Christie is too fat, but he also espouses conservative bullshit that will guarantee that kids will starve, because he believes that poor people are robbing the rich poeople in some insane class warfare. Hard to claim. But you all have a great deal to make up for. Iggy and not MC-5, you are on the wrong-side of Detroit music, and SRC is better than all of that.

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  50. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 1, 2011 at 9:28 am

    Jabba? Don’t bring the Hutt clan into this — c’mon, their activities may be illegal, but they support an entire SECTOR with their economic investments and trade. Hutt space is relatively safe, and the planets are left to go their own way, almost a libertarian ideal if you want, with Jawas as the Gnomes of Zurich for Tattooine. But there’s no denying that Hutt dominance over the Middle Rim is . . .

    [edited, 3,000 words of Star Wars geekery]

    Anyhow — Han shot first!

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  51. beb said on October 1, 2011 at 11:39 am

    And Darth Vader didn’t object to his son being electrocuted…

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  52. caliban said on October 1, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    Okay, y’all. Jabba the Christie is way too obvious. But what the fat ahole is doing to a successful NJ education system merits more opprobrium than he gets for being tub o’ lard. And I don’t know anything about Star Wars mythology, but I was not surprised to find out that Darth Nader was Luke’s father. And what I said about SRC, well that Quackenbush boy manipulated sustain and feedback better than any guitar player ever:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EI2vYcsAho&NR=1

    And his brother on the Hammond B3 was not shabby either.

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  53. caliban said on October 1, 2011 at 3:07 pm

    I get it that fat jokes are rude, but as long as Christie wants to starve poor children, his avoirdupois is clearly fair game. Tough fatsos.

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  54. brian stouder said on October 1, 2011 at 5:19 pm

    Is it fair (or polite, or effective) to comment on a candidate’s physical appearance?

    Nope.

    I think this is a case where saying nothing is the most effective thing to do. Leaving aside Chris Christie in particular, people will look at him and react to (whatever) they see all on their own, in any case.

    President Obama is black; Governor Perry is handsome and tongue-tied; Governor Romney is a very wealthy guy with game-show host looks (and, psssst – he’s a Mormon!); Bachmann is attractive and her husband has a strange job; and Christie is rotund and somewhat resentful and snippy.

    The only one benefit that our oddball 2011-12 Republican primary race offers (to the Republicans) is that it allows the R’s to ALL continue chanting “anyone but Obama!!” for a longer period of time. This would be quite enough in a palimentary system, where a vote of “no-confidence” would be enough to topple the chief executive – without regard to selecting who will take his place.

    But in our system, “anyone but Obama” isn’t good enough; they have to pick SOMEone, presumably from the field we already see on their debate stages (and not including Palin or Christie, I think)…and as soon as they settle on that one person, President Obama and his campaign will relentlessly knock the stuffing out of THAT person (so to speak). And the eventual debates between the President of the United States and whoever those other people nominate will be comically one-sided, in favor of Obama; because it is not enough to surf the waves of anger and resentment; a serious candidate for president has to be FOR something.

    Is a person FOR “getting government out of the way” of the market, the better to maximize job creation? Sounds nice – but President Obama used government to save HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of job at General Motors (not to mention their many suppliers), and the government is being repaid directly, AND through the continued employment of that many taxpayers; I’m for THAT!

    Is a person in favor of defending America against our foreign and domestic foes? Fox News spent Friday attacking the president’s “scarey” decision to order the death of that American citizen who became a top Al Qaeda leader (Anwar al-Awlaki, we learn at http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/01/us-yemen-awlaki-idUSTRE78T0W320111001?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71 ), which was pretty comical. (FOX should be demanding to see Anwar al-Awlaki’s birth certificate, yes?! – Aside from that, who is against the President of the United States defending the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic?)

    And with regard to THOSE debates, the old canard about President Obama being too stupid to talk without a teleprompter in front of him will, for the millionth time, be demonstrably refuted by the way he runs circles around whoever the Republican nominee ends up being, when these Big Questions (the role of our national government, the responsibilities of our national government, international relations, and the like) come up for discussion.

    I think Romney actually would do the best versus Obama on the same stage, but I think his nomination – if it comes to pass – might actually split the Republican party in 2012.; and more is the pity if THAT happens – because if I had my druthers, I’druther that the R’s have no convenient excuse upon which to hang the crushing electoral loss they’re in for, versus the president.

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  55. caliban said on October 1, 2011 at 6:00 pm

    Brian,

    President Obama is black; Governor Perry is handsome and tongue-tied; Governor Romney is a very wealthy guy with game-show host looks (and, psssst – he’s a Mormon!); Bachmann is attractive and her husband has a strange job; and Christie is rotund and somewhat resentful and snippy.

    Which one doesn’t fit? I’d say that is skin pigmentation.

    Bachmann isn’t hideous, but other than that, she’s decidedly unattractive and her husband is a perfect example that you can’t pray the gay away. They believe it’s a choice. Perry is practically brain dead, apparently by choice. He is the most dangerous sort of ignorant. He chose ignorance, and the dumbass mofo embraces and flaunts it as if it’s a virtue. Nobody is a Mormon without choosing to believe in the Joseph Smith fairy-tale about the angel Moroni, and the golden plates. The bastard was a convicted conman.

    You may be right about the GOPer politics involved, but you are wrong about Anybody but Obama. He’s Sheriff Bart in this situation. Nobody wants to admit this, but I’m fairly certain it’s a fact. When he’s continually made out to be a Maumau and a Kenyan, and most ridiculously, a Muslim. People are hiding prejudice behind coded racist language and behavior.

    I make fun of Christie because he is an overfed fat cat that wants to starve poor people. Tough shit fatsos, I’m fine with y’all unless you vote for an asshole like that. As for the teleprompter shit, Reagan actually had Nancy try to move his lips, and W had a transmitter on his back to get prompting from his brain, Rove. Comments from rightwing about Obama’s intelligence are more racially fueled horseshit. Black guy couldn’t have gone to Harvard Law, right, and there wer several hundred editors of the Law Review.

    I hope you are right about the election, Brian. If you’re wrong, we’re cashing out and heading to Cabo, where at least we’ll get care when we get sick and grow old, without bankruptcy. Just have to pretend tequila tastes like Mr. Jack. I stuck out a moron being appointed twice, but any one of these assholes gets elected will confirm that the USA is bigoted to its core, and I’m never going to stand for that.

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  56. caliban said on October 1, 2011 at 7:10 pm

    When people become naturalized citizens, they swear: to protect and defend the United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.

    Can any Republican member of Congress or running for President, or anybody that would vote for these shitheels actually swear to that without lying?

    Can any weasel that signed on with Grover Norquist attest to that? In fact, hasn’t anybody that signed the Norquist pledge actually be anything but treasonous according to Article III, Section 3 of the USA Constitution? I mean, the language is straightforward and these assholes are Originalists, right? Yep, and they are traitors.

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  57. Jakash said on October 2, 2011 at 12:25 am

    Brian,
    That was a fine analysis you put forth there. Lord knows, I’d love to believe it will play out like that. If I hadn’t witnessed what happened in 2004 and the unflinching ability of certain big segments of the electorate to vote against their own interests, in favor of the incompetent guy they’d like to have a beer with, I’d be a lot more optimistic. (Not that anybody wants to actually have a nonalcoholic beer, or any other kind, with Romney.)

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  58. Dexter said on October 2, 2011 at 1:16 am

    crazycatlady, keep up the good work and the great attitude.
    Your post is a great inspiration. Our Farmer’s Market is held a couple days a week on the courthouse square, and I have been buying everything they offer except the honey one guy sells. Damn stuff looks so good, too, but as we know, “The bee is just another sugar refinery”.
    I sort of blew it this summer, getting in the habit of a large dish of ice cream daily. As the hot days dragged on, I began adding first chocolate syrup, then caramel syrup too, and then I took to adding a handful of blanched peanuts.
    And the empty gallon containers began to stack up…well, It’s Fall now, time to put away the white clothing and time to quit the vanilla ice cream for the winter at least.

    The Cincinnati Reds have a Mississippi native in the telecast and radio booths. His name is “The Cowboy Jeff Brantley” and he shills for UDF (United Dairy Farmers) . The Cowboy does a segment in which he tells of going to his local UDF store and ordering 4 dips of ice cream. This made me laugh as I sat eating eight dips with all the additives dripping off the mountain top.
    Now that I have quit ice cream for the next six months or so, I can eat more turnips and cabbage and onions and all the great stuff from the market before the killer frost harshes my mellow.

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  59. coozledad said on October 2, 2011 at 11:57 am

    Ranchers who once grazed cattle on the 1,070-acre parcel on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River called it [Niggerhead] well before Perry and his father, Ray, began hunting there in the early 1980s. There is no definitive account of when the rock first appeared on the property. In an earlier time, the name on the rock was often given to mountains and creeks and rock outcroppings across the country. Over the years, civil rights groups and government agencies have had some success changing those and other racially offensive names that dotted the nation’s maps.
    But the name of this particular parcel did not change for years after it became associated with Rick Perry, first as a private citizen, then as a state official and finally as Texas governor. Some locals still call it that. As recently as this summer, the slablike rock — lying flat, the name still faintly visible beneath a coat of white paint — remained by the gated entrance to the camp.
    When asked last week, Perry,
    still faintly visible beneath his white sheet, said the word on the rock is an “offensive name that has no place in the modern world, But this here’s a old-timey place, where you can kick back, shoot a couple groundhogs, and burn a cross if you need to. Gets right chilly at night, specially up at beaner…uh.. Mexican lake.”

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  60. Deborah said on October 2, 2011 at 5:32 pm

    Some poor guy drowned in Lake Michigan right near our building last night. The lake was extremely rough and they couldn’t get the guy out, they had to abandon the search for the body late last night and because so much mud was kicked up from the roughness they were not having any luck seeing him. They are back at it now, we can clearly see the boat and divers. The guy and his wife were swimming (?) at 9:30 last night or he fell in. The Breaking news online was confusing about what actually happened.

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  61. caliban said on October 2, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    How ’bout them Loins. For those of you who are not Detroit vets, Van Patrick, the voice of the Loins for years was simply incapable of pronouncing Liy-uns, the jungle and savannah cat. He said loins, which my brothers and I thought was hilarious. I’m surprised Van wasn’t one of the people Mitch was going to meet in heaven. I believe Mr. Patrick went the weather to sports to news route, but I might misrember. He was as heartfelt a homer rooter as there ever was, which is what one wants on local sports team telecasts. Johnny Most ruled (and he was absolutely correct about the Pistons):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFzYJ0HmQnk

    but Larry Munson was even better:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFzYJ0HmQnk

    They do sound a lot like each other. Deborah, people get in trouble on our beaches frequently and I’ve pulled several out. A few years ago I saw a guy get capsized on a riprap jetty, boulders with sharp edges, and a lifeguard said it was too dangerous to go after him. I told him I was a stronger swimmer than he was (I was pretty sure of myself) tied onto a line and puled the dumbass in. He was loaded and swimming where a vicious undertow was evident He actually had a fractured skull and other broken bones from being dashed on the rocks. It’s contra-intuitive, but in an undertow, you just have to relax, let it pull you under and spit you out offshore. I do it for fun, and one day, it may do me in. But what the hell. It sounds from the description of the L. Michigan storms that any venture into the water was dumb as shit, but I guarantee I would have gone in after that guy. I have no fear whatsoever of any ocean conditions. I always believe I’ll be fine.

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  62. Joe Kobiela said on October 2, 2011 at 7:40 pm

    Lions come back for the fourth game in a row.
    Walk a little taller in the motor city on Monday.
    Congrats
    Pilot Joe

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  63. KLG said on October 2, 2011 at 9:17 pm

    As a graduate of the University of Georgia, thank you for the link to Larry Munson. He could get a little excited back in the day. That was a good game. For us. Tennessee went ahead at the end, did a stupid squib kick to give UGA good field position, and the rest is history.

    Go Lions! Matt Millen gets the boot, hobnailed or not, and within a couple of years things start looking up.

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  64. caliban said on October 3, 2011 at 12:53 am

    When ou hVE TO CONSIDER THEIS BULLSJIT, DO YOU WANT W APPOINTING SOME SCUMBAG LIKE LONG FONG TO THE SUPREME COURT. TJOS GUY IS A PIECE O SHIT, HOW DO YOU DWWL bout aomw aumilR ACYMBAF RUVVER ARno dor AxKI? Rhwaw AAHOLWA QILL DUXK OVWE HOQ RGW XOURTA EULW, RHWY EW RHW AXry nonawnaw, ns you rKW RHIA IB OUE HNSA. RWPUVLICna qill mKW aaholwa rhR SON’T THINK QW Hcw hVWa righta. Acalia doesn’t think we do. But hw’a N ORIGINliat. He wANT’S RO MKW HIT UP.y

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  65. Dexter said on October 3, 2011 at 2:03 am

    After watching a great episode of “Boardwalk Empire” and then “Breaking Bad” and seeing the end of the St.L-Phila baseball game, HBO’s “Hung” came on at midnight. Some great video of nance’s sometimes Saturday morning place, Eastern Market, as well as some nice outdoor cafe and some street scenes, but this show is wearing thin as a latex SuperThin condom.
    Never has fucking, and that’s the only word that can convey these scenes, been so boring. This ridiculous show keeps getting renewed but they clearly have no worthy story angles and I hate it, and only watched it because I wasn’t ready to shut the tube off quite yet. Loud female primal screaming at “Ray” as he is hammering those asses from all angles , hell, the entire rhythm of the story lines is not “hot” in the least and is just plain awful in the worst way.

    I was watching the Lions, being slaughtered 27 to 3 deep into the third quarter down in Big D. I shut it off. Hours later I think I hear they won. I knew for sure in my mind the announcer had flipped the score. Nope. The Lions went nuts and WON. They beat Dallas in Dallas.

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  66. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 3, 2011 at 8:03 am

    Lions and Ravens and Packers are having a great year for their respective cities, but the Bears . . . oh, my. Chicago is just not in the winning zone these days. Maybe the Blackhawks can give us some joy.

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