December 5, 2011

Quick Bites: Don't Feed the Demons

  • Obese people should be demonized the way smokers have been demonized, even though obesity is usually the result of more than one factor and is fundamentally different than smoking. This demonization of fatness would be basically okay since there is money at stake. That's the boiled-down version of the argument made by Shannon Brownlee of the New America Foundation (a liberal think tank) in Time Magazine. She actually uses the word "demonize."  

"Maybe it’s time to be at least a little more willing to similarly demonize excess poundage," writes Shannon Browlee in Time (photo from zazzle.com)

Brownlee also seems to lament that no one has yet come up with a fat equivalent to secondhand smoke, but I'm sure the food police will eventually come up with something to facilitate the type of good-for-you bullying she envisions.
  • Now let's switch to talking about a think thank that I like. Media Research Center's Brent Bozell has a spot-on column called "Hollywood's Soda-Pop Statism" that points how out many celebrities/elite types have a Puritanical stance about which foods their kids can eat but are anything-goes when it comes to everything else they do with their bodies.
  • When you're in the military, the state is definitely on your plate. It must be tough, but at least they've tried to build a better, longer-lasting sandwich for troops in the field.

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