Having reached well beyond middle age, I have occasionally experienced the battle of the bulge. Although inconsistency may be my epitaph, I have nonetheless gained some insight into the state of being overweight. It is therefore obvious to me that obesity affects my mental as well as my physical abilities. As a consequence, the burden of fat on an individual and the burden of fat people on society is much the same.
Current health trends, Federal Government initiatives, Michelle Obama butting her way into my buffet line notwithstanding, the threats posed by obesity to our national well being is well established in the medical community. 20 to 30% of our adult population is reportedly obese, and obesity is increasing rapidly among U.S. children. The medical community also reports a coincidental increase in the rates of diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia (poor metabolism of dietary fats).
The effects of these diseases on a person’s mobility and energy level are only compounded by being overweight. Lower energy level contributes to a suppression of a body’s defense mechanisms. This is why fat people cannot do as much work as healthy people and why fat people are sick more often than healthy people.
It can only be an opinion that obesity is not a disease, for in fact it is. Disease is defined as any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society. The medical community further reports that obesity significantly contributes to greater missed work days, greater loss in productivity and increased medical expenses. Considering that we are talking about 30% of our population, this is no crumb in the cookie jar.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) summarized Finkelstein’s work (see below) on the economic consequences of obesity. These include indirect costs relating to ill health and mortality. More specifically, they define the cost of obesity as the value of income lost from:
- Decreased productivity
- Restricted activity (at their jobs, not just bending over to pick up a doughnut)
- As well as something called “bed days”
A bed day is one during which “a person stayed in bed for more than half the day because of illness or injury”. Now, I have occasionally spent the greater part of a day in bed, but I was neither ill, alone, nor experiencing a decreased productivity or restricted activity.
So, no pathogen contributes to obesity, and being overweight is not a cancer. Except in the metaphysical sense in which obesity is a cancer on our Nation.
In America, we often hear the claim that we have the best trained, best equipt military the world has ever known. The military produces soldiers and marines who kill people and destroy things ostensibly to protect our citizens, their property and economic interests. We’ve been doing this quite well for over two centuries, but at what cost are they protecting fat people? How many soldiers in elite fighting battalions are fat? 20 to 30%? Try less than 1.0%.
Now, some facts are distasteful to some people, but the facts above bring into question the value to our Nation of carrying the burden of fat people. Without the awesome physical specimens who make up the elite fighting forces to protect them, fat people would be incapable of defending themselves let alone our Nation. And speaking of fat, this leads me to a larger premise.
You see, it is the steady progress of what we call civilization that has brought an ever greater percentage of human populations to live an urban lifestyle. In the U.S. today while 73 percent of counties are classified as non-metropolitan, they are home to only 20 percent of the population. The lifestyle of rural folk verses city folk begs the question of how we are to measure well-being. Urban dwellers are more likely to measure “well-being” in terms of income, life expectancy and literacy. Country folk are more likely to measure well-being in terms of attachment to the land, family and community. It can be measured in terms of cultural retention (i.e., the patriotism of rural folk and country music fans verses urban rappers). And it can be measured in terms of happiness.
I would expect some urban ethnic groups to object and claim the family and community parameters as well. However, country folk don’t produce bastards, do drugs, or kill each other or their babies as frequently as some urban demographic groups who claim to be “family” oriented.
Without the modern, artificial life-support mechanisms readily accessible in urban areas and their dependence on technology, the survivability of urban dwellers would be paltry. Certainly, country living in the U.S. today is not life without the comforts provided by largely urban produced technology. That said, without such comforts, we would have fewer fat people – urban and rural. It is only due to large cities and a powerful military of lean mean men that fat people are able to survive. They simply could not survive the work required to exist without their “civilized” comforts. Fat people are the luxury of urban living.
Of course, the same can be said for most modern urban women and homosexuals. (In fact, it was urbane women and fags which drove me to this conclusion decades ago. I thank Michelle Obama for inspiring me to finally write this down. So much for a first draft.)
References are below. I also came across this little gem whilst researching this article.
Nude photos of Barack Obama’s wife Michelle’s butt
From “The Spoof”
Chicago, IL – Nude photos of Barack Obama’s wife Michelle’s ass surfaced on
e Bay and have caused a near panic in the Obama camp.
Billed as the ‘Largest Ass Photos in the World, bidding has reached record heights. The top bid is presently $1.50 and is expected to fetch a lot more.
Taken from the Hubble Telescope far out in space, the photo clearly shows Obama’s ass covering Illinois, Missouri, and parts of Iowa. In recent weeks the State of South Carolina sued Michelle for allowing her more than ample posterior to shade 90% of the state resulting in severe crop damages.
Governors in the affected states have proclaimed a ‘sunshine emergency’ and have asked the Federal government for assistance. FEMA has rushed massive portable grow lamps that were confiscated in California during last year’s marijuana growing crack-down to help with the sunshine shortage.
Bidding on the nude photos is expected to last through the week.
Another article was titled:
Brand new beauty norm? Yes, yes. And then, as President Obama and his better two-thirds fade into anonymity, the Oprahfied double-wide Empress’ awaken to realize, “Oh my, I have a fat ass!”
Referenced articles:
1. Patrick W. Sullivan, et. al., Epidemiology, 2008. http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v16/n9/full/oby2008325a.html
2. E. A. Finkelstein, et al., Health Affairs 2009. See CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/causes/economics.html
3. and on rural v. urban health: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus01cht.pdf
4. article on the size of Michelle Obama’s butt: http://jezebel.com/5091824/writer-extolls-the-virtues-of-michelle-obamas-butt
