 |
| I think you can click on this to make it bigger, sir |
A study released Tuesday by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that obesity rates increased in 28 states last year. Mississippi continued its six-year reign as the country's fattest state in the study's yearly rankings, along with the highest rates of physical inactivity and hypertension. The state also has the second highest rate of diabetes.
And while most parents think childhood obesity is a problem, they don't believe it affects their own children.
The annual obesity report by two public health groups includes a new survey of parental attitudes about the issue. The survey shows an increasing awareness of obesity and its threat to public health.
"This report shows that the country has taken bold steps to address the obesity crisis in recent years, but the nation's response has yet to fully match the magnitude of the problem," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Trust for America's Health, which writes the annual report with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Welcome to Fatass Nation. We all need to walk more and eat less. If you can run, please do. If you can't because your cankles are rolling up and down and slapping your kneecap and your big toe, start walking back and forth to the trash can to throw out some of that processed food you've been ramming into your gullet for days on end.
I'm afraid that it's going to take a war where we get beaten because none of our troops could run fast enough to get to the helicopter to get the bullets they needed to stop the enemy from stealing all of their food. Humiliation seems to be the only thing that motivates people to do what they're supposed to be doing in the first place and that's trying to find a healthier way to live. Oh, I do believe in freedom. You're free to eat yourself into a coma and roll onto the floor and die there. I'm free to look away and talk about the benefits of walking, eating better, and then having a great deal of sex with women I barely know.
Want to increase your stamina? Don't drink Red Bull. Walk four or five miles a day and throw down something with salad in it or on it. Makes a huge difference, sir. And remember to shave. I can't stress this enough. Having stubble on your chin ruins your chances of intimacy with certain types of women. Always shave and keep things clean and serviceable.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal was not the only one who had a tough week at the office. Last Monday, the word got out that Rolling Stone had a stunning piece about General McChrystal, in which he and his aides were critical of the White House. It’s the kind of scoop that thrills magazine editors, and no doubt they couldn’t wait to get their issue on the stands. The problem was, nobody else could wait either. On Tuesday morning, a PDF of the piece the magazine had lovingly commissioned, edited, fact-checked, printed and distributed, was posted in its entirety on not one but two Web sites, for everyone to read without giving Rolling Stone a dime. It was a clear violation of copyright and professional practice, and it amounted to taking money out of a competitor’s pocket. What crafty guerrilla site or bottom-feeder would do such a thing? Turns out it was Time.com and Politico, both well-financed, reputable news media organizations, that blithely stepped over the line and took what was not theirs. Both companies said that a frenzy involving a significant national issue was under way and that because Rolling Stone itself did not post the article on its site, they took matters into their own hands. Each said that when Rolling Stone protested, it was taken down, and that when the magazine put up the piece at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, their sites linked to that instead. I don't know if I can blithely accept that they put it up and took it down when asked without saying, "where are your ethics?" The entire article contained supposed bombshells that transcended the situation. This was a story involving a 4-star general who gave a reporter far too much access. You can argue that content rules may not have applied, but the fact remains thatRolling Stone (shudder) missed a tremendous amount of web site traffic (money) when these other outlets gave their content away. What incentive does a magazine have to produce a quality piece of content after this incident? None, really, unless the rules toughen up. Shouldn't everyone who broke the embargo on the piece be forced to give a percentage of their online revenue earned during the period when they had the story up to Rolling Stone? I rarely, if ever, link to pieces in magazines. They are an entirely different animal from the pieces I normally use, which are news stories that come from major publications and wire services. Even then, I try to limit how much of the story I use and I try to use the stories that are virtually released "into the public domain" which means, the stories that appear in the same format on multiple outlets. For me to blog about a wire story about a news incident (or another blogger, as the case is here) is preferable to going to a piece of content that is specifically for a magazine or behind a paywall. 
Some things take on a life of their own and turn into what those of us in the know call a "viral" situation:
Prince Harry playing polo in New YorkWhy, it must have been a wonderful afternoon:
Britian's Prince Harry played polo for a good cause on Sunday - but couldn't stay on his horse while doing it. The royal took a tumble off his polo pony during the first half of the Vueve Clicquot Polo Classic on New York's Governor's Island, but quickly got back up with a smile on his face and continued the match. The 25-year-old prince's Black Rock team lost to the Black Watch team, headed by captain Nacho Figueras, 6-5 in overtime. "I think his horse got spooked, or something," Figueras told The Associated Press, adding, "It was a very tight match - right till the end, we didn't know who was going to win so it was very exciting to play." Ah, the smell of grass and horses. Money abounds. A life of leisure and pleasure. And you say there are troubles amongst the peasants? Hire more men with guns to keep them out, my good man.
Now, full disclosure. In 1999 and 2000 I raised, through contacts and what we called "bundling" in those days, at least $350,000 for the Republican National Committee and for the Bush 2000 campaign. I am a lifelong Republican with moderate social views and strict Reaganism in my blood. I am also a Nelson Rockefeller Republican, and, these days, at least, that makes me leftier than Dennis Kucinich in this new Tea Party environment. I am not sympathetic to Al Gore in the least. Byron York, you should be ashamed of yourself: Gore said he was tired from travel and described in detail the massage he wanted. It included work on the adductor muscles, which are on the inside of the thighs. "I mentally noted that a request for adductor work is a bit unusual," the masseuse told police, because it can be "a precursor to inappropriate behavior by a male client." Gore also requested work on his abdomen. When that began, "He became somewhat vocal with muffled moans, etc.," the masseuse recounted. Gore then "demand[ed] that I go lower." When she remained focused on a "safe, nonsexual" area, Gore grew "angry, becoming verbally sharp and loud." The masseuse asked Gore what he wanted. "He grabbed my right hand, shoved it down under the sheet to his pubic hair area, my fingers brushing against his penis," she recalled, "and said to me, 'There!' in a very sharp, loud, angry-sounding tone." When she pulled back, Gore "angrily raged" and "bellowed" at her. Stop. If the man is in any hotel anywhere, and he's "bellowing" at someone, it will be overheard. This is so ridiculous that I cannot believe it. A man does not bellow at someone in a hotel unless he wants to be Tasered and dragged out by his short hairs. And let's dispense with a theme that runs through the rest of this nonsense: Al Gore is too sedate and academic to have these supposed passions. This is what the lady in question has run into from other men in her career as a masseuse. She's 54 years old in this story, and that's a bit long in the tooth to be so desired. I'm not saying that it's not possible; I'm saying that if she's 54 and looks that good, then she should be a model or Jane Seymour. And, I would be willing to bet you, she's no Jane Seymour. In order to sell her story and extort money, she has simply tallied up her horror stories and packaged them in such a ways as to get the best possible payday. The accuser said Gore maneuvered her into the bedroom. His iPod docking station was there, he told her, and he wanted her to listen to "Dear Mr. President," a lachrymose attack on George W. Bush by the singer Pink. "As soon as he had it playing, he turned to me and immediately flipped me flat on my back and threw his whole body face down over atop of me," she said. "I was just shocked at his craziness." What a fraud. You don't bring your iPod to a sex assault, at least, not unless you're going to filet the person afterwards and eat their kidneys and brains. There really are too many shows about murder and mayhem on television, aren't there? If Al Gore had done that, the woman would be flatter than a pancake. I believe Gore weighed quite a bit at that point, and I just have a difficult time believing that a 54 year-old woman could turn a man into a sex crazed poodle like that. Anyway, it's good reading. I love seeing this directed at someone like Gore. But it's bullshit, nonetheless. 
As much as it pains me to have to say something in defense of Vice President Al Gore, I will do my duty as a blogger and simply write about this as if Dan Quayle were under similar charges. That's probably the only way I'm going to be able to get through this.
