A while ago in one of the Gun Control debate threads, someone argued that gun accidents kill thousands of people every year. In response, I made a quip something like this:
“The number one killer in America is heart disease. You could save far more lives by outlawing fatty foods than by outlawing guns.”
It was an obviously absurd quip, designed to show what I perceived to be a flaw in the other person’s argument rather than being a real suggestion for action.
To the American Medical Association and the American Obesity Association: I WAS KIDDING! KIDDING!! It was a joke! You weren’t supposed to actually do it for real!!!
I think the whole issue can be summed up in the following paragraph: “What’s happening now is a multi-pronged campaign by media-savvy activists, government officials and an enormous medical/health care industry to stigmatize certain popular foods…” Key words here are “media-savvy activists”.
Yet another group of people who see a chance for their 15 minutes of fame. Oh, and Fergie? Your time is up, babe–out of the pool, come on, move it.
Well, a successful lawsuit on an established fat food chain (That’s not a typo) could be a real gold mine. All you have to do is find them at fault for your obesity…
I realise that the US (gross generalization here) tends towards an abdication of personal responsibility in favour of suing for recompense, and that chainsaw manufacturers already have to spell out that you shouldn’t try and stop the blade with your hands…
<small rant>
but can we really beleive that the anti-fat advocates would be able to state (with a straight face) that Joe Average (or is that Joe Overaverage) has been terribly decieved by the fast food industry and has for years been wolfing down super-whopper-extra-cheese burgers, never knowing that they were the cause of his obesity?!
Or will the claim be that Jane Dough never realized that being 50% overweight might be bad for her health, and that it was the responsibility of the vile purveyors of fat laden (and we might add, addictive), chocolate to inform her not to consume more than a healthy dose whilst blobbed out on the sofa watching Ricki Lake?!
What’s next?
Hygiene instructions printed on the toilet paper?
Instruction leaflets with apples so that people know they aren’t meant to be inhaled?
Stepladders with Stop! labels at the top?!
I’ll bet there will be a tax on fat foods. If we’re not completely “1984” by the end of my life (January 28, 2047) I’ll be surprised. What we’ve got going now is nothing. Tobbacco WILL be outlawed, gun ownership WILL be banned, fattening foods WILL be limited, your thoughts WILL be controled. How anyone can think these things won’t happen when they already have started is beyond me. What I do know is that people who favor gun/drug/fat food/eating meat/free speech bans, and insist everyone where their seat belt/helmets, not be able to buy liquor after 9p.m., etc…
Those people don’t give a rats ass about health or public safety. All they want to do is control everyones life!!!
The pleasures you and I aren’t allowed…like legal absinthe or being able to buy really good assault rifles at pre-ban prices. Those are nothing compared to the pleasures our grand and great grand children will not have. Like a good smoke, a great steak, a cold beer, and a dirty joke.
I weep for them!
You are forgetting one thing, pk. The American landscape has become a battlefield for corporate giants. Tobacco will never be outlawed. Fatty foods will always be readily available. We will always have guns. The reason is simple. That’s what people want to buy. The reason you can’t get an assault rifle is because the best ones came to the US illegally from other countries. Drugs like cocaine are illegal because corporations in the US lose money to foreign purveyors of the stuff. Have you ever seen the US currency? It’s got tobacco leaves on it. Tobacco is money. Marlboro is the most valuable brand name on Earth. The same can be said for fatty foods. Do you think RJR Nabisco is going to sit idly by while some pissant legislator tries to outlaw his Camels and Oreos? The future I fear is the not the one in which I cannot buy those things, but the one in which I am forced to.
Talk to me on 01-27-47 and we’ll discuss if I was right. I understand your argument, but how do you explain prohibition getting passed? The liquor industry is rich, and it seems more people were against it than for it. I say it’s because a bunch of goody two shoes bitched & bitched, and never gave up. That’s what liberals do! They never give up! They keep going and going. They take a little here (Brady Bill) and a little there (assault weapons ban) and soon, boom! Total gun ban. Many assualt weapons were made by American Companies! Colt, Intertech, Ruger.
Why can’t we [legally] buy absinthe? Because of the goody-goodies! Why can’t I buy beer after 9 p.m. in Milwaukee.
MILWAUKEE for God’s sake! I can’t buy beer after 9 in MILWAUKEE! Of all places! Because this town is run by goody-two shoes liberals! The liberal, God hating, testostrone loathing, pussywimps are going to keep at it. I don’t care how much money the big corps. got! You are going to loose your cigs, your beer, your meat, and your guns! I’ll expect a “you were right” E-mail from you in 47 years!
20th century American alcohol prohibition was primarily the fault of the “Ladies Temperance Movement.” The members of the Ladies Temperance Movement could hardly be described as “liberal,” and they certainly weren’t “God hating.” They were, in fact, a Christian group little different from the 700 Club. They favored the banning of alcohol because they believed it to be immoral and sinful.
There was a lot more to the Prohibition movement than the WCTU. There was a fair amount of nativism involved. Can’t have those darn Irish and Germans and African-Americans drinking beer when we need them to work after all. (Don’t forget all those German brewers in the U.S. during WWI, hmm, they seemed suspicious…) It was also a regional issue with the Midwest and South backing prohibition but support was weak in the East.
A fatty foods ban would require a constitutional amendment I think (I don’t think anyone will think that the Commerce clause of the Constitution could work to do that.) That won’t happen.
PKBITES gives the government a lot of credit for being able to accomplish things. I only wish that the US government ran that well that it could control all of our thoughts.
My error is that I made it seem like I consider"Liberals" and “Goody Two Shoes” one in the same. Bad writting skills.
Goody two shoes tend to be conservatives who think they are Gods elect, and that they know what is best.
Liberals, on the other hand, tend to hate or disbelieve in God, but also think they know what is best for you and me. The word “liberal” is a damn lie, because liberals don’t really want you to be able to do anything. At least anything that they haven’t approved of.
What liberals & goody two shoes share is an urge to control everyone elses life! Protecting people from themselves.
These assholes have exalted themselves. And every now and then one of their controlling ideas gets rammed down our collective throats.
The big con is, however, (and this is an important point)
is that they have made it appear that the goody two shoes (the conservatives) and the Liberals, are constantly fighting each other, while in truth they are BOTH working to destroy our rights and free will! Whenever anyone (either from the left or the right) decides restricting my lifestyle is “for my own good” I get pi**ed!
Thank you, Tracer for saying exactly what I was about to.
And, yes, I was referring to the one dollar note. Prohibition is now looked at as a huge mistake. It virtually created organized crime, and engendered the proliferation of moonshiner who made a product which was far more dangerous than anything you could buy in a liquor store. 9 PM beer laws are throwbacks to that era. you can find similar laws in any place with a strong protestant contingent. There are so-called “dry counties” all over America, particularly in the Bible Belt. Ever try to get wasted on the beer you bought in Utah? You could drink a 12 pack and still drive home, because it’s only allowed to be 3% alcohol, and the only hard stuff is from the state run liquor stores. Looks to me like it’s not the “God Haters” who want to rob you of your brew…
No one needs to have an assault rifle. “Hunters” who use them are simply unskilled bloodthirsty killers who don’t have the attention span to actually learn how to operate a rifle or bow with proficiency. How challengeing and rewarding can it be to hunt with an automatic weapon?
Furthermore, isn’t absinthe made in The Netherlands or thereabouts? Sounds more to me like they just want you to drink American products instead. For an example, come to Florida, where it is illegal to sell beer in any container that’s not 8, 12, 16, or 32oz. The reason? The Anheiuser(sp?) Busch lobby is so strong, it has convinced the state legislature to virtually outlaw any foreign beers, which are often bottled using the metric system. See what I mean? If they had their way, we’d all have a glass of milk in one hand, a Bud in the other, a Steak on our plate, and a pack of Camels in our pocket.
They don’t want to take your beer, meat, cigarettes or guns. They want to take your money.
Says who? You? Who the #$%* are you?
You have just made my point!
You sit there deciding what I can and can’t have.
Somewhere, someone else is deciding I shouldn’t have meat.
Someplace else someone thinks it’s up to them that I shouldn’t smoke. You have exaulted yourself to God like.
Where do you & your kind get off thinking it’s up to you to decide what other people can and can’t have, do , eat, speak whatever?
And you think the big, rich corporations are going to protect my right to smoke, drink, eat, and own guns, because it will bring them more money? Well, they’re not doing a very good job at it. Yes, big corps. are in it for money, but they don’t care where that money comes from! Look at the sucky deal Smith & Wesson entered into with Big Brother. Why? MONEY. They sold out to money. They don’t care where it comes from. So, if selling me out get’s them rich, it will happen!
I stand by my claim: By the middle of this century meat, guns, alcohol, and tobacco will be very rare in America!!
Oh, relax, pkbites. If the fatty foods don’t give you a heart attack, worrying about Big Brother will.
If you check out the article on the OP, you will see that it is hosted by http://www.guestchoice.com, a reactionary organization dedicated to fighting food and health regulation.
From the Guest Choice FAQ:
Doesn’t sound to me like the most objective source of information about fatty food …
pkbites, at least I’m glad that you don’t see any stereotypes in liberals. Yeah, we’re all a bunch of child-eating Godless commies. Thank you for seeing life the way it really is. At least you haven’t been brainwashed. :rolleyes:
{/sarcasm}
For the record, I am a liberal that believes in your right to smoke, drink, eat cheeseburgers, fire a gun (under certain circumstances), and get an abortion.
And as much as I’m puzzled by conservatives sometimes, I don’t try to demonize them and buy into all of the bullsh@t that the media tries to shove down my throat.
<sarcasm>
Sure fat is a drug! You can crave it, you get a big rush of satisfied feeling when you take enough of it, and in the long term it can damage your health. Fat should only be available by prescription.
</sarcasm>
Personally, I don’t care if it’s discovered, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that eating fat is worse for you than eating concentrated rat poison. I still want to have the right to eat it.
– tracer, who wonders when some anti-fat group is going to start ranting and raving about the dangers of second-hand fat.
You should try to demonize conservatives. They can be just as bad as liberals, and when they hold the majority, worse.
Both of them try to package our lives into what they find acceptable. If you haven’t guessed, I’m a libertarian at best, an anarchist on average. Why should anyone be subject to rules about victimless crimes like eating junk food, using drugs, etc? As long someone isn’t hurting someone else, they should be left alone. Don’t you agree that we have an inalienable right to be left alone?