j_b

right, acculturation via mass dross is a conspiracy theory.

sounds gross to me.

How many of these tricks were conceivable 20 years ago? It seems like extreme sport had a huge leap forward in the past decade. We don't see the hurt and the work that goes into it though.

senator, you clearly did not know jack falstaff! fucksakes - mongols drank fermented horsemilk at room temps, mixed w/ fresh horse blood - i'm pretty certain they wouldn't scared off by a ho-ho and i'm damn sure they'd murder you for a can of spam! People who enjoyed the good flesh wouldn't touch all that junk with a 10' pole with any regularity. I certainly don't if ever. Most of that garbage doesn't taste good. It's all salt, fat or sugar.

maybe poor black folk just have different values than you? It's not solely a poor black problem.

But, the poor are more stupider. That's why they're poor. Right, and the other demographics are the prisoners of the boob tube who don't give a fuck if there is an alternative because they think that stuff just tastes great! LOLZ

I have serious doubt that Jack in any period would eat much of the commercial crap that is today called food.

Of course it's available. I don't think "availability" is really the problem. I don't think fat people are fat because they just can't FIND good food. I was really poor once, and I still ate healthy food. Because I'm not dumb. I think junk food prob tastes better, is cheaper, and easier to prepare. But that doesn't mean healthy food isn't "available." Hence, the problem. No, the alternative isn't available for everyone, which is reflected in more obesity among the poor.

You must be joking when you claim that alternative to junkfood is available in all neighborhoods.

Nobody should be forced to live in a culture of fast food without adequate alternative.

Just thinking of the code needed for technology to accommodate >400lbs bodies (and family when they visit) makes me feel like a nazi. How much staff do you expect to need to flop that one over?

you appear to have no clue that we are headed for a health care crisis of gigantic proportion, and not solely because of obesity btw. Right, now I remember that you told me "YOUR obesity crisis" as if it were in my imagination.

How are they wards of the state everywhere else in the developed world beside in your fertil imagination? In the meantime, there are 50 millions without access to health care and many more without adequate access to health care in this country alone. Who are the ideologues who refuse to draw the lessons of what they preached?

perhaps b/c your regulations sound likely to be draconian? That's what smokers thought as little as 20 years ago. Do you think the cost of having to accommodate the morbidly obese in a health care setting isn't draconian on your health care bill?

the relevance was to pull the usual strawman: If you are for regulating industries and consumer protection, you must be against FREEDUMB and Libertarian ponies.

same canard that was flung at us several pages ago: nobody here is arguing for prohibition. I am not for prohibiting the use of drugs but I certainly don't want to have them advertized on Tv and if their use proves prohibitively costly to health care, I am for recouping the money from anyone enabling these destructive behaviors to make a buck. Same for tobacco, alcohol, junk food etc. Nothing really different from what we are already doing for nasty products, only accounting for epidemics that are costing us dearly and will ultimately destroy public health care. Not that you would care about that.

Not all obese people abuse food. Some have medical issues that have nothing to do with overeating high calories salty food and they shouldn't be penalized by insurance that would seize upon the opportunity to discriminate at every turn to avoid paying for needed care. Anyway, it is evident that private health care insurance is not sustainable. Taxing junk food provides a negative feedback on purchases before obesity sets in and it is therefore likely a more effective solution.

"gold-plated European manufacturers as BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen and Siemens, and retailers such as IKEA — increasingly come to America (the South particularly) because labor is cheap and workers have no rights. In their eyes, we're becoming the new China. Our labor costs may be a little higher, but we offer stronger intellectual property protections and far fewer strikes than our unruly Chinese comrades. Don't take my word for it. Check out the study released this month by the Boston Consulting Group, which concludes that when you compare China's soaring wages and still-low levels of productivity with our stagnating wages and rising levels of productivity, the price advantage of manufacturing in China instead of the U.S. will shrink to insignificance by 2015. Investment in the U.S., says the group, "will accelerate as it becomes one of the cheapest locations for manufacturing in the developed world." Where Europe comes to slum

Does anybody actually believe the above horseshit. Can anyone remember or even imagine JayB arguing for the soda tax initiative that was defeated last Nov? of course not, but JayB is a demagogue who loves to demonize the victims of his laissez faire ideology so the junk food industry isn't held accountable for the ~$200 billions in annual health care cost and 100ks deaths imparted to obesity.

Rigged? That sounds like a conspiracy theory More like it wasn't an issue with smoking until it became epidemic and started taxing the health care system. Good analogy btw as tobacco is regulated as some form of regulation is applicable to junk food. Also note what happened to the regulation of advertising for tobacco and the public campaigns against tobacco use.

I don't think you really know that every tour rider cheats. Some people would say that the level of inconsistency shown by some riders during tours of recent years indicate they probably do not dope. 'best rider' is somewhat vague in the context of a 3-weeks long race with teams playing such a large role in protecting their leader. Would LA have won 7 tours if his team didn't have what they needed to completely muzzle the entire field for 3 weeks of racing? Were teams ever as dominant as USPS?

They aren't "forced" but is someone feeding their addiction to make a buck and costing the community a bundle in the process? Nobody forces the junkies, either.

Wouldn't it be amusing if pro-LA types said that everyone in pro cycling cheats, which used to be an anti-LA argument?

Whatever your particular story doesn't change that without massive and constant advertising any of these brands wouldn't dominate the markets the way they do (thereby imposing with little challenge their interpretation of adequate food). Without the supremacy of these oligopolies (doritoes is owned by Pepsi?) you might have discovered some other snack, most likely locally produced, for better or worse but without the capacity to impose themselves over entire markets. whether you feel like being compassionate with the obese doesn't change that in the long term OUR health care also depends on finding a solution to the obesity crisis.

frosted or flambe?