patrick.net

It shows the court in Brazil penalizing McDonalds for feeding this poor worker all that fat producing food. How was he to know he'd gain all that weight? Kind of like a fat tax on McDonalds.

Wow, so you're ok with our food source being controlled by pseudo-taxing corporations for serving fatty foods? It seems like in your perfect world, McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, etc. wouldn't exist. All that should exist is Whole Foods, and they can only serve healthfoods. Interesting take on things. I don't think you could go any further left.

How does your buddy Abe feel about these views?

I'm not for taxing donuts, only the people that get fat eating them. Whole Foods is my favorite place to shop.

ch_tah says

Vicente your comments reminded me that the “fattest” states are in the SE, the Repub base.

Nice chart there, thanks!

Yes we should get Ray and his Big Brother right onto this Red State Obesity Epidemic.
Perhaps they should get their own commission to tackle it. I think we need paratroopers
for Mississippi though, look at it!

RayAmerica says

I’m not for taxing donuts, only the people that get fat eating them. Whole Foods is my favorite place to shop.

You just said you are ok with a lawsuit against McD's - "kind of like a fat tax." That's a penalty against McD's, not the fat person. And the lawsuit actually rewarded the fat person.

What Liberals don't understand is, the voting public is at critical mass. That is all we've got.
It's an even dead heat of two Idiot factions tied dead nuts even.
Though, the Voting public is still only 20 or 30% of the people in the U.S., that other 70% that aren't involved, they trust and leave politics up to those that follow it. And thus far, they haven't been affected to terribly.
You start directly screwing with these people where you want to inject your policy on them and enslave them into Corporate bondage.

That other 70% that don't vote, they Riot, and Rebel.

marcus says

So bap, if you could totally eliminate one or the other from the US, the homos or the invaders, which would you choose ?

thats an easy one, the invaders. you see, the deviants, if legal citizens, are Americans and belong here as much as you or I. Invaders cheat all non-invaders by accessing America's great bounty unfairly.

Also, American sexual deviants don't cheat American non-deviants from having normal sex (since sex act is the major difference). American adult male sexual deviants are not breaking laws in many states when they perform their acts of deviant nature. American sexual deviants are a favorite taget of some invader based street gangs.

Deviants! Even worse than tubby people. Surprised you only mention male deviants when obviously we should be equally disparaging of females. Particularly if they are on Welfare:

/I'll be in my bunk

no, not true, when the discussion was about public health. Female sexual deviants are not in the peril that male+male sodomites are.

Yeah in fact it's encouraged.

Let's demonstrate...

TOT yelling in a tent revival, who's down for some hot WOW action?
"HELL YEAH!"

O.K. Who's down for some MOM action,(crickets chirping) "hey where did the reverend go?"

Take everything Ray-ray wrote on this thread an substitute "fat" with other fun words, such as "rich", or maybe "gun owners".

It gets amusing. Or maybe I'm just easily amused.

RayAmerica says

Fat people (I’m working on the statistics that would constitute “fat” … height/weight/age etc.) would be required to “weigh in” once a month.

I'd hate to see the results of Ray-ray making any attempts at being scientific.

Simple attempts at defining "fat", such as BMI tables, are very inaccurate because they make big assumptions about what shape a person is in. The main assumption for a standard BMI table is that the subject is sedenttary (out of shape).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index#Limitations_and_shortcomings

According to BMI measures and tables, an athlete might be classified as obese.

Ray-ray for Fat Commissioner!

I can't wait to get in front of one of these right-wing Fat Panels.

Who needs left-wing Death Panels when we can have right-wing Fat Panels?

Vicente says

Let’s have a tax on registered Republicans since we’re on this taxation bandwagon. They definitely cost the general population more than they put in.

Brilliant. Also note that it isn't only federal support for states that makes Republicans costly. We should also tax them for the $3T worth of wars that they have started.

"Obesity Rates to Clime to 42%"

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A35SO20101104

Rayray says

Back when I was a kid they had a thing called “Fat Boy Camps”

It's well documented that people who experience horrible childhoods grow up to become trolls on the interwebs. Explains so much.

Why don't we tax jackasses for each of their asinine posts? We'd make bank off you & the boys.

I apologize for this thread. Apparently I have hit a nerve with some of the "Fit & Trim Challenged" folks in here. Obesity leads to over 300,000 premature deaths every year in the good old (and fat) USA. That translates into 25,000 per month, 5,769 per week, 821 per day, and 34 per hour.

What's the cost in health-care expenditures due to obesity and overweight people? A whopping 9.1% of our total health-care bill. In 2002, the estimated cost was $117 BILLION (estimated to be much higher now due to the fact obesity/overweight has increased). In other words, obesity and overweight people really are costing all of us a lot of money.

While admittedly the solution to this problem as stated in my thread is far from a perfect one, something needs to be done, and soon. If not, Americans are going to be faced with skyrocketing health-care costs due to an epidemic that is almost entirely preventable. If you have a better solution to a tax penalty as a means to encourage people to become healthy and fit, I'd love to hear it.

Come on Ray, go for the gold instead of that tired "let's use taxes to encourage some social behavior" that pansy-ass theft of money is only for Libtards.

Deny them food. Particularly starve out the "undesirable" parts of the country.

Vincente ..... my sincere apologies for offending you. Please don't take my hitting on your nerve as anything personal.

Why stop with just a tax on fatties and sodomites? Let's round them up and ask the NRA to deal with them. Just make sure that fatties and sodomites are separated before the final solution. There's nothing worse than sodomite fat asses. They're unclean I tell you! This is all a case for hygienic eugenics. We'll create a master American Race.

All hail Whole Foods!

simchaland says

Why stop with just a tax on fatties and sodomites? Let’s round them up and ask the NRA to deal with them. Just make sure that fatties and sodomites are separated before the final solution. There’s nothing worse than sodomite fat asses. They’re unclean I tell you! This is all a case for hygienic eugenics. We’ll create a master American Race.
All hail Whole Foods!

So, simcha - your answer begs the question - how do you tax a gay fattie with a gun? (not that I'm implying you're fat or that you have a gun. But you've admitted that you're - gasp - one of THEY! I think there's a problem with that, tho. If they tax gays by the head of men in whom they express interest (no pun intended, I swear!), then women and bisexuals should be taxed at the same rate. I can't afford it.

I'm old, but not dead. :)

I'm still trying to work out if this thread is Ray's heretofore absent sense of humor.

Personally I'd just be happy if airlines charged by the pound, passenger & luggage. Then I'd not be subsidizing fuel for Sumo Steve, nor his giant rollaboard exploding out of the overhead.

Zlxr says

People eat what’s put in front of them. In the old days we ONLY had whole wheat bread, and things that you knew where they came from.

I’m reading from a label of ? Chicken Broth (that I did not buy) and it lists Monosodium Glutamate as the 4th ingredient. Then sugar, natural flavor (why?) Maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed whey protein, modified corn starch, hydrolyzed wheat bran, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, caramel color, beta carotene (for color). Chicken broth , salt and chicken fat were listed as the first 3 ingredients.

See you're supposed to buy from the Kosher proveyor of healthful food from Whole Foods, that way the S&P 500 goes through the roof then the Liberal regime gets credit for a Booming profits at the poor expense. Do they take Food Stamps??? Because it would be nice if the poor can know what a 3 inch Porterhouse steak from a Cow that practiced Bobine Yoga taste like.

Zlxr says

In the old days we ONLY had whole wheat bread, and things that you knew where they came from.

I don't know when and where YOU grew up, but when I grew up, sandwiches started with a soft & remarkably WHITE bread:

Wonder Bread with baloney (preferably cooked in a pan a little) & mustard.

School lunch might be:

Wonder Bread with PB&J, or maybe PB & bananas.

I don't recall wheat bread entering my diet on a regular basis until I was an adult.

I always thought it was Roman bread, I was an adult before I realized Roman was the brand.

Vicente says

Personally I’d just be happy if airlines charged by the pound, passenger & luggage. Then I’d not be subsidizing fuel for Sumo Steve, nor his giant rollaboard exploding out of the overhead.

Now you're thinking. Why shouldn't airlines charge per pound?

Zlxr says

If we did not eat processed water and cardboard or whatever they call some of these food items - we would not have the problem we have. If the stores only sold real food then that’s all we would have to choose from. Times may have changed alot but we still pretty much have the genes and the digestive tract of our ancestors. Their food was not sugar based and full of all these non food items.

A bit short sighted, I'd say. There've been overweight people long before processed foods came along... and if we couldn't go to the store & buy fattening foods we'd make them at home. Processed foods makes it easier to get fat, that's all. I have a cookbook from the early 1900's and all it lists for ingredients is cream, pure butter, sugar, etc. All that stuff is fattening.

I'd dare say we've gotten fatter since we started sitting on our asses more, in offices & cars and on couches (where I sit right now, reclined). We're a sedentary society, and it shows.

Zlxr says

You’re right about the exercise - we need more of that too. It’s just that there was a time when we could be sedentary and eat wrong and not be AS fat as people are today.

A quick look online: Big Mac Value meal 1170 calories, Whopper value meal 1,800 calories, Panda Express orange chicken single serving is 500 calories... and there's a newer version of the bigfoot pizza that's 2 feet long being advertised all over the teevee.

Ever notice how they have skinny people in their ads? Yet when I walk into the restaurants, there are many overweight people chowing down. Even their salads dressings are high in calories.

But I do believe we're more sedentary than we used to be. Video games, computers, cars, riding mowers, etc. I knew a guy who was a runner for a title company - he would brag that he didn't have to get out of the car almost all day except to walk about 20 feet into a building. He'd use the drive thru to buy coffee, donuts, drop off the boss's dry cleaning, eat lunch, go to the bank... He also carried a urinal in his car. That's dedication.

Zlxr says

But we were all thin back in the 50’s and 60’s, there was maybe 1 fat kid per grade

Yes and a standard mcd's meal, which I got about every 3 months not 3 times a week, was a small hamburger (270 calories) , small fries (180 calories), and a 12 oz coke (110 calories). That's 550 calories. The quarter pounder and large fries didn't exist. The standard mcd's meal today is triple that or more. Someone at mcd's realized that most of the cost of providing a meal wasn't the actual food and that increasing the meal size made for a much larger profit as the cost of the food didn't increase as fast as the price charged then voila, super size it was the order of the day. All the other fast food vendors jumped on the bandwagon. Brilliant marketing, not so great for calorie consumption.

A coke from a vending machine was 12 oz in the 1960's, not 32. Sugar was very expensive before high fructose corn syrup, so sugared beverages were small and expensive. Track the growth of fast food consumption as well as the growth in consumption of very cheap corn syrup sweetener and it matches the growth in obesity very well.

The genie of extremely cheap calories is out of the bottle. I very much doubt it can be put back in.

bob2356 says

The genie of extremely cheap calories is out of the bottle. I very much doubt it can be put back in.

It wouldn't fit anymore - gained too much weight. ;)

Are you still against the Fat Tax?

http://www.kfor.com/kfor-news-fat-roll-shoplifters-story,0,3781914.story

RayAmerica says

We typically buy only organic food (which admittedly is far more expensive)

Ray I'm not sure how I missed this part early on in your post, or I would have totally disregarded this whole post. It's pretty much like the first Missus running around telling kids to eat healthy, when she has a full staff of personal shoppers, chefs, dietitians working on the first family diet.
Just more of the Hypocritical smug bullshit that I find endearing in modern politics.

Why is eating organic/local bad ToT?

I'm not a fanatic about it, but I drink milk and usually "O" brand organic milk from Safeway.

I guess it's that whole thing of not wanting to drink a daily dose of extra special mystery chemicals above and beyond what you'd expect your cow to provide.

Prefer growing my own tomatoes etc. now that we have garden space. Just getting good harvest off the winter crop of lettuce and greens now. We don't spray any pesticides on it.

Vicente says

Why is eating organic/local bad ToT?
I’m not a fanatic about it, but I drink milk and usually “O” brand organic milk from Safeway.
I guess it’s that whole thing of not wanting to drink a daily dose of extra special mystery chemicals above and beyond what you’d expect your cow to provide.
Prefer growing my own tomatoes etc. now that we have garden space. Just getting good harvest off the winter crop of lettuce and greens now. We don’t spray any pesticides on it.

I didn't say it is bad, I said it is unrealistic to expect most people to eat healthy, given the limited resources many have. It wasn't that long ago a huge bag of produce was like a copula dollars.
Now it's a a huge bag of burgers cost only a copula dollars.

The fat people are the Canaries not the cause.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/story?id=3353401&page=1

discusses the benefits and drawbacks of organic food.

Tenouncetrout says

I didn’t say it is bad, I said it is unrealistic to expect most people to eat healthy, given the limited resources many have.

You don't have to eat only organic to eat healthy. A lot of people eat junk, and pay a lot of money for it. We were vegitarians for about 5 years. It was incredibly cheap ... and healthy. Granted it takes more of an effort, but there are other ways to eat than the slop most Americans consider to be "food." We still eat mostly vegitarian, but now eat fish & chicken, etc.

Instead of taxing fat people, we could incentivize fitness, by for instance providing health premium discounts for thin people the same way safe drivers get insurance discounts. Also, tax deductions for things like kids' soccer or hoops camp, for businesses who offer gym memberships to their employees etc.

sam1 says

Instead of taxing fat people, we could incentivize fitness, by for instance providence health premium discounts for thin people the same way safe drivers get insurance discounts. Also, tax deductions for things like kids’ soccer or hoops camp, for businesses who offer gym memberships to their employees etc.

What a crazy idea. Negative reinforcement is the way! We should make fat people sit at the back of the bus and not allow them to vote until they lose weight. If they're their ideal body weight, they shouldn't be afforded the same privileges that others are. This should include pregnant women, invalids, etc. We should electrify video games so that after 20 minutes, kids begin to be shocked at progressively higher amounts until they get up off their lazy (electrified) asses and exercise. ;)

this thread is crazy. People who are thin often don't understand how difficult it is to lose weight. Even starving themselves doesn't help. Focusing on the issue and chastising the overweight doesn't seem to be helping.

sam1 says

Instead of taxing fat people, we could incentivize fitness, by for instance providence health premium discounts for thin people the same way safe drivers get insurance discounts. Also, tax deductions for things like kids’ soccer or hoops camp, for businesses who offer gym memberships to their employees etc.

I like your ideas. Another thing to consider would be a special penalty on parents that allow their kids to get fat. This is a form of child abuse, IMO.

RayAmerica says

. We were vegitarians for about 5 years. It was incredibly cheap … and healthy. Granted it takes more of an effort, but there are other ways to eat than the slop most Americans consider to be “food.” We still eat mostly vegitarian, but now eat fish & chicken, etc.

Well that's because you live in Unicorn village.

Wait a minute, you were a Vegetarian for about 5 years, and you now eat fish & chicken?

Perhaps you're just Gourmandly challenged.