Obesity

A controversy on my site, and I wasn't even here? Great! (Here and here.)

A couple thoughts.

First, the commenter who called posts about obesity "cruel and uncaring" might be stylistically correct, but substantively wrong. While I would never walk up to an overweight person and scream "you're fat!" in his or her face, most are not entitled to some sort of sympathy or special treatment.

This is because in the majority of cases, obesity is entirely self-inflicted. Everyone has the power to avoid obesity. Look here. The fact is that in our society there are many people who find excess body fat unattractive and distasteful. Just like some people find excess body odor unattractive and distasteful.

If you are obese, and you don't like being ridiculed for your body, you can choose to ignore the insults or change your body. Don't, however, think you can demand support and respect. For those of you who believe differently, I suggest you re-read Amendment Number One.

Second, am I the only one who finds the fact that Medicaid will pay for gastric bypass surgery to be a bit ridiculous?

So, we give the poor food stamps so they don't starve. Then, if they use those food stamps to good effect, we pay doctors to make them skinny.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just stop giving obese poor people food stamps?