"These are fat times in politics. Literally. Nearly 400 obesity-related bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country last year-more than double the number in 2003. A quarter of them passed into law, up from only 12% two years before. In Washington, the word obesity appears in 56 bills introduced during the current Congress; this, the Wall Street Journal points out, is fast catching up with the number containing the word gun. Surgeon General Richard Carmona says obesity is a greater threat than terrorism. Some public-health advocates have begun urging the government to put a warning label on soft-drinks; others are calling for a "fat tax" on fast food."

--Time magazine, 3/27/2006 issue

Interesting debacle, eh? So, what about this:

"Even in Washington, where every act appears spurred by political motivation, one recent Bush adminstratin move was stunning.

After career lawyers in the Justice Department labored five years building a racketeering case against Big Tobacco, a political appointee required them to reduce the settlement they were seeking from $130 billion to $10 billion.

Thus, this long-anticipated case likely will end with a whimper rather than a bang.

Big Tobacco, of course, is breathing a sigh of relief. (Kudos to the Express for the obvious pun)

Everyone else should be furious.

The move came in June, as a nine-month trial ended and the judge prepared to rule.

According to media reports, Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum, Jr. amde the decision. McCallum, a political appointee and close friend from college of President Bush, had worked for a law firm that did work for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco."

--San Antonio Express News 7/3/05

Hmm. And then, not to quote another media source, and mainly because the blog won't let me copy and paste, so I had to actually type all that bullshit, what about the McDonalds lawsuits?

Is it the government's job to take care of us? Or rather, is it the government's job to point the blame? Well, yes, of course it is, but I think a lot of the blame for our bad health comes from our own bad habits that we as humans need to alter. I mean, Wal-Mart is now selling plus-sized children's clothes. There's something wrong with that.

I recognized when I started smoking (at the tender age of 14, I might add) that cigarettes were bad for me. It said so on the side of the box. I understand that those warning labels were not always there, but I don't think that should have mattered. People should realize that inhaling smoke could be bad for them. Most people die in house fires not from burns, but from smoke inhalation. It's just bad for you.

McDonalds french fries, Whataburger's triple bacon cheeseburger with extra mayo, and Burger King's 760 calorie breakfast sandwich are all bad for you. They leave an awful lot of grease on your face, which, when not clogging your pores and causing gross blackheads, will clog up your arteries, thereby causing gross myocardial infarctions.

I'm not saying that I'm above all of these tempations. I'm sure many of you have seen me smoking cigarettes, eating fast food, etc., but the thing is, I know when to stop. I'm trying to quit smoking, if only for The Girlfriend's sake (she's having odd chest pains and heart palpitations, and when she was told about it, her mother - a nurse for 20 years - gave her a look of near immediate panic), and I hardly ever eat fast food anymore. I'm not saying at ALL that I'm the American ideal of health. Please.

But, I would also be very surprised and disappointed to find out that T.G. is the sort of person that would blame her poor health on anyone but herself. She (nor I) would never sue Phillip Morris if, God forbid, she ever got sick. She knew what she was doing, and for that matter, so do most people. I think most people just want to blame their poor habits/health/lives on anyone but themselves, no matter how inconvenient, ridiculous, or ill-conceived it may be.

Perhaps companies should be barred from selling things that are not necessarily healthy. Like, I'd really like it if Hummer were put out of business for supporting our disgusting, polluting oil habit, and for encouraging the hole in the ozone layer, and quickening the melting of the polar icecaps. I'd love it if Budweiser were put out of business because of how many drunk drivers there are. Hell, let's just put Barnes & Noble out of business for selling books that are killing are rainforests with all the damn paper they've got!

Where does it end?

On that note, I'm ending this blog. I can't keep going anymore, I'm completely out of steam. I'm done, dammit.