1. That attitude is precisely why fat shaming is still more acceptable than say racism or homophobia, because many people see obesity as being entirely the fault of the fat person. And yeah models take flak for being too skinny but at the end of the day I'd bet they still don't take as much hate as fat people, and eating disorders are just as damaging as obesity.

2. If you agree that overeating and obesity can be symptoms of other problems then how do you imagine shaming everyone into submission will work? It's like going to the doctors office and discovering that he's prescribing penicillin for everything. Shaming can work in some cases but if you've got someone who's up to their eyeballs in shame and self loathing then after piling on more you might as well top it off with a tombstone for all the good it will do.
Obesity is a complex problem and in general people hate complex problems, they want simple 'one size fits all' (ahem) solutions. If you want to PREVENT obesity then you'll have to start thinking outside the box that is fat shaming.
Oh, and America got started down this road long before this generation, this is the culmination of generations of bad eating.

A couple of points in no particular order:

1. Fat shaming is akin to a criminal act in North America. Part of the whole 'abdication of personal responsibility' that has evolved over the past few decades. Ironically, it's okay to hate on skinny models for promoting a body type that often induces eating disorders in those trying to achieve it. What's good for one end of the spectrum is apparently not okay at the other...

2. I agree that overeating leading to obesity can be a symptom of other issues. That said, we're in full blown crisis mode. Obesity isn't just about fat... it's about heart disease, diabetes, and other related medical issues. Health care is going to crumble under the weight of it all - no pun intended.

It's a case of 'the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few'. If fat shaming PREVENTS a new generation of obesity, then the price as a society is worth it.

We should provide programs for those struggling with obesity NOW but we need to adopt a tough love approach.

It's part of my larger belief that by protecting stupid people from themselves we virtually guarantee our eventual extinction.

Rant over... and moving on... thx.

Scahill strikes again: The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist

About time, if you ask me. After he spoiled us with his splendid reports about the JSOC operations, having to wait for his first proper piece for the Intercept caused some slight symptoms of withdrawal on my end.

What i see is vigilantes and crazy people wanting to get shot down and martyred by cops.

I'm pretty sure that when you ask the citizens in a warn torn country where guns are actually a requisite to survival what they feel about people carrying guns out in the open and i'll bet they don't like it either. They just have to do it. You, on the other hand, carrying one in USA don't actually need it. If you open carry, you just like to scare people.

The whole "i'm allowed to do what i want" theme goes out the window when the symbol in question actually is designed to kill living things. I had to think hard what is the difference between other freedoms, say, gay pride parade. You have to just accept it no matter what you think about it. One could say the same about freedom to carry guns but that's where i draw the line: does it kill you or not. If it doesn't, deal with it and move on. If it does, remove it from the public. Not against guns in the privacy of your own home but they DO NOT belong to streets unless they are carried by a professional.

And no, i don't trust the law enforcement blindly but they enforce laws that we have allowed our representatives to put in place.. if you have a problem with laws, you take it where the laws are made, not to the people enforcing them... And definitely you don't scare everyone else getting one either, which this "open carry activism" WILL lead to: you see guns out in the open, "I think need one now just to pop to get some milk, better get my AK".. Stupid stupider gun-nut. The same people are "rolling coal" plus a host of other symptoms.

Having more guns will just leave to more violence, that is a fact that is definitely shown in study after study. The way non-carrying citizens react to this should be a clear sign: society does NOT want that. Isn't that enough reason to stop?

wow, they really are copying fox news.

I may completely agree with him but that was ridiculous, but then again, Orly is a ridiculous person. I guess that's the question then. What's worse, giving ridiculous people a platform, or a press that behaves ridiculously too?

im thinking this is just a symptom of the 24 hour news cycle. they don't have enough news to fill that 24 hours, so they create their own drama. giving airtime to people who are not experts and who are not rational.

...if it wasn't for the "lazy blind,...eye," as chingalera so choggielike calls it, he wouldn't be here, AGAIN AGAIN, to dribble and spew his verbosely inarticulate, self deluded, thread hijacking diatribes.

Is it not glaring, amazing, and ironic that so much of the vitriol choggie levies is unconsciously self-referential? Defining symptom of Multiple Profile Disorder.

@RedSky

20 billion was just an arbitrarily large number I chose to demonstrate that I think that the world would survive significant population growth beyond what we'll be dealing with in the near future.

The point of no return I was referring to is simply a point where we won't be able to get back to a place where we can sustain human population levels without significant environmental degradation and territorial disputes, among other challenges I'd prefer not to experience.

I do consider things like global warming, the fact that China is buying up land in Africa to feed its population, US foreign policy's competitive focus on securing cheap oil and the large scale destruction of rainforest to make way for single crop agriculture in Brasil to be symptoms of an imbalance in population vs. resources.

I'm not drawing the line at "everyone and stock up at the grocery store/pumps" type destruction before I take notice and preach caution. I think that defining that as a deadline would be irresponsible.

Again, I agree that we could theoretically mechanize the whole world in a way that grows the supply of resources and shares them equitably amongst an enormous human population, but that goes against the type of world I'd want to live in (excessive mechanization of natural resources) and the way human social systems typically work (equitable sharing).

There are various estimates on how much longer exponential human population growth will last, but it has certainly happened on a scale of centuries or decades - blips like baby boomers are just expected outliers within that trend.

But what's more important is that even if population levels peter off, it is consumption - which is the only statistic that really matters because it is the only negative effect of population increase - that will continue to increase exponentially as a greater proportion of the world's population begins to achieve first world living standards.

This is why free trade alone is not enough to solve problems. While it is likely to bring people out of poverty, raise education levels and increase human rights (all very good things), it will also continue to push our overall imprint on the planet in a more exponential direction than I'm comfortable with (one reason being the argument detailed in this video).

But of course I'm also uncomfortable with the prospect of any sort of forced population reduction mechanism, and I'm also uncomfortable with the notion of not raising people out of poverty.

So as I see it the only thing left to mitigate my fears is to place a primary emphasis on Education.

There's a million and one ways to do this: Everything from broad, effectual efforts like getting the Pope to get with the program and endorse contraceptives, to nearly insignificant efforts like arguing with people on the internet in hopes that you contribute some small part to a culture that places some significant emphasis on educating people about the importance of self control and restraint in every type of consumption - family size included.

The influence of religion has peaked hopefully. Along with that, as symptoms of overpopulation become more and more impossible to ignore, there will eventually be a huge negative stigma on anyone who has a large family.

Hell we already live in a world where religious baby-factory families are mocked and ridiculed, at least when we see them on TV, so I suspect the shaming of large families will only become more prevalent as time goes on, so one can hope that we won't need government to tell us to stop breeding so much, but given human arrogance, who knows?

Technology will help, but only so much. If anything, technology is contributing to the factors that say we don't need this many people on this planet as automation and computers reduce the amount of people we need in the workforce.

Oprah is another dim-bulb that promotes these types...
Seniors, in particular, are easy prey for these con artists, probably because they've lived long enough to see friends and family die.
My mother - suffering the early symptoms of dementia - put her and her 3rd husband deeply into debt because of these creeps. After she was institutionalized, I went through her paperwork and discovered the letters that she had written to various psychics asking for help. It broke my heart -- once they had her hooked they sent her endless letters each promising to reveal big secrets to her and she dutifully sent them money time and time again.
Ellen, show some backbone...

Canadian from Manitoba checking in here. Things like crutches, prescription medications, and ambulances are out of pocket expenses. Got something like diabetes? Expect to be spending a lot of money every month on drugs.

For life threatening emergencies or even broken bones and stitches our system works great for people, and no worries about going broke, you just go in anyways. Our federal and provincial taxation levels though are also much higher than in the US and a large percentage of that is spent directly on health care. I don't know what level of health insurance that amount would buy each Canadian, but it is important to remember that the Canadian healthcare system is NOT free.

I must say I do prefer the Canadian system to the American one. Largely on the basis of not seeing working class families being financially destroyed by life threatening and uninsured medical conditions.

I can't just say that though without pointing out that our Canadian system has it's own serious flaws. I know of people with back injuries putting them off work until they can get surgery, and that surgery being a waiting time for them measured in years. They flew down to the states to spend thousands of dollars out of pocket to get the surgery in weeks instead, and were financially ahead too over those two years since they could get back to work. Patients showing symptoms that might indicate major heart conditions or other illnesses who would get an immediate MRI or other expensive diagnostic in the states straight away will routinely wait months in Canada.

That is all just a long winded way to say the Canadian system is far from perfect and has very serious problems and flaws in it that are negatively impacting peoples health and financial well being too. It's no magic bullet.

Maybe that young man is depressed? Stops going to church, going outside, withdraws from society, and wants nothing more than to blatantly masturbate in front of his peers. The solution is what, to talk about his porn? Is this not more likely a symptom of a bigger problem perhaps?

Anyway, I had this playing in the background looking at other stuff, and my selective hearing told me the soldier he needed to get out was his sperm, and he was in a desperate struggle to release them from their confinement. Talk to your bishop to help relieve this bitter struggle from your pants. I thought maybe they were talking about a new masturbatory video game. Help your friend get off today! Stop watching porn, and participate! Coming to your jock today, multiplayer action in your pants!
/sarcasm

seriously dude, you're sometimes worse than both of them.

because you enable them. you defend known racists and trolls. you come in here with your fake-conciliatory "lets all be friends, everyone's opinions are valid" bullshit. It's like you come into every sift, pick out the worst posts..and start defending them.

you're like the media. you take absolutely indefensible arguments of others and try to pretend they're equally valid to stoke the flames. What? you didn't think we noticed you working overtime to defend ching lately during his latest off his meds episode? not surprised at all that you're now swooping in to defend another shithead of the sift.

it's so fake and so transparent.

you're another bad symptom of a site that refuses to have moderators and lets known troublemakers back on that's devolved into just noise and incoherency

They've got pills for half her symptoms.

don't be so cunty as to tell people what words they should use. regardless of your intent, you made it sound like soccer causes the condition because of all the running around, I was stating that any high intensity sport is a danger if you have the condition as your only symptom may be sudden death. I would hate to think that you would put anyone off football due to this rare condition. Should professional athletes be screened? yes i think so and many do have at least one ECG, but this is an imperfect screening tool and its often at the amateur level that these events first happen before one might invest in a full medical work up.

I find it odd that she was given Medicinal use of pot when she is Bipolar, because as I have understood for some time, marijuana makes symptoms of psychosis much, much worse, and regular use for anyone who experiences Bipolar, Depression, Mania and the like can see their disease transform into full-blown Schizophrenia from pot use. Is that not true and I just fell for some anti-pot propaganda? This was from several medical reports published sometime in the last 5-10 years.