Another modest proposal. A friend sent me a rogues' gallery

Harassment and nagging, though neither sounds very nice, are not interchangeable. I take great exception to including a persons physical characteristics in another person's complaint about their actions, personality, or whatever. One's worth should not be measured by another person's bodily measurements. That does not mean that it's unkind to urge (nag) a person who is not of healthy weight to take better care of themselves. It can show that another truly cares though it doesn't always come out that way. Harassment, however, is meant to annoy....but you knew that.

comments and opinions about me to be harassment.

I realize if I had a serious medical condition that impeded me from performing my job it might be relevant, but your idea of public nagging isn't nagging.

The nagging you refer to as helping/urging is from close family and friends, not from Joe Blow half a continent away.

Yes we need to replace unhealthy habits with healthier ones.

However, in the sense of your post, we should also publically critizize and raise health insurance cost for people that engage in risky sports, people who get caught speeding, people who don't sleep enough. They all mean greater risk of poor health in one way or another.

While we're at it publically nag all those that don't help others, that don't give to charity, that don't belong to some approved religion/sect, etc.

Sorry Steve, I can't agree with you on this.

I went too far with the possibilities but I was actually trying to point out the absurdity of the suggestions in the OP by countering with equally absurd proposals. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

But I could think, in the case of public officials, that they are "hired" by those they serve and that a condition of their employment should be to display that they are fit for the job and are good ambassadors for what they might propose. That doesn't mean public records should include their cholesterol levels but overall general health is certainly a factor that a voter might want to take into consideration. We have heard some of this about our presidents through the news media including some rather private stuff.

Now as for the new healthcare system, I think it could easily be predicted that some people who've not had coverage will think they are safer now to engage in risky behavior. I hope that's not true but age can increase one cynicism.

I telegraph it every way I can, and yet it gets taken literally and then castigated for being ... fattist.

It was a non-serious satirical poke between myself and a friend in another country regarding political figures of particular dimensions, and it is remarkable the proportion of political figures who exhibit those dimensions.

It wasn't the Sermon on the Mount. It wasn't meant seriously, and I would oppose anything remotely resembling the concept I satirically suggested. I'm a liberal for *****'s sake. My credo is tolerance, except where it meets intolerance and prejudice.

One of the fun things about Monty Python all those years ago was that it made use of all those cliche-ed prejudiced "I don't like darkies!" "Who does?" to show them up for what they really are. That's what satire is supposed to do. SNL used to do it. In Living Colour used to do it. All in the Family used to do it. But it's not a common element of American humour ba-dum-bump, kssshhh.

Television has been telling us what is the joke for so long we've forgotten how to figure it out for ourselves.

Rob

In my own defense, I can only offer that I've heard your comments about this person a number of times here and I'd say you've been not only uncomplimentary in your remarks about his politics but have also thrown in some very unkind references to his size. I'm not making that up but I'm not going to search backward to find these for you. You've been quite mean to the guy before this "drug bust" news. I doubt anyone else who'd read your older posts about this man would consider that, this time, it was a joke. Sorry but you did this to yourself.

I see little difference between the aim of satire and lying questions. One is intended attempt to ridicule, most often in today's world when not even valid, the other intended to imply an untruth. Both are from the devious toolkit of the devil.

caricature, or someone with a particularly great face to caricature. like Tricky ****. Brian Mulroney had a chin like Jay Leno, which made him a gimme for cartoonists. Jean Chretien had Bell's Palsy which froze half his face and caused him to work harder with the side which worked, and that too made for great cartoons. Obama's great because you can exaggerate his ears. Same with Prince Charles. The Rottweiler should be easy to caricature but I haven't seen any memorable ones.

And without Thomas Nast, we wouldn't really have the classic portrait of Santa Claus in the US. Oh, Thomas Nast? he's the cartoonist who cut his teeth and built a career on caricaturing Boss Tweed.

Thomas Rowlandson, caricatured the Prince Regent and his circle in the early 19th Century England. One of his most famous cartoons simply showed the foot of a bed, with two feet toes pointed downward (and still wearing shoes!) between two other feet toes pointed up, and clearly female sticking out from under the sheets. It was a reference to Prinny's inability to keep his trousers buttoned. His illegitimate children were too numerous to count.

If you like the early 19th Century English history, Rowlandson is a very important source of commentary and insight into characters and issues important to the people. Beside they're very attractive. People collect them and use them as art work.

BTW, Queen Victoria wasn't fathered by his Mother's husband Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, The Prince Regent, later George the Fourth's younger brother. It seems clear that she was fathered by her Mother's court physician, which is where haemophilia entered the family having never been present before.

Vickies Mother was German and domineering, and Victoria made a fairly firm break with her mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld,.the second she became Queen at age 17, exiling her from her bedroom or the outer room leading to her bedroom or even the wing the Queen chose to live in.

Rob

am bald. They can control their appetites, or get medical help to do so. The only list I know of is yours of acceptable right wing views and subjects and Anti-Semitism. When I see Ford or Chris Christie, I am overwhelmed by the mass I face (particularly Ford with his straining white shirt front) and Fraud's extremist comments which have been allowed to pass unchallenged and unreported by the news media. I make the comment in the same manner I comment to my friend Michael about his 6'7" 160 pound frame (no. that's not a mis-print), which is very occasionally and jocularly.

Again it was A "Modest Proposal" (Wikipedia) a satirical suggestion and not meant to be taken seriously.

Fine, you guys don't like my politics, or me, or where I live, or the way I write, or anything else about me, I get that, and thanks so much for that crack about my wife leaving me, James, with which I'd have been fine if that had been the way it went down. She fabricated a story of an assault and called the police 4 days later in order to have me thrown out so she could rob me blind of anything of value from my parents.

But for Heaven's sake, get a sense of humour. Learn what A Modest Proposal means (it's very well understood, even in the United States, which is why I've used it several times here, twice in the past couple of days) and stop blaming me for a joke you don't understand. It's a good joke, if you're not pre-disposed to hate the poster, attack anything he posts, and to misconstrue anything he writes.

Speakeasy is such a nice warm cozy environment for people with slightly opposing views, (that's sarcasm if you're taking notes). If any group is inclined to "profile" people and then savage them in their posts it is the Usual Suspects here. Any one from Chicago and is involved in Politics, Anyone who is Black but isn't a Republican. Poor George Zimmerman wasn't a rage-aholic who prowled the neighbourhood with his gun hoping for a miscreant, he was a victim and Trayvon Martin was a crazy Crack-Head armed with a lethal tin of some drink, and Zimmerman's wife didn't leave him because he beat her up and screamed at her a lot.

Professor Gates of Harvard is a screaming gun-toting Black Panther radical (hyperbole) who deliberately wandered his own neighbourhood erratically, and was not out for a jog, not dressed in good clothes, trying to sucker some Police Officer into challenging him. And that poor boy in Sandy Hook Elementary felt in imminent danger from all those Grade 1's and 2's and was just standing his ground. (that's both sarcasm and satire).

You want this to be a Tea Party Forum, or a Conservative Republican back-slapping "ain't them darkies a pain in the ***" kind of forum, where anyone to the Left of Atilla the Hun is the Anti-Christ (hyperbole), great, found one and have a purity test to get in. The trouble is that this is an open forum, and is much more open than it was previously, perhaps because CBS, one of your favourite whipping boys, now owns it. But that doesn't stop you from trying to drive opposing voices out of the forum through your behaviour, and absence of any humour except among recognized co-religionists.

I feel your pain (not even a little). Get used to it. You want a private forum, go pay for one. Didn't Evie leave and found one? Don't let the door hit you in the ***.

Rob

of Ford, Christie, and other politicians of very large girth, I can't help but wonder if they could use a little help in that regard. I also know that when I see politicians have a tantrum (and size doesn't matter as to what size person does these things), I do find it disturbing and unseemly of anyone. I also am not naive enough to not be aware that such tirades are like candy to a person with a video camera and may not be indicative of the whole person. What you won't see video of is their calm moments engaged in polite conversation. That won't sell. What I would find more interesting when I see such as Ford coming unglued, is how he achieved his position in government. There aren't that many scenarios that need to be considered and we can rule out his taking the city by force. Given that he was elected by the people, I can only come up with these possibilities:

1. He's generally been shown to be an effective leader so his bad side is overlooked.
2. He's an idiot who was selected from a field of bigger idiots.
3. The majority of the voting population is either uninformed or are also idiots.
4. Those mayors (or the party in power) before his election proved themselves to be ineffective or as idiots by the majority of voters.
5. Some combination of the above.

My question from this would be about his appeal. Someone either likes him or hates him less than they did those he ran against. If the latter, I'd say Toronto has a bigger problem than that of Ford's circumference.

would against a straw man, The Gravy Train supposedly flowing from the idiots in City Government to the old heart of the city which is ethnically diverse, and less Conservative than the 'burbs, particularly his corner of the burbs which happens also to be mine. There are Wealthy areas of the Old City, Rosedale and Forest Hill where the real Money is. And there are Wealthy areas of the Burbs like the area of Etobicoke where I live. Big houses, big lots, big trees.

In keeping with that he is playing the Big Lie game, blaming an area which inherited the old benefits of Concert Halls and a University and a lively culture as effete, and cultured and cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse as the problem, knowing that area wouldn't vote for him anyway, because he is just too stupid to pass muster. It has nothing to do with his flunking out of College. It has to do with his really dumb ideas, such as cancelling a project well along in development costing the city millions. But the Revanchiste Burbs don't care about that because he's laying about him with the jaw-bone of an *** (his own) making fun of anyone who disagrees with him, or bullying and screaming at him until he backs away from the madman.

He's also doing a George W Bush, pretending to be a regular guy when in fact he's a multi-millionaire through his father's business which makes labels. Location of the factory? Chicago. Go figure.

Rob

people that don't have a problem saying all you got to do is eat less? I know skinny people that eat more than I do and make the same stupid statement that obviously I eat more than they do. Two people can eat exactly the same diet and one lose weight and one gain weight. And it's not just how many hours they spend in the gym either. Every heard of metabolism differences?

You really think we like being so large? Most overweigtht people do eat too much or more importantly too much of the wrong things.

Sure it's controllable if you're ignorant enough or contemptuous enough to compare it to race.

A lot of people can do something about their weight, but let me tell you, quitting smoking is quitting an addiction, and it's not half as hard as losing weight for people that have weight problems. I quit smoking after about 18 years and being up to a 30 a day habit.

Now right now I've manage to lose a little bit very gradually since August. While I'm not counting calories or carbs, I've changed eating drastically since even early this year. Even with cutting meat, cheese, bread about in half, I averaged less than a pound a week since the first of August.

Most overweight people control their appetite with more difficulty than you would to quit arguing politics.

Yeah I may be a bit sensitive right now about it, more since I tried to start doing something about than I was before I think. I normally ignore people debating how weak fat people are.

Now I know how hard it can be, and it really bothers me when I see a early teen already obese, I know how hard it's going to be for them later. I've been a bit large since at least sixth grade, but wasn't that bad even at graduation. I've gradually gotten a bit more overweight my entire life, with only brief periods of loss. It adds up to problems.

Fortunately my overall health hasn't been that bad, only slightly off cholesterol and no blood pressure problems, and no diabetes, so I've gotten away with it. Several people I work with have gotten one stomach surgery or the other to lose weight. But if you don't have conditions to compound your health problems with overweight, it's debatable if the surgery risk is acceptable.

Go back to your politics, there are plenty there than enjoy insults they can fight about.

Phiff.

I'm overweight. Not 50% overweight, maybe 25%, but more than I like. And I too have managed to lose a little through the summer, and hope to continue, though whether it is reduced sunlight and melatonin or whatever, I always used to put on weight during the winter.

I'm going to go on what I call the University Student Diet. Kraft Dinner. One meal a day. in the morning. When my weight gets down below 200, I'll consult on a healthy diet and switch to that.

I really like Campbell's Chunky Steak and Potato soup, but find that it stimulates my appetite rather than satisfies it. It seemed like the perfect food, a reasonable protein intake, and vegetables too, but it's in the Bet You Can't Eat Just One category for me and therefore off the list. KD on the other hand is sufficiently satisfying but not an appetite stimulant. There may be other Campbell's stuff that will satisfy without cranking up my appetite. I don't enjoy cooking, and truthfully food is way down on my list of enjoyments. It's a necessary distraction.

Congraats on the BP situation. I'm afraid my Nemesis took me from a healthy person in 1997 to an unhealthy one by 2001, simply through the application of intolerable stress. Before we left Canada my BP was 110 over 50. Resting Heart rate 55. When I returned it was 170 over 96. and HR of 76. In Four years. So I take BP meds and Cholesterol (again healthy before I left) meds. and enough Anti-depressants to sedate an elephant (not conducive to losing weight) and try to make myself walk as much as possible which isn't nearly enough.

Maybe a Discman and the Vintage Trouble CD would help.

Rob