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War on Fat People Fizzles 2008-02-05 08:44:00 As I mentioned in this space on Friday, a bill was introduced last week in the Mississippi House of Representatives that would make it illegal for restaurants with more than five seats to serve obese patrons, the criteria for obesity being set by the state Department of Health. Restaurants that failed to comply would have their permits revoked.The story spread quickly over the weekend and created a mini-firestorm of controversy. It made the "hot topics" segment yesterday on ABC's The View, where imminent social commentator Joy Behar declared that it's restaurants that serve unhealthy food –- not the consumers who choose to eat it -– who are to blame for an obesity epidemic in the United States. "Those companies export their bad food all over the world, why aren’t they being called to task instead of the victims of this type of eating?" Behar wanted to know. I'll admit that I was flipping channels and came in on the middle of this discussion (which I soon left), but I was a ...

Mystery Outage 2008-02-04 16:39:00 Google does a great job at what they do, they're so good in fact that they create an image of perfection, flawlessness, infallibility. Hundreds of millions of people rely on them for email, search and an ever-expanding world of other services. It's said that many people don't even know there are other search engines. People were shocked this afternoon when Google, Blogger, YouTube, et al were unreachable for an hour or more.I felt suddenly a bit helpless. I could find no mention of the outage on cable news or on any of the news web sites I visited. I tried searching for "Google outage" via Yahoo and Alta Vista, but didn't turn up anything pertinent. When I discovered they were back up minutes ago, I immediately checked the official Google blog, but there was nothing related there... at least not yet.So for now it's still a mystery to me, but I'm surely glad they're back. ...

Happy Birthday, AAR-1 2008-02-02 00:06:00 If he was still alive, my father would be 107 years old today. He was born before the Wright brothers' first flight and he died over a decade after the first man stepped onto the moon. He survived two World Wars and the Great Depression. An entirely self-made man, he rose from abject poverty to gain a law degree, become an acclaimed litigator and serve two four-year terms as a judge in Arkansas in the days when machine politics meant much more than honesty and judicial integrity.He died wishing that his only son had followed in his footsteps. My greatest wish is that he had lived to know his grandson.I will miss him until the day that I die.I love you, Dad. ...

Caturday 007 2008-02-02 00:02:00 ...

Food Porn 00007 2008-02-01 23:29:00 Planning to order pizza for the Super Bowl? Read this analysis of the various crusts, toppings, and specialty pizzas from Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Papa John's.SuperBowl Pizza ...

The War on Fat People 2008-02-01 23:14:00 I kind of saw this coming. First smokers, then drinkers. Now the obese. This is of particular interest to me as a height-challenged-American (actually, one who has lost over 60 pounds in the past 8 months, but has over 80 pounds yet to go).Via Junkfood Science [hat/tip to Memeorandum]:It has actually happened. Lawmakers have proposed legislation that forbids restaurants and food establishments from serving food to anyone who is obese (as defined by the State). Under this bill, food establishments are to be monitored for compliance under the State Department of Health and violators will have their business permits revoked.House Bill 282 was introduced in the 2008 Mississippi legislative session on Friday by Representative W.T. Mayhall, Jr., a retired pharmaceutical salesman with DuPont-Merk. Its co-authors are Bobby Shows, a businessman, and John Read, a pharmacist.The full text reads:HOUSE BILL NO. 282An act to prohibit certain food establishments from serving food to any person who ...

Because the Surge Is Going So Well 2008-01-31 14:22:00 At first glance one might think that it's based on a simple lack of understanding of the law of diminishing return, or a failure to grasp that the U.S. military actually is finite. With this administration, though, it's usually wrong to attribute to ignorance or stupidity what can just as easily be explained by malice. From yesterday's NYT:Four months after announcing troop reductions in Iraq, President Bush is now sending signals that the cuts may not continue past this summer, a development likely to infuriate Democrats and renew concerns among military planners about strains on the force.Mr. Bush has made no decisions on troop reductions to follow those he announced last September. But White House officials said Mr. Bush had been taking the opportunity, as he did in Monday’s State of the Union address, to prepare Americans for the possibility that, when he leaves office a year from now, the military presence in Iraq will be just as large as it was a year ago, or even slightly ...

Slick Willy, Part n 2008-01-31 01:16:00 Old habits die hard, if at all. Bill Clinton just cannot resist temptation... just cannot keep his hands clean.Read this, please!!!Hat/tip to Memeorandum. The Readers Digest version courtesy of RBC:Bill Clinton flies to Kazakhstan with a buddy who wants a huge uranium-mining deal.Clinton says nice things about the local dictator, endorsing his bid to head the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe: the same outfit that denounced the most recent Kazakh elections as a sham.The buddy gets the mining deal.The buddy gives $131 million to the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation.No, this is not from ages ago. It's from 2005, long after Bill had stopped being a politician and was busy establishing his "elder-statesman" cred.Sorry, but I am exhausted and sickened from half a lifetime of observing his smarmy, oleaginous, unctuous duplicity and hypocrisy. That he still has an 80+ percent approval rating among some Democrat subsets just astonishes me. ...

Deja Vu All Over Again? 2008-01-31 01:02:00 Ben Wasserstein at The New Republic has a bad case of it, and it would seem with potentially good cause. In large part from yesterday:For Barack Obama supporters, there have been a lot of encouraging signs over the last few days--the South Carolina blowout, the Kennedy endorsements, the days of adulatory press coverage--but also, maybe, the seeds of disaster. There are too many echoes of the post-Iowa period for me to be confident in the media narrative of Obama's ascent. Don't these look familiar?1) The swooning press coverage. The national media--particularly the TV networks--may have taken the word of Ted Kennedy as if he's the Nechung Oracle declaring Obama to be JFK reincarnated, but we haven't seen one way or the other yet that voters feel the same way. The media got out in front of the public after Iowa, too, and look where that got Obama.2) Accusations of churlishness. "You're likable enough, Hillary" = "The Snub."Both are profoundly silly; both are apparently, aggravatin ...

Trend Lines 2008-01-31 00:49:00 From Gallup, source of the most recent poll numbers (as referenced below):The decline of Hillary Clinton:The ascendance of John McCain: ...

N.O.W.'s Sexist Blast 2008-01-31 00:10:00 Via the AP:The New York chapter of The National Organization for Women yesterday accused Sen. Edward Kennedy of betraying women with his endorsement of Barack Obama...."Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal," NOW's New York State chapter said in a scorching rebuke. "Senator Kennedy's endorsement of Hillary Clinton's opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard."On Monday, Kennedy, D-Mass., his son Patrick and his niece Caroline Kennedy announced their support for Obama. Edward Kennedy said the country needs a leader who can bring people together and create change.But the move angered the state chapter of NOW, which called Kennedy's decision the "greatest betrayal.""We are repaid with his abandonment!" the statement said. "He's picked the new guy over us. He's joined the list of progressive white men who can't or won't handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton."The group said it was our obligation to "elect, ...

McCain Ducks 2008-01-30 23:39:00 Via Politico:NBC invited John McCain and Mitt Romney onto “Meet the Press” Sunday for a final debate before Super Tuesday. Romney, now the underdog and eager for opportunities to take on the front-runner, immediately accepted. McCain, who appeared on the show last week and is looking to protect a lead, declined.There has yet to be a head-to-head debate between the two front-runners, and there likely won't be one before voters in more than 20 states go to the polls next week.McCain, who will be endorsed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tomorrow,will appear at a news conference after touring a Los Angeles-based solar energy company on Thursday. [AP]:Schwarzenegger's endorsement of McCain is yet another setback for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who saw Florida slip from his grasp Tuesday after McCain rolled up the support of that state's two top elected Republicans, Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez.His strategy in tatters, Romney plans to offer ...

Edwards Campaign, R.I.P. 2008-01-30 23:25:00 In a race that's been far too full of "make-or-break," "now or never," and "do-or-die" predictions from pundits, here are two actually after-the-fact, dueling obituaries for the Edwards campaign: here and here, from The New Republic. ...

The Nader Fungus 2008-01-30 16:18:00 Like that athlete's-foot infection that you thought you were finally rid of for good,he's back. Reuters:Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who has been accused by Democrats of helping hand the White House to George W. Bush in 2000, has formed a committee to explore another presidential bid.Sure to stir up a hornet’s nest, Nader launched an Internet site to recruit campaign workers, paid and unpaid, as well as to raise money for a possible White House run.The Green Party even announced today that Nader will be participating in a debate including Democrat-turned-Green Rep. Cynthia McKinney and others on the Green Party presidential ballot. It's being billed as "A Presidential Debate That Matters."Here we go again. ...

What Now for the Edwards Supporters? 2008-01-30 15:15:00 There was very little dust raised by John Edwards' announcement today -- many had been expecting/wishing for this event at least since New Hampshire -- but long before that dust settled, in fact long before it was raised, intense speculation had begun as to whom would benefit most from this.CNN is mentioning recent poll results that showed 40 percent of Edwards supporters naming Clinton as their second choice, with only 25 percent of them choosing Obama. Presumably the other 35 percent were undecided, since it's hard to imagine an Edwards voter going Republican.Chris Cillizza offers a quick survey of current punditry forecasting:Charlie Cook, a political analyst and publisher of the Cook Political Report, said that the racial divisions apparent in early votes could impact where Edwards' supporters ultimately wind up."While one can plausibly argue that Edwards withdrawal may unite the anti-Clinton vote, one can also argue that Edwards overwhelmingly white block of supporters come l ...