One never knows what kind of nonsense Ivy League researchers will come up with when they’re on the government payroll. Far as we can tell the rule of thumb seems to be, the more preposterous the better.
Consider, for example, this story from National Journal:
As the Western world gets fatter and fatter, the solutions to slimming it down get ever more draconian. In Britain yesterday, the government issued guidelines saying “children under the age of 5, including babies who can’t walk yet, should exercise every day.” Today, in the States, a pair of Harvard scholars writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association advocate stripping away the custody rights of parents of super obese children. They’re for real!
“The boy’s not fat, he just has heavy bones” won’t fly as an excuse when the nanny state takes over.
“Despite the discomfort posed by state intervention, it may sometimes be necessary to protect a child,” said Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and researcher at Harvard’s School of Public Health. The study’s co-author, David Ludwig, says taking away peoples’ children “ideally will support not just the child but the whole family, with the goal of reuniting child and family as soon as possible.” Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children’s Hospital, said his eureka moment was when a 90-pound, 3-year-old girl entered his obesity clinic a number of years ago,” reports Lindsey Tanner at the Associated Press.
Nanny state, yes! Fatty state, no! Chubby chasers are gathering outside the White House to protest this outrageous infringement of their rights.
Source: National Journal
This post was last modified on January 26, 2021
View Comments (77)
Right...the kid is already going through hell because the other kids tease him since he's fat, so now let's really make him suicidal by taking him away from his parents.
Good way to raise healthy adults. Yeah, that'll work.
Keep your laws off my body?
p.s. that picture is from Olivia's naughty photo shoot her ex lesbian partner said would never get put on the interwebz.
Olivia seems to be saying the parents are at responsible for obese children. This is an exactly opposite position the liberals take toward homosexuals.
They insist gays are born gay, but fat kids are the result of poor parenting.
According to standard liberal logic, obese people should be considered a minority but instead are discriminated against by liberals and threatened with being removed from their families.
Obesity is not an approved disability. Didn't you get the memo?
Say, I hear that you haven't been putting cover sheets on your TPS reports. I'll get you another copy of the memo.
Hey man, what's this I'm hearing about you forgetting to put cover-sheets on your TPS reports?
Ugh, another example of alleged intellectuals advocating some social engineering program that anyone with any common sense would reject immediately. Sadly, sometimes these nitwits get laws passed based on their theories (see Eugenics).
Olivia "So you’re saying that you think it smacks of Nazism for society to intervene if a child is being abused? (And, yes some—not all—-parents with morbidly obese children are guilty of abuse, just as Munchausen-by-proxy parents are.) Do you think this child would have agreed with you, had he lived to grow up? "
Olivia, I'm saying exactly what I said.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Removing morbidly obese children from their abusive parents is just a first step. What about the children of alcoholics, the children of smokers, the children of the mentally unstable or the children of Democrats? There's a strong argument that these children should also be removed from their abusive, unfit parents.
i agree. all kids of democrat mothers (not "parents" since democrats dont believe in marriage or monogamy and many have no clue who fathered their children) shouldbe removed from the home forthwith and placed with conservative foster parents. awesome idea!
Removing morbidly obese children from their abusive parents is just a first step. What about the children of alcoholics, the children of smokers, the children of the mentally unstable or the children of Democrats? There’s a strong argument that these children should also be removed from their abusive, unfit parents.
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Unless you can provide evidence that Democrats endanger their kids' physical or mental health (and please can the stale "liberalism is a mental disease" bumper sticker slogans), your analogy is a crock.
Again, NO ONE is suggesting that every chubby couch potato kid be taken from his/her parents. But it's as ridiculous to assume that NO parents of grossly obese children are abusive, as it is to assume that kids who go to school with welts and burn marks on their arms and legs are merely being taught not to misbehave.
Why would you want to turn your back on kids who show clear signs of emotional abuse? Has your self-esteem been so pumped up by Rush Limbaugh that you now think you know more about child abuse than the professionals?
You certainly are obsessed with Rush aren`t you.
Go ahead and pleasure yourself to that life size poster you have hidden in the attic. You`ll feel better and we wont have to be subjected to your inane ramblings.
Feeding your child too much and giving him or her bad ideas about nutrition is not child abuse.
Feeding your child too much and giving him or her bad ideas about nutrition is not child abuse.
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That's like saying, "Spanking your child is not abuse." Sure, MOST spanking isn't abusive. But that doesn't mean that spanking can NEVER be abusive, or that we should scoff at the very idea of regarding corporal punishment as potentially abusive.
Sure, MOST spanking isn’t abusive. But that doesn’t mean that spanking can NEVER be abusive
Spoken like a true liberal who is incapable of understanding the difference between spanking and beating.
No offense, but more children need beating nowadays then ever. I got my ass kicked when I was young and did something wrong; and I fully intend to pass it on to my sons. I may not believe in God, but I believe in the words: "Spare the rod, spoil the child."
When I was a kid, I got spanked, and I got beat. I know the difference.
When I was a kid, I got spanked, and I deserved it 100% of the time...my brother got 1 spanking that he didn't deserve. SHHHH.
Olivia, I can only assume you have never been to college, or even taken an online coarse. What is the first thing you learn in origins of law?
Law was never meant to preempt actions of humanity, only to punish. We have distorted and contorted aristotelian law to fit current agendas from the patriot act to seatbelt laws. It doesn't mean they are right.
Olivia, I can only assume you have never been to college, or even taken an online coarse. What is the first thing you learn in origins of law?
Law was never meant to preempt actions of humanity, only to punish. We have distorted and contorted aristotelian law to fit current agendas from the patriot act to seatbelt laws. It doesn’t mean they are right.
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Law was meant "only to punish"? Where in the world are you getting that idea, David? It wasn't true of our own Constitution, nor was it true of the 900 year old Magna Carta, which influenced it in many ways.
A legal system that's designed only to punish might sound attractive, especially if you're looking to avoid social responsibility, but it's not a realistic way to run a complex and interdependent society, which ALL leading nations are today. In fact, it's rather like sitting down to a game of Monopoly (does anyone play Monopoly any more?) and being told that there are no rules to the game; that you can do whatever you feel like doing any time you feel like it....but that, if you cross an invisible line, the banker can punish you.
Do you see where I'm going with this? You want the benefits of living in a great nation, but you don't want any of the responsibilities to help keep it great. That kind of apathy belongs more in a third-world nation, the kind with a very weak or ineffectual central government, in which the wealthy and powerful are free to exploit the poor and vulnerable. Certainly it's no way for a nation to REMAIN strong, any more than doing away with family rules, routines and expectations is an effective way to get kids to grow up into healthy, productive adults.
I have to smile, too, at that anti-seat-belt-law notion, especially when it comes from someone who's also opposed to government sponsored health care. You do realize, don't you, that seat belts are a HUGE factor in making the difference between, say, a few broken bones and permanent (read: expensive) disabilty?
So how do you suggest that uninsured victims of traumatic brain injury (those who insist on ignoring seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws) pay for what could be lifelong disability and skilled care? Were you sort of hoping that somebody else would voluntarily pick up the tab (which could run into millions of dollars per person).....or were you thinking we could be true libertarians, and leave uninsured accident victims to die in the road?
and for the hat trick!
You`re saying obese children show "clear signs of emotional abuse", and yet you say "NO ONE is suggesting that every chubby couch potato kid be taken from his/her parents", why wouldn`t they be ?
Who gets to decide which one`s get taken away and which don`t ?
Kids that are too skinny often have eating disorders brought on by emotional abuse as well, who get`s to decide what`s too skinny ? Who get`s to decide what the ideal weight is for a kid to be returned to their parents ?
I can see your obsession for Rush Limbaugh has clouded your thinking. What you`re advocating for is that overpaid bureaucrats with more well connected friends than brains should be responsible for caring for a certain segment of the population that people like you deem "not of the correct weight".
Maybe you should mind your own business.
Olivia, get a sense of humor, you sound completely clueless, do you actually think I'm being serious? It appears you're so self-righteous, literal and full of yourself you can't recognize a joke. Sad.
Olivia, get a sense of humor, you sound completely clueless, do you actually think I’m being serious? It appears you’re so self-righteous, literal and full of yourself you can’t recognize a joke.
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Nonsense. The real joke here is that some of you seriously believe that anyone's proposing to take ALL overweight kids away from their parents. ;)
Don't try to urinate on my leg and pretend it's raining, Elrond. There's nothing the least bit lighthearted in your angry previous post. ;)
"There's nothing the least bit lighthearted in your angry previous post."
And there's nothing the least bit insightful in your rather dumb post. This is a blog of humor and satire; humor and satire can assume many forms, your inability to discern any of them is your problem, not mine. If anyone has an anger problem, it's you.
Elrond, you forgot the ;) so Obloviate could recognize that you weren't angry. She needs the extra help, the poor dear.
3rd again!
3rd!
Oh yeah Olivia,
Just like the Echelon system which was set in place to monitor key-words on phone calls won't turn into the patriot act and warrant-less wiretapping.
Just like the estate tax at 1% won't turn to 50%
Just like reduced tariffs won't lead to the NAFTA
You really aren't so good at history are you?
Uh, WINNING!
(There just has to be a way to kick this Charlie Sheen habit I've developed.)
Ruben, I have audio clips of 57 Charlie-ism's.
Would you like me to post them where you can get them?
I shouldn't say this but... yes yes I do!
OK, here you go!
http://www.4shared.com/folder/Bf9Fa-KF/_online.html
http://www.4shared.com/audio/d9yo-lb1/Dealing_with_Trolls.html
I'll work on it, photobucket doesn't let me upload MP3's
Damn, I wish I had her ability to KNOW what everyone thinks and believes. What a gift. What a narcissist!
Translation:
I am the arbiter of what is and isn't funny here, and none of you are funny! I, on the other hand am funny, can't you tell by the little winkies I put in my post?
LOL and LMAO :-)
Me too!
Last time I checked, feeding your child is not a crime.
Last night (7-20) I watched "The Rise Of The Third Reich" which told the story of the early years of Nazi Germany from 1933.
The most disturbing part is how children where turned into fanatical Nazi's. The program was mandatory and often against the parents wishes.
The similarities between the Nazi's indoctrination of children and the liberal/UN desire to take parental rights for them selfs are truly unnerving.
The National Socialists developed the ultimate "nanny state" where children were required to take allegance to Adolf Hitler and the state.
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" comes to mind
Was listening to that in the background at work yesterday and I drew the same conclusions. Sadly, my kids won't learn about that in school. They spent the better part of 3 weeks on the civil rights movement and MLK in history class. Only one day on WWII. Both events were huge, but WWII shaped world history for the next 55+ years. Got to teach em to feel guilty about the racist sins of people they never met at a young age I guess. Call it part 1 of their indoctination.
Last night (7-20) I watched “The Rise Of The Third Reich” which told the story of the early years of Nazi Germany from 1933.
The most disturbing part is how children where turned into fanatical Nazi’s. The program was mandatory and often against the parents wishes.
The similarities between the Nazi’s indoctrination of children and the liberal/UN desire to take parental rights for them selfs are truly unnerving.
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So you're saying that you think it smacks of Nazism for society to intervene if a child is being abused? (And, yes some---not all----parents with morbidly obese children are guilty of abuse, just as Munchausen-by-proxy parents are.) Do you think this child would have agreed with you, had he lived to grow up? http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/05/10/sister-boy-found-dead-in-trailer-park-lived-in-dog-cage/
Yes, I am saying it's "Nazism" because what you think is abuse and what I think abuse is likely worlds apart. Especially since there is no law against a kid being a gelatinous pile, you are only talking out the side of your head concerning "abuse."
Yes, I am saying it’s “Nazism” because what you think is abuse and what I think abuse is likely worlds apart.
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What you or I "think" is less the point, my boy, than what medical and mental health professionals have DETERMINED is abusive behavior.
Such a classic example of right wing mentality: you'd rather put a child at risk for abuse than admit that maybe the pros know a little more about it than your right wing talk radio heroes.
Why does that not surprise me one little bit?
Again, Olivia, how is it possible your mouth is able to move where your ear is supposed to be? I see this a lot.
Pros... sheesh! You mean the same "pros" that are so often in dire need of psychological and/or psychiatric help, themselves?
And please, cut out the "my boy" stuff. It's unbecoming of you.
LOL, the "my boy" is her snide little way of letting us know that (in her mind only) she is superior to us, that her intellect is so much better than ours, that we should be in awe of her gracing us with her presence.
She has used the "my boy" on me also, but what she fails to realize is that if I were her boy, she would be 76 years old and a patient in her hospitals geriatric (alzheimers) wing!
WAIT!! That would explain a lot!! ;-)
She has even used "my boy" when commenting to me. Then made some remark about faking gender when online yet didn't show how I was doing any such thing.
I think she means it in a racist way. I mean, we all know she's a racist, right?
Is she a libtard? Then she's a racist, bigot, homophobe, because we all know that all the crap that libtards throw at us is merely projection! They do it and say it assuming we're as guilty of it as they are.
3rd
Were the pros right when they endorsed electro shock therapy, lobotomies, or even leeching for that matter?
I'll save Oblivious the trouble of responding Sidekick,
"Of course they were, they are so much smarter than you peons! Why do you think I went to that nursing school in Grenada? So I could learn without having to hear all the right wing tripe they teach in US colleges. It had nothing to do with the fact that no US school would accept me with my sub-par grades."
So when do you think was the last time this kid said "No" to the question 'Would you like to supersize your McDonalds order today"
Yeah just what I thought NEVER.
However, the question sounds a whole lot funnier if you ask it in an Indian accent only then it would be 'My good friend, would you like to supersize your order today? OK...yes... very good".
Thank you veddy much.
Is it just me or is that one sweet lookin' rack on that kid? Awww geez I've become such a psychopath......;(
I thought we were fighting to stop girls from wanting to be too thin.
Too fat? Too thin? How 'bout "Look in the mirror. If you don't like what you see there, it's your own goddamned problem"?