Reply #19: Thanks, Rose, for starting this thread.

[southerngirlwriter]

The threads over in GD are truly scary.

I'm going to attack their premise -- that fat people cost "us" money -- with a freeper-esque argument, for the purposes of illustration. I am about to tell you *someone else's* point of view, so please don't flame me.

First, I think they're wrong about that premise. And even if they were right, the truly obese tend to die young -- well before they collect all the Medicare and Social Security money they're due -- so it likely balances out.

Now....there is a store in my city that is owned by a man I know. I am not friends with him; I met him through interviewing him for an article I wrote. He is the first male in his family in six or seven generations to NOT be actively involved in the Ku Klux Klan. However, he is still a galloping racist.

He makes a point of following young blacks, both male and female, around his store. I took him to task for that behavior about two years ago. He said, and I quote, "Look at the prison population. Blacks DO commit more crimes. The man I bought this store from took a picture of every kid he caught stealing -- and the black faces in that book in my office outnumber the white ones 6 or 7 to 1. This ain't discrimination, honey. It's reality."

How is this man's behavior any different from those over in GD calling for an "obesity tax?"

That's what I'd like the fat-haters to tell me.