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{"id":2632,"date":"2012-04-30T12:59:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T12:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/04\/in-the-90s-it-was-smoking.html"},"modified":"2012-04-30T12:59:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T12:59:00","slug":"in-the-90s-it-was-smoking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/04\/in-the-90s-it-was-smoking.html","title":{"rendered":"In the 90s it was smoking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Then in the 00s it was global warming.\u00a0 Terrorism came in a close second.\u00a0 But in the twenty-teens, it\u2019s Obesity<\/a>!\u00a0 Oh no!\u00a0 The thing that is the cause of all suffering.\u00a0 Why is America dying?\u00a0 Obesity.\u00a0 Why did the Byzantine Empire fall?\u00a0 Obesity.\u00a0 Why did I fail my math test? Obesity!\u00a0 It\u2019s the problem that explains all problems.\u00a0 Only this one strikes at a new form of liberty infringement.\u00a0 Smoking and terrorism were at least able to be shown to cause some harm in some way to others.\u00a0 Second hand smoke could kill even if you didn\u2019t smoke. And terrorism doesn\u2019t need explained.\u00a0 Global Warming was a little more broad, with talk of vanishing coastlines<\/a>, dying polar bears, and bad Hollywood special effects being enough reason to legislate, legislate, and legislate more.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

But with obesity, it hits a new tactic in the war against freedom (or WAF for short).\u00a0 The others more or less said that the threats were direct, therefore we must be willing to give up a few freedoms.\u00a0 In the case of smoking, the threat was direct and so if you don\u2019t smoke, you have to be willing to make others give up their freedoms.\u00a0 But in obesity and other health issues, the idea is that this leads to a host of health problems, this makes health care costs soar, this puts a burden on the American health care system, this therefore costs everyone money, and therefore it\u00a0hurts you and me.\u00a0 We\u2019re all affected!\u00a0 Oh no!<\/p>\n

Well, pardon me for not taking my copy of the Constitution to the trash heap, but I\u2019ll take this whole \u2018we\u2019re all going to die because of Obesidty\u2019 version of the latest panic scare more seriously when they also mention the catastrophic effects that our era of sexual promiscuity has had on society, including health care costs in the form of AIDS<\/a>, HIV, and various STD treatment and care<\/a>.\u00a0 When they lump that behavior in with all the other bad behaviors that need regulating because they cost health care money, then I\u2019ll imagine this is serious. <\/p>\n

As long as focus on sexual promiscuity is noticeably absent from the call to regulate all behaviors because it can cost health care money, I\u2019ll assume it\u2019s simply one more in a long line of hysterics meant to get a lazy, foppish, and tech-obsessed society to sell its birthright of liberty for a bowel of bad stew.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"