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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (399786)	7/18/2008 10:51:58 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579763

Forget the health issues in question here......I have to believe that Americans are so fat in part because they are not happy. Happy people do not pork out every chance they get. This is very sad watching Americans turn into cows. U.S. hits weight marker: 1 in 4 officially obese By Deborah L. Shelton, Judith Graham and Robert Mitchum \| Chicago Tribune reporters 10:59 PM CDT, July 17, 2008 Americans, who have been getting fatter for decades, reached an unwelcome milestone in a report released Thursday: More than one in four of us are obese. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of adults who say they are obese jumped 2 percent between 2005 and 2007—from 23.9 percent in 2005 to 25.6 percent in 2007. That doesn't include people who are overweight. A different CDC survey—a gold-standard project in which researchers actually weigh and measure survey respondents—put the adult obesity rate at 33 percent for adult men and 35 percent for adult women in 2005 and 2006. "It's alarming," said Dr. Robert Kushner, professor of medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and an expert on obesity, fitness and lifestyle. "As a country, it means we have a whole population of individuals developing increased risk for chronic illness—diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, cancer. All of these are related to obesity." Related links Americans continue to pack on the pounds Graphic Obesity is defined as a body mass index (a measure of weight related to height) of 30 or more. For a 5 foot, 4 inch tall person, that means carrying an extra 30 pounds. In Illinois, 24.9 percent of adults were obese in 2007, up from 24.3 percent in 2005. That compares to about 10 to 14 percent of adults in the state in 1990. As a region, the Midwest (25.3 percent) stands just behind the South (27 percent) as housing the most obese adults in the U.S. The CDC findings, published in Thursday's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, provided the latest state-by-state data from the agency's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The fact that rates differ by state suggests that environment plays a major role, said Dr. David Shoham, assistant professor of preventive medicine and epidemiology at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine. Environmental factors include lack of affordable, healthy foods and safe places to exercise. Oak Park resident Stephanie Salas, 36, has struggled with obesity her entire life. Salas grew up eating convenience foods and watching TV. Her brother has struggled with his weight and has been diagnosed with diabetes. "I had tried absolutely everything—every fad diet, everything in a pill, everything in a bottle, everything off the TV—and nothing worked," Salas said. At University of Illinois at Chicago, Salas met with a team of health professionals who helped her get her weight under control. She lost 80 pounds over the last year through diet and exercise and other lifestyle changes. "I truly have become a different person, physically, mentally and spiritually," Salas said. "I'm not depressed, and I don't feel sorry for myself any more." The Associated Press contributed to this report. chicagotribune.com

To: Brumar89 who wrote (399786)	7/18/2008 10:53:26 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579763

This just demonstrates that its really mostly liberals who attack the patriotism of anyone who dissents from their views. Dude, he passed on info to the UN that he was told was suspect and helped start a war. And you think that's the height of patriotism?!! Do you smoke weed a lot?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (399786)	7/18/2008 11:05:01 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1579763

John McCain takes a ‘holiday’ from reality Posted July 18th, 2008 at 9:55 am The only thing worse than John McCain’s proposal for a gas-tax holiday is John McCain’s new proposal for a longer gas-tax holiday. John McCain said Thursday that his proposal to suspend the gas tax for three months this summer may need to be extended longer if high gas prices continue to take a toll on the economy. “I think we ought to seriously look at whether we need to have it be longer or not depending on what the economy (does),” McCain said, standing beside the Grand River. “I think we have to consider all options but the fact is we need a gas tax holiday. We need it, we need it, we need it very badly. The Americans that are hurt the most are low income Americans that are driving the oldest automobiles,” he said. The AP, apparently backing away from its drive to “cut through the clutter,” noted the other side of the story: “Obama has derided the idea as a political gimmick that would provide consumers little real relief, ignore the country’s energy problems by perpetuating U.S. dependence on foreign oil and take money from road and bridge repairs.” Well, yes, Obama has made those criticisms of the policy. But only because they’re true. I just find it hard to believe we’re still talking about this obvious nonsense. McCain surely knows that his proposed holiday wouldn’t actually lower the price of gas. Indeed, if he genuinely believed otherwise, McCain would probably go to Capitol Hill — he is still a senator, by the way — introduce legislation, and push lawmakers and the White House to endorse his initiative. I have to say, McCain is at his least attractive when he takes on the role of con man. This is just too ridiculous for words. McCain wanted to eliminate the 18.4-cent a gallon federal gas tax over the summer (from Memorial Day to Labor Day). This would cost the Highway Trust Fund between $9 billion and $11 billion. McCain hasn’t said whether he’d just increase the deficit to make up the difference, or just let the transportation money disappear, costing thousands of jobs. Now he wants to make the holiday longer, costing more jobs and more billions of dollars. And what would consumers get in return? Nothing. Putting aside the volatility in oil prices, and the fact that the cost of a glass of gas will probably go up over the summer regardless of federal taxes, Americans won’t actually be in a position to save any money if the gas tax is temporarily repealed. McCain may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but he almost certainly realizes this. He has to. This is just common sense. As Paul Krugman explained in April: Why doesn’t cutting the gas tax this summer make sense? It’s Econ 101 tax incidence theory: if the supply of a good is more or less unresponsive to the price, the price to consumers will always rise until the quantity demanded falls to match the quantity supplied. Cut taxes, and all that happens is that the pretax price rises by the same amount. The McCain gas tax plan is a giveaway to oil companies, disguised as a gift to consumers. Is the supply of gasoline really fixed? For this coming summer, it is. Refineries normally run flat out in the summer, the season of peak driving. Any elasticity in the supply comes earlier in the year, when refiners decide how much to put in inventories. The McCain/Clinton gas tax proposal comes too late for that. So it’s Econ 101: the tax cut really goes to the oil companies. Got that? We can cut the tax, but the price wouldn’t go down. Oil company profits — which are already breathtaking — would go up, but there’d be no extra money in Americans’ pockets. Thomas Friedman recently offered a similar critique, arguing that a gas-tax holiday is “a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious.” Friedman added that the proposal “is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away.” This, regrettably, is McCain the Con Man. He’s selling snake oil, hoping desperately that voters won’t know the difference. That his proposal wouldn’t do anything to help American consumers, wouldn’t lower the price of gas, and would boost oil company profits seems entirely irrelevant. A confidence man in the middle of a scam can’t be bothered with reality — it only gets in the way of the deception. On his proposal, McCain, at his most breathtakingly pathetic, concluded, “We need it, we need it, we need it very badly.” Actually, what we need is a leader who not only tells us the truth, but is in touch with reality. John McCain has proven himself to be neither. thecarpetbaggerreport.com