Tommy Douglas: Not Fat Enough

Coming soon to a Saskatoon near you...

Doh! There goes my last reason for maintaining my healthy weight. Anybody know if McDonald's is open 24 hours??

Kept close to reserves too, I notice.

my bad..

God Bless our paramedics and rescue workers...they have to deal with the most tragic and pathetic circumstances daily.

That said.....these accomodations made for the morbidly obese are just the leading edge of leftard apologism.

I recently caught a BBC Canada Doc on the same subject. One fella who weighed in around a grand was bemoaning his life as the government funded "health care" worker changed his diaper and ladeled the gravy.

It gave me more insight into the term "killing him with kindness".

But hey....some guy has a top notch union job slogging buckets of feces and half ton Tony still had his dignity.

Ain't leftardism breathtaking?

Syncro

Just remember that if you're an outsider and you visit the province of Saskatchewan and you're in an accident - you cannot sue the at fault driver! That 'no respect' for your rights is the real tommy douglas legacy - yup the NDP have more than fat on their hands...

Has it a selfcontained biodiesal process?

When I was living in Noo Yawk there was a guy so friggin' fat they had to cut the whole front of his house off with a chain saw, get a construction forklift to lift him out, bed and all, and stick his sorry @$$ on a FLATBED. He made the trip to the hospital wrapped in a tarp if memory serves, and was delivered in via the loading dock.

Kinda like trying to move a 900 pound jello that yells.

next up will be the Air Canada Fat Seat.

Same price, twice the width & strength, with a small ping-pong table folding down for in-flight meals.

It just amazes me how many people I see that are hugely overweight, just immense. I have friends and relatives that are obese and have had knee replacements and are diabetic and have other medical problems due to their size. My sister, who is a nurse, tells me of the dangers of lifting and moving these people to the health staff and the difficulty of operating on them. Imagine trying to move 1,000lbs of this type of weight.

Then there was the one recently who was so astoundingly idle that she grew to the couch. 480 pounds, 4 foot ten. I'm not lyin'.

"A 480-pound Martin County woman has died after emergency workers tried to remove her from the couch where she had remained for about six years.

Gayle Laverne Grinds, 40, died Wednesday, after a failed six-hour effort to dislodge her from the couch in her home. Workers say the home was filthy, and Grinds was too large to get up from the couch to even use the bathroom."

http://www.jengajam.com/r/fat-woman-in-couch

Kinda like a tree growing around a wire fence, but smelly.

How can this be a "genetic" problem if (surely to God) these people aren't reproducing?

Kate, your our gene expert... Are you reading this?

"The ambulance can accommodate people weighing up to 1,000 pounds"

So at 1001 pounds, what vehicle do they send?

this stuff is more common than you think.....my wife, as an RN, has to deal with this all the time....two 110 lb nurses trying to move a 600 lb blob of lard is no easy task....then, of course, they get all insulted when the RN's go to use a mechanical lift(if they can find one)....my wife(and the majority of her co-workers) back is so frigged because of working with obese people, she will have to take early retirement(and she is not the only one)

Don Muntean:

Regarding no fault insurance; Ontario's system is private but we too have no fault insurance. When I was hit by a car (as a pedestrian) crossing an intersection, my insurance had to pick up my costs not covered by OHIP.

Regarding fatties, why not just rent a front end loader. BTW - I remember reading an article recently about new dangers posed by the fatties. It seems they are a fire hazard when cremated as the fat tends to burn out of control.

I have friends in the oilpatch with vacuum trucks , maybe some instant liposuction and we can put them into a conventianal ambulance.

oh, I forgot one other fun thing the nurses experience when dealing with obese people.....rolling up the blobs of fat to treat sores that develop because of the moisture/sweat that forms in the lard creases....there are days I just have to ask her to not share her wonderful workday experiences with me!

You sure dont need the CSPI,PCRM and the rest of the FOOD NAGS to tell you what you can or cant eat

Syncro, were you serious when you said: "...these accomodations made for the morbidly obese are just the leading edge of leftard apologism."?

I thought the leading edge passed a long time ago; this would be just filling in one of the last remaining gaps.

On the other hand, if you are right, I am really, really scared.

How long before the leftards declare obesity an official disease?

I have noted that there is a place that is immune to this disease and I suspect that if you send the afflicted to that place they would be cured immediately just by living there. That place is Africa. I say send them.

When you hit the 500 lb mark, you need to be airlifted to Fat Island where you can forage for meals for a few months.

Well, what should we do when an obese person needs medical care?
We can't just say (surely), "you're too fat". Don't we (morally) need to have some way to get them to hospital? Is this a "leftist" belief only?

That said, of course we need to address the deeper issues, e.g., widespread obesity. But if someone is obese, we need to have some way to get them to hospital. (As far as I know, ambulance services are not covered by medicare.)

(Before you start the ad hominems, please note that I am quite thin.)

kingstonlad, your concern for the nurses is bang on. My wife had her knees give out; which is very common in nurses, I believe. She also had her thumb broken by an abusive patient and was bitten as well. Nursing is a far more hazardous career than a lot of others that we think of as being so.
Moving heavy patients is back and knee breaking because of the angle of the lift.

"Don't we (morally) need to have some way to get them to hospital?"
exile

No.
Next.

Wow... talk about a hateful bunch of comments.

No, I am not fat, and yes, I am a daily reader and supporter. For the first time ever I have to agree with the trolls who accuse us "knuckle draggers" of being intolerant.

This is seriously the most intolerant and hateful collection of comments I've ever had the distaste to read.

Shame on you all.

Check this out ... the obese may soon be able to think the food from the fridge to their personal bedside food trough.

Just thinking can move stuff coming to a baseball cap near you!

Sorry,

I don't know why that link isn't working

Copy and past ... this bit is amazing.

http://tinyurl.com/2wpagl

Love em to death Anne!
You're empty words have proven your superior caring has shamed us all.
As fat state funded Ontario big gubmint caring enviro-Liberals say "FLCK OFF" or bring me a bucket!

Richfisher: I'm not sure why you think my words are empty. I was stating my opinion, just as you all have had the freedom to do. Insults are insults.

Tell me, why is it you feel that your insulting comments are 'ok' and my opinion is not? Flick off, indeed.

Was that necessary? I thought it was only Liberals that resorted to insulting people with a different opinion than their own rather than engage in civil discussion. Gezzz, wrong again!

Bravo Anne, it is absolutely amazing to me that in these days where folks have pity on a variety of illnesses that we tolerate open season on the obese. And that is amply illustrated here. Anyone who has checked out reality a bit more deeply than the side of a cereal box will understand that many of these excessively obese people have psychological and medical reasons for their illness. And to simply write them off as so much contemptible trash shows another condition that is totally unbecoming of any Canadian and especially any Conservative. If all you can do to "win" a point is to belittle another's opinion with crass remarks then I suggest you find a site more suitable to your thinking, may I suggest www.pbskids.org or www.beatbullying.org?
Bravo also to Calgary EMS for having the forethought to provide services to all. We are getting a handle on many illnesses these days, it's about time obesity was addressed.

Well, Anne's criticism is certainly valid with reference to people who are obese for medical reasons beyond their control. Not sure what that percentage would be but I'm thinking not high.

Otherwise obesity is a form of character disorder for which rightists of all flavours have very little empathy. And in a big way BIG government makes for SMALL character.

And it is true that some of the comments, which I too found distasteful, provide perfect fodder for our moral poseurs on the left.

Tho, I have to confess to a involuntary evil chuckle over penny's comment about airlifting 500 pounders to fat island to forage for food, but I'm also thinking that the left probably supports that return to nature.

But unlike Anne I also know from her many excellent posts that penny has an over-abundance of humanity so I take is as just naughty fun and comic relief.

Er, lighten up Anne and appreciate that some of those comments are from sheer impotent rage against the nanny state that just won't die -- even with Harper.

Me No Dhimmi: I don't recall my comment being aimed specially at penny. She, at least, put some humour into it.

Lighten up? Thanks for the advice. I'm a pretty light person (pun intended), but I'm afraid I don't see political frustration as justification for hate towards others.

If you want to label my distaste for extreme prejudice intolerance as being uptight, have at it. At least you have the courtesy to express your opinion in a civil manner and I can find no fault with that. - cheers

Exile, two words. Personal. Responsibility.

If you weigh 500 pounds plus, maybe you'd better make provisions for getting YOURSELF to the hospital by contacting the appropriate people/agencies and getting it done. Like maybe live someplace accessible where they don't have to tear the house down to get you out of it.

Anne, I personally am damn tired of picking up the check for people who can't or won't look after themselves or their family members.

Who is to blame for a woman so immobile that she grows to the couch? Who is to blame for a guy who weighs 900 freakin' pounds?

Up to the point where they can't walk anymore it is -self inflicted-. I have very little mercy for self inflicted wounds.

After they can't move due to the crushing fat, its the people who feed them!!! They can't feed themselves, they can't MOVE. They can't work, who bought all the grub?

Tell you something else Anne, if I never see another woman of 55 with two joint replacements and a back injury because she weighs 300+ and stands 5'2", it'll be too soon. Why do you think there's a waiting list for knee and hip replacements?

My all time favorite was the miserable old cow who refused to bear her own weight and blew my buddy's shoulder out while the two of us tried to stand her up. I told her right in her face that if she tried it again I'd drop her on the floor like a sack of sand. Guess what? She walked.

I have to say that I agree with Peter and Anne. We don’t insult a person with AIDS as a result of practicing unsafe sex, someone with lung cancer due to years or smoking, an alcoholic or a gambler… all things, like obesity that have some degree of personal responsibility associated with them.

Obesity is an epidemic and we’d like do better to look for solutions to the root cause rather than spewing insults at the obese. If some was making fun of a cancer or an AIDS patient in this manner we’d all be appalled, but for some reason it’s ok to be mean to the fat.

And, I think what is the most concerning is that Anne is insulted for expressing her opinion, yet her being told to “FLICK off” is considered acceptable. Talk about a double standard here. Let’s insult the hell out of fat people and when one person says its distasteful, let’s insult her too. Wow… some tolerant society we have here.

Seems to me that people ought to be checking their own enviro-friendly glass homes for cracks prior to flinging stones at their neighbours.

Why is there no psychological disorder 'disease' leading to obesity Africa nearly all of Asia and I might add I have not seen very many fat Muslims.

Penny has it right ... these ultra fat folks need to get busy with something other than stuffing their gullets.

I would think that if there is a psychosocial disorder in this matter it most likely occurs at about the 300 pound level and then get worse as the fat piles on.

Before the trashing the ten commandments by the left ... most of those commandments were at least based in good common sense ... gluttony used to be a sin, not anymore .. it's condition.

Killing is now punishable by a couple of years in a comfy jail and some caring counselling.

Covet your neighbors wife? what are swinger clubs for?

Covet your neighbor's goods ... look for a slight of some kind and sue his ass. Soon his stuff will be yours with the right lawyer.

False gods? The environment.

Steal? Well that would be competing with government, but it's pretty cool. Slap on the wrist.

My point is everything is tolerated now except those who disagree that every deviance should be tolerated. That would be many on the right being chastised, shunned and even hurt by the oh-so tolerant left.

Charleton Heston said it best in the original "Planet of the Apes" "This world is upside down".

Phantom, I'm not justifying it.. or even agreeing with it.

I'm also tired of picking up the cheque for smokers with cancer and gays with AIDS too. Yes, personal responsibility, I couldn't agree with you more!

Not once did I say we shouldn't talk about it or even disagree with it, I simply said I object to the hateful language and insults.

Anne, such people set themselves up as objects of ridicule. Only one out of a million people have a genetic condition that leads them to be morbidly obese - the remainder of the obese have done it to themselves, and it is indeed a character flaw, the results of which require years or decades of gluttonous behaviour.

I am a smoker, and I have no sympathy for those who get lung cancer or emphysema from smoking. Nor do I have any sympathy whatsoever for those who have chosen to be gluttons over a period of years or decades, to the point that they are morbidly obese. In particular I have no sympathy for someone whose house needs to be cut open so that they canbe carried out on a flatbed truck to the hospital.

It isn't an emergency, they have known for decades that they should stop stuffing their faces and maybe walk around the block a few times a day. And yet emergency personnel are taking time out of their days, and unable to help in *real* emergencies, because these people have finally decided that enough is enough. Well the time for that was when these people hit 400 pounds, not 1000.

The enablers - someone who is feeding a morbidly obese person, because they cannot get up off the couch or out of bed to feed themselves - ought to be charged with assault.

"Obesity is an epidemic and we’d like do better to look for solutions to the root cause rather than spewing insults at the obese"

If obesity is an epidemic, then it's a relatively easy one to cure. Stop putting things (i.e. food) in one's mouth and get some exercise. As the poster immediately above noted, only a small proportion of the grossly obese have a medical cause.

As for the comparisons to smokers, drinkers and gamblers, each of the three vices are heavily taxed which likely supports their respective costs to society.

Anne, et al,
There is a big difference between those with diseases or afflictions in which they have no control and those who have only themselves to blame. Somewhere around the time I realized I can't wipe my own ass I'd figure it was time to lose some weight. Someone who can't leave the couch to hit the fridge or can has to have someone who is killing them with kindness. Someone mentioned it before, you know, that "r" word as in responsibility, personal responsibility.

Ok, I'm not sure if I'm not making myself clear or if some of you are being deliberately obtuse.

This was not a thread that was meant to engage in intelligent and thoughtful discussion on the social costs of obesity, of which I don't disagree with anything anyone has posted after my first comment. It was meant solely to ridicule and be mean spirited toward a segment of the population. Period.

I've been a long time reader, and its been very seldom I've known this group of intelligent, fair and progressive minded people to descend into hyena like behaviour. I only had issue with the language and insults, not the topic. Had the topic been presented and received in a different manner, my reaction would be completely different as well.

To those of you who responded with civil thoughts and opinions contrary to mine , thank you. I appreciate a forum for civilized discussion and debate, its vital to my learning and growth.

As you were : )

Ok, I'm not sure if I'm not making myself clear or if some of you are being deliberately obtuse.

This was not a thread that was meant to engage in intelligent and thoughtful discussion on the social costs of obesity, of which I don't disagree with anything anyone has posted after my first comment. It was meant solely to ridicule and be mean spirited toward a segment of the population. Period.

I don't disagree with anyone's observations. I didn't say I symathized with obese people and no where did I justify it. I said I had issue with the insults.

I've been a long time reader, and its been very seldom I've known this group of intelligent, fair and progressive minded people to descend into hyena like behaviour. I only had issue with the language and insults, not the topic. Had the topic been presented and received in a different manner, my reaction would be completely different as well.

To those of you who responded with civil thoughts and opinions contrary to mine , thank you. I appreciate a forum for civilized discussion and debate, its vital to my learning and growth.

As you were : )

Jean, obesity unlike AIDS or cancer is not a disease. It is a result. In fact its a result you can see coming from a long way off. Unlike addictions to alcohol, smokes or drugs (which are also results, not diseases) the treatment is simple. You eat less.

There are many people who find this difficult. That's ok, as Musashi says all things are difficult in the beginning. If you need help, there's lots of it out there, some of it paid for with my money. Take yourself to the state funded doctor and get some state funded mental health treatment, sew your mouth shut if that's what it takes, but don't grow to the freakin' couch and expect sympathy from me.

I have a problem with people assuming "society" (meaning me) has some moral obligation to make extrordinary and expensive provision for people who -won't- provide for themselves. Not can't, won't. We aren't talking an extra 20, 30 pounds here, we are talking an extra 200, 300 and up. 600 pounds is not a glandular condition, its gluttony and its obscene.

Then the topper is I have to pretend to be tolerant to boot? Not going to happen, call me a cranky unfeeling b@st@rd if you want.

If you need a special ambulance to move your lard, you're a menace to yourself, your family and everybody in the health care profession who has to shift you from one place to another. I have no moral obligation to support that, and my feelings of Christian charity tend to be much stronger for people who will lift a finger to help themselves.

Here endeth the rant.

Well, Anne, I agree with you - except that most of the above responses were exactly as I expected, sad to say.

I was going to comment earlier, but I'm glad I waited. As it is, I know I will get flamed anyway.

I've remembered that tolerance is an easy thing to talk about when the topic is something you agree with. The challenge is showing tolerance when its something you disagree with.

For instance, persons with HIV (because of their sexual practice) disgust me. I have no patience for it and no sympathy AT ALL. However, I certainly don't go out of my way to mud sling and ridicule people with HIV. I practice tolerance and seperate the fact they are a human being from the fact their irresponsibility and lack of sexual discretion disgust me.

I want to thank Anne for reminding me of this. Quite frankly I think you are one classy lady for first speaking your mind in the face of the flamers and second for showing tolerance. If I read her correctly, she hasn't defended obese people, and probably agrees with most of you heathens that fat people disgust her but the playground mudslinding that's gone on on this thread is completely intolerant. It really says something about someone if they have to tear others down to feel superiour. I hope when you smokers get cancer and you drinkers have liver failure, you remember this post.

Me? i'm just reassured that there are kind tolerant people left in the world. Thanks for giving me that today Anne.

Ok, let the flaming begin, becuase we all know that to voice a different opinion means to bring on the insults.

No flames for you Fred, you're right. Anne's got class.

Me, I don't even pretend tolerance on this. I've seen this elephant and measured its tusks you might say. People I know have got hurt by these self indulgent whingers who can't manage their own basic hygiene due to gluttony.

No evil intent to wound anyone here, no ad hominem against other posters, just my opinion.

I'm a hyena.

I watched a fascinating documentary about a 759lb man. After being bedridden for 7 years, the state paid for his transfer to, and his treatment in a Health Care Centre for the obese. The state could not legally restrict his diet. He refused to eat salads and low calorie food. His 300lb toothless wife continued throughout his treatment to bring him junk food which the hospital could not legally confiscate. Many months later, he had to be transfered to an emergency hospital. 1/2 a dozen female nurses and two male ambulance attendants had to get him out of his bed. I was amazed no one got injured in the process, at least that I could see.

Anne, I am a hyena. I am because I have to pay for him, his wife, and his funeral. I respect your right to have a different opinion, not your opinion. Lets call it what it is, gross.

As an Albertan I'd like to point out that the heavy duty meat wagon maybe required not for adipose tissue but rather for expanding wallets.

Wow, you all are so ignorant. I guess since you only get the sensationalist, media propaganda, from America about the "obesity epidemic", I can't blame you for being as ignorant as they are.

Most people aren't at the extreme of 400 to 500 pounds. They are around 200 pounds somewhere. Also, the BMI simply lowered what was considered a healthy weight. That means what was considered ANOREXIC years ago, is now "healthy". Not that it'll change the minds of you filthy sizeists.

"We have the tools to make things easier, to keep patient dignity..."

What iota of dignity can someone of such girth possibly have?

That just made my day. I now know what I am... a filthy sizeist. Or am I just thinking of my penis again?