Look at the bright side of the Big Zero's impending collapse of the USA and the rest of us along with it; we will become stronger and better for it, that's if you survive.

With that National Post piece, Kate was years ahead of Angelo Codevilla's ruling class revelation.

When I try to explain the difference between a "Necessity" and a "Luxury" to an ignorant leftist (oxymoron, I know) I always start this way:

"The fact that we have any spare time to talk about this is a Luxury."

The strength of the communities are revealed with any disaster situation, strongest in the relational / friendship level, then neighbourhood, then regional assistance. The least favoured and liked is federal help as it is generally there for the most grandiose media spectacle, yet meets the needs of the victims with the least amount of compassion, care and ability to target specific needs.

The Kelowna fires of 2007 and Hurricane Katrina come to mind.

That is why I avoid Walmart like the plague

For all you single guys who get feelin' lonesome... A stroll around your local Walmart is great therapy. Just imagine the poor moron who has one of those miserable, mean, ugly, gross sows to look at every day... And don't forget the screamin' fat kid to go along with it. How that ever came about is a mystery... probably something to do with copious amounts of alchohol...

Chris, no need to avoid Walmart,our store here in Kelowna is full of healthy attractive people,with very very few of the "monsters" depicted in the photo essay.

I've always believed that many "activists" are little Nazis-in-waiting,using the law to force their views on the rest of the world. Too cowardly to confront anyone they disapprove of,they hide behind the power of the State and rat fink out everyone else.

From independent self reliant producers to dependent helpless consumers in 4 generations.

The superclass won.

American progressives have worked hard in developing their entitled electoral underclass. Most everything government touches turns to shit. Why would people be any different. I play in a Band that plays gigs at church, service clubs, private and other community venues and those people are as normal looking as the rural settings where I previously lived in BC. But the local Wal-Mart is a freak show where one can witness more examples of butt-ugly sloth in a single visit than that entire gallery.

Avery good read and post Kate thank you kindly.
please post more.

Paul in calgary

If the PIGS of Europe (Portugal, Italy, etc.) are any indication, you're going to get your wish Kate.

Altaguy
[.......For all you single guys who get feelin' lonesome... A stroll around your local Walmart is great therapy. Just imagine the poor moron who has one of those miserable, mean, ugly, gross sows to look at every day... And don't forget the screamin' fat kid to go along with it. How that ever came about is a mystery... probably something to do with copious amounts of alchohol...]

That's my theory as well......
I recall an old time comic being interviewed and the question came up about evolving humour......the comic declared it's not evolution it's just obscene.......
Like the gal with the T-shirt and shopping cart in the fozen food aisle......WTF????
I used to think a T with "$hit-Happens" was pushing the limits.........

I read the comment's under the picture and there was one that stuck out .

The gastropods one finds wandering about the strip malls and fast food pits of the modern USSA would be sterilized and shamed into reform if we had something resembling a civilization.

Of all our society’s many pathologies, perhaps the death of shame is the most grating. Even the most heinous females think they’re God’s gift. Again: the female ego is out of control, not the male ego.

Who among us hasn’t seen little girls dressed like streetwalkers with mothers sporting disgusting tattoos and fathers wearing NFL jerseys and baggy shorts? The families with kids in the above photos were no doubt dirt poor, but America was a homogenous NATION then. The kids weren’t born screwed.

I found this to be very true see because we scream for personal right's and freedoms so on and so forth if a man want's to walk around with his gunt hanging out over his torn sweat pant's elastic with a wife beater stained and riped and it is so small it couldp ass for a sport's bra .....we all scream who cares it is up to him it is not my place to tell or hold him accountable for his appearence...and i say that is wrong if we all stood up and said yes we are for personal freedoms and liberties so on and so forth ..we also must explain that with all of that freedom comes the equal amount of responsibility and i think sooo many even people on here (especially libertairians) do not apply that part of being free to there lives and hence we have what we have to day . a bunch of fat ,overstuffed ignorant stupid ,nanny state socialist ,self entitled loser windbag's who want all freedom has to offer but refuse to take the unseverable part's of freedom that are called responsibility,accountability. there is a famous quote about this somehwere i just wish i could remember it someone said with the abundance of freedom com's an overabundance of personal responsibility as well or something along those lines .

Paul in calgary
Paul in calgary

A famine won't change much.

Sugary drinks will still be cheaper (and therefore more accessible) than skim milk.

Chocolate bars will still be cheaper than granola bars.

Refined flour will still be cheaper than whole wheat.

Fatty meat will still be cheaper than lean meat.

Low nutrition fatty foods will still be cheaper than healthy foods.

Fat people will still remain fat.

Very little changes.

Hey, I thought I saw Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove in acouple of those pictures.

We don't need a famine, we need a plague that targets the obese. The last bout of piggy flu was close but not quite virulent enough. Just wait, the industrial meat business will churn out another one in due time.

European vs American Girls

Amazing, a culture so decadent that an artefact of poverty is obesity.

Makes the head spin.

Is the protein level different in those fattened by traditional means, as opposed to just sugary drinks and triple cheese burgers?
I guess what I'm asking is... is the premium for "grain fed" really worth it? Because I don't want to just hang out at Wal-Mart parking lots looking for easy feed when the next famine hits, if the quality just isn't there.

*always thinking, Marc.

Eat real food, the kind of food your Grandmother cooked. Don't eat too much, and mostly vegetables. Avoid industrial meat.
Learn which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticides and chemicals, and buy organic when you want those on your plate.

"Dirty Dozen" list of foods most likely to have high pesticide residues

Shop from the perimeter of the grocery store, the stuff in the middle is 'chemical cuisine'.

It's easy to stay fit and lean, it just requires conscious thought and a commitment to personal responsibility.

Kate! You're not supposed to know about Roissy's! It's like the time you busted Zerb's Fat Chick Blog!

Any thoughts you'd like to share on Roissy? I think it's an interesting blog which conjures up mixed emotions; one one hand he's a creepily insightful guy and a peerless writer, on the other hand he and his readers seem just a liiiiiiitle too ticketyboo with exploiting the decline of western civilization.

The National Transportation Safety Board in the US investigated a plane crash a few years ago. There were a variety of factors, but one was a miscalculation of the weight on the plane. They were using the 1930s average weight of 175 (I bet back then, it was mostly men and adults travelling).

To follow up on this, they weighed passengers (don't know how many) as they checked in. The AVERAGE weight - 195 pounds.

Think of that - it's quite amazing actually. Nearly 200 pounds as the AVERAGE.

John Galt said: "It's easy to stay fit and lean, it just requires conscious thought and a commitment to personal responsibility."

Yeah. Qualities in short supply among the lower classes, its what keeps them poor.

In the old days even your average dumb-@ss was fit and lean. By necessity. Those people weren't more thoughtful, committed or responsible than fat people at WalWart. What they had that our modern fat people' don't have was JOBS. Hard ones. You didn't work, you didn't -eat-.

Welfare means you sit around all day with nothing to do, which makes you depressed, which makes you eat cheap junk for the sugar rush, drink to massive excess, and smoke. All of which makes you fat and more depressed, particularly the booze.

The only skinny poor people you see anymore are the far-gone drunks and the meth-heads. Or immigrants who work like demons because they didn't get the memo that its just fine to sit on your @ss and collect welfare forever.

Obesity is a symptom. The problem - as usual - is the loony lefties' idea that traditional responsibilities are outdated ideas that hinder personal growth and worldly experiences. What that means is women (mothers) shouldn't be the anchors in a family, parents shouldn't have to feed their kids before they go to school, parents don't have to parent and of course the state will look after everything. We know where that brings us.

You guessed it: breakfast clubs at schools, fast food or prepared foods for dinner, unionized public daycare for whoever wants it, poor public health, higher taxes, more government, etc..

Bring back personal responsibility and these symptoms - including obesity - go away. Let's start with bringing back failing in elementary school.

To conquer a people, enslave them, and commit cultural genocide, it's much easier to give them everything they 'need' and take away their reason to live, rather than conquer them by warfare. The ongoing experience with the N.American aboriginals on both sides of the border is ample proof of that. It's 'worked' rather 'well' with other cultures too.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only
exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse
from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes
for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury
with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal
policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the
world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual
truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to
abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to
complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from
dependence back again to bondage."

attributed to Alexander Tytler 1747-1813

Good article Kate. You should write more.
Glad to see it, since I missed it when you wrote it.

Just an observation....

I was at Walmarts in Syracuse and Watertown NY this weekend. I seen some shocking examples of those Walmart people in Syracuse but in Watertown, I didn't. How perplexing...

Perhaps a heavy urban setting vs a more rural location is a vital factor at play here. Maybe the government can pay me to study that relationship ;-)

DVC185 - Watertown is a military town, close to Fort Drum, home of the 10th Mountain Division. It doesn't surprise me that you saw a more fit, responsible class of people in Watertown.

Rian - Yup...seen those ladies and gents there as well...gave them a nod as we passed.

"A famine won't change much.

Sugary drinks will still be cheaper (and therefore more accessible) than skim milk.

Chocolate bars will still be cheaper than granola bars.

Refined flour will still be cheaper than whole wheat.

Fatty meat will still be cheaper than lean meat.

Low nutrition fatty foods will still be cheaper than healthy foods.

Fat people will still remain fat.

Very little changes. "

Great point, there's a reason obesity is most rampant in the poorest of neighbourhoods...and people don't so much get that way from eating too much..they get that way because of WHAT they eat. What they eat is sodium filled, processed, high sugar, high saturated fat, 'nutrition-less' food. By doing so they don't satisfy their bodies needs and so continue to crave nutrition, which they fail to satisfy by instead ingesting more empty food. And all that sodium makes a body thirsty, which is more often than not mistaken for hunger...so one either satisfies it with sugar laden drinks or with more food.

A big part of the problem is also the low priority that people put on satisfying their bodies basic needs, and the higher priority that people put on relatively irrelevant things..such as designer clothes, and other things chosen to either impress others or keep the sedentary mind amused. Eating well and eating cheap do not have to be mutually exclusive..the only catch is that some work is required. Vegetables, fruit, grains, and legumes are by far the cheapest items in the store, but they require some kitchen time and skills. Something most of today's generations never really consider or develop.

Education has potential to make us all healthier.

Any thoughts you'd like to share on Roissy? I think it's an interesting blog which conjures up mixed emotions; one one hand he's a creepily insightful guy and a peerless writer, on the other hand he and his readers seem just a liiiiiiitle too ticketyboo with exploiting the decline of western civilization.

You summed up my take on that blog perfectly.

The people in the Depression era photos, if magically granted a glimpse of America circa 2010, would possibly be appalled by the walruses of Walmart. Or perhaps their focus would be on the store size and shelves filled with marvelous products totally unheard of or far beyond the reach of ordinary folk in 1935. One also wonders what their reaction would be to a group of males obsessed with "game" and alphas and betas, and laying 8's and 9's rather than 4's and 5's. Contemptuous? Disgusted? Or envious that future males would have the luxury of spending many hours of the week focused on seduction rather than survival?

My take is that the Walmart fatties and Roissy's pick-up artists are different sides of the same decadent coin, although the pick-up artists are undoubtably better groomed.

"Soft living breeds soft men." Cyrus the Great, circa 600 B.C.

Note: if it took you more than a fraction of a second to grasp the meaning of this statement, you're stupid (and quite possibly fat).

""Soft living breeds soft men." Cyrus the Great, circa 600 B.C."

I'm sure that was simple enough to apply in 600 B.C., but in these times of overabundant, cheap, garbage food you can work as hard as an ox and still be disgustingly overweight and unhealthy. You can't sum it all up to 'people being lazy'.

BogartThatJoint@8:38. I agree, you cannot ascribe it all to lazy. There is a large dose of stupid involved as well.

Can anyone explain why there is more obesity amonsgt the black and hispanic communities in the USA yet blacks and hispanics are poorer?

If you eat 4 times what average non-over weight people eat in a day... that is a lot of money...no ?

It cost me about $350 a month to feed myself with ordinary home cooked meals ( meat, potaoes, pasta etc...)

If I ate 4 times that I would need and additional $ 1050 a month.

Then I could not pay my mortgage.

Duh!

now I get it!

That is why hispanics and blacks have a higher rate of foreclosure!!!

( I'm half kidding )

Seriously where do poor people find the money to eat so much (restaurant) food ???

I live on a thight budget and I could never afford to be obese, it would use up all my income.

Where do poor people get the money???

Seriously where do poor people find the money to eat so much (restaurant) food ???
Where do poor people get the money???

Poor people are not poor because they don't have money. They're poor became they don't know how to spend the money they have wisely. Smokes, booze, lotto, drugs, junk food, pop, new rims for the pimp-mobile, flat screen TV, flashy clothes, jewelry, all cost a lot.

But then status displays are more important than good nutrition.

"BogartThatJoint"

Nice...I'll go with that ;)

"Can anyone explain why there is more obesity amonsgt the black and hispanic communities in the USA yet blacks and hispanics are poorer?"

BECAUSE they are poorer...that's the answer. They can't afford anything but the cheapest of restaurant food (the fast kind) and are also more prone to a lack of education/parental guidance and so don't have the skills to organize and prepare home made food...many also don't find the time or energy for home prep if they are the working poor, especially those that are also single parents.

'destruction of the poor is their poverty'

I've wondered that myself, Friend of USA. I work in a hospital. There must be a plot to increase cardiologist revenue because every so often the cafeteria has a deep-fried food bar (I kid you not.) Deep-fried mozzarella sticks, mushrooms, popcorn shrimp, etc. It's sold per pound and weighed at the register. A couple of months ago, I saw a very obese Environmental Services employee, aka a cleaning lady, pay a whopping $10 for a plate piled high with deep fried crap - and that's after a 10% employee discount. $10 is probably more than she earns in an hour. I make a bit more than that and I can't afford to routinely drop $10 on lunch, especially not on junky hospital food. At least she was buying it with her own money, not with food stamps. She could have gotten soup and a salad for half the price.

I suspect soda is a huge culprit. I remember reading that a 7-11 Big Gulp with regular Coke is about 700 calories. Have 3 of those in one day and that's 2100 calories.

Good answer John Galt,

Most people are responsible for their own misery.
They chose to buy beer instead of paying the rent and then whine they got evicted (just an example)

...

semi-wrong answer BTJ,

We all have obstacles, and we can chose to make our life better or we can chose to make it worse.

I'm not denying bad things happen to good people, it happened to me (health problems), that is why I am on a tight budget now.
But no one is putting a gun to my head to make me spend my fixed income on stupid expensive stuff.
And no one is putting a gun to poor people's head and forcing them to go to McDonalds.
They could go to the library instead; it is free!

...

Good comment Donna V,

My average home made meal costs me about $3.88

Restaurant food costs at least twice that, and if you are obese and thus eating 2,3 or 4 portions then you are spending a lot of money in the wrong place.

But then again I know people who have 6 figure income and still manage to make very poor choices.

Same thing with smokers.

A life long smoker spends about the equivalent of what an average house costs.

It is mostly about choices ( and a little good luck )

Hi BTJ:

You are quite correct in your repy to my post about Cyrus' rather sweeping statement. In context, I read that quote from a column by T.R. Fehernbach, a local historian of respectable renown who writes a weekly column for the "Express-News" here in San Antonio. And to be fair, he did go on to say in his column that Hitler and the Japanese warlords thought the same of us but we were the death of them. Who knows?

One of the most annoying things I get to see in my practice is a grossly obese patient on welfare wanting me to fill out a government form so they can get more money for food. I don't do these and suggest that perhaps they need less money for food and more exercise. Walking must be a lost art because often on the next visit I'm asked to write a letter stating they need a gym membership which I also refuse.

Given the size of many of the people collecting welfare, obviously food is very cheap if you want to eat crap. The thinnest welfare recipients I used to see in Vancouver were the full time dumpster-divers who burned lots of calories burrowing through trash bins of downtown Vancouver.

An interesting thing about the extremely obese is that 90% of them have bipolar2 or bipolar spectrum disorder. This means that they tend to binge on food, spend money impulsively and get pregnant easily (fathers likely having had far too much to drink prior to the sexual encounter). Short of putting lithium into sugar containing soft drinks, not really sure what to do about this problem.

The only problem with Kate's solution is that the grossly obese are going to be the only ones with sufficient fat stores to survive a prolonged famine.

Note: if it took you more than a fraction of a second to grasp the meaning of this statement, you're stupid (and quite possibly fat)

(said MG42)

So I'm not the only one who has that attitude here?

Great!

Loki,

I think you are doing the right thing, in fact I think this is the BEST thing you could do for them.

I wish more health practitioners were like you.

Both poor and rich people make bad choices but with poor people, it hurts more. This is beside the point. Common sense isn't expensive. Everyone knows they should look to essentials before they splurge on non-essentials, that they should eat fruits and vegetables and work in a walk somewhere in their day. If they don't, it's not because they didn't attend an Ivy League school or earn big bucks at a multi-billion dollar corporation or if they work as a janitor because they just passed high school and went no further with their education.
It's the will is my point.

"But no one is putting a gun to my head to make me spend my fixed income on stupid expensive stuff.
And no one is putting a gun to poor people's head and forcing them to go to McDonalds."

Didn't say they were, I was responding to your question 'why do poorer people have more weight problems'...because there are more 'obstacles' pushing them in that direction.

I don't deny that personal choices are paramount to one's health.

"My average home made meal costs me about $3.88

Restaurant food costs at least twice that, and if you are obese and thus eating 2,3 or 4 portions then you are spending a lot of money in the wrong place.

But then again I know people who have 6 figure income and still manage to make very poor choices."

Very true...I can get by on $250 or less a month on food, and that's living in arguably the most expensive city in Canada...and I'm far from being a stick...it's all about veggies, fruit, and legumes...'beans are life' - a Mediterranean saying.

"Walking must be a lost art "

Oh DEFINITELY...it's sad...for some it's just plain lazyness, for others it's the 'fear' factor (ie. my kids are going to be kidnapped if they walk to school), for others it seems that walking is seen as a 'lower class' of travel. I personally can't stand driving in the city.

I admit I'm overweight (225 lbs @ 5' 11"), but I suffer two mental disorders. I am bulemic, and have Alzheimer's disease.

Essentially, I binge, but forget to purge.

LOL!

I used to live Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver (or is it the other way around?) and these pictures might have been taken there. The mommies all walk around in big ugly shoes, with big ugly mouths, pushing big prams with huge ugly, usually half caste kids, and seldom a father about. They're usually to be found at McDonald's or some other eatery, because few of them have any cooking skills.

Great articles "Catherine" and I agree with all you said except maybe the ugly dog thing and the pesky phone calls, though it's doubtful they can be properly policed. How's about I carry around a loaded revolver for the next time a pit bull comes running at me while crossing the park? I know you're a dog lover, and so am I, but the dogs don't always know that.

Amazing BTJ, we actually agree on something. I guess if I were to enumerate some of the things I now like in Vancouver, the heavy traffic would be one of them. True, it makes it impossible to drive anywhere and, before driving heavy sedation is imperative so one doesn't suffer recurrent road-rage incidents during a drive across the city. OTOH, walking is the only way to get around quickly and I didn't realize how much walking I did on a daily basis till I moved to the interior.

It took me a while to clue in that I didn't have to walk a mile carefully balancing containers of takeout Chinese food in -20 C weather as there was usually parking right in front of the restaurant. For a while I enjoyed the ability to drive places and walk from my vehicle right into the store, but now drive to shop and use the time I've saved to do local hikes on a daily basis if possible.

Unfortunately the next generation that lives here will probably drive everywhere as I see traffic jams when schools get out which consist of parents picking up their kids. When I was young I used to walk 4 miles to school every day and really enjoyed it (we did get free bus tickets for students who lived that far away in Calgary, but I used to sell mine as I liked walking).

The people who are the most afraid of getting mugged or kidnapped while walking are those who get all their news from the sensationalist MSM. The only time I recall being prevented from doing my usual long walks through the bush outside of town was when bears of cougars were sighted in the area; usually in a few days they were on their way to becoming a living room rug and we got to roam around again.

Living on $250/month for food would be hard unless I was on a starvation diet. Buffalo meat is pricey and free range beef hard to find. I've got a standing offer to go and shoot a buffalo at one of the local ranches (I asked the owner how one would go about getting fresh buffalo meat) but would need a bit more freezer space first. Eating grain fed beef requires lots of fish oil capsules to go with it to balance out the high omega-6 content of mass market beef. OTOH, a moose would really reduce the cost of food in the winter but there's that time factor involved which I haven't yet figured out how to circumvent.

Kind of puts into perspective why Ernest Manning (Preston's father) fought so hard against the welfare act. I remember one of the statements in his speech, saying that taking away a man's right to work was the quickest way to destroy him. (I'm paraphrasing, but you get the drift). Scary thing is that the people who voted for the politicians who passed the social medicine and welfare laws at the time were the very same ones who lived through the Depression and fought World War 2. Unfortunately, for Canada, the Quebec factor probably catapulted more left-leaning politicians into government than in the US at that point in history. Note that while many Quebecois went to war--many more hid in the woods to get away from serving (Pierre Trudeau)--and these guys were the ones who made their voices heard in the political scene.

~~favill~~

"How's about I carry around a loaded revolver for the next time a pit bull comes running at me while crossing the park? "

You are a weak human being if you need a gun for a domesticated dog.

Loki:

"before driving heavy sedation is imperative so one doesn't suffer recurrent road-rage incidents during a drive across the city."

Haha! I feel you...that's the main reason I don't drive.

"Living on $250/month for food would be hard unless I was on a starvation diet. Buffalo meat is pricey and free range beef hard to find."

Ya, it's not easy, that's for sure. I don't eat much meat, so that's the kicker. I also live in an area with lower than average food prices and I shop around until I figure out what's cheapest where.

"I've got a standing offer to go and shoot a buffalo at one of the local ranches (I asked the owner how one would go about getting fresh buffalo meat) but would need a bit more freezer space first. Eating grain fed beef requires lots of fish oil capsules to go with it to balance out the high omega-6 content of mass market beef. OTOH, a moose would really reduce the cost of food in the winter but there's that time factor involved which I haven't yet figured out how to circumvent."

I'd love to get into hunting...one day...have neither the means nor the storage space.

An interesting thing about the extremely obese is that 90% of them....get pregnant easily (fathers likely having had far too much to drink prior to the sexual encounter). Short of putting lithium into sugar containing soft drinks, not really sure what to do about this problem.
It's not just the fathers having "far too much to drink prior to the sexual encounter".
The lithium flavored 'power drink' seems like a great idea. It's just a matter of the right marketing.

"I've got a standing offer to go and shoot a buffalo at one of the local ranches (I asked the owner how one would go about getting fresh buffalo meat) but would need a bit more freezer space first. ... a moose would really reduce the cost of food in the winter but there's that time factor involved which I haven't yet figured out how to circumvent."

Shooting a buffalo/bison at a ranch is way easier and quicker than getting a moose, elk, or any other wild game. Two families can split a 2-3 year old bison. Make a lot of it into ground meat, roasts. Bison is very nutritious, clean fed, low fat and a high energy food.

Lots and lots of fat "clients" at the soup kitchen where I volunteer (because I am a wonderful human being). They tend to throw lots of food away, too.

Michelle Obama has come up with the solution to solve obesity in the US. In order to finance her "Let's Move" initiative, funding to food stamps will be cut significantly. Genius - take away their food and make em run.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/114271-dems-consider-more-food-stamp-cuts-to-fund-child-nutrition-bill

d.a.:

"Fatty meat is cheaper than lean meat".

How do you figure that? If you want Canada AAAA or USDA Prime grading on your beef, you're buying the most expensive, and the most fatty. "Marbling" is the key factor in providing the rating. Canada AA or USDA select have considerably less fat, and much lower price tags.

For example, my local grocery sells slabs of beef rib eye for $3.99/lb. It's AA (AAAA, if you could find it, would probably be 4-5 times as much). I cut it into steaks, freeze, and then marinate before cooking. Is it as tasty as a $50 ribeye I'd get a top restaurant? No. But it doesn't taste bad, it has half the fat, and it fits my budget.

My biggest beef, you should forgive the pun, is I can't take advantage of a lot of specials on fresh fruit and groceries because I can't eat them all before they turn. I end up using a lot of canned or frozen vegetables as a result.

And one thing that always amazes me is people on welfare who go out to do their grocery shopping, and then take a cab home. It's not like they need to save time, do they? Walking to the grocery three times a week might give them much needed exercise, and save them some money. However, I don't suggest passing this advice on to them; you might end up in a fight.

The new 'American dream', Canadian too, is to eat until you're disabled and then have the government buy you an electric scooter so you can get more food.

"You are a weak human being if you need a gun for a domesticated dog."

Gee, Rambo... tell us WHAT TO DO WHEN THE PITBULL CHARGES.

I see some snooty references here to Walmart; I wonder why.

"Wal-Mart has done more for poor people than any ten liberals, at least nine of whom are almost guaranteed to hate Wal-Mart" - Thomas Sowell -

Careful not to fall into that crowd, gang.

mhb23re
at gmail d0t calm

mhb is so right on the whole WalMart thing. Shop where you bloody well please. And BTJ, if you think a pitbull is domesticated, you've never met one in full attack. there are plenty of permanently scarred little children and adults to attest to that. What would you do, ask it to go walkies? You just are pissed that I own a gun!

Go to a grocery store at the end of the month after the welfare and baby bonus cheques come out, young women grossly obese pushing shopping carts' loaded with canned goods, processed junk food and boxes of crap. It's alarming to watch women as young as 20 weigh twice as much as they should, if they are morbidly obese now what will they look like after twenty years of welfare and giving birth to four or five kids? Our youth are become grossly obsese and they don't seem to care, the gals wear skin tight clothing with great gobs of fat oozing out and they strut around like runway models. One look at those gals is all the encouragement i need to work out everyday and watch what I eat.

Having travelled a lot of the world especially Europe I firmly believe it was the forcing by companies like Standard Oil and GM to make us fully dependent on the car that has lead to our obesity and general poor fitness and health.

These companies bought up over a 1,000 light rail companies in American cities and tore them up to make sure people bought cars. Many books like "Fast Food Nation" outline how this all came about. Europe made the other choice, keeping fuel cost extremely high and building transit and more intensive cities so people could walk.

Driving even the shortest distance is now a way of life for us. Now with sprawling suburbs and poor transit we must drive. Watch even on flat golf courses how many young people or overweight drive a golf cart giving almost zero exercise. In Europe only those with physical difficulty are allowed a cart.

Welfare dependency has only increased this obesity as Dalyrmple and Gordon Ramsay have painfully highlighted in the UK. Simply too lazy to cook even spaghetti they fill up on crap.

My son worked for 9 months in a restaurant in Edinburgh and he and his Canadian friends and co-workers were amazed at the crap the Scottish diet consisted of though they were not fat as they had to walk everywhere.

Wow, Dave. You're very enlightened.

But nobody is forcing you to buy a car. Are they?

Yeah, europe made the "other choice", all right. They chose the lunatic socialist model that requires outlandish gas prices to fund, and thereby forces people into subsidized public transit and sovietized-style housing. Is that what you want here?

Oil/gasoline = freedom to go where you want, live where you want, and do what you choose. Not only has oil and gasoline given millions of people the ability to shape their lives as they prefer, but most of the trappings of one's life would disappear without plastics, a huge derivative of oil. Yes, the leftists would much rather price gas out of existence and force a liberalized system of dense urban centers and a utopian public transit system, but when given the choice, people prefer their own freedom.

Anything else is just more liberal social engineering, and - thanksverymuch - those of us who prefer our freedom and liberty are getting rather sick of it.

mhb

"Now with sprawling suburbs and poor transit we must drive"

Wrong. People move out of cities when they can't afford to live there, and housing prices are too often negatively impacted by social re-engineering practices: rent controls, expanded "green space" policies and other liberal schemes to reduce housing in cities, especially in areas where the so-called elites inhabit.

People also move out of cities to follow the jobs, and jobs exit Stage Left when cities enact punitive regulation and usage fees. Toronto is excellent proof of that: it's estimated that over 100,000 jobs have left toronto for the surrounding area that is more business-friendly (as witness brampton & mississauga), and hamilton is practically a ghost town.

Europe is simply further ahead in the socialist model, where governments would prefer people crowded in high density housing than left to their own devices to live where they please. And, too, many socialists bent on control recognize mobility as a threat to control of the population, ergo gasoline and the freedom it brings hampers that. Thus the continual tax on fuel and oil as not only a way to fund more failed government initiatives, but as a means to an end of shepherding the population into tightly-packed centers dependent on government services, such as money-losing public transit.

So many of the challenges we face today are at the behest of the governments we elect, and our inability to see this guarantees the damaging social experimenting will continue unabated.

mhb

""Fatty meat is cheaper than lean meat"."

It's not hard to figure out...skinless chicken breast is the most expensive cut of chicken.

Ground Beef is cheaper than Extra Lean ground beef.

" Is it as tasty as a $50 ribeye I'd get a top restaurant?"

You can't compare grocery store meat to restaurant meat..that's apples to oranges.

"Gee, Rambo... tell us WHAT TO DO WHEN THE PITBULL CHARGES."

Stand your ground, charge back...most humans are twice the size. Use your feet if it invades your personal space. Most dogs are only interested in smelling you.

" And BTJ, if you think a pitbull is domesticated, you've never met one in full attack."

Of course it's domesticated! The only other option is 'wild'...are they 'wild' pitbulls? Maybe in the slummiest of neighbourhoods...in which case I would advise you not to walk through the neighbourhood.

"Wrong. People move out of cities when they can't afford to live there"

Or when they have children, no?

"Stand your ground, charge back...most humans are twice the size. Use your feet if it invades your personal space. Most dogs are only interested in smelling you"

Sure thing, Dr. Doolittle. I'd call utter BS on that comment, but there would be little point, would there? Doubtless you've some fictitious "evidence" where this worked for you, and I don't want to indulge your doggy fantasies any further.

mhb

"Sure thing, Dr. Doolittle. I'd call utter BS on that comment"

I take it you are not familiar with the techniques of Cesar Milan.

Tell me...do you have a dog? Do you have any experience with dogs? My parents had large breed show dogs growing up, I have two right now, and I volunteer at the SPCA. But you're probably right...it's utter BS. That being said, how easy is it to criticize without providing any of your own suggestions? Pretty easy I assume.

Dogs recognize power and weakness, what would you suggest you do? Cower or run..portraying weakness? Or stand your ground and demand space..portraying power and dominance? Just because a dog is running at you does not mean it intends to attack you...and if it does the best thing to do is stand your ground and strike first.

Yes, BTJ, I've had dogs. And I'm quite willing to admit I'll stay in my car or wait at somebody's door or put something between it and I if one comes barking or growling my way. Sheepishly I admit that's not as macho as your butch talk above, but I get bit less, that way. That works for me. As for the rest of your comments, well fellow, who knows if there's a grain of truth to any of them? You can claim anything you like on the internet, and who's to say.

Let me try my hand at this. May I?

Next time I'm in line at the bank and there's an armed robbery, rather than cower in fear, I'll just kung-fu the gun out of the hand of the nearest bandit, double-tap the rest between the eyes, and then sign autographs and preen for the inevitable 60 Minutes interview while I wait for the cops to arrive. And the crowd of onlookers and admirers cried out loudly, "Huzzah!!"

The original comment by larben favoured the loaded revolver approach, as opposed to yours of standing firm. I'll take larben's method, given the choice, if not the legality. Having said that, were I unable to retreat to safety, I'd grab the nearest club-like item at hand and get ready to roll, I suspect. And G0d help the pitbull or rottie that tries to maul me or my kids when I've something of substance in my hand, because this thing isn't finished until one of us isn't moving, one way or the other.

mhb

"And I'm quite willing to admit I'll stay in my car or wait at somebody's door or put something between it and I if one comes barking or growling my way. Sheepishly I admit that's not as macho as your butch talk above, but I get bit less, that way."

You show weakness by doing so...you put yourself in a position to be dominated. Most dogs who come barking or growling are nervous, and unsure...if the bark has no growl and is more of a yap there is no aggression, simply standing sideways will show that you are no threat. If the bark has a growl and comes from the chest (more intense) then there may be some aggression, in that case standing your ground and claiming your space (expressing dominance) will show that you aren't to be messed with.

"You can claim anything you like on the internet, and who's to say"

I suggest you check out Cesar Milan, the 'dog whisperer'...he's a truly amazing fellow.

"Next time I'm in line at the bank and there's an armed robbery, rather than cower in fear, I'll just kung-fu the gun out of the hand of the nearest bandit, double-tap the rest between the eyes, and then sign autographs and preen for the inevitable 60 Minutes interview while I wait for the cops to arrive. "

Well now we're comparing apples and oranges. Human psychology is not comparable to dog psychology. Dogs are much more predictable than humans and respond to body language much more directly.

How did this thread go to the dogs?