"trisha" <fridaybears@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:5435bfd8-4162-444f-9e53-7fd02433d88b@z11g2000prl.googlegroups.com...
> Barring my feelings about Tom and his spouting off....
>
> Before we go trying to legislate obesity it might do some good to
> research the disease itself. Yes, it is a disease. Compulsive
> overeating and binge eating is a recognized psychiatric disorder.
So ... any action which results from a psychiatric disorder should not be
considered criminal? How about pedophilia? Personally I do not think we
should outlaw obesity, but since one way or another I am paying for the
health care of people with unhealthy eating habits I would support the
outlawing of unhealthy food.
>
> Does anyone honestly think that people wake up one morning and say,
> "Hey, I think I'll get fat. Starting right now, I'm going to pile on
> the pounds until I can't find decent clothes, till people laugh at me,
> and until I am discriminated against in the workplace and many other
> ways."
No. But nor do people wake up one day and think "Hey, I'll stop at a bar on
my way home from work, drink too much, drive too fast, and kill someone."
Note that alcoholism is also a psychiatric disorder.
>
> Many, many people who are morbidly obese have a history of some form
> of abuse. They cannot control the person abusing them, but they CAN
> control what they eat. Food is a quiet companion. It doesn't talk
> back. It doesn't say nasty things. It doesn't reject them or call
> them stupid or abuse or molest them. It doesn't neglect them. It is
> there for them no matter what. It helps cover up the pain and in fact
> eases it to a point. It is a comfort to someone in immense
> psychological pain.
>
> We don't legislate drunks or drug addicts.
No, but we do come close. DUI and "drunk and disorderly" conduct are
crimes. And it's illegal to sell drugs and to sell alcohol to people under
21. At one time alcoholics, and I think drug abusers too, were put in
mental institutions. I'm not sure about today.
> Child molesters get off
> with a slap on the hand. Drunk drivers who hit someone and kill them
> often don't even go to jail.
I've never heard of any such cases. Such cases are certainly not the norm.
> Yet some idiot in the legislature who is
> offended by a fat person, possibly because of their own fears of being
> out of control, wants to legislate people in enough pain to put their
> physical lives in danger by overeating?
Is it possible that the legislator wants to improve the health of the obese
and lower our health care costs?
>
> How totally ignorant and ludicrous.
>
> And how immature.
>
> And prejudiced.
>
> And insensitive.
>
> Instead, how about allowing for mental health care and counseling for
> these people so that whatever it is they are dealing with can come to
> light and perhaps, through that, they can learn to cope in a more
> positive fashion and maybe learn to overcome the giant and lose the
> excess weight along with the fears that put it there?
How about if those of you who favor this counseling pay for it. My health
insurance costs are already too high thank you!
>
> Only the perfect have the right to say who and how people ought to
> be. There was only one perfect Man, and they hung him up on a cross.
It sounds like you have a cross reserved for the legislator. So, not being
perfect, I have no right to an opinion on what should be illegal?
The legislator was silly to introduce such legislation. It's certainly not
going to go anywhere. McDonalds spends too much on lobbyists. But you seem
to be saying that we can all drink, smoke and eat as much as we want and the
taxpayers should pick up the tab for their health care and counseling.
>
> Trisha in MO
aka_velcro
ReaderRabbit
