Folk Devils

Read this from Megan McArdle - it is longish but well worth the time.

Megan: What about gastric bypass? The quoted figures for gastric bypass seem pretty impressive when doctors talk about them on television.

Paul: Gastric bypass is surgically induced bulimia. People starve for the first few months so of course their blood sugar levels go down. At five and ten year followup the average weight loss from these procedures is about 10% to 15% of body mass (it’s actually less than that since lots of people drop out of the studies) which means most of these people end up still “morbidly obese.” And they can never eat normally again.Why do you think you never see the actual stats for weight loss from stomach stapling? If they were good they’d be on billboards 50 feet high.

Megan: Those shows on TLC that basically invite the audience to gawk at fat people usually say they’ll lose fifty percent of their excess body weight

Paul: If you put people on starvation diets, which is what these methods do, of course you’ll get huge amounts of weight loss. Then most or all of it will be gained back, which among other things is a recipe for congestive heart failure. I’d love to do a “reality” show on the contestants on shows like The Biggest Loser three years down the road. But that would probably be a little too much reality.

Gastric bypass is the most radical method available for weight loss, and it basically doesn’t work. Everything else is even less successful, though usually not quite as dangerous.

 Paul is Paul Campos, author of The Obesity Myth. Why am I linking this? Because of this:

Twelve-year-old William had the £10,000 procedure after his parents had both had the same operation.

Two years ago he was told by doctors that unless he reduced his weight, he could be dead by the age of 21. His 14-stone weight meant he could barely walk and often had to use a wheelchair.

 This boy will never be able to eat normally. If you look at the pictures, he is still not a skinny kid – he weighs 112 pounds at 12 years of age. But he will never be able to eat normally again. That sentence is for life. If you read the McArdle piece you should know where the title of this post came from. I’ll end this with another quote from Paul Campos:

The current stigmitization of fat kids is essentially child abuse as government policy, and the people behind it are, as far as I’m concerned, either incredibly stupid or very evil or in some cases both.

Here’s an idea: Stop harrassing people about their weight. Because it appears that focusing on the idea that being fat actually makes people fatter. At least there’s an extremely strong correlation there. I bet if we stopped demonizing fatness people would actually be a bit thinner. They’d certainly be happier and healthier.

It is not “for the children”. It is against the children. And it is government policy. And pure, unadulterated madness.

Losing It

Maxine Waters is losing it. She’s threatening Blue Dogs if they do not toe the leftist line:

Seven Blue Dogs on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have effectively blocked the panel from working on the bill for more than a week, saying it’s too expensive and puts too much of a burden on small employers.

Asked if she would recruit more liberal candidates to run against Blue Dogs, Waters said, “That’s normally not done.”

But she added: “There may be people out there listening and observing all of this who may get motivated based on what they’re seeing and throw their hat into the ring.”

She also criticized White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for recruiting many of the House’s more conservative members when he headed the House Democrats’ campaign arm. Now, she said, “The chickens are coming home to roost.”

Waters is known as a firebrand who isn’t afraid to stir up controversy in her own party. But she is also a member of leadership, as a chief deputy whip, and chairs a subcommittee on the House Financial Services Committee

Her remarks were an escalation from more veiled remarks from liberals last week, such as Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee’s (D-Calif.) saying, “We don’t think any one group in our caucus ought to be able to derail this.”

That’s pretty blunt even if she did try to put it on others. Never mind that a Waters-style statist authoritarian would get about six votes in the districts the Blue Dogs represent. It’s always amusing to see Democrats begin to tear themselves apart.

If I was one of the members Waters threatened, I’d be even less likely to vote on her side of the issue after this. This is personal, now.

The Life And Death Business

Megan McArdle:

The other major reason that I am against national health care is the increasing license it gives elites to wrap their claws around every aspect of everyone’s life. Look at the uptick in stories on obesity in the context of health care reform. Fat people are a problem! They’re killing themselves, and our budget! We must stop them! And what if people won’t do it voluntarily? Because let’s face it, so far, they won’t. Making information, or fresh vegetables, available, hasn’t worked–every intervention you can imagine on the voluntary front, and several involuntary ones, has already been tried either in supermarkets or public schools. Americans are getting fat because they’re eating fattening foods, and not exercising. How far are we willing to go beyond calorie labelling on menus to get people to slim down?

These aren’t just a way to save on health care; they’re a way to extend and expand the cultural hegemony of wealthy white elites. No, seriously. Living a fit, active life is correlated with being healthier. But then, as an economist recently pointed out to me, so is being religious, being married, and living in a small town; how come we don’t have any programs to promote these “healthy lifestyles”? When you listen to obesity experts, or health wonks, talk, their assertions boil down to the idea that overweight people are either too stupid to understand why they get fat, or have not yet been made sufficiently aware of society’s disgust for their condition. Yet this does not describe any of the overweight people I have ever known, including the construction workers and office clerks at Ground Zero. All were very well aware that the burgers and fries they ate made them fat, and hitting the salad bar instead would probably help them lose weight. They either didn’t care, or felt powerless to control their hunger. They were also very well aware that society thought they were disgusting, and many of them had internalized this message to the point of open despair. What does another public campaign about overeating have to offer them, other than oozing condescension?

Do read the whole thing, this is only her secondary reason for opposing nationalized health care. Nonetheless, it is important. (You can also get all the coordinated troll’s talking points from the comments. No echo chamber there.)

Do you really want the government to decide who lives and who dies? Have you ever seen the government run anything well?

This is not something I want decided by faceless bureaucrats with better health plans than I would be allowed under ObamaCare. This is one thing we desperately need to keep the government out of. All you young supporters of ObamaCare, just keep in mind that you will eventually grow old and face the hard fact of a bureaucrat’s decision that you are not worthy of treatment. Then you’ll be Orszaged – given some pills rather than treatment.