Greensboring.com - Outside The Media. Beyond The News. Greensboro, NC.

Driving to go get dinner no less last night, I happened upon someone called Mike McConnell on the radio. A clearly right-wing nutter radio show, the host was fielding calls from his dozen or so fans and their nutter concerns. One guy made me laugh so hard I almost swerved into an oncoming McDonald's truck. The caller who was genuinely concerned about his right to be fat. (I started cursing in French at that point.) Apparently over some initiative Obama has made to reduce calorie content in food. "Who has the (bleeping) right to tell me what to eat?" he asks. He continued with "If I want to ride around in my American car to Wendy's and be fat, it's my American right!!!" he followed that by saying "You see lines around Wendy's and they ain't all ordering salads."

It's a good point, they aren't... and that's why I think Obama is trying (if indeed there is truth to all this) to reduce the calories, right? The guy continued his tirade even villainizing the removal of trans-fats, something I've wrote about in my book and something and I'm very supportive of. (removing them that is) To be bluntly honest, I have no problem with the government taking responsibility for our health, and making all foods healthier, but I must admit it does appear as though if we're going to follow in the footsteps of many European governments, we're going to see some serious criticism such as this guy's. Most importantly, do we, here in America have the right to be fat? Clearly I cringe at the idea of even posting this online. Clearly this gentleman and our American need to be abundantly overweight might not bode well for our national image; especially in European countries. In fact just a few weeks ago, a very skinny, beautiful friend was told while on a treadmill somewhere on Europe: "that there's no way you're "European" because she's too fat." I can only imagine if I was on that treadmill they would have assumed a giant whale had beached itself in the gym.

I mean honestly, isn't the bigger question, the one that was gnawing away at me while this guy was flapping his jaw was: What right does Americans have to consume more than other nations, in food, in oil, in the health care and drugs- drugs that eventually will combat the obesity of this ignorant man who believes he has a right to have simply because he lives in a country of greedy individuals who only care about themselves?