Monday October 13th, 2008
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Deep Fried Crisis
Posted by Kerry Trueman on February 2, 2006 - 3:56pm.
Finally, President Bush and I agree on something. He came right out and said it in last night's State of the Union speech: ”America is addicted to oil.”
Of course, he's talking about the oil we use to run our cars and heat our homes, not the kind that's clogging our arteries. The problem with his kind of oil is that there's only a finite amount of it to meet an ever-growing global demand.
No such shortage with the kind of oil that fuels our French fry fetish! Our nation's deep fryers are filled to capacity, always at the ready to meet the demand for deep fried donuts. But our fondness for fatty foods is widening our waists, shortening our lives, and ballooning our health care costs.
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof has finally dared, this week, to say in public what I've been saying privately for years: Americans are at far greater risk of heart attacks than terrorist attacks:
“Imagine if Al Qaeda had resolved to attack us not with conventional chemical weapons but by slipping large amounts of high-fructose corn syrup into our food supply. That would finally rouse us to action — but in fact it’s pretty much what we’re doing to ourselves.”
As Kristof observes, “Obesity is reducing not only the quality of life of Americans, but also the fiscal soundness of our government and the competitiveness of our businesses.”
Doesn't that qualify as a crisis worthy of a presidential counter-offensive? One Republican who's championing the cause of healthier habits is Mike Huckabee, the formerly fat, newly enlightened Governor of Arkansas.
Huckabee was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes back in 2003, and given about 10 years to live. Evidently, the prospect of dying inspired Huckabee to make some drastic changes. Today, he's about 120 pounds lighter, his diabetes is cured, and he runs marathons.
Now that he's the perfect poster boy for the benefits of eating well and exercising, Huckabee's trying to convert the entire state of Arkansas to a healthier way of life. He recounts his odyssey from foodaholic to anti-obesity crusader in a self-help memoir, “Quit Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork: A 12- Stop Program to End Bad Habits and Begin a Healthy Lifestyle.“
Maybe Huckabee can convince President Bush to launch an initiative to fight our other oil addiction. How about it, Mike? The next State of the Union is a whole year away. If you start now, there's no telling what you could accomplish.
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And then use the old oil for Bio-Diesel
That would be better for the environment, but not any better for our bodies…
Thanks for posting this. You can learn more about Mike Huckabee at http://www.mikehuckabeepresident2008.blogspot.com
Mike Huckabee is a huge backer of the “celebration of marriage/covenant marriage” movement (between a MAN and a WOMAN, of course), has fought hard (and succeeded) at getting anti-choice legislation passed in Arkansas, and makes no bones whatsoever about the fact that he believes that in American law the constitution is less important than the Christian bible.
Good for him for losing that much weight. Impressive and admirable.
But IF you want to jump behind an incredibly unlikely longshot who hasn’t even publicly said he’s running in ‘08, look to Barack Obama. That dude never even let himself get fat in the first place.
I try to say nice things about Republicans whenever I can, it’s that whole “positive reinforcement” theory. I like Barack Obama, too, he’s a great role model in his own right because he really turned his life around, from what I understand, after running with the proverbial “bad crowd.”