bobover3 (imported) wrote: Sun Dec 02, 2012 1:13 am Moi, at this very moment, the moderators are probably putting up their feet with a contented sigh, sipping mai-tais, and basking in the Hawaii sun. It beats herding feral cats at EA.

Our salvation is that in this den of perversity the Moderators may be masochistic enough to pick up the burden again. For myself, I experienced a never ending wonder at the creativity with which insults could be minted. We can but wait and hope.

Poetry not being my field but I do fairly well at insults I might add that the Political Board is NOT the only place where one may find creative insults.

They may be developed over any subject, it is just that politics employes such exquisite (_)o(_)'s that it sort of comes naturally to posters on a political message board.

If it is really insults that you want Political Boards lend themselves so well to this because Political Boards entail so much human emotion. Understand that Poetry is a creative commentary devoid of personal insults. There are only general insults that bemoan the human condition.

The study of Poetry is a noble cause...

I wonder

How much does anti-obesity bigotry cut into

Chris Christie's presidential chances?

Moi

Heavily (pun intended). Hatred of the fat is widespread. It masks itself as a health concern. When Christie ran for Governor of New Jersey, "concerned" people asked if he could withstand the rigors of the job. Witness the result. The same assault was made when he was publicly considering a run in 2012. If he campaigns in 2016, we'll hear it again.

I'm heavy and have been verbally assaulted by strangers many times; garbage has been thrown at me twice; strangers have threatened to beat me up; when I worked at AT&T, I was more than once denied jobs by managers who told me that was why. All this, and I'm much less heavy than Christie.

Many proposals are being floated by businesses and governments to financially penalize people who are overweight. The usual rationale is "why should we pay health care costs for those who don't care for themselves." Strangely, the same arguments are not made about those who drink, smoke, eat junk food, fail to get enough exercise, fail to get enough sleep, etc. Fat is visible. Just like blackness, it's an inescapable part of appearance, so it's an easy target.

Just as white losers console themselves with the thought that they're not black, so thin losers console themselves with the thought that they're not fat.

As a society, we care about certain sorts of prejudice - race, gender, sexual orientation, religion. But people are prone to bias of all sorts, and anything outside the list of prohibited prejudices is fair game.

Of course, many of those "concerned" about Christie's weight will be his political opponents. But there is widespread hatred of overweight people. If I had any doubt about that, it was dispelled by the well dressed lady who walked up as I sat on a Central Park bench to tell me how much she hated people like me. I do hope that all the "concerned" people take perfect care of themselves, and not just in cosmetic ways.

As John Lennon said in the song -

"You can shine your shoes and wear a suit

You can comb your hair and look quite cute

You can hide your face behind a smile

One thing you can't hide

Is when you're crippled inside

You can wear a mask and paint your face

You can call yourself the human race

You can wear a collar and a tie

One thing you can't hide

Is when you're crippled inside"