Thank you for a brilliant and humane example of skepticism. It's quite stunning to me how pretty much everyone of whatever political belief system are in total agreement that they can't wait to defend The Man when it comes to enforcing weight-based privilege and hatred.

Whenever I get tired of arguing based on scientific data that Health At Every Size is a far more effective way to enhance health across the whole population while it offers the added boon of undoing prejudice and discrimination...I remember that none of the people who use a health argument against fat people like me have any genuine concern about our health or wellbeing.

Right now, I'm not allowed to buy health insurance at all because companies are allowed to discriminate against fat individuals.

It is not possible to hate an entire demographic group for our own good. That's perilously close to eugenics.

Marilyn Wann, author of FAT!SO?, fat activist

- I'm getting tired of watching 14-year-old children wheeze their way across the street to the corner store to get sodas and candy between classes. It hurts my heart to see them walking like 90-year-olds and breathing like 50-year smokers and knowing that they're going to be dead sooner than they need to be.

- I'm getting tired of hearing about people younger than me (and I'm only 46) dropping dead from obesity related heart attacks, strokes and embolisms from my husband. I think he's up to four colleagues this year who have died because they were fat and ONLY because they were fat.

- I'm getting tired of hearing surgery stories from people younger than me who have had to have hip and knee replacements because they have destroyed their joints hauling around their fat.

- I'm really getting tired of people who, instead of losing the weight, get disability parking stickers and using wheelchairs when there's no good reason for it. They're in the chairs for the sole reason that they're fat. I know they're in pain, it's hard to imagine that they're NOT in constant pain. But still.

- I'm getting extraordinarily tired of people who pretend that fat doesn't matter, that it doesn't affect health and pretending that it's all right to be as fat as they want. It's not about self-esteem any more. It's about not dying.

I come from a family where one side is composed of tall people that have a tendency to get fat. Not mildly fat. Not "chunky". 500 pounds worth of fat. I'm the second or third youngest of the 27 cousins on that side, and most of them are that fat or headed that way. A bunch of them are dead. I quit going to funerals a long time ago.

I'm a long way from fat. It's hard work, but I just keep the picture in my mind of a coffin half-falling to the ground because the dead fat person was too much for eight pallbearers to carry. That's enough for me.

MessyONE, that's not about fat, it's about lifestyle.

And if you wanna know why kids have fatter lifestyles today, it has nothing to do with calories - a big mac was a big mac 30 years ago. Rather, it's twofold: first, economics, parents spend a lot more cash on their kids and kids with more disposable income will spend more of it on crap food because kids make bad choices.

Second, it's the insane every-teacher-a-child-molester­-and-every-man-a-rapist nancy grace, 24-hour news cycle view that frets constantly over "protecting" children from every conceivable danger real or imagined. THAT's why kids don't get the same exercise they did 30, 40, 50 years ago.

You let kids go out and wander around, they'll get active. You force them onto a lame-ass playground, yeah, not so much.

Right now, I'm not allowed to buy health insurance at all because companies are allowed to discriminate against fat individuals.
Yes, insurance companies are allowed to give healthy people a better deal. Why in the world wouldn't they be able to? Look, you're an adult, and you can make your own choices. If you can't stop shoveling cheeseburgers into your gaping craw, it's not the government's responsibility or privilege to make you. Just don't try to make us pay the costs, and let us be appropriately disgusted by your repulsive appearance.

Messy One, Your points are valid, but your aim is off. There is nothing that Wann has written to justify your view that Wann is pro-ill health for Anyone, let alone obese people. She's talking about Health At Every Size, which means, to me, that even if you are fat, you can still work on getting as healthy as you can (especially since most dieting fails). Maybe you think it's a croc, but nothing else seems to be doing much good, either, for the *marjority* of fat people. I doubt your being "tired" is going to do the trick either; lots of people are tired, so buck up. Also, who do you think you are, ripping into people in wheel chairs? You don't know them or their particular situations - you don't know What put them there - maybe the health condition that put them in a chair had Nothing to do w/obesity, but they became fat from not being able to move. Instead of showing compassion, you judge them. Even if they ate their way into a chair, that's not normal behavior, nor is it a great way to live; quite the contrary. You labor under some odd delusion that fat people Want to be ill and sick. I don't know how old you are, but let's see how you are doing in 10, 20, 30 years from now. You're quick to judge, aren't you? Quick to show umbrage for situations that you don't know about. As for your family, well, maybe you lucked out a bit more than they did, whether it be genetically or in your living situation. Who knows? A fat sister can have 3 thin siblings. I'm glad you work hard, but your anger is appalling. It's directed at people who live in misery. Maybe, instead of just working hard to not be fat, you could start to work hard at not being so arrogant.

Mara, you and I agree on a lot of things. (which is why I say e-mail me at messy-one@hotmail.com) The thing I'm really getting tired of is people like the OP standing on the dead bodies of the people whose "self-esteem" is more important than their lives. She is making money simply by virtue of not having died yet, and THAT is the truly ugly thing about this whole situation. The only reason she's still alive is pure dumb luck and perhaps good genetics.

Fat people die. They die too young. We can't afford that. I'm NOT angry that them. It's a hell of a way to live and an ugly way to die, and they deserve better from us than scorn and hatred. That said, compassion does not mean excusing a lifestyle that is guaranteed to shorten their lives. I AM angry at crackpots who tell them that they don't need to worry about their health, because it's better to die young than have poor self-esteem. and that is the essence of what the OP is peddling. For a profit. Yes. That pisses me off.

I meant it. I'm tired of going to funerals or sending sympathy cards to the families of people who should live to be 100 years old. It bothers me that their kids are not going to have their parent around when they grow up. I don't want to hear lame justifications or listen to someone spouting dogma that's not even based in science. That doesn't help.

So yes. I cry nonsense at the top poster here. She's not helping, except perhaps to help HER feel better for the moment. Until she dies of fat.

MessyOne: "Fat people die. They die too young. We can't afford that. I'm NOT angry that them. It's a hell of a way to live and an ugly way to die, and they deserve better from us than scorn and hatred. That said, compassion does not mean excusing a lifestyle that is guaranteed to shorten their lives."

Messy, your point is excellent, particularly about the children, and it's obvious that you care. What I object to is the sheer vitriolic hatred expressed by many of the posters, particularly in the discussions of the preceding two articles. Hatred makes any solution to the problem impossible and is harmful to the health of both the hateful and the hated.