We know it's not conducive to long life, but is it genetic, or personal choice? Is it curable? If only science could tell us, we'd know just how much to intrude into other people's lives, and just how superior we could justifiably feel.

Is it genetic? Only for a very small percent of fat people and you know this. Science knows why people are fat. Eating too much! Really, where you joking or do you really believe the BS you posted?

No one is preventing anyone from being fat. Really if your paranoia was true there wouldn't be so many obese people in the USA, would there now. People that are healthy, eat right and exercise (i.e. they put in the work and do what it takes), should be proud. Doing what it takes and working hard DOES make one superior. This has been an American value since the nation began.

Mr. guitarman, I'm pleased we agree upon American values. Glenn Beck has a funny thing he says where he compares the liberal impulse for re-distributing wealth to (if it were possible) re-distributing fat among people to make them all more equal. It's a real hoot, if you think about it.

And yes, I really believe that some people are genetically predisposed to be heavier than average, and that some people are genetically predisposed to be gayer than average. I don't know if that's their unalterable destiny in either case.

As I said a small percent are genetically predisposed but the science is clear most people are overweight for ONE reason; They take in too many calories!

Like I said no one is preventing anyone from being fat and living an unhealthy lifestyle, but gays are clearly being prevented by nutcase Christians from living the lifestyle they want. Think about that one.

mr. beck is an idiot who barely passed high school and then converted to mormonism.

more importantly his rants about wealth redistribution make no sense.

medicare and social security are both redistribution.

do you think most seniors want to get rid of them?

Of course Beck is an idiot, by his own admission, though not for the reasons you cite. But his comparison of wealth to health makes perfect sense, which you have not even begun to refute. Let's keep the ad hominem out of it, at least until you can back up your scorn with logic.

Of course seniors like to keep my money flowing to them, just like Christie wouldn't mind some of his lard flowing to Corzine to equal things out a bit. But that wouldn't be fair, would it, because Corzine works hard and sacrifices for his beloved physique, and Christie has done nothing to earn a slim body. Gotcha, welfare bum!

welfare bum?

i am a small business owner and an elected school board member thank you.

you make a valid point, i do have scorn for beck because he is all emotion and no facts and yet, people believe what he says.

quick example, when he had surgery for his hemmorids the doctors messed up and he went through a weekend in extreme pain and wrote about it on his blog. he called the american health system broken and called for reform.

now that he is a big tv star, he consistently claims the american health care system is the best in the world because thats his political agenda.http://www.glennbeck.co­m/content/articles/article/198­/3502/#

that is hypocrisy

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jazzguitarman:

As I said a small percent are genetically predisposed but the science is clear most people are overweight for ONE reason; They take in too many calories!

Like I said no one is preventing anyone from being fat and living an unhealthy lifestyle, but gays are clearly being prevented by nutcase Christians from living the lifestyle they want. Think about that one.

What if some nutcase claimed that only a small percent of gay people were born that way, and the rest are gay for one reason: they lack the moral integrity to control their unhealthy, voracious sexual desires!

Do you like how you sound? To rebut your specific points:

Science has no answer yet as to why weight control is such a problem for some people, but not for others. When it does, there will be a new Bill Gates.

Gays in this country can be gay just as freely as fat people can be fat. They both face social obstacles ranging from disapproval by strangers, to job discrimination, to far-ranging financial impacts like insurance premiums or survivor benefits. I frankly have no idea which group is more persecuted, not being a member of either one. The point is they both are, and with identical justification.

"there will be a new Bill Gates." So there will be a new guy who swoops in after something is invented, steals the idea, and takes all the profits while not benefitting or advancing technology whatsoever?

Gates was good at a few things but since I'm a software developer I can say inventing software is NOT one of them!

So the more calories one eats doesn't impact their weight gain? ha ha ha ha ha

Now genetic factors do impact how much one will gain. e.g. two people can eat the same number of calories and one will put on more weight than the other, but the key is still to CONTROL the number of calories one takes in to maintain ones weight.

The only people that don't understand this are fat people in denial.

jazzguitarman:

Like I said no one is preventing anyone from being fat and living an unhealthy lifestyle, but gays are clearly being prevented by nutcase Christians from living the lifestyle they want. Think about that one.

Jazz always seems to make good points. Let me agree with this statement as someone who is a Christian.

Christians are quick to jump up for our rights. We want to display religious Christmas symbols on public property. We dont want evolution taught to our kids in school. But when it comes to rights which offend us, we want to trample them. Its intellectual dishonesty.

Yes, I believe the Bible says homosexuality is a sin. But so are a lot of other things which Christians conveniently overlook in their own lives. Afterall, adualtery is also a sexual sin but people in the church do it as much as people who arent.

Getting righteous and trying to legislate or control how other people want to live their lives doesnt advance Christianity. I dont care if gay people are allowed to marry. Let them do that. My desire for them to have equal rights to myself doesnt mean I condone their lifestyle. Whether their legal status is "married" or "domestic parternship" has no effect on my life and I cant see why we should fight to deny it to them. I dont think it erodes the moral fabric of our society because we grant them this legal arrangement. They are going to live their lives as they see fit whether we do or not.

I guess my point is this. If Christians want to change society, what is the most effective way to do it? As a whole, we seem to think its getting self righteous, standing on a soap box, and acting like we hate those around us. I would suggest take a step back, look at our own lives, and make sure we are living what we say we believe and start acting in love to those who are different. People might be more willing to listen to us if we displayed something desireable and attractive instead of what is percieved as hateful.

Anyway, way of topic from the post, but what I wanted to say in echo of two of the posts.

Agree completely with the calories in argument. There is also compelling evidence that a decrease in active lifestyle may be contributing even more than excess caloric intake to the obesity trends, especially in children. Its a battle I have with my own kids. When I was growing up, we had very little to do inside, so we were almost always outside playing sports. My kids have Wii, internet, and 1000 cable channels and given their choice, would stay inside all day every day. It takes a lot of effort from my wife and I to keep them active daily.

It does seem to be challenging to get adults to permanently keep weight of. Mainly because complete lifestyle changes are hard to maintain in any area of life. It takes discipline. Personally, I think the target of the obesity epidemic should be kids. Help them establish life long healthy habits. Of course, its hard to do this if the parents are obese and inactive and overeating.

id789:

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jazzguitarman:

As I said a small percent are genetically predisposed but the science is clear most people are overweight for ONE reason; They take in too many calories!

Like I said no one is preventing anyone from being fat and living an unhealthy lifestyle, but gays are clearly being prevented by nutcase Christians from living the lifestyle they want. Think about that one.

What if some nutcase claimed that only a small percent of gay people were born that way, and the rest are gay for one reason: they lack the moral integrity to control their unhealthy, voracious sexual desires!

Do you like how you sound? To rebut your specific points:

Science has no answer yet as to why weight control is such a problem for some people, but not for others. When it does, there will be a new Bill Gates.

Gays in this country can be gay just as freely as fat people can be fat. They both face social obstacles ranging from disapproval by strangers, to job discrimination, to far-ranging financial impacts like insurance premiums or survivor benefits. I frankly have no idea which group is more persecuted, not being a member of either one. The point is they both are, and with identical justification.

Jazz isnt the one who sounds ignorant. You are. Obesity rates have increased several fold over the past 30 years <link>. If it was genetic, the trend would be stability or a decline in obesity. I say decline because obese people actually suffer from higher rates of subfertility and infertility due to hormonal abnormalities associated with obesity. So simple logic dictates that the obesity trend in the US is not genetic.