That’s Right Nate

Former Surgeon General used to flex his mighty guns and tell people, "take two of these and call me in the morning."

Last week, President Obama announced that he was naming Dr. Regina Benjamin to be his Surgeon General.   To start with Dr. Benjamin isn’t even a surgeon.   She’s a general practicioner who operated a medical clinic in Hurricane Katrina ravaged Alabama.   Wow, sure must be hard to build a successful practice in a hurricane ravaged area.

What has incensed myself and others though, isn’t her practice it’s her weight.   Dr. Benjamin is a very large woman who could stand to lose a good 60 to 80 pounds.   The problem is she’s going to be the one giving health advice to the nation.  How am I supposed to fill my overweight daughter with the requisite shame and humiliation to do something about her weight when she sees a woman like this making health decisions for the country.

I have chronicled my daughter with obesity in this blog before.  At 13 years old she is 5’7″ and almost 120 pounds.  She has finally lost 5 pounds after a couple years of forced weigh ins, mandatory calisthenics, and junk food searches.  I believe that the excess weight she’s been carrying has affected her health and may be responsible for recent fainting spells.  I do believe is she continues to work at the weight loss, she could be a reasonably attractive girl.

I am extremely disappointed that Rush Limbaugh hasn’t nailed Obama on this one yet, but I have found other voices who will not be intimidated by the  high fat apologists who claim that things like genetics and metabolism play a larger role in weight than willpower.   I do not agree with his religious views, but noted Wican author Bruce Goldwell stated in his blog, “I smell something very wrong about how Obama and Pal-osi are working to push their agenda through on the American people. I sure how that people pay attention here and contact their representatives and say NO. Instead, tell your representative you want them to work on Healthcare cost and that we the people will work on our belt lines.”   Think how much money would be saved if people would just stop after one slice of cheesecake.

One comment on the ABC News report about Benjamin hit the nail on the head, “This woman isn’t super fat but true super fatties are ugly and disgusting and need to be turned into fertilizer or maybe whale oil.It’s a fact!And people on foodstamps…foodstamps should be cut to zero. The gov’t should come up with a nutritious footstuff people can eat on welfare. Like oatmeal and beans and other foodstuffs. Nutritious but not likely to be abused by the damn fatties because it doesn’t taste good. Let them have as much of it as they want.The “poor” are buying sugar sodas and twinkies with my money and I’m sick of it. Damn them.”

It’s all a question of willpower which is the reason that white people have a lower level of obesity than minorities do.   People living in poverty who didn’t have the willpower to pull themselves out are of course not going to have the willpower to order only one Big Mac so the rare is higher among the poor too.   Like most guys, I’ve put on 5 pounds a year since turning 30 a decade ago, but the reason that I’m still in control of my weight isn’t because of some fancy gym or watching what I eat–it’s willpower.   If I can instill that in my daughter I will be a happy man. It’s time for this country to stand tall and proclaim from the highest mountain top as one people, “No fat chicks.”

Emily's shirt can't conceal her weight problem as she celebrates her birthday by devouring a chocolate cake.

This post is going out to Megan McCain or I guess maybe John McCain too.  Megan has been in the news lately because, to put it bluntly, she’s fat.  Recently, in a show of tough love Laura Ingram called her on it teasing “Ok, I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in the Real World, but then I realized that, well, they don’t like plus-sized models. They only like the women who look a certain way. And on this 50th anniversary of Barbie, I really have something to say.”

Megan immediately got defensive, ““It infuriates me,” she said. “I’m a political writer on a blog, and all of a sudden I’m too fat to write?”  She further went on to tell Laura Ingram, “Kiss my fat ass.”  Like Megan, I too am a political writer on a blog and like her father John I too have a fat daughter.  I know how defensive they can get when you suggest that they might want to order something a little less fattening at a restaurant.  Poor Laura Ingram seems to have been caught in the crossfire.  It is just a simple fact that fatties get defensive.

For John McCain it must be very tempting to love Megan like any other child in spite of her overwhelming girth.  The question though is at this time of her life is unconditional love really what Megan needs?   I tried that with my daughter Emily and what I got was a daughter weighing in at 125 pounds at the age of 12 and unlike Megan, Emily has no aspirations of a Hollywood career.  As Megan herself told The View, she has a younger sister.  Is she really setting a good example for her sister?

I especially feel sorry for John McCain who like me has always enjoyed a good fat joke or a political daughter joke.   Who can forget his zinger from the late 90s?  “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”  I hope that he’ll have some equally cutting material about the Obama daughters in the years to come.

The real tragedy here though is Megan McCain who by all accounts has a great personality and she does have a very pretty face if only she’d take off some pounds.  She could be that young Republican sex symbol for the 2o somethings the way that Sarah Palin is for the older generation.  Let’s hope she gets her act together.  As it is now who can take a woman seriously when she obviously needs to lose weight.  If she has any hopes of being the next Rush Limbaugh she’s going to have to look more like the women on Fox.   Why do they have credibility?  Because they’re hot.  Meow!

UPDATE – One tradition at the Peele house was always hiding Easter candy so that Emily wouldn’t eat it all.  I’ll have to be really careful if I win the See’s candy contest over at Soup is not Finger Food.

When I had the guts to tell America that my 12 year old daughter was a little porker, I got lambasted by several visitors to my blog who didn’t like that I called a fattie a fattie.  They were all over me for trying to help my daughter be more socially acceptable in high school and be able to laugh at “No Fat Chicks” shirts and bumper stickers instead of feeling personally offended by them.   Well, a new scientific study has redeemed me.

The US will face a health disaster by 2030 when 86% of Americans will be overweight, with every single resident tipping the scales by 2048, according to new projections, published in the journal Obesity, are based on government survey data collected between the 1970s and 2004.

As a nation we must look for early warning signs.  I think we need to setup some canaries in this candy coated coalmine.  Let’s play close attention to Kate Bosworth,  Nicole Richie, and Keira Knightly–if they begin to puff up we know it is time for the rest of us to go on a diet.

It is also of utmost importance that parents begin to drastically limit the portion sizes they are feeding their toddlers and infants now.  If we are going to hit 84% obesity now we are going to be forced to import our models, actresses, jockeys, gymnasts, dancers, and most of our musicians from other countries thus further deteriorating the US economy.

Finally, I believe it is time to eliminate lunch from our schools.  By not feeding students at noon, they will save on average between 600-1000 calories per day.  This will go a long way to ensuring their future health and more importantly appearance.