Wednesday, July 21, 2010

National Enquirer - More Reliable Than New York Times?

The field of journalism is on life support.  Whatever happened to objective reporting of the news?  The "journalists" of today, as well as many of the people who pay attention to them, seem unable to tell the difference between reporting - delivering facts and information - and commentary, which is the expression of opinion.

The bottom line is that if the "New York Times", "Washington Post", "Los Angeles Times", ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC et al. are your media of choice, it's likely you don't know what's going on in this country. Stories of importance that reflect badly on Obama or refute the liberal agenda simply don't get reported at all on the above sources.



Fox News Channel has broken several stories recently that the other media wouldn't touch. Alarmingly, there are some liberal "journalists" and law professors who have called on the government to shut down Fox. It's obvious that these lunatics care nothing about our Constitution (remember the First Amendment?) or rule of law. I find it frightening that this would even be seriously suggested by anyone in this country.


It's a sad day for journalism when "The National Enquirer" turns out to be a more reliable news source than "The New York Times" or "The Washington Post".

Friday, July 16, 2010

Coming to Your Neighborhood: 'Obesity Rating for Every American'

According to CNSNews, every American is to have electronic medical records by 2014 and new regulations mandate that those records must include BMI (body mass index).  BMI is a comparison of height to weight and will be used to rate whether a person is obese. 

Having worked in the health/fitness field for 16 years, I feel qualified to comment on this.  First, BMI is absolutely useless for certain categories of people, e.g., athletes and those who are muscular.  Body composition (the percentage of a person's weight that is fat) is a much more meaningful tool.  I've performed fitness testing on people whose BMI indicates they're obese, even though they're lean and fit.  Similarly, I've seen people whose BMI falls within the normal range, yet their body composition indicates they're too fat simply because they don't have much muscle in comparison to their body fat.  My colleagues and I called them "skinny fat people". 

This leads me to wonder:  will the current surgeon general be classified as 'obese'?  Will the "leaders" in Washington point to Barney Frank's magnificent body as one to emulate?   Will Michelle Obama's sizable buttocks and hips push her into the dreaded 'obese' category?  Will I lose sleep at night worrying about this (NO!)? 

The biggest problem here is that the government is intruding more and more into our personal lives.  With the advent of Obamacare, is it any wonder that the government feels it has a right to do so?  Will they next be telling us what we must eat, what we cannot eat, and how much we have to exercise? 

We're reaching a tipping point where the American people simply won't tolerate any more governmental regulation and intrusion.  Where will we draw the line?