child abuse?

Is Having Obese Children Child Abuse?

at first i was inclined to say no, but upon reading the article... i mean, shit, a 90lb 3yo or a 400lb 12yo? that's crazy! the sad thing tho, is not just that these kids are overbese (my term for not just obese, but way over it, like 50% body fat), but their parents are probably too. and they basically cannot lose the weight. either they don't know how, or they don't have the financial / emotional support to lose that much. losing over even 50lbs is a commitment, and it's a whole lifestyle change. that's hard!

i feel like in most child endangerment cases the parents know it's bad, but can't be bothered to care. having your kids do drugs or drink, drop out of school, become a ho, join a gang... a lot of the parents are doing the same thing. and a lot of them, don't see anything wrong with it. it seems a bit ineffectual to take the kids away only to send them back later. what's the point, really? they'll just fall back into the same lifestyle because that's what their parents are doing.

i guess part of the reason you take the kid away is to scare the parents into making the necessary changes. most parents love their kids and would do most anything to get that kid back. ...you'd think anyway. g is a lawyer representing some parents who had their kids taken away. and while they do want their kids back, sometimes... they just can't overcome their problems. i wonder if there's a better solution...

so not airfair

remember the days when the price of your ticket also included food, luggage handling, earphones, and a blanket? these days you have to pay extra for everything! the airlines tell us it's cause the price of gasoline has gone up and so they charge us extra for our bags too, because it's heavy and that costs extra fuel or something. (not really or something, i'm sure it does cost extra, yet i'm damn sure it doesn't cost an extra $25 in fuel to fly my 25lb bag from lax to jfk). they tell us this is also one of the reasons they no longer provide food and blankets. it's too heavy.

if it's the weight the airlines are so concerned about, i've got a solution. it won't make everyone happy, but it certainly is more fair and rational.

let's say each passenger is allotted a total of 400lbs (person+belongings) and 65 inches of luggage space (total length+width+height). (for comparison, delta allows 62")

when checking in, you and all your stuff get on a scale. if the total is under 400lbs then we'll make sure none of your luggage is oversize. if, however, your total weight is over 400lbs then you have to pay extra, maybe a $10 per additional 10lbs. of course, if you yourself weigh close to 400lbs then you're allowed very little "free" luggage. but if you're someone like me (about 100lbs) you can bring a ton of extra crap!

to make the situation more fair you can cap the luggage weight at 100lbs. that way even skinny people like me lose out.

and if the airline wanted to be nice about it, they could allow customers to sell back some of their unused weight. let's say i'm an average american male. i weigh 191lbs. let's also say that i have my max luggage. we total 291lbs. the airline could pay me (or credit my account for a future flight) with $5 per extra 10lbs. (i know, the airline is charging my heftier buddy $10 for his extra 10lbs, but hey, it's never going to be completely fair)

so yes, very obese people will need to pay extra. but if you set the weight maximum at something extremely high (like 500lbs) and also have a luggage max at 100lbs very few people will actually be paying extra. and honestly, the whole price hike thing is about extra weight anyway.

i'm not trying to discriminate against very large people, but i'm tired of always having to pay extra when i don't weigh very much. i have to pay extra for my flight and taxes and my insurance and at every buffet. and i ALWAYS pay extra for my clothes and shoes. i wear an xs, and yet that xl leather jacket costs just as much as mine!

why can't airfare be a little more fair?

unfit for vampires

rip tweeted today "Just donated blood. First time in about 12 yrs. Been wanting to for awhile glad I got to. Nervous when the needle went in. All good now tho." yay!!! i'm so proud of him!

i too have always wanted to donate, but the red cross has certain restrictions. i don't fit the weight one. but since rip donated today i thought to look up the requirements to see if they had changed. and they have! but they don't apply to me...

apptly if you're under 19 there are new weight rules. "It used to be you just had to be more than 110 pounds to give.  But now, that's only true for girls who are 5’6” or taller. If you're 5'3'' you have to weigh 124 pounds, if you're 5’, 138 pounds. Bottom line: The smaller you are, the more you have to weigh." [source]

so according to the chart, at (nearly) 5'4" i'm supposed to weigh 114lbs. a 4'10" girl needs to weigh at least 146lbs but anyone over 5'6" needs to only be 110lbs. ...does this make as little sense to you as it does to me?

there is an explanation though: "these new requirements take into consideration their actual blood volume, not just whether they're in good health and above 110 pounds."

well i'm glad the red cross considers a 5'10" girl who weighs only 110lbs healthy enough to give blood even though i, as an adult who is 5'4" and 105lbs, am unfit to donate!

average woman

the average american woman wears a size 14. and according to the cdc, she's 5'3", 164.7 pounds, and has a 37" waist. this comes out to a bmi of 29.2.

thin as sin

if you follow fashion news at all you should have heard about madrid's ban on models wit bmi of less than 18. while i definitely agree that there should be a ban on too skinny models, i think 18 is too high. i got measured in high school and was pegged at below 18 (i forget the actual number, either 14.3, 16.3, or 17.3). however, i've never had an eating disorder; i'm just naturally thin. i remember losing my period a few times cause i didn't have enough body fat, and that's really not good. but again, i never forced myself to not eat, and i never made myself throw up, or excersize too much. i've always eaten wat i wanted, never caring about calories intake. of course, i'm just me, and i don't influence anyone like these models (or celebrities) do. so yeah, i think we should do something. 'healthy' is considered to be 18.5 to 25, but seriously, some people are just naturally skinny. i think anything significantly under 18.5 is bad. banning models wit bmis under 16 perhaps?