But it IS another reason why I have no regrets about leaving academia:
This is the first time that GWU has offered a class devoted specifically to Fat Studies, and its diverse enrollment is an important victory for the subject. Fat Studies scholars say their mission is to promote weight awareness and acceptance among populations of all types. The sociological study of obesity has been creeping into academia for over a decade, often as a subtopic of Women’s Studies or Health Sciences. But only recently has weight become a subject of study in its own right. “There would be no Fat Studies if there were no obesity epidemic,” says Esther Rothblum, a lesbian studies professor at the University of California, San Diego, and one of the earliest to research the psychology of weight bias.
Actually, Esther, there would be no “Fat Studies” if universities didn’t recognize the importance of creating and legitimizing ever new grievance groups — and setting up “enemies” to those groups as foils — in order to pad their course offerings and fleece their students (or their students’ parents) out of thousands upon thousands of dollars for the privilege of a completely manufactured sense of self-righteousness (and the corresponding hatred for those who haven’t “studied” weight issues — and remain both its victims and its perpetrators).
It’s a scam.
The only epidemic at issue here is the epidemic of grievance-mongering passing itself off as legitimate “scholarship.” A course on the psychology of creating and empowering ever more oppressed victim groups and the new politically correct vocabulary (and corresponding “hate speech”) that will grow around them — from conception through justification through architecture and departmental approval to social trajectory — would be far more valuable for students, particularly if what we are after is an understanding of how precisely “bias” plays a role in the academy.
But then, that’s probably way too meta.
(thanks to Carin)
“I tried to join a fat activist group, and I was rejected because I was not of size,” she remembers.
not of size…
love that
Being at war with fatty food while hugging the lard-encrusted consumers of it seems like a desperately confused moment for leftards.
I’m sitting here being utterly unsurprised.
My problem is that I lack the ability to guess at what asininity they’ll come up with next. Perhaps we should set up our own Behavioral Analysis Unit to study these people’s twisted minds so that we’ll be able to stop them before they strike again, just like they do on, oh hey, Criminal Minds.
In other news, Dr. Sanity provides a psychological comparison between Obama and Palin. She starts with this perceptive essay by Wretchard (always a redundancy in terms), and then one of her commenters links to this gem by Valerie Jarrett, which pretty much sums up Dr. Sanity’s essay in a nutshell:
To the question posed by the Politco article whence that quote most recently comes, “The ego factor: Can Barack Obama change?” the answer is a resounding, “What, you’ve gotta be kidding, right?”
Oh there will be sackcloth and ashes when the Higher Ed Bubble finally bursts. Eventually, college will only be higher maths and sciences, with appropriate primary-source driven History, a loosely-defined canon of great books and modern classics, and logic/philosophy.
It will be tiered. The Ivies and a dozen other deeply-liquid schools will retain privately-funded Gay-, Afro-, Chicano- and the like programs. Most everyone else, if they want to keep their residential/ Division I infrastructure, will cut academics to the above and then try and hold the line.
It is going to be really, really interesting to see what will (would) happen when a POTUS discovers how much they are crapping away with Federal guarantees of student loans.
Meghan McCain can now encompass a doctorate.
Have they already taken care of Handedness Studies? How about situs inversus viscerum?
I think this is a new high in lows for useless degree programs. I mean, is it dumbed-down medical courses? Or is it even that substantive…
Are these the folks who can’t hack/are completely uninterested in technological or math disciplines, but too lazy to do the coursework that is tradiotionally required of traditional liberal arts courses like philosophy, literature, history, etc.
I thought the First Lady’s been telling us that fat is bad.
Or is is just fat kids, and we’re supposed to accept fat adults?
I’m so confused.
Thanks for calling out what needs to be called out.
As a tangent, one which might color studies in this area – From observation I have long suspected a congenital environmental or genetic connection between obesity and lesbianism, and there is indeed now some data gathers pointing to a correlation. http://tiny.cc/5j9fn
zOMG!11!1! M’chelle’s a h8ter?
STOP THE H8TE!
In a few more years they’ll get specialized classes, like fat transexual women of color studies 101.
I wonder when we’ll reach the point where there are so many of these various umbrage-based subcultures that they start to turn on each other to vie for the top spot of the Poor Me List. You sometimes see a little blue-on-blue action here and there but it’s bound to get worse, right?
On a related note: what is it like for someone who belongs to more than one of these groups? For example, is life as a morbidly obese black lesbian confusing? What are the rules? How do you know which part gets to be the most offended at any given time? What do you do if you run afoul of a skinhead who won’t use trans-fats in his cooking? Or a Mormon aerobics instructor?
Well Bordo,
Using the 2008 Democratic primary as a guide, I think I’d counsel taking Wesley Snipe’s character’s advice offered in Passenger 57; “Let me give you a word of advice. Always bet on black!”
Lotta lotta question begging in there.
Someone please tell me when the dolphins begin their migration off this planet. I’d like a moment to kiss my ass goodbye.
Of course, every time I see some neo-hippy mouthing the words to that Indigo Girls song “I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind” the irony about kills me.
Turning greivance group activism into ‘scholarship’ is academia’s means of keeping them prostrate forever.
Eventually, college will only be higher maths and sciences, with appropriate primary-source driven History, a loosely-defined canon of great books and modern classics, and logic/philosophy.
You could do worse than starting with this stuff.
He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do.
Someone actually put that to paper? Really – I mean, not parody? Good lord, Valerie is in Beverly Haut territory.
No problem…. why would anyone take such studies seriously?
Definitely a scam.
On the plus side, we shouldn’t give the universities credit for creating new social opportunities. If they are going to offer things like geology 101, where cute but dumb girls can go to meet hot atheletes, why shouldn’t they offer courses marketed towards chubby chasers?
You’re right, AJB. Fat Studies is the way to go. In your honor, I propose a Department of Idiot Studies.
The blog is right. It is a scam. Obesity is usually a self inflicted disease like alcoholism and obese persons should pay more for taxing the healthcare system, should pay more for airline seats, etc… Political correctness towards fat people is matter of basic courtesy and humanism, it doesn’t require a college curriculum. Such a curriculum should be designed to help fat people, as we do drug addicts, mentally ill, etc… political correctness is not the most pressing issue..
AssJackBoy completely ignores that this course isn’t in the science or medical schools where studies on eating disorders actually have a place.
No, it’s in the fauxschools of Leftist Political Identity (because the “profs” of such cannot get real jobs and must scam money from the Government).
Their “experts” would have everyone know that fat-phobia and eating disorders is a product of nothing more than modern American running-dog capitalism and The Patriarchy that H8tes women.
Cuz, like, eating disorders never existed before.
Hey, dickbreath: This isn’t about the study of obesity. It is about the study of obesity “bias” and is aimed at everyone — you are both a victim and a perpetrator.
What is so astounding about this is that it turns people like Jillian Michaels into potential villains, while equally permitting me to suggest that, say, Michelle Obama and her campaign to ban certain foods is oppressive of people of size. Conversely, the “obesity epidemic” (which has been created by ridiculously misleading BFI numbers) begins and ends with people stuffing shit in their faces. So they’re to blame, too.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The only answer is to own your complicity, either as an obese person or as a non-obese person.
I mean, is it dumbed-down medical courses?
Medicine won’t factor in AT ALL. They will instead read novels and watch movies and adverts that stigmatize fat people, that are written from a “fat perspective,” that present liberation from size bias, and write papers on how capitalism and Christianity are to blame.
All while studiously ignoring Michelle Obama’s campaign against fatness.
Bob,
Nice. Yeah, I think African-American is still at the top of the hierarchy. Followed by Wymyn? The Gheys, maybe? I’m not sure. Is there somewhere to download a list of current rankings?
I’m going to petition my local institution of higher learning to start a Bald Studies program.
After I shave my head, of course.
Fuck you, Hair Club for Men. Oppressors.
Again, I agree. Obesity bias studies are BS. Obesity is an educational, income gap, and socio economic problem. Fat bias is earned. It is perfectly clear where income gap comes from.
It’s an income gap problem?
Medicine won’t factor in AT ALL. They will instead read novels and watch movies and adverts that stigmatize fat people, that are written from a “fat perspective,” that present liberation from size bias, and write papers on how capitalism and Christianity are to blame.
What about fatness as a lifestyle choice? Nature or nurture?
Fat Justice is a subset of Food Justice. It all intermingles, and makes my head hurt.
It’s sad that what used pass as the intellectual discussion of an Oprah Winfry reading group now has become a college course.
And that belongs in Med School. BECAUSE OF TEH SCIENCE!!!
Yes
FOOD DESERTS.
Well of course AJB. When everyone is equally impoverished it is hardly surprising to find them equally undernourished.
So AJB has just argued himself into asserting that the real reason for “Fat Studies” is to further beat the drum that income disparity — that is, anything outside perfect communism — leads to yet another in an endless stream of oppressions, with obesity “bias” (all you exercising out there? You’re just doing it because you’ve been brainwashed by the capitalist system) being the latest. Anti-capitalist propaganda disguised as scholarship.
Oh. And Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot.
Holla!
So many poor people are fat because both are the result of an aversion to delayed gratification. Everyone loves greasy food. Everyone loves fucking around with their friends instead of studying and otherwise engaging in constructive self-improvement. But someone like AJB thinks he can link an income chart and it provides all the answers because, well, it’s easier than actually thinking. Obesity and poverty of the mind I guess.
AJB has joined the ranks of those I’d like to get brain scans of when he’s in the process of commenting. Any guesses on what regions are lighting up right now?
Specifics don’t matter. So long as it all held to be an academic problem then the academy retains final authority, and that’s the way they want it.
And to answer Bordo they alreay have been turning on each other quite regularly. We just don’t get to see it or, at least like in the case of Larry Summers at Harvard, we don’t see it very often.
Actually, what are the odds he even has a left hemisphere? I think he stores marbles and toy cars there instead.
I’m just glad he stuck around to take his medicine this time. It’s so unrewarding to make fun of him behind his back like we usually have to.
Yes, we’ve created a system where even the poorest can get more than enough to eat. This is clearly a failure of capitalism.
Just look at how svelte the population was in the Ukraine in 1933, or in China in 1961, or in Cambodia in 1979.
AJB is funny sometimes, eh?
What about those egalitarian Polynesian societies where obesity is considered a mark of health and beauty? Or, dare I say, the societies in Africa and central Asia that also have favorable views of that condition?
It looks to me that “fat studies”, multi-culturalism, M’chelle O!‘s and the other nanny-staters crusade to forbid to “manage” what they think leads to obesity, and asshats like AJB’s perception of all those things will eventually have an incrediable CERN-like collision…
I wonder how they’ll figure out who wins? Fat actual Africans versus crusading pan-Africans. I guess the advice to always bet on black breaks down at this particular event horizon.
But enough attempts at reason and logic. bring on the victimhood! with a generous side of self-righteousness and emoty assertions.
From the Great Leap Forward to the Great Shuffle Forward.
Weight, in particular, has long been a marker of socio-economic clout, and there’s an unusually close match between obesity in women and their society’s wealth gap. But it’s not only the poor who suffer in unequal societies; higher incidences of mental illness, for example, affect all classes.
Obesity in WOMEN. How come not in men? Perhaps we’re talking about something a tad more complicated than merely income gap.
Yes, we’ve created a system where even the poorest can get more than enough to eat. This is clearly a failure of capitalism.
Heads explode.
ThomasD,
I guess the sci-fi fan in me envisions a country so Balkinized that every single person belongs to a subculture predicated on manufactured outrage. I wonder what would happen in such a place. I mean, the point of being aggrieved isn’t to wait in line. Everyone would be fighting for pole position in the Fuck My Life 500.
I agree with you that it is already going on behind closed doors. And Larry Summers is a good example. I think OJ Simpson is even better. According to Tammy Bruce, the LA chapter of NOW tore itself apart trying to figure out whether to side with the female victim or the black male perpetrator.
It’s pretty common for heft to be considered attractive in societies where there isn’t enough food to go around — it’s a success marker. When everyone can get plenty of food it loses its significance, so the Star-Bellied Sneetches have to come up with something else.
It’s similar to the way that a tan is a status marker in our society (’cause it means you can afford to go on vacation, or at least pay for a tanning salon), but in many traditional societies having a tan signifies that you are a fucking peasant who works in the fields.
Well, we all know it’s cheaper to fry a chicken than it is to put one in the oven. Oh, wait …
Abe’s right on in #34.
“Studies”, another word taken into the mirror-o-verse like “liberal”. So sorry that they ruined a perfectly good word but they had to find something upscale to call the courses for those who found basket-weaving 101 too rigorous.
SBP makes a very good comparison in #45 also.
Haven’t seen you around in a while SBP, I hope all is well with you these days.
It sort of needs to be noted also that rich white people are a lot more vain and superficial than their fellow citizens. many people in certain communities like them some junk in the trunk. Ergo less consequences for being a fatty fatster.
Actually, I’ve had this … thing running around in my head for a while.
I’m afraid to bring it up, actually. But, I used to live near the Grosse Pointe community. Women were thin, and attempted to look their best. Men were … meh. Mixed bag. Often well dressed, but physically a complete mixed bag.
Now I live in the country. Women? Less svelte. Men? Almost to a man in better physical shape.
My thought is that it isn’t directly a result of income disparity. Out here, the men have less money (or are more religious) and the women are more secure that they’re not going to be left behind when their husband trades up for a new, better model. The guys tend to hunt or are simply more active doing yard work, etc. Coaching their kids football teams.
A woman married to a guy making $350,000 or more a year tends to worry a tad more, especially if she doesn’t work.
Now whether marriages last longer out here, I make no such claim.
“but they had to find something upscale to call the courses for those who found basket-weaving 101 too rigorous.”
I know, and at GWU none the less. I can’t believe how far they’ve fallen.
OT: found a couple of nifty maps of state legislatures, before and after over at Althouse. check ’em out check ’em outers.
I think you may be onto something Carin, about successful guys “trading up” later in life. I’ve known a few of those.
But, there’s metaphysical justice, at least in the cases among the folks I know. All of those guys who “traded up” are obsessed with keeping their young wives happy, vis-a-vis shopping trips, clubbing, Carribean vacations, etc…
And a few of them also mutter about their “second families”, when the younger women decide they would like a family like most other folks. I generally don’t come out and remind them of their mid-life-arrogance or that they brought it on themselves; but I enjoy dropping pity remarks about how much their kids college will cost when they’ll be wanting to retire instead, or when they look rode-hard and put away wet I might innocently ask, “late night at the club again?”
weebles wobble
but they don’t fall down
i always carry two sticks of butter , one in each hand
but if i had chimp feet i’d carry four sticks of butter around with me- cuz i like to lick things
and if u put butter on it before u lick it it tastes better
my- grandma- what big teeth you have!
Oh, yes, Bob, I would say that it often results in a fail (trading up.)
But what i find more interesting are the motivations driving folks to either attempt to look attractive or not. What does it say, to your spouse, that you’ll basically let yourself completely go because you feel secure they’ll never leave you?
And, what does this say about the wider culture (from today’s youth, to the health differences among the different socio-economic groups) that some peps will just completely let themselves go?
My husband is stuck with me (we’ve got five kids – who would have either of us?) but I’m driven to watch my weight for me. i wanna feel good about myself.
And, the reality of the situation is that there is NO reason why income should have any effect on your weight/ health. Running is pretty much free. Eating less, costs less. Salads with vinegar one ’em are pretty darn cheap.
Matter of fact – if you are poor, it is one of the few things that you have absolute, complete control over.
EOL.
Unfuckingbelievable.
I think the Ethnic-Gender-LGBT Studies nonsense (aka Angry Studies) has finally jumped the shark.
No one will ever jump the shark again.
The shark done been sat on.
America-where even the poor people are fat and have color tvees’
and cell phones
quick-cry me a river!
The local professor for Shark Studies just e-mailed and said that all of this hetero-normative jumping over sharks is bullshit.
Possibly related: Roy Scheider was a total dick
michael rowed de boat ashore
halleghlula
ajb has to be wishing for an idiot studies scholarship.
Carin,
I agree with your outlook. My wife and I try to stay relatively fit and healthy not to be the envy of anyone, but, well, to stay healthy!
I mean, no one wants to “check out” early because they couldn’t say no to the Ho-Hos (or whatevz)!; regardless of your income level. As you say, calisthenics/running/outdoor activity doesn’t require a gym membership…
Correlation is, like, totally causation, H8ers. You don’t know that? What.ever.
santa claus was a fatty and he gave me much presents
over the years- so i’m partial to fat people giving me presents..
so i’m totally pro-fat
fat and skinny had a race
up and down the pillowcase..
hibernate!
Interesting assertion. Would it be equally fair to say there would be no GLBT studies if there were no “homosexuality epidemic”?
Does the existence of women’s studies imply an epidemic of women? Or just of womyn?
ho-ho’s- i dont know if its a new england thing but we got
“funny-bones’ ! they are like ring dings or ho ho’s
but they’re filled with peanut butter!
imagine a tasty snack- covered with hard chocalate-then cakey goodness- then
a peanut butter filling!
funny bones!
That would be freshman orientation.
i cant wait for them to legslitrate
homosexual sex-cuz of the diseases and aids and
costs to our health care…
hey buddy- u got a light?
why did the large fat disgusting lesbian woman cross the street?
because she could-and u ain’t stoppin her
how many fat disgusting lesbians does it take to change a light bulb
one
and u ain’t stoppin her
[clap on-clap off]
ooh- may i take this occasion to say bobby orr
thank u
I mean, no one wants to “check out” early because they couldn’t say no to the Ho-Hos (or whatevz)!; regardless of your income level.
I can remember as a kid being very annoyed at how mom wouldn’t let me eat candy everyday or had soda in the house. “When I grow up, I’ll eat cookies whenever I feel like it!”
Than, most of us grow up and realize mom wasn’t trying to be mean. And we don’t eat cookies all through the day.
Perfect example of brain v mind. Brain sez “Cookies? Hell, yeah!” [reasonable adult] mind sez “Cookies? Um, no. Not right now.”
Cramming for finals shouldn’t be too difficult for most of the students enrolled in this course of study.
If one examines submaterialist narrative, one is faced with a choice: either reject neosemioticist capitalist theory or conclude that sexuality may be used to entrench hierarchy. Therefore, the opening/closing distinction depicted in Gaiman’s Black Orchid is also evident in Sandman.
Submaterialist narrative holds that context is created by the masses, given that language is distinct from reality.
Looks like my attempt to post earlier was a failure. After thanking Jeff for calling out the important bit, I went off on tangent and linked to some science suggesting that obesity in lesbians has congenital or genetic association; but really just pointing that way, noting high (2-3 times average) prevalence of obesity.
Patriarchal disapproval of natural fatness might have special resonance for those trying to make womyny issues everybody’s issue – another way to break down values of PATRIARCHY which includes any desire to appeal to men.
“If one examines submaterialist narrative, one is faced with a choice: either reject neosemioticist capitalist theory or conclude that sexuality may be used to entrench hierarchy. Therefore, the opening/closing distinction depicted in Gaiman’s Black Orchid is also evident in Sandman.”
I can hardly wait till some halfwit with a head full of mush and a need for a master’s thesis applies this to Molly Bloom (presuming it hasn’t been done already…)
The is no place better than the modern univeristy to teach that language is distinct from reality.
There isn’t a closed — meaning sucking all the air out of the room it occupies in its own industry — US federal system that isn’t bankrupt. There virtually isn’t a federal system that hasn’t severely compounded the problem some myopic jackasses voted it into existence to solve.
Every top-down system is suspect because every top-down system becomes tyrannical. All power corrupts and all corruption impairs the subject/victim. All dependency ruins.
Undeterred, academia presses on, noble problem-solving salvations to disperse from the great religious State pez dispenser, one after another. Until one does something positive in spite of a wholly equipped, motivated, and inspired private sector. If only they were educated.
Given these elementary facts, just how staggeringly stupid and/or dishonest do you have to be to understand that forced altruism is terminal to the system it inhabits?
If you want to solve obesity, AJB, go out and start an institute. Countless have, making them impossibly superior to you as individuals.
“. . . language is distinct from reality.”
Parmenides says “Horseshit.”
damn u smarty people- u make my brain hurt!
that shit was way over my head..
but that’s okay
i live
to play
another day!quack quack moo
one way- or another
i’m gonna getcha getcha getcha!
one day- maybe next week- i’m gonna getcha-i’ll getcha!
that’s why i love bjork
she goes skipping in icelandic hills
caterwaualing- in nonsensical echos
to hear the reverbarations..
and u gotta respect that!
language? ha- i spit on you!
Beware dead Greeks espousing fertilizer.
In the immortal words of Willie Dixon: “This is it/This is it/Look what you get”
frosty the snowman says
beware of greeks bearing fudgicles
willie dixon- sweet!
the real reason for “Fat Studies” is to further beat the drum that income disparity — that is, anything outside perfect communism — leads to yet another in an endless stream of oppressions
I’m just reposting this for emphasis.
NEVER underestimate the degree to which every academic subject in the humanities and social studies—and increasingly the hard sciences—is merely a proxy argument for The Smart People To Be In Charge Of Everything.
food pyramid!
gravy
carrotts meat
more gravy
let’s have an elvis clambake!
[twist-twist-twist]
I love Ho-Hos and taco sauce…
u gotta check out funny bones!\they are awesome pawsome..
imagine a ho- ho with a peanut butter filling
i think they might be regional but i’d send u some iffn u want
funny bones- and the sound of childrens laughter..
that whats makes this old grey haired beard smile..
funny bones! they come in a two pack set
so u just cant eat one
fatso
fatso judson- in from here to eterinty\ beat up frank sinatra
for he’s a jolly good fellow
for he’s a jolly good fellow
for he’s a jolly godd fellow..
and so say all of us
and so say say all of us
for he’s a jolly good fellow..[pause-drum roll- pause]
and so say all of us!
hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray!
bob orr-hip hip hooray for bobby orr\ ur never gonna see another panther on skates like him
enjoy
(de-lurking)
At least part of the obesity epidemic is fueled by the government’s excessive intrusion into agriculture and the food industry, complete with phony nutritional standards paid for by cereal growers. About the only things they got right are that artificial trans fats are bad and vegetables are good. Broken clocks.
Actually, this class might be a good sign. It’s a sign that the victim groups the Left likes to create and use are no longer under their spell strongly enough for comfort, so they’re trying to create and indoctrinate new ones in the universities. And their attempts are visibly weak. When I was a fat young adult in the late ’90s, I wasn’t oppressed. Maybe it was harder to get a date, and finding pants when you’re obese and short is challenging, but calling that oppression is like calling a stubbed toe a medical emergency.
Or butterfly, either.
i think as americons
we should embrace our inner fatness..
our fat heads- our fat nascar tires[vroom vroom!]
our fat souls..
jackie gleason- archie bunker-maude
yo- i’m fat’ phat phat..
take ur hate skinny out back
i had two teacher in high school
and they were dedicated to their craft..
really into teachinng and stuff
but they were twins and both busted the scale
at at least 350= they were large..
and they sweated alot- i mean constantly
so when one of them was giving u an ‘up close’ lesson
u know- being a cool teacher and shit
all i could do was watch the sweat build up on her neck-very dis combobulateing..
hey- she tried
the mader twins- they both drove tiny honda cars and lived in a one room shack-together
but they were great teachers
they dug their work
u could tell
I’m cool with fat chicks. I just wish they’d stop leeching off skinny people to pay for their Hoverounds.
That’s not how democracy was supposed to work.
my favorite teacher [english] was mr cotto
and on the first day we’re all chirping- not really paying attention to him..
and he’s erasing the blackboard- and he punches it
like a thunderclap..
and he turns around and says
i ain’t taking any shit from u pissannts
and he had a glass eye and u never knew if he was looking at you
but u had to be on the ball with mr. cotto
great guy!
i had a pretty foxy teacher named ms murray head
and she had a nice rack-so can u imagine a 16 yr old boy- with a teacher named ms murray-head getting any work dowe?
well i did- i wrote a paper on the artist peter brueghel 2- the triumph of death
and i knocked it outta the park-got an A plus plus!
but i’d trade it all in- for a date with ms murray-head
meow!
i had an argument with one of my english teachers about the word through\threw etc
i said- u can see on traffic signs
not a thru steet
so is thru a word?
oh-ha ha she derisively said to me- thru is not a ‘proper’ word
but i held my groundf–; why is it on city signs?’
i totally wouldn’t give up..
she gave me some bullshit answerr and probably a d or f on my report card but fuck her
i know i won the day
bitch
umm-orr?
That’s right. I’m still here and still posting as other people. Because that’s my superpower.
Ninja!
SarahW, I might even be tempted to buy that…. if it wasn’t for the fact that the definition of female beauty has included a certain amount of heft up until very recently in historical terms. See Reubens.
Boxes are lightweight, cans make nice projectiles.
i had a chemistry teacher in high school
who drove tanks in vietnam and got a half of one of his hands burnt off
in some vietnam escapade-
but he was really into chemistry and trying to teach ya and laughed a lot
and had a deformed hand
but he laughed alot and loved chemistry
my fav teachers- mr cotto- with the one good eye
ms murray-head- with two perky perky mams
my chemistry teacher- with a deformed hand
and- ha- u call me a normal student
columbine!
we all remember our glory days in high school..
but i think i graduated into hall of fame when the
‘guidance conselour’ called me in
and asked me ‘what do u want to to do with the rest of ur life?’
all earnest and shit- so i paused-looked at my shoes- hemmed and hawed and finally said..
‘
i think i want to be a guidance counselor’
u should of seen the look on his face! he definitely wanted to give me a smack!
ha ha
mr bobby
in college i had this teacher-phsics
with pencils in his shirt pockets..
and every day he would say
‘class,begin’
and then he would turn to the blackboard and scribble for an hour
after two classes- i knew i wasn’t gonna make it
but if u resign urself- float in the waves
u can make it if u really want
but u must try
try
try again!
i had a logic class
and the first class had a graph of
a-b-c-d
and the teacher said
if a is to b as c is to d..
i knew right then i wasn’t gonna make it
Seeing how theres a subset of men who are chubby chasers, I don’t see why we need “studies” of that. The answer seems pretty obvious.
Everyone knows the people who pay less taxes and bitch about Obama care the most, are also the fattest and most conservative Americans – the biggest drag on our healthcare system. Maybe you could use some sensitivity training on how to deal with y’all.
Wait, so now you’re saying we should be sending more wealth to fat conservatives? And that schools should be teaching that Americans are biased against fat conservatives?
Pick one trajectory and stick with it, AJB.
Just kidding. I say put ’em on treadmill. Tax ’em by the lb.
I will sockpuppet every one of you. Because I have nothing else to do, anyone, and it’s the best way I can think of to be a dick.
Well, without them whipping my ass.
And they could, too. Anybody seen that picture of me with the Jewfro, the bored affected look, and the shirt unbuttoned to about mid chest?
Chicks dig disaffected artists!
I don’t really know what any of this even means! Is this english? I tried googling some of these terms and they all produced similar results: several links to a site called the Postmodernism Generator (The Circular Fruit: Cultural desemioticism, dialectic prematerialist theory and Marxism) and Derridaist readings and dialectic submaterialist theory.
I speak several languages, but whatever this is, it isn’t one of them!
I was just kidding AJB.
I don’t have a problem with that at all.
What you read, Bob, is the result of a scheme that humanities professors hatched so they wouldn’t feel so insanely inferior to their peers in engineering and the hard sciences.
I didn’t write that about Mr. Hal
I can type other people’s names into a comment box and pretend to be them with impunity!
Like a CYBER GOD, I am!
Fear us.
(Well, you know, me).
So sad.
Honestly, I think Jeff’s creative editing of their comments actually makes them look better.
That’s right. Still me.
And I can do this forever.
(No, really. I can. I have nothing else to do, and no one to do it with. I need you people. Love me.)
Soros must be paying overtime these days; unless AJB and sinister trampoline/meya/RD/et al are working pro bono these days.
And if so, they better get use to filling out the 1099’s required by the Obamacare law.
Women who are too skinny tend to be infertile (you can burn up lots energy in gestation and lactation), and the body knows that starvation times aren’t good for bringing kids into the world.
Hi, Bob. Okay, more or less, given that this has been the most generally fucked up year and a half of my life.
Mostly I’ve just been keeping to myself.
Glad to hear you’re more or less Okay SBP.
I hope that things start heading in a better direction for you real soon, and will keep you in my intentions.
I don’t really know what any of this even means! Is this English?
It’s hyper-English, Bob. Only the Anointed can deal with its depth and complexity. And the fact that you had to ask?
Well, proves you utterly unworthy.
we had a trampoline in the backyard once cuz my
parents were all-‘ lets make the kids happy’
type of parents and one time i was
bouncing,bouncing and i landed on my face-hard
on one of the sides and broke my jaw
and my folkd took me to the hospital and when i got home they let me pee on it and gave me an axe and said son
‘whack away’
i think that mighta been the happiest gosh-darned day of my life!
SDN Smooth, plump and full of sauce of life is one thing. Obese is another, and I’m talking about a sort of Rosie O Donnell shape.
Also, light and graceful in conjunction with some sauce of youth seems to be preferred rather generally in indo-european and wester culture.
ladies dieting for slimness, for eample, was even considered a problem, in say, ancient Rome.
if i had a zillion dollars\i would pay japanese teenage girls to frolic on my
super trampoline..
and if that sounds perverted-i’m sorry but i would
cuz zillionares can get away with much!
bounce-bounce
meatballs!
Couldn’t agree more, Jeff. That’s why I think propaganda studies should replace literary studies. Let’s call a spade a proverbial spade.
“Well, proves you utterly unworthy.”
Sad but true Dicentra, and a shortcoming I’ve been painfully aware of for most of my life :)
I only thought that one spoke hyper-english in hyper-space!
Well, It’s been over a week and I’m still not a millionaire.
I’d storm out of the house, but Mom locks the door after 9 and I lost my key privileges when I tried to sneak in that hooker I’d paid to dress as a Romulan.
Curious isn’t it Pravus,
That you’re still not a millionaire despite Obama being President for nearly two years now; with large majorities in Both legislative chambers. It reeks of fail. I hope you voted out lying Democrats in the mod-terms who rubber stamped his agenda.
Boehner? He’s still the minority leader in the House until January.
I think you can study both, and keep them separate.
But let’s be honest about what we’re doing. For instance, I used to teach a class on argument and persuasion, and a separate class that dealt with narratology. Both have their value — and both can be useful in a study of the other — but truth in advertising need apply.
For instance, I don’t know how many classes I took that were sold as, say, the British Novel — and yet were really no more than quarter-long critiques of capitalism. Some of the grad students never even bothered reading the ostensible primary text — nor did they have to.
FTFY.
Here’s how I taught my classes: Establish a position; collect information; present the position; defend the position. I was glad to be done with it.
is it classy- to be a lassie
from tallahasee
when ur getting drilled by the football team on the 50 yard line-do u keep ur pinky out?
jackie kennedy had a leopard skin pill-box hat
I know what you mean Jeff G. the agenda should be made more well known up front.
Once in college I took a course that was listed as a 300 level “philosophy” course, the subject matter supposedly being comparing texts. Once class began, it became apparent that the professors idea was that we would compare source novels and film adaptation of these works.
I would have dropped the class, but many of the films/novel pairs were ones where the films were directed by David Lien, who’s work I really enjoy. That and unlike in engineering there was a high concentration of attractive young ladies to study with. Also the professor also seemed to enjoy my “divergent” point of view, meaning I was from outside of the liberal arts community I supposed.
A week or so in it became apparent that the professor had an underlying agenda, a penchant for “discovering” homosexual undertones in all of the works we considered.
Now it was applicable, perhaps in some, like in adaptations of Forster’s “a room with a view”. But in others, such as “Dr. Zhivago”, “The Unbrearable Lightness of Being”, and “A Passage to India” I just didn’t see it, and challanged the professor’s analysis that did. Needless to say, that was a mistake.
It was one of only two “B’s” I ever recieved in my college career…
Some of the grad students never even bothered reading the ostensible primary text — nor did they have to.
Usually there wasn’t time to do more than skim, and furthermore, the text was so effing dry (and these were the novels), it was hard to choke it down even when you DID have time.
And as Jeff said, it didn’t matter, because the text wasn’t the subject anyway.
Sounds like the subject was “see how much I can pull out of my ass,” dicentra…
Also, Bob?
Ho-yay is everywhere. Get used to it.
a few extra pounds
makes u a better target..
polk salad annie\gators got ur grannie
chomp-chomp
chomp chomp
Ho-yay…Heh.
A hilarious characterization dicentra. Is it one of your own? Might I have heard it if I had taken more liberal arts courses?
Sounds like the subject was “see how much I can pull out of my ass,” dicentra…
Congratulations, you just got tenure.
Might I have heard it if I had taken more liberal arts courses?
No. I became aware of the ubiquity of ho-yay after spending time on Internet fandom groups, wherein I learned that every pair of male friends was… you know… written to delight young females who enjoy matchmaking between any and every two fictional characters in the history of the written language.
I cannot relate in any shape or form to shippers, though I’ll admit that the pairing between Hogwarts castle and the giant squid was kinda clever. The rest of it is worse than most po-mo junk.
For the uninitiated, from the bowels of Urban Dictionary, one definition of ho-yay.
i had a photography/art class
and the teacher was some old lady who really took a shine to me
and she’d take me in the dark room and rub my back
constantly saying ‘ michael, michael, michael- u do excellent work’
but she had bad hygeine-greasy hair- never brushed her teeth-
at least she wasn’t a guy
but- i used to ‘skip’ that class all the time
cuz it was on a friday..
but i got an A nevertheless
cuz i guess i’m cute or something
ms cohen- that was her name
When I was in school it was a month or so segment of my 11th grade Government class. One of the more interesting and useful subjects. I suppose it could be turned into a 2 year associates degree at a Community College. To do more would be better to get “hands on” and apprentice with say a Press Secretary or the New York Times.
my sis-who’s a graduate studet in languages at Harvard[ she got the 4.o]in languages[ she’s into sumerian? sumerian?] told me that the word ‘fun’
the whole concept of fun was an english /american thing
she told me other languages might have a word for ‘laughter’ or ‘happiness’
but not fun!
God bless America
really
[fun, fun, fun-till my daddy took my t-bird away]
]
homo-va
Thanks for the clarification dicentra.
theres a libray there- the widener library
i think its called-all old books and shit
so one time i go work there-on the windows and stuff and we’re cut off from the public with these temporary barricades\so my co-worker starts tellin dirty jokes
[not me!]\ and we hear a rap on the temporary walls.
‘we can hear you’
ha ha-fuck harvard-ha ha
I don’t know if it exists outside the SF community, but one of the subsets of “fanfic” is “slash”, describing homosexual encounters between otherwise hetero characters — Kirk/Spock, for instance (and one of the founding instances, in fact).
Regards,
Ric
i had 2 sis graduate from harvard
i guess we got brains in the family
and my second sister
my dad had to take his pension out for her..expensences
so graduating time-they had a boxed lunch with tuna fish sanwiches and potato chips
and to this day[ well-he’s dead now]
he would say-f****** harvaed- i took my pension out and all i got was a tuna-fish sandwich!
one of my harvard sis is a proffessional student-she ain’t going anywhere
but the other works for some big finacial firm
that lends money to goverments and shit
she told me Americas too big to fail
she lives in oakland and the last time she came here
she dyed her hair candy- apple red
and told me
‘im in a firing mood’
beware the wrath of brenda!
aguirre-wrath of God
do i do i get a bobby?
damn straight
bobby orr!
America is big enough to fail with a huge bang, or millions and millions of smaller pops.
Maybe we can all subsist on tuna fish sammiches, eh?
Deja vu? Where have I heard this before?
no- we’re the best- number one with a bullet
we are the cops..
lets default and have a madi gra party!
print, print,print ur way to freedom!
i’m just saying what my sis said
she said we’re too big to fail’
imagine if we went down?
the lamenations!
oh- the trouble i’ve seen!
get ur guns and tobacco- it’s gonna be a rough ride ,mabel[ or lurleen’
just saying
she;s totally connected money wise
she told me i might have to take it in the shorts for a couple of years
and yes..maybe in the mouth
but she told me “Americas too big to fail”
and she’s in the money game
big money
i’m not here shining her ass cuz i’m proud of her
just relaying her stuff
ooh- i got a realy funny story about her when she was 5 yrs old
another post
May I propose Smoker Studies? Talk about your oppressed groups.
okay- here it is
we got a driveway that slants downward
and we used to take her to the head of the driveway
and gently brake her down the hill
so my and my si got tired of doing this after 20 mins
and we’re at the bottom of the driveway when we hear brenda screaming’ look at me!’
and she comes down the driveway . at first with a glee-ful smile
but then she loses control of the trycycle and her face is full of fear
and me and my waitress sis are just watching..amazed
and my lil sis ends up in the bushes-head first with her tiny legs sticking/waving into the breeze
and me and big sis had laughter tears coming down our faces
big money
t-minus…
what are we down to now?
…
$2.22, more or less, and counting.
it took us awhile
but we wuz really laughing
we fished lil brenda ouuta the bushes
but dang- u shoulda seen her face turn from happy
to sad-to swcared
and then she ended up in the bushes-head first1 with her tiny legs sticking out, waving in the breeze
i hope i see something that funny in my future!
guinsPen- how do i know- u count
“May I propose Smoker Studies?”
Sure you may, but you will be hammered — blow by moralistic blow — into the ground for being an archvillain on the loose.
Ric: Slash may have originated with SF fanfic, but the genre has spilled into all fandoms. Plenty of slash fanfic writers in the Harry Potter fandom, Sirius/Lupin (see the slash?) being a favorite.
A favorite among 30-something females, IIRC, who were the primary authors of such. I guess it’s the correlative of men liking lesbian porn or something.
I’ve never had a use for slash–or any fanfic, for that matter–and fail to see the appeal. If I’m going to ship anyone, it’s going to be a hot fictional dude with ME.
Which, I’m not putting THAT in writing.
she was glee-ful- travelling down the big driveway\then u could see she kinda lost control [mind u-me and my sis are sitting at the end of the driveway]
then she loses control.. and her face turns to fright
and she goes head first into the bushes
and is stuck there crying with her lil twig legs hanging out..
funny!
me and my sister had tears streaming down our faces
laughing so hard..
but of course we dug her out
but dang-we laughed along time
it was funny!
Speaking of fandom, here are some Steam Punk cakes.
Hendershot: Aguirre: The Wrath of God is in my Netflix queue under Movies I Ought To Watch For Teh Culture, but it’s clear down at 61, and I have a feeling that the Burn Notice DVDs are going to keep pushing it down, pushing it down, pushing it down.
put aquirre wrath of god
on ur number one thingy=\aquirre rath of god
good mojo!
critics and material, i don’t need.
i haven’t changed my act
in over four years.
I love that YouTube clip of Aguirre that was edited to make fun of Chuckie Johnsonless.
OT –
“Maddow continued: “Hosts on Fox raise money on the air for Republican candidates. They use their Fox News profiles to headline fundraisers. Heck, there are multiple people being paid by Fox News now to essentially run as Republican candidates. There is no rule against that at Fox. They run as a political operation. We’re not.”
– He’s got to be kidding. Do LeftProgs even know the meaning of mendacity? hypocrisy? How about insulting peoples intelligence? Well not Slick Willys meaning, the Websters dictionary meaning.
– OTOH, Fox stops short of using its opinion show personalities to headline important political coverage, so in that sense I guess he’s right. MSNBC is much more partisan.
– No doubt NBC caved because of pressure from that massive viewing audience they enjoy. :: schnort ::
Rachel Maddow is not only stuck on stupid, she’s in a ditch with four flat tires.
And a rotten haircut.
Are we talking girth or corpulence?
Tongan or Meghan?
Dykes with wide leather belts can be chubby chasers too
Speaking of fat studies, man oh man, did I ever have my eyes opened. I went to the king Tut preview for members at the Denver Art Museum and saw for the first time what the DAM members look like. They’re all old and fat. How fat you ask? Well, let me put it this way. They tend to herd as they move en mass display to display. Giant men and cows with huge purses. Behemoths all. A simple turn could knock me right on my ass and they’d never even notice I bounced off. It was hazardous, I tell you, hazardous! I couldn’t see a thing because they kept blocking my view. I couldn’t move without careful forethought and planning because as soon as I stepped forward I’d be abruptly cut off by veritable wall of flesh, careless in their own movement. Entire families of them, the men in awful shorts and trainers, the women draped in enough fabric to cover an entire household, all showing off their Egyptian-like prints and layers of gold jewelry. I had no idea DAM members are so incredibly collectively fat. I went back three times so far when the tours consisted of normal people and not DAM members and it is an altogether different experience. The little children running all around setting off the alarms are darlings by comparison.
That’s how the kids in Mumbai must’ve felt…
As a large person, I feel oppressed.
You gonna eat that?
sdferr – I agree that Smokers Studies would provoke outrage – even though many, if not all, of the “it’s somebody else’s fault” rationalizations favored by the AJB types also apply to smokers.
And I don’t wnat to hear that there’s no such thing as effects from second hand fat. If we jiggered the stats like they did with second hand smoke, we’d get there.
OT:
Note to the MSM. The product is great but your marketing sucks.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/11/switch-2-mitch.html
I had a roommate who minored in Fat studies for a semester, maybe more, at least until he got a girlfriend. We didn’t call it Fat studies, and he never really admitted to studying, but to those of us who were deep into comparative anatomy at the time it was an absolute necessity. Worth every penny of booze we poured down his throat.
Or, stripped of fattist rhetoric, this.
Mark Aguirre was fat too.
We need to remember that when Weimar sets in, the corpulent can live off their stores, whereas the fit and trim will starve rather quickly.
Just a thought.
i hate when u go shopping at the supermarkets and u goy one item left
on ur list and u just wanna buy it-get it and scurry home
and as u turn into said food aisle-theres a 400 lb person there ,blocking u from getting ur stuff
I’m gonna start teaching “Bullshit Studies”, man. I’ll make a fortune off the suckers!
i also hate old[fat] people who drive them scooters in stores..
but i can’t wait to get one cuz i’d be a total pain in the ass and bump into u!
excuse me, excuse me..coming thru..
beep beep!
You’re forgetting that the strong among the fit and trim can chase down a fatty, gut it, and have it up on a spit within an hour.
Just a thought.
Already been done. While over at the parents’ yesterday, I saw a headline in the newspaper: “Is Obesity Contagious?”
And here’s a raft of stories about just that.
I was thinking more of sitting next to somebody “big” on an airplane.
You’re forgetting that a fatty can still aim and fire a rifle.
Just a thought.
And you’re forgetting how easy it is to distract them by throwing a handful of Jelly Bellies at their feet.
Just a thought.
Best part is, you can eat the snack cakes yourself, and just put out the empty boxes.
Hunting over bait may not be very sporting, but it’s effective as heck!
Oh, sure. Even better, you can slingshot the jelly-bellies in, then conk them over the head with a rock while they’re distracted. Saving your ammo for game that is more fleet of foot, see.
That’s just evil, Squid.
Hell, just chuck the jellybeans a couple hundred yards away and wait for them to pass out on the way to picking them up.
Halloween isq fat-ist and should be banned. And, clowns. And, midgets.
I wondered when this thread would devolve into fat-humor…
Next will be the, “You MAMA so fat that…”
David Thompson linked this post, tying it to this interesting pushback piece titled College Application Essays: Going Beyond “How Would You Contribute to Diversity?” His pull nugget:
Halloween isq fat-ist and should be banned. And, clowns. And, midgets.
And low-rise jeans.
Those are a crime against the fat.
sdferr,
That was a sweet pull-quote and a great link.
I would take offense, but I’m too busy eating M&Ms right now. But hey, I eat the peanut ones, so I’m getting protein, too!
[…] It’s sad to know you can’t join a fat activist group if you’re not “of size,” but it is encouraging that the Fat Studies program at George Washington University has a “diverse enrollment.” America today — yikes!!! HT: Jeff G […]
You’re forgetting that the strong among the fit and trim can chase down a fatty, gut it, and have it up on a spit within an hour.
Just a thought.
I really didn’t want to think that.
What if you’re not all that fat but not fit and trim, either. Will you kill me last?
“What if you’re not all that fat but not fit and trim, either.”
Me, I’d learn to be useful in the kitchen, like study up on the saucier’s job.
What if you’re not all that fat but not fit and trim, either. Will you kill me last?
did you see Book of Isiah?
was that good? I picked it up and put it back down
Oh, I enjoyed it.
maybe if it comes to Netflix I watch
You don’t want one that’s too fat. A nice marbeling, sure, but not Mikee Moore-type icebergs of pudge. It just ruins the flavor.
Or so I hear.
For educational purposes the Gooey Butter Cake here comes in at over 6000 calories for the 9×13 pan which is over 50 calories per square inch. Just sayin’
.
Scheisse
gooey butter cake is so unbelievably tasty it’s unbelievable our friend Dana went and she had tasty peach cobbler I wonder if it came with ice cream
I had a salad for lunch and a smart one and for dinner I already have brown rice salad made.
Dana
two stories-when i went food shopping with my waitress sister- she’d head to the candy aisle first- and get a big bag of m’n’m peanuts
and we’d open them and eat them as we walked on our shopping journey
and of course we’d ditched the empty bag in some lonely aisle
we ain’t paying for peanuts covered in candy mr corparate master
my favorite character in the movie ‘apocalypse now’
was the dude on the boat who was from new orleans
martin sheen asked him’ what did u do back home?’
and he replied-‘ i was a saucier’
cool stuff!
Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds. Overweight Children Eat Healthier Than Normal Weight Peers, Study Finds. Heh.
that nutrition professor person is brave and stalwart and a credit to his profession I think
speaking of jokes here is a fun fact about California
if you conjoin this datum with our dirty socialist Associated Press friends’ assertion that in the New Normal, rich people are all about the behavioural modification, you have to wonder how they feel about paying 48% of all personal income taxes, and what might happen if Jerry Brown and pals asked them to cough up 49%.
Tuesday morning links…
How to tell if Al Qaida has sewn a bomb inside your dog. Is pain "God’s megaphone"? I hope not… Is Economics a Science? Economics and finance might be science, if it weren’t for people. Right and wrong types of Hispanics. For…
i had a dog who had stomach surgery..
and when u’d lay him on his back and caress his stomach- u could always feel his scars
but he was in doggie heaven cuz u were rubbing his belly
@3 : Barak Obama is brilliant? Why? Because he got through Harvard?
I went to MIT. I met some brilliant people. Obama wouldn’t have lasted a semester at MIT.