Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Fergus Falls "Fat-Shaming" columnist get fired and a taste of what it feels like to be the one judged and alientated


Below is a section from the New York Post - Found here 

Columnist gets canned for fat-shaming airline passenger

By Joshua Rhett Miller

February 21, 2017

"A newspaper in Minnesota has parted ways with a fat-shaming columnist who detailed his recent experience flying next to an overweight passenger — saying airlines should consider selling “tickets by the pound.”

Alan Linda, an unpaid columnist for the Fargus Falls Daily Journal, has sounded off on a wide range of topics during his 30 years writing for the newspaper — politics, his children, telephone companies and appliances, to name a few — but his cringe-worthy Feb. 10 column, on sitting next to a 300-pound Georgia man during a flight, will be his last."


You may have heard of the Trojan Horse 

but have you ever seen a "Trojan Jack-Ass"?


I read the column and I felt it was very mean spirited and also quite cowardly. Making fun of someone because of the way they look is pathetic, but if you’re going to do it, at least have the guts to do it to their face. It’s worse thinking that this “300-plus guy” had no idea of how mean Alan Linda was and probably even thought he was a nice guy. Maybe even a new buddy. Then he finds out his “new buddy” was only nice to him so he could make fun of him in his column.
I’ve experienced several levels of cruel in this world but when someone is laughing inside at someone while being “fake-nice” is one of the lowest of the low. I call people like him a “Trojan Jack-Ass”. When you first meet them you think, “Hey a friend! This is a nice surprise” But once you let your guard down the “ass-door” opens, painfully revealing their true and nasty intentions. I kind of feel bad for Alan Linda for losing his column. It’s harsh to lose something after one mistake, but perhaps this wasn’t a one-time issue. Besides losing his column, he is also taking a lot of heat from the press and social media. He’s being ridiculed, mocked, alienated and judged. With a bit of poetic justice, Alan Linda is getting a taste of what it feels like to be 300 lbs. Well, at least they didn’t “Trojan Jack-Ass” him.


Here's the article if you' like to read it;

Taking notice of the size of people in today’s world
By Alan Linda

Have you noticed the size of people lately? Of course, none of us from the post World War II era can help but notice that kids are a lot taller these days. But people in general are bigger. Wider. Thicker. Got huge belts. No holes left in them. Okay, I give up. I’m trying real hard here not to use the F word.
Fat! Not that other F word. Although this one’s bad enough.
I was on an airplane not too long ago, seated on one of three seats. Guess who my seat partners were? The one on my left was so big, I couldn’t get the arm rest down. If he didn’t weigh 300-plus pounds, then I don’t weigh 165 pounds.

I tried. The arm rest. Tried to get it down. He looked at me, kind of grimaced. And when a 300-plus guy has you effectively pinned in and you can’t even run for it, when they grimace at you, your first thought is: “Oh, man. He looks hungry.”

Not too long ago, I learned that my local theater still had all the old 30s-era seats, which were removed sometime in the late 50s. I installed a couple of short rows of them in the basement. Then I took them out again. There’s a problem — hardly any of my company fit into them. Which was why the movie theater took them out. Hard to sell popcorn dripping with butter to people who already can’t squeeze their big, fat — ummmmm — self into the seat.

Mostly I haven’t had to depend on speed to handle big guys who grimace at me. The Lord gave me a mouth, and that’s usually enough to get me out of jams that my mouth got me into in the first place. So I decided I’d better talk to this guy. (Find out if he’s hungry, at least.)
It turns out he was from Georgia, and couldn’t wait to get back home to find out if the tornado that tore up that part of Georgia got his home. He did seem mostly upset about the local Walmart store getting destroyed. “Thet torndo rapped the saling raght offen the play-us.”
Huh? I’m getting deaf in my old age — or as the old folks in Iowa used to say it — “deef,” — so it was impossible with the din of the airplane in the background to know for sure what it was he just said.

So I smiled and nodded. Then I shook my head side to side, just to make sure I had the proper reaction included. He seemed to think I was sympathetic, and I seemed to think maybe he wouldn’t steal my airline peanuts if and when they ever brought any.

He then said: “Mebb’et’s true thet ol’ roooov’re go-on. I jest hop’n my tars din’t git hurt.”
Okay, I had to think on this one a while. I decided to throw out a feeler and replied: “Might they-of?” (See how quick I pick up a foreign language?)
So he proceeded to describe his pick-up truck, upon which he had just spent an undisclosed amount of money in new tars. (Tires.) He went on to muse that maybe they were almost big enough to float, should the tornado have dropped that much rain.
About then the stewardess delivered peanuts. I offered him mine, but he was so upset with his tars that he couldn’t hardly have et his own.

He got out his cell phone and showed me a picture of his tars; then he showed me a picture of his store. True enough, the ceiling was indeed gone, gone, gone.
He had to get up once to go to the bathroom. You know the size of the bathroom at the back of the plane? And the door into it ain’t hardly a foot wide. I kind of wanted to foller him back air, watch if that worked, him getting hisself in there. (You gotta love that language.)
In the meantime, I ate my peanuts afore he were back.

If airlines need to make more money, they should sell tickets by the pound.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

These are a few changes that I believe need to happen to really help those struggling with obesity

1. Elimination of the words “health food” and “junk food” by people in authority and on food labels. I just want the FACTS. You know like, the fact that the guilt and shame from eating “bad food” like a donut are far worse for weight-loss success than the calories in a donut.

2. Health risk labels on all short-term diet fads that state “Surgeon General Warning: May cause depression, isolation, anxiety, shame, and OBESITY

3. In order to be called a “true” weight-loss expert, you need to have personal experience.

4. On second thought, let's just get rid of the term. There’s no such thing.  Especially NOT! those always-skinny "experts" who have NO CLUE of what it’s like to be obese. Besides, these “experts” can’t even agree on what causes obesity or what to do about. 
The fact they fight over a direct cause and then find some food group/company to demonize should open your eyes. A direct cause of obesity, really? I thought it was as simple as, “calories IN and calories out”. 
But it makes sense when you think about it, they need to talk out of both sides of their mouth in order to profit. They need a bad-guy, a demon, in order to sell us the cure. BUT! they also want us to remember that it’s ultimately our lack of willpower and our fault when we inevitably fail. 

You can also think of it this way. If there truly was an authoritative “weight-loss expert”, why the heck are we getting more and more overweight? Either they have no clue or they are purposely making us fatter. And, if it’s just as simple as calories in and calories out, why do we need diets or weight-loss experts? 
I’m not big on believing conspiracy theories but I do think it's quite interesting when you see the decade to decade obesity stats. The epidemic starts taking off in the 1980’s and then hit’s full throttle through the 1990’s. 
Most of the time people will then show you the stats of carb/sugar intake, as it also skyrocketed during the same time. This increase was mainly due to food processing AND B.S. public health warnings about eating animal and/or natural saturated fat.So good essential fat was replaced with non-essential processed carbs and sugar. The 1980’s is the epic beginning of why #1 on my list of changes is, for companies to stop labeling food non-essential food as healthy and for clueless authorities to stop telling us what we like to eat is “junk”
.. 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an anti-carb guy. I’ve personally lost weight on the 80’s low-fat diets. But carbs and fat are only the parts of the real issue which are too many calories. What really happened was calorie intake skyrocketed along with the carbs, which should have been pretty obvious.
Now, the part that I find “quite interesting” is that the 80’s & 90’s was also the takeoff of the diet industry as we know it today. 
Now, I can’t speak for you, but I didn’t go on my first diet after I was labeled obese by my doctor. I started when I was technically just overweight. Then, several years and about a dozen diets later, I was no longer labeled obese but now I had the distinction of morbidly obese.  

Now, I’m definitely going more correlation because no one can prove causation, but it makes you think right? 
Diets being a cause of obesity!? It’s downright scandalous!!

Do I really think that dieting made me obese? 
Well, from my own experience, diets created only short-term weight loss and a slowdown of my metabolism and my cravings increasing and I can definitely say that diet failure would often lead to an immense amount of depression, isolation, anxiety, and shame. 

But, I’m not answering the question.
Would I say that dieting caused me to become obese? 
You want answers? 
Well, let’s see if you can handle the truth?
The truth is, dieting did NOT make me obese. 
I made myself obese.
It was all me. 

I had to take full responsibility for my past and present to believe that I can create a new future. Blaming my situation on anything else is just telling myself that I never had and never will have control over my weight.

Let me tell you with full sincerity and love that, you can’t place the blame of your circumstances on anyone or anything. 
With full authority, YOU have to BE IN CONTROL if you want to kick obesity’s BIG stupid ass once and forever. 
I will also tell you with joy and excitement that,  YOU CAN DO IT! 
If I, a lazy, donut loving, and lifelong dieter can go from obese to a six-pack, why can’t you? 

Of course, you can do this!
Your new life starts with a dream, and then that dream becomes a vision and that vision combined with hope get’s you on your path. However, the path is never easy and you be forced to persevere. Each time you do, every small victory, your belief in yourself grows stronger. It’s in those tough moments that the tide begins to change to your side. 

If there is a “key” to long-term success, it is perseverance, your unwillingness to give up. And when you REFUSE to quit, your dream will start becoming your reality. 

Believe me when I say that, “this battle is NOT won at the dinner table nor is it won at the gym, This war is fought and victory is had inside your head.”

God Bless! 

 -- Russell Branjord
Author of Spike Diet and Obesityslayer