The Militant Libertarian

I'm pissed off and I'm a libertarian. What else you wanna know?

Saturday, June 05, 2004

Minimize Me

http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.921/healthissue_detail.asp
By Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D.

People who view Morgan Spurlock's movie Super Size Me can be forgiven if they walk out thinking fast foods like those served at McDonald's and Burger King are particularly fattening. Mr. Spurlock ate (gorged, really) only at McDonald's for thirty days and ordered the super-sized versions whenever he was asked. As a consequence of his gluttony, he gained twenty-five pounds, raised his blood pressure and cholesterol, and saw deleterious changes in his liver.

But, as we've pointed out numerous times (see: Health Panel: "Supersize Me" Movie Trivializes Obesity, a Serious Problem and A Supersized Distortion), when it comes to controlling body weight, it's not just what one eats that makes the difference but how many calories the food contains and how many calories are balanced by physical activity. This truism was demonstrated by two other "thirty-dayers" - people who also ate only at McDonald's for thirty days but didn't gain weight or wreck their health in the process.

Mr. Chazz Weaver, a resident of Costa Mesa, California, and a fitness and nutrition advocate, says he got fed up with the misinformation and partial nutrition information most consumers get. He thought Spurlock's movie was the final straw. So Weaver decided to show that, with an understanding of the basics of human biology and nutrition, a person can eat pretty much anything without getting fat if he balances calorie intake and output.

On April 1, he began eating all his meals - four or five per day - at McDonald's. He ate upwards of 3,000 calories per day and after two weeks had lost eight pounds (yes, lost). Since he didn't particularly want to lose weight, Weaver then increased his food intake to about 5,000 calories per day and managed to gain back about two pounds by the end of the month. His cholesterol improved, his blood pressure dropped a bit, and he says he feels just fine. How did he do it? Weaver works out at a gym daily -about an hour and fifteen minutes per day - split between aerobic exercise and resistance training. He was in good shape before he began his McDiet and remained so throughout. Anyone who wishes to do so can check the numbers for themselves at his website, www.truthinfitness.org. It's an impressive testimonial to the importance of staying physically active.

Ms. Soso Whaley is the second thirty-dayer I've met. Unlike Chazz Weaver, Ms. Whaley wanted to lose weight. And she chose McDonald's food to help her do so. She, too, started her McDonald's diet on April 1 and documented her food choices on a website (http://www.cei.org/pages/debunk/debunk_the_junk.cfm). Ms. Whaley consumed under 2,000 calories per day and stepped up her usual exercise program - she likes using exercise videos and roller skating. By making appropriate choices, such as eating salads with low fat dressing and snack-size desserts, Soso lost ten pounds while eating at McDonald's.

After her visit to the ACSH offices at the end of April to discuss her experiences (see photos), we shared lunch at a local McDonald's. She said her motivation was, in part, her feeling that Spurlock's movie did not emphasize the importance of individuals making appropriate food choices for themselves but rather blamed the food industry for America's problems with overweight and obesity. She is also a documentary filmmaker and plans to turn her experience into a movie of her own.

Neither of these thirty-dayers were paid by McDonald's to do what they did, nor, they told me, was anyone at McDonald's involved in advising them about what to eat or how much to exercise. Both have thoroughly documented their experiences on the Internet and their sites are freely available to all.

So the next time you hear someone bemoan the supposedly fattening nature of a particular type of food, think about Chazz and Soso and their experience with McDonald's foods.

Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D., is Director of Nutrition at the American Council on Science and Health.

© 1997-2003 AMERICAN COUNCIL ON SCIENCE AND HEALTH 1995 BROADWAY, 2ND FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10023-5860 TELEPHONE: (212) 362-7044 FAX: (212) 362-4919

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Friday, June 04, 2004

Personal Declaration of Independence

If you read nothing else on this blog, read this!

My Personal Declaration of Independence
by John deLaubenfels

I pledge allegiance to the ideals
Upon which this country was founded
Not one nation indivisible
But millions of sovereign individuals
Trading peacefully among themselves
With liberty and justice for all

On my honor as a human being, I solemnly pledge to give zero respect, support, or obedience to illegitimate laws upcoming and present:

Click here RIGHT NOW and read the rest of this.

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Ammo



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Thursday, June 03, 2004

Don't Play Their Games

by Johan R:son Sjöberg
4/16/2004

So you say you're tired of government and all its stupidity? You say you don't like its arbitrary rules, regulations, prohibitions, tariffs, controls, et cetera? You say you don't know what to do to get rid of it?

I've got some good and some bad news for you. I'll start with the bad one: you're not getting rid of government overnight. That won't happen. I'm really sorry, but that's just the way it is.

Now, the good news. Government won't survive in the long run. It will implode, just like the Soviet Union did. It didn't implode because Reagan told it to go away, but because the system couldn't survive. The rules were absurd, perverse, impossible to live by. Socialism and central planning distorted the economy in major ways, creating big deficits of necessary goods and services (and surpluses of some other, like shoes). Black markets were common in the entire Eastern Bloc. In Soviet Russia, government-employed taxi drivers were cruising the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg at night, looking for western tourists to drive, for US dollars and Deutchmarks. Government employees at plants in Ukraine stole light bulbs from their workplaces, and replaced them with burned out bulbs from home. That's why the Eastern Bloc imploded. People started living by their own rules, instead of by government's rules.

If you're not already a market anarchist, or at least libertarian of some kind, you may wonder what the implosion of the Soviet Union has to do with modern welfare states such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and those in Western Europe?

To continue reading, click here.

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Relative Ethics



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Wednesday, June 02, 2004

"Screw Pizza Hut"

June 1, 2004

"Ronald B. Honeycutt, 38, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, says he's been delivering pizzas for 20 years and has always packed heat on the job," reports WorldNetDaily.com (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38726) today. At around 11 p.m. on May 17th, just after he had made a delivery in a high-crime neighborhood in Indianapolis, a dirtball confronted Honeycutt with a loaded 9 mm handgun. At that point, Honeycutt pulled out his own 9 mm from the back of his pants and fired 15 times, hitting the would-be robber at least 10 times, killing him.

Sounds like pretty good gun "control" to us. And dare we say, an awfully effective "deterrent."

Anyway, Honeycutt went back to his Pizza Hut store and called the cops. The cops have since determined that Honeycutt acted in self-defense and will not face criminal charges. Nevertheless.

Pizza Hut fired him.

For violating a company policy against carrying firearms.

BRUSHFIRE ALERT: Now, let's be honest here. Pizza Hut, as a private business, has the right to make such a rule and enforce it.

On the other hand, WE have the right to voice our objections to such a stupid rule and refuse to do business with them unless and until they change it.

And if you'd like to voice YOUR opinion about how Mr. Honeycutt was treated, you can call the Pizza Hut corporate office at 1-972-7700 or give them a "pizza" your mind by emailing them through their website at http://www.pizzahut.com/contact/feedback_other.asp

You can also quickly and easily locate the Pizza Hut franchise store near you - along with their phone number - by going to: http://www.pizzahut.com/locator/.

I just called the store in my neighborhood and spoke with the manager. I explained that my family would no longer be dining in her restaurant and why. The woman's response was, "You should call the corporate office. That incident in Indiana has nothing to do with us." To which I responded, "Well, it does now. 'Cause you just lost a customer over it. Maybe YOU should call the corporate office."

Something tells me she will...

Chuck Muth
President
Citizen Outreach
www.citizenoutreach.com

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Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Courage to reveal hazing

Letter to the editor today:

Courage to reveal hazing
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595067115,00.html

I want to thank Chuck McCown (May 30) for having the courage to take Rush Limbaugh's cue and come forward with his story of abuse and torture at the hands of high school hazers in the mid-1970s. While never a victim or active participant, I must confess standing idly by and watching such activities on several occasions.

I must also confess a twinge of conscience as I recall fellow seniors herding naked, hooded freshmen into the boys locker room at gunpoint. The piteous cries for mercy, amid the growling and barking of the dogs, yet echo through my mind. We were freeing them from the tyrannical bonds of pre-pubescence. They should have welcomed us as liberators.

After all, these were the lucky ones. Many of their siblings, friends and neighbors were killed in our neighborhood raids. But that was only because they couldn't know the heart and soul of their senior classmates. In the end, most would survive, stronger and wiser for the experience, ready to accept the responsibilities of adulthood in a democratic society.

Robert Hammer
Salt Lake City

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Monday, May 31, 2004

Hmmm...



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Memorial Day



In Memory Of:
All those who died for our freedom,
All those who fought for our defense...

In Honor Of:
All those who now fight and die;
For whatever reason they are told...

...and thanks to the White House, which is now Israel's bitch.


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Sunday, May 30, 2004

The Great Bingo Bust of '04

This is an excerpt from today's Salt Lake Tribune. I found it quite funny.

Point/Counterpoint: We can feel a lot safer after the 'Great Bingo Bust'
Tom Barberi and Laurie Wilson
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/May/05302004/utah/171105.asp
Barberi:
Laurie, my lifelong mission to "Legalize Adulthood in Utah" was showing signs of progress, but recent events have underscored what a monumental task it is. We all know that Utah is the only state in the continental United States that outlaws all gambling.

What most people don't know is how Utah defines gambling. This was brought to light in what will go down in the annals of crime as the "Great Bingo Bust of '04." West Valley City police struck after months of harrowing undercover work and busted Annie's Dinner & Bingo. I have always marveled how courageous G-men would disregard their own safety to go under cover to catch criminals in their lair. What struck me as a bit odd is why you have to use highly trained undercover agents to locate and infiltrate a large-scale bingo operation when there was a big sign out front saying, "Annie's Dinner & BINGO"?

I talked with Greg Skordas, the attorney for Annie's, and he described how the operation went down. WVCPD, in coordination with SWAT teams, raided Annie's with guns drawn, jumping over tables and scaring the dentures out of players who were trying to escape on their walkers, wheelchairs and corrective shoes. The quote of the day belongs to Assistant Police Chief Craig Gibson, who said the operation was "bigger than we first thought." It makes you wonder just what all those months of undercover work consisted of.

Utah's gambling law is rather simple, which comes as no surprise because you would have to have been simple-minded to come up with such a law in the first place. According to Assistant Attorney General Thom Roberts, any form of gambling is illegal in Utah if it contains all of the three following elements:

* 1. People pay to play.
* 2. The game has an element of luck.
* 3. Winners obtain something of value (cash or prizes). This includes charity raffles, lotteries, sports pools for the World Series, Super Bowl, NBA or NCAA tournaments, ice dancing, synchronized swimming, bean bag toss, etc.

Using the state's definition, it should be illegal to play the stock market. Riding TRAX or driving on I-15 should be illegal because you pay to play (ride), there is an element of luck (that you get where you're going) and you obtain something of value (your neck if you arrive safely). If the Attorney General's office or Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yokom were consistent, they would bust every charity event, peek into neighborhood windows to see if playing cards are flying and send undercover squads to every business that has some promotional gimmick.

Laurie, I am not suggesting that Wendover Will set up shop next door to the Naked Goat Saloon, but I would like to see some common sense on this issue. With the Legislature populated with self-righteous dimwits like Sen. Curt Bramble-R (Reactionary) Provo, I shudder to think what they might come up with. Bramble was the prime sponsor of the anti-abortion "message" law that has already victimized one unsuspecting family in Roy. There is plenty of blame to go around for all lawmakers who voted for it as well as Gov. Olene Walker for allowing it to become law. They say there are two things you don't want to watch being made: sausage and laws. There is something worse -- legislators practicing medicine.

Ciao!
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Tom Barberi is a talk-show host. barberi5@aol.com

I left out Ms. Wilson's comments because, well, they sucked.

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