The Boy on Top
Why did I respond?
Because its a real issue and I also have my opinions on the subject..but I do try and be balanced and objective and not knock just one group or country.
Not saying you were US bashing, btw - I didn't think that at all - they DO have the bigger 'fat' problem at the moment, whatever the cause of it may be. And it's silly to take offense on something like that.
Yeah go for it on societal waste..it is fascinating. What about wasteful packaging? I saw something in the news about that over the weekend.
And I am always blown away by the amount of rubbish my small home generates, mainly due to packaging.
I don't think you were confrontational. An American academic from an American university came up with the data and you pointed us towards it. You didn't sneer and you didn't rant. I don't understand on what grounds anyone would have wanted to send hate mail.
I didn't comment because there didn't seem a lot to add. I could have said that I hadn't thought of it that way before but it seems logical, but that wouldn't really have added to a debate.
Yes, societal waste. You could talk about that at length and in depth, and wouldn't have to even look across the Atlantic. There's quite enough here to consider.
Amen. TB
I posted just because I like your site...But I didnt see it as a slap to the USA, merely a brutal truth. Glad you made the Loosemeat!! Just for that I'm adding your link, good sir. And Wendz you are so right about the nuclear proof packaging. Cheerio!!
Don't worry about offending people. I (and I'm sure others) come here to read what you think, irrespective of the topic, or who is discussed.
Opinions are just that, opinions.
In the case of hate-mail (of which I've had a few) it tends to be the case that the truth does indeed hurt.
The hate mail was hugely amusing! I have a very big ego and very thick skin. We should trade sometime. TB
ARRRRG. I just posted the most insightful comment. But I am on the train and lost the connection and so lost my brilliant thought.
I didn't comment to the previous one b/c I just saw it now. I don't think it was harsh or particularly 'bashing'. It is sad and true.
Americans tend to shy away from self-bashing. And the world tends to USA bash to easily. I'm done.
Which is pretty insightful. TB
I wasn't offended. Did I come across as offended? I think it's an important issue and you do have a point. I was just pointing out something else that doesn't get taken into consideration. But no...not offended. 
-N
I wasn't offended. I'm just very good at pointing out the log in others' eyes (since I, of course, have no logs in *my* eyes - ha ha).
I guess there was a bit of, hmmm, how shall I say it? I live here, so I can bash on the US all I want, but if others bash on it, then my first reaction is, "Ooo, it's so easy to knock the US, when the same problems are in other countries as well!"
There is another Brit in the bogosphere that I don't read because this person seems to blame the US for every little thing, and really, I find that the issue is more the inherent evil of industrial countries rather than the inherent evil of the US. (Plus, this person said after Katrina that Americans deserved to die. As a mother to two Americans, and a spouse to one, too, I took offense and haven't been back since.)
However, for example, if a South African were today to knock on the whole anti gay-marriage idiocy going on in the US right now, I'd totally agree that they had the right to say that (Go South Africa!, btw).
Oh, and enviro-blogging? It's da bomb, baby. Go for it. I'd read. *And* comment, too.
No, the US is not inherently evil. There is much good and things to admire. However, many of the worlds ills (not eclusively american by any means) show up to a greater extent due to the greater wealth. TB
I responded because I lived in the south for five years and saw some of the fattest people there. I had never seen anything like it. People in line at the grocery store with cokes and cheetoes and twinkies and...paying with food stamps.
Most of us feel the need to lose 5lbs or so, most of us splurge on beer/crap food from time to time.
Some of us have genetic disorders or emotional disorders that cause extreme weight gain.
A lot of grossly overweight people are non-of-the-above.
While I don't belive it is the government's "job" to make people eat healthier, I have no problem with people pointing it out. Peer pressure worked in elementary school, and it'll work now!!
(P.S. I test the waters too, hense my last post
Indeed. For me it was just yet another interesting fact about how one factor, overweight people, causes another to explode, waste in use of gas. Its all about butterfly's in Asia and storms in the Atlantic... TB
Also, it's not just a US problem anymore....
No, but the problem is far greater in the US than elsewhere. The rest of the world is catching up though! TB
Ah - I may have been misunderstood...
What I meant was that when people send emails complaining, it tends to mean that you've hit a nerve with them (due to being a bit nearer the truth than is comfortable), not that it bothers me, which it doesn't. Obviously.
Ah, understood. I certainly hit a couple raw nerves, these hate mails were really quite something! TB
I didn't find it offensive, but i'm not a fat american. Bring on the hate mail i say, blog about it!
I'm a NZ lurker - and we have no choice to US bash in this country. The US makes unilateral decisions that affect other countries in the world, and they seem completely ignorant to that and take offence at other's critising them.
I think Clarissa is right that Americans dont tend to self-bash, I think the rest of us wish they bloody well would. What does it take? thats why we (thats the royal 'we') have all become really open (and maybe too direct) in our anti-americanisms.
I didn't respond because I didn't have anything succint to say. There seemed to be so many possible directions to head off in, most requiring quite a bit of research.
I always wonder about people who email the blogger instead of hitting the comments. Why do they do it, I wonder? Because they're scared to have other commetners weighing in against them? It seems to me that a public blog post ought to have a public comment, except in the rare instance that the comment needs to reveal something very personal.
Its the anonymous angle, not allowing public comment, and being able to be more rude than perhaps they'd be in a "public" forum. They were really quite something. TB
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