Category Archives: Popular Culture

Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Fat Is Not The Problem

17 Comments

The nutrition establishment is finally starting to figure it out, decades too late:

It’s a confusing message. For years we’ve been fed the line that eating fat would make us fat and lead to chronic illnesses. “Dietary fat used to be public enemy No. 1,” says Dr. Edward Saltzman, associate professor of nutrition and medicine at Tufts University. “Now a growing and convincing body of science is pointing the finger at carbs, especially those containing refined flour and sugar.”

Thanks, FDA food pyramid.

How many people have been killed by this wrong-headed advice over the past forty years? My own father probably died a year younger than my present age, partly from a fataphobic diet recommended after his first heart attack in 1968. This notion that “fat makes you fat” seems like a primitive “you are what you eat” mentality. It’s not just about thermodynamics, or at least, you can’t ignore the burn rate. Not all calories are created equal, when it comes to food’s effects on your endocrine system.

Oh, and speaking of the FDA, how many are going to die in the future because they screwed up the pipeline for new antibiotics? Either abolish the agency, at least defang it and take away its regulatory authority, and have it focus on research. It murders Americans by the millions.

[Update a few minutes later]

A potato-only diet? You always have to be careful in drawing too much from this, because everyone is different. It is nice to know, though, that potatoes aren’t as bad as we’ve thought, from a glycemic standpoint.

Political Commentary, Popular Culture

Not That Many Shopping Days Until Christmas

7 Comments

I really appreciate the shopping that people have been doing at my Amazon link (over there in the left sidebar) — it really helps reduce the stocking coalage, especially the Kindles (though the cameras and printers and laptops are great, too).

But for that Tea Partier in the family, all of Bill Whittle’s Firewall videos have been compiled into a DVD, so it’s a great stocking stuffer, too. I don’t get a direct cut, but I’d like to see Declaration Entertainment succeed, because I’d like to do well by doing good consulting with things like the solar fiction movie that Bill wants to make.

[Update a while later]

If anyone else is having trouble using the Amazon box, like my commenter, this link should work.

Popular Culture

Proposed Division Names For The Big Tweleven

11 Comments

…are not getting a lot of love from the commentariat at Free Republic. The comments at the original Tribune article are pretty cutting, too.

They seem kind of stupid to me. Can’t one be both a “Leader” and a “Legend”? Or, neither, for that matter? Jeez, just go with East and West.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here’s a suggestion for a new, disambiguated name: “The Big Ten Plus Penn State And Nebraska.” You can call the other one “The Big Twelve Minus Colorado and Nebraska.”

Popular Culture, Weird

Finally, A Football Game Worth Watching

10 Comments

…in Detroit:

The game between the New York Giants and the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis already had been postponed because of heavy snow. When the Metrodome’s roof collapsed early Sunday morning, the NFL moved the game to Detroit.

…“We hope it’s a great event,” Lions president Tom Lewand said. “It’s free. Obviously that’s something that was important to us. This is an opportunity for Detroit fans to come out and enjoy another NFL game. We think that we’ll have a good crowd, and that’s why we tried to make it as accessible as possible.”

Hard to beat the price, too. Though it’s also nice that the Lions managed to eke out a win against the Packers today.

Humor, Popular Culture, Weird

Asking The Important Questions

25 Comments

Is Batman a state actor?

In Batman’s case, Commissioner Gordon is certainly a person for whom the State is responsible, and Batman often acts together with Gordon and obtains significant aid from Gordon in the form of information and evidence. Batman’s conduct is also otherwise chargeable to the State because the Gotham Police Department has worked with Batman on numerous occasions (and thus knows his methods) and operates the Bat Signal, expressly invoking Batman’s assistance in a traditionally public function. This suggests state action under the public function theory: “when private individuals or groups are endowed by the State with powers or functions governmental in nature, they become agencies or instrumentalities of the State and subject to its constitutional limitations.” Evans v. Newton, 382 U.S. 296, 299 (1966).

But what about Superman? And who’s going to enforce the law against him?

[Update a couple minutes later]

Related: the brain-kill forensics of zombies.