< http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031013/ap_on_he_me/extre me_obesity_2>
Michigan is, apparently, one of the fattest states in the country, and I believe it. I see incredibly fat people on a daily basis, mostly working class (this includes those who toil in those veal crates euphemistically called "cubicles"), and I wonder what the ratio of political apathy/ignorance/powerlessness is to mass consumption of fast "food," candy, chips and soda? Many of these people (some of whom are so large they qualifiy for handicapped parking spaces -- no joke) appear to trudge through what must seem to some of them a meaningless life, their one solace being able to eat as much as they can afford. Other than staring at computer screens for 8 hours a day and staring at TV at home, what do they have other than snacks and shit meals? The political system is so far removed from them it may as well operate on Mars. I talk to people while I work, and most have no idea who's running the government, and they don't seem to care. It's all a dull spectacle, flashing on and off between McRib and Eggo commercials.
DP