08/02/2003: I never considered myself an alarmist. However, when reputable sources in better positions than I am are sounding the alarm, it is time to take notice. Former Fed Chairmans Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker have issued warnings.
Now, our Comptroller General is talking in very sober terms regarding our economic outlook.
08/02/2006: If you accept that Hezbollah is a terrorist proxy militia, then how can anyone oppose Israel’s prerogative to fight them?
(If you cannot accept that Hezbollah is a terrorist group, then you are a rank dumbass. Go to jail, don’t pass go, don’t collect $200.)
While I take no joy in the death of civilians, it is disingenuous to say that Israel must refrain from attacking an enemy that hides behind civilians.
Fact is, Hezbollah has no standing in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Palestinians and Israelis have signed peace agreements (ever hear of the Oslo Accords?), and the onus is now on the Palestinians to live up to their end of the deal. Israel has given up considerable amounts of land, and Hezbollah needs to butt the hell out of these affairs.
Given their propensity for firing rockets at Israel, they deserve any trouble they get from the Israelis. If the IDF kills every one of the cockroaches, I won’t cry for them.
Health “Experts” Use Wrong Metric to Study Obesity
08/02/2006: Thomson Medstat, a health care research house, is reporting a study that shows 75% of obese people claim to have healthy eating habits, and 40% claim to do rigorous exercise at least three times per week.
I will be the first to admit that obesity is a serious problem in America, as it is contributing to a myriad of health problems–diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease–that affect both the young and the old. I’ll also concede that there is a tendency among the obese to blame other factors besides behavioral matters for their condition. (I’ve been there.)
However, I must take issue with the study in one respect: the firm used Body Mass Index (BMI) as the criterion for obesity. The BMI is a piss-poor metric, as many athletes–with less than 10% body fat–can have a BMI that indicates obesity. That is because body mass includes muscle, which is more abundant in athletes–or physically active people in general–than in sedentary people.
By using BMI to define obesity, researchers could be overstating the prevalence of obesity. (Perhaps this is by design, as such inflation of statistics will lead to more federal funding for anti-obesity programs.) In fact, The BMI was never designed as a tool for the medical diagnosis of obesity.
That said, a better metric for determining obesity is body fat percentage.
I suggest using the standards developed by the American Council on Exercise:
Personally, I think those metrics are too loose, but they’re a better measure of obesity than BMI. If it were up to me, I’d recommend the following: