Dear Anonymous -

Yes my tax bracket is at the high end and I don't object to it. It is only fair to pay in the pool. However I want that pool of money to be used wisely. My ass is not that skinny and my metabolism has slowed down a lot. However I see my body as a valuable investment and make attempt to eat healthy and excercise a lot. I don't see this being taught in black community just like there seems to be lack of emphasis on education. As for blaming the immigrants for all ills in society - go work the fields in their place and you will have the skinny ass pronto.

any suggestion that the two are meaningfully comparable in any way, apart from the fact that they are tragedies for the individuals involved, is utterly delusional.

Does anyone contributing to this forum - especially those who are worried about the impact of epidemic obesity on the healthcare system - think it should be illegal to smoke cigarettes?

I thank Debra Dickerson for writing this silly article. Because I followed the link. Wow, what a Babe, what an ass. That's a thing of beauty. And did you notice how her stomach looks almost ripped in some of the shots. She's not even fat (thus, the article is silly).

I'll say it again. What a fine behind.

This is a little bit off topic, but I have always wondered why fast/junk food is not subject to a sin tax like tobacco and alcohol - to me these items basically fit in the same category. Can you imagine if every bag of chips and bottle of soda had a $1 "health tax" on it? The money collected from such a tax would make the revenue generated from alcohol and cigarettes taxes look like chump change! I would bet such a tax could easily pay for universal health care with money left over...

what do you think

I wish there were less fat people on the subway. More people could sit down in the morning during rush hr. I pay a lot of taxes but there are always fatties filling up the seats. Don't they know standing burns more calories? As my grandfather says, easy way to lose weight: stop eating.

A fit woman I knew with a big butt had to stop the stair machine because it made her butt bigger. I tried it and it didn't do it for me. If you have the genetically big butt, it likes to stay big, whereas no-butt women like me can't make it happen to save our lives.

You dewy eyed innocent, you.

"...I have always wondered why fast/junk food is not subject to a sin tax like tobacco and alcohol - to me these items basically fit in the same category. Can you imagine if every bag of chips and bottle of soda had a $1 "health tax" on it?"

We could not allow that to happen, because Newton's Third Law ould then subsequently require that the government subsidize organic broccoli, and then the queer-loving, baby-killing, pinko heathen feminist hippies from California (aka "Osama") would win.

Young lady, get on a stair steeper- believe me, your ass AND your heart will thank you.

Actually, a Stairmaster will just make her bum more muscular and pronounced, not less.

A treadmill, maybe, or a bike would be a better option if she actually wanted to lose bum size.

What the hell do you know about the black community? Everything you know you learned from watching the local news, reading the newspaper, and reading Debra Dickerson. It irritates me when people who aren't part of a community seem to make some general statement about black folks.

Let me educate you, higher tax bracket foreigner: I live in the Deep South and am black and go to Church, and my Pastor has whole sermons about how important it is for Christians to treat their bodies as a temple. We have a Christian womans exercise club, and seminars on how to eat right. Granted, black people down south are fat. So are the white ones. But it's making a dent, slowly and surely. That's the way to change things; shame and guilt don't do anything. Because our pastor cares about his congregation, and comes out of place of love, his flock listens to him, rather than you ioxitl whose only interested in your own pocketbook and how those fatties are ruining your friggin life.

So don't tell me about black people. And I knew, growing up in California, plenty of Mexican migrant workers who may not be obese, but who have health problems like diabetes due to the crappy diet they eat.

that the (Caucasian, FYI) lady who founded the American Association to Advance Fat Acceptance just died last week...from multiple health problems, at the age of 54?

Sorry, I had to weigh in, here. Absolutely true, obesity is unequivocally bad. But have you all checked out Buffy? She's not obese. She's stacked. She looks pretty toned, just happens to be blessed with a phat ass. This whole bit about the protein shakes I just don't buy, but regardless, so what? Buffy is not obese. The end.

I think that the tired-ass point (sorry, can't help myself with the butt puns) that Dickerson is regurgitating: that black men like big women, is true (to the extent that any blanket-stereotype can be true, but then again, those are the ones that Dickerson goes in for)if understood to mean that "big" women are the ones that look like Buffy. Hourglass, toned, stacked, brick-s-house types, who actually look like they could bench-press you, not literally OBESE women who would get winded thinking about it. There is a distinction to be made here, though Dickerson is hoping that by ignoring it it'll disappear. Buffy does not weigh 450 lbs like the cousin who is eating herself to death.

A fit woman I knew with a big butt had to stop the stair machine because it made her butt bigger. I tried it and it didn't do it for me. If you have the genetically big butt, it likes to stay big, whereas no-butt women like me can't make it happen to save our lives.

But that was my point! She likes her big butt, her men like her big butt, so why shouldn't she not only keep it, but keep it riding way up high and tight for years to come? Good heart health being a beneficial side effect, she can have it all!