George Takei is awesome, but this joke isn't necessarily. It was on his Facebook page, which generally I recommend and love. And I love George, but I don't love size prejudice. Well, this is the comment that I left.
I heard about all the mean spirited comments regarding this photo and I have to say I am saddened. First of all, why all the hate towards people based on body size? We should judge each other on our actions, not on our appearance.
Secondly, what a boring world it would be if we all looked the same. Number 12 looks just like you. I'm not going to explain it. If you don't know what I mean, look it up.
Third, shaming never made anyone the way others think they should be. If it did, there would be no people with addictions, no fat people, no anorexic people, and everyone would be the same religion or lack thereof.
What gives some of you the right to believe that everyone "chooses" to be the size they are or have the appearance they have? I did not "choose" to be in an auto accident, one of the consequences of which was damage to my kidneys. I do not "choose" to have to walk with a cane. I do not "choose" to be the size I am, but it would hurt a lot less if there were fewer hateful people.
George, I love you and I don't think you are being hateful, but please think about it. You have never had issues with your weight. Size is not all about "sitting around stuffing your face constantly" or even not working out. There are healthy fat people and there are unhealthy thin ones. I wish I were a healthier fat one but due to my physical limitations I can't work out very much. And no, I do not eat constantly.
Please, people, think about the hate you spew. Is it really necessary?
I weigh 425 pounds. I am a human being. You may not find me beautiful, but it is not your right to behave hatefully towards me simply because you find me unattractive.
People dare to say that Amy Winehouse, who died today at the age of 27 from a drug overdose, was "a drain on the world" because she was a drug addict.
These people do not understand the power of addiction. It isn't fully understood in the medical community either. In some people, the satiation centers of the brain are triggered by certain substances, causing overwhelming cravings.
Amy was not able to gain control over these cravings. But this does not make her "a waste." She had a beautiful voice. She seemed like a nice person. She also seemed terribly lost in many ways. I am very sorry for her death, and for the difficulties she encountered in life.
I too have encountered people who have the audacity to tell me that I'm "a waste of space," a "drain on the world," even "bankrupting America." That I'm lazy and have no self-control.
Why?
Because I am a very large human being. I weigh 425 pounds. I usually walk with a cane, but when I am feeling particularly exhausted or having a significant amount of pain, I will use one of the scooters at the store, even though I *can* walk. I was in an accident eight years ago that left me with a spinal cord injury and impaired kidney function. Admissibly, a fair bit of my weight gain came from comfort eating once I could eat again. I was very depressed and simply did not give a shit about gaining weight. All I knew is that now I was in constant pain, incontinent of urine, and might have to be on dialysis for the rest of my life. The last thing I cared was staying skinny to please other people.
At this point I do not eat any more than other people. Some days I probably eat less. But nobody believes this because I am so big. I work out in a therapy pool. I can't do exercises that put a lot of strain on my joints. If a person can do high-impact, high-intensity workouts, good for them. I used to spend hours in the gym to keep myself below 200 pounds. Those days are gone forever.
So, it seems, is any chance of being left alone to live my life in peace. I would never go up to someone who was chain-smoking and tell them that their filthy habit was "costing me more money" or tha they should "just die." And I would never go up to a skinny person and tell them that their "anorexia" was going to end them up in the hospital and thus would "cost me more money." First of all, how do I know that they're anorexic? Maybe they are on chemotherapy. Maybe they have Marfan syndrome. Maybe they have some other disease. Or maybe they're just skinny. And how do I know what their eating habits are? I've known skinny people who can pack in more food at a buffet hour than I could think about eating in a day's worth of meals!
When I go to buffets, I tend to load up on salad, then have a good portion of meat for protein. But whose damn business is it if I decide I'd like a bit of macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, or a dinner roll or two with that? If I weighed 125 pounds, no-one would be giving me the stink eye if I had twice the amount of food on my plate or if I was eating nothing but desserts. If you're fat you can be eating nothing but carrots and people will still assume that you're a glutton.
The bigger drain on the world comes from people who see the need to spew their hate and judgment everywhere.
You don't know Amy Winehouse. You don't know what drove her to addictive behavior. You don't know how it felt to be her, to live with the shame and the pain she must have felt. So don't judge her.
And you don't know me. You don't know why I'm fat. You don't know what my eating habits are. You don't know what medications I may be on or what physical reasons I may have for being the size I am. You don't know why I'm riding one of those scooters to do my shopping or to get down the street.
So stuff your judgments where the sun don't shine. Because they belong with the rest of your shit.
This Kenneth Tong douchebag must go! http://ping.fm/4xWGG Imagine promoting a dangerous disease. This hateful asshole does: anorexia.
This is what I said to Twitter:
Please delete this offensive individual, @mrkennethtong. He is not only speaking ill of large and heavyset women but is promoting anorexic behavior in vulnerable young girls. Anorexia is a dangerous and often deadly eating disorder. To allow him to continue this shocking behavior unchecked would be unconscionable.
A few months back, this clown got his undies in a bunch because he was offended by posts from the cafe world game that I was playing. Now, this really would not be worth bringing up again, except for the fact that the friend who stood up for me, while simultaneously trying to show support for him, is still hurting over the fact that this fool, who was her so-called friend for five years, gave her the toss because she told him that what he did to me wasn't cool.
Now, I admit that I did not realize that my posts from the cafe world game were intruding on other people's feeds, and if someone had nicely pointed that out to me, I would have done something about it. So, would it have hurt this dweeb to politely say to me, "hey Opal, your game posts are totally bogarting my wall," or something of that nature, rather than snidely asking "how do you get rid of the weirdos on your friend list," and then unfriending me after I told him how (and it should be obvious, Mr. Internet Guru, it's right there on your fucking profile, duh!) and adding insult to injury by responding to my jest that "I hope it isn't me you mean because no-one is weirder than me" that I wasn't "weird" I was just a troll and emotionally immature.
Well, perhaps I am a tad emotionally immature. But that was still just fucking rude. Still, that was not the worst of it. Granted, Mr. Stick Up the Ass did not know me very well, so in the long run, whatever, although he didn't have to handle it like a two year old. But what he did next puts the icing on the whole shitty cake. When the mutual friend told him that his actions towards me were uncool but she knew he was going through a hard time and was there for him, he responded "who cares about this Internet stuff, I have real problems."
He also said that he just needed to be sarcastic to someone because people on You Tube had been responding to his videos sarcastically.
WHAT A FUCKING PASSIVE AGRESSIVE PIECE OF SHIT!
Seriously.
She told him that she cared about him and maybe he should stop allowing comments about these dumb videos that he makes because it seemed to be turning him bitter and hateful.
I've actually never seen the videos so I can't say for sure how dumb they are, but given his personality, I'd have to give them a Fucking Crap on a scale of lame to utter worthless shite.
At any rate, his response to her assessment was to unfriend her and refuse to answer her emails or messages. This is how he treats a friend of five years, one that he knows has psychological issues and is very vulnerable. Since I'm all riled up again, I just have to repeat:
WHAT A FUCKING STUPID PIECE OF SHIT!
In case this clown might be stalking my blog and wondering just what I was doing the day all the cafe world posts appeared, well, I wasn't doing much, because I don't have any real problems. I was just sitting around getting pampered by a half dozen hot gay men dressed in nothing but loin cloths, Honeee!
So not.
I was fucking getting dialysis, Shithead! Because my kidneys (and my spinal cord) got fucked in an accident 7 years ago (March 27, 2003 at 6 PM to be exact) when I hit a patch of ice. I'm used to dialysis and it usually isn't too horrible for me because while my kidneys are compromised, they do still function. But there can be periods of discomfort, and it can definitely be boring. So I had my laptop and my little USB modem, and I was playing cafe world. Somehow it was more fun thinking about my little pretend cafe than about having my blood filtered of toxins. I probably did get carried away, which is why I don't play the game since then. I'm really afraid that I'll have another of these vile encounters, although honestly, it's pretty hard to find someone who's that much of a douchebag.
I don't know exactly what these real problems that Seenyor Duchious Maxiums has are, only that if he ever happened to want sympathy, he sure chose an incredibly stupid way of going about it. I can tell you that one "real problem" he has is being one of the biggest jackasses I've ever encountered. We all have problems, Shit for Brains! That's why decent people try not to bring any more trouble or sorrow into the lives of others.
Especially when those others tried to be a friend to you for whatever insane reason.
What a loser. Someone saw something in him that was worth befriending, and he shits on that.
He does not deserve ANY sympathy.
I hope that my friend will finally be able to realize in her heart as well as her logical mind that this creep was just that--a creep. He is the kind that only wants to be "friends" with people as long as they are serving him in some way. When she stood up for me, she was not kissing his ass to his liking. Waah, waah, waah. Call the waaaaambulance. We have a big nasty crybaby patient for you.
Well...
That is all the more words I intend to waste on this turd burglar. I just wanted to tell my good friend once again these few important things:
I SUPPORT YOU
I LOVE YOU
THANK YOU FOR STICKING UP FOR ME
I AM REALLY SORRY ABOUT YOUR LOSS OF YOUR FATHER. I CAN SEE HOW MUCH YOU LOVED HIM.
I AM SORRY ABOUT YOUR LITTLE OLD LADY RABBIT DYING TOO. SO MUCH SADNESS ALL AT ONCE! :-(
YOU DESERVE WAY BETTER FRIENDS THAN THIS CLOWN! DON'T SHED TOO MANY MORE TEARS OVER HIS PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE MEAN-SPIRITED BITTER MISANTHROPIC ASS!
Well, that's all I have to say 'bout that.
Except that I would say the Clown in Question pretty much did the equivalent of this by treating a longtime friend--even an Internet friend--with such ugliness and disdain.
As RuPaul says, if you can't love yourself, how the hell you gonna love someone else? Also, if you can't learn to love yourself at whatever size, no amount of weight loss is going to be a miracle cure for the self hate. I have lived with self hate for years. I'm straight, so that was one battle I didn't have to fight. (It's ridiculous that sexual orientation has to be a battle for anybody.) But I have struggled with mental illness for as long as I can remember, and I am physically handicapped after an accident 7 years ago that left me with a spinal cord injury. At 44 I am incontinent of urine and have to wear Depends. I walk with a cane. My kidneys were injured and I do have to have dialysis although I am luckier than a lot of people as the kidneys still do function to a degree. Plus I am morbidly obese. Admissibly this is muchly my own fault as after the accident I became severely depressed and just didn't care about anything, particularly myself. I sat around watching TV and eating and wishing I'd die. At this point it is hard to lose the weight that I put on because I cannot exercise strenuously. I have radically changed my eating habits but I cannot live on Slim Fast (bleah!) So I am still morbidly obese. Here's a shocker for the "so concerned about your health" crowd--especially those that have the audacity to lecture someone they really don't even know! Fat people--get ready for it--KNOW THEY'RE FAT! We might even know that our weight is in the unhealthy range. We don't need to hear it from you. I always struggled with my weight. I was bulimic in my teens. If anyone ever told me that I would be morbidly obese I would have killed myself, because I did not have any love for myself, even when I was tiny--110 pounds--and still thought I was fat. I would give a lot to lose 100 or more pounds, but I no longer say I would give anything. Because there are things in this world a lot more important than being skinny. Such as being alive and being with people who love you and are really there for you no matter your size. You are a great writer, Emily. Thank you for making my day today.
Michael Buckley of the Bilerico project has a challenge for cutters and bulimics, encouraging us to say something nice about ourselves and about Demi Lovato, the young actress who recently went into treatment to deal with her eating disorder and struggle with cutting.
Here is what I had to say:
It's hard to find something nice to say about myself because I am mentally and physically handicapped and morbidly obese. I'm formerly bulimic and used to cut. But I am very devoted to my family and I would like to change the hatefulness in this world to love. As for Demi Lovato, I very much hope that she finds the help she needs to love HERSELF, not to worry about what she looks like outside, and even more important, to not worry what OTHERS think about her. Yes, she's pretty, but more important, she seems to have inner beauty. It's the inner beauty that lasts.
Monosodium glutamate can trigger respiratory distress in a lot of people. On a friend's suggestion, I was able to get off a fair number of the asthma medications that I was taking once I started reading labels to be sure that there was no MSG in the food. Some of these medications might paradoxically contribute to the possibility of an asthma-related death, so it was a relief to be able to stop taking them. I now just have my rescue inhaler and I'm still taking Singulair, but it is a mild medication compared to something like Advair. As well, the steroid medications reduce the body's ability to fight off infections, so I was glad to be rid of those. I'm using my rescue inhaler a lot less these days too, which I'm glad of because it makes my heart race.
It's frustrating when I'm trying to make a quick meal because so many things that I used to use, such as Hamburger Helper or Betty Crocker potatoes have monosodium glutamate in them. I don't see how this substance can be classified as "generally safe" when so many people have negative reactions.
DISCUSSION: What are some similarities and differences between chronic bronchitis and emphysema in terms of anatomical/cellular, chemical, and functional changes?
Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are both chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. Both are due to serious structural changes in the lungs. Both affect proper gas exchange and the ability to breathe comfortably.
COPD is defined as “a preventable and treatable disease with some significant extrapulmonary effects that may contribute to the severity in individual patients.” In chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, the lungs undergo pathological changes to their structure. Such diseases are thought to be due to causes such as smoking, exposure to toxic chemicals, air pollution, and as a consequence of a previous severe lung infection.
Chronic bronchitis is hypersecretion of mucus with a chronic productive cough that lasts for at least three months of the year for at least two consecutive years. Inspired irritants increase mucus production, and the size and number of mucous glands and goblet cells increase as well. The mucus is thicker and more tenacious than normal mucus. This makes it difficult to clear the mucus from the lungs. As ciliary function is impaired in this condition, clearance is further impaired. This increases the sufferer’s susceptibility to pulmonary infections.
Such infections may further increase mucus production. Eventually the bronchial walls will become thickened from edema and build-up of inflammatory cells. As this vicious cycle repeats, there will eventually be permanent narrowing of the airways. Airway obstruction leads to decreased alveolar ventilation and hypercapnia, or increased PaCO2. When PaCO2 rises, pH drops, leading to respiratory acidosis. Hypoxemia may accompany respiratory acidosis. Prolonged hypoxemia leads to complications such as cyanosis, erythemia, asterixis, myoclonus, and seizures.
Emphysema is an abnormal permanent enlargement of the acini accompanied by destruction of alveolar walls. This destruction is caused by an imbalance between proteases and antiproteases. The excess proteases break down the elastin within the septa of the alveoli. The loss of elastic recoil in the structures of the airway disrupts proper gas exchange, resulting in hypoxemia.
Emphysema is classified as either primary or secondary. Primary emphysema is the result of an inherited deficiency of a1-antitrypsin. Secondary emphysema is caused by injury to lungs due to inhalation of toxins. Smoking is often implicated in the development of emphysema.
Emphysema can be further classified as centriacinar (centrilobular) or panacinar (panlobular.) These classifications are given depending on the area of the lung affected. Septal destruction in centriacinar pneumonia occurs mostly in the upper lobes of the lung, in the respiratory bronchioles and alveolar ducts. In this type of emphysema, the alveolar sacs distal to the respiratory bronchiole remain intact. Centriacinar emphysema tends to occur in conjunction with chronic bronchitis. It tends to occur primarily in secondary emphysema.
Panacinar emphysema affects the entire acinus. It affects the lower lobes of the lung. This type of emphysema tends to affect the elderly. It also usually occurs in primary emphysema.
DISCUSSION: Include an explanation of alveolar remodeling and its consequences to efficient ventilation and external respiration.
In normal alveologenisis, the cells of the alveoli are of optimal shape for proper gas exchange. But when there is damage to the cells, they do not reform properly. They may become stretched too thin, or they may become tough and fibrous. This leads to reduction in gas-exchange surface area. With loss of alveolar gas-exchanging unitsand the capillary bed within them, blood oxygen levels fall and pulmonary circulatory pressure rises. When proper gas exchange is disrupted, proper pH balance is disrupted as well.
Properly functioning alveoli are imperative to oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide elimination. This exchange maintains gradients of soluble gas betweenblood and tissue cells. These gradients are vitalto sustaining cellular metabolism. Thelungs are composed of conducting airways, which connect themto the outside environment, and the parenchyma, where virtuallyall gas exchange occurs.
Physiological pH is maintained through thebuffering of hydrogen ions (H+) with bicarbonate ions (HCO3–).These combine to form dissolved carbon dioxide in blood, whichequilibrates through diffusion with alveolar gas in the lungand is then eliminated during exhalation. When the structure of the alveoli has been altered, the proper elimination of carbon dioxide is disrupted, resulting in hypoxia.
This is my response to an excellent article by Carolyn Kellogg of the L.A. times regarding a naysaying article by one Laura Miller written with the intent of discouraging NaNoWriMo participants. Thank you Carolyn, and bite me Laura.
Wow. What could be this woman's (Laura Miller) motivation for wanting to discourage people's efforts in writing? She doesn't need to read the "bad books" created by hopefuls. I am a late bloomer as far as getting published is concerned. I didn't even start trying till this year and I was so proud to get my first real effort published in the wonderful Undead Nation Anthology. I am participating in NaNoWriMo for the first time. I am 44 years old, I have a spinal cord injury that causes me to, among other things, have very little control over my bladder, I have kidney problems, and due to various health issues and a long bout with depression, I am morbidly obese. Writing takes me out of thinking about these problems. If I want to do NaNoWriMo to see if I have a "bad book" in me, so what? How is this hurting Laura Miller? She doesn't need to shell out a single buck for my bad book! It may never even be published. But if it is, and someone else reads it and maybe even likes it, I can't see how this could in any way have any bearing on her life!
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