Hey, Fatso?

Watch out America. All the signs are there (if you open your eyes) that people will soon be charged for being obese. That is right, I said charged. Watch the evening news and you will find that bureaucrats claim to have found a way to assign a dollar figure to how much you are (potentially) costing the health care system for being at risk (overweight) of care commonly associated with obesity: diabetes, heart disease, hip replacement surgery, etc. Yeah, amid this frenzy over national health care will come the intense pressure for preventative health, so that you will not overburden the service line and drive up costs [for everyone]. Now image being charged a few dollars extra on your premium because some pencil pusher thinks that you are overweight for your height. Or some insurance company denies a full death benefit to your family since, after all, your caregiver did gain 35lbs since he first took out that life insurance policy 11 years ago. And do you still take that dream job when your employer tells you that you must join the company gym at your own expense?

Push away from that banana sundae, girl!... Your Big Brother is counting your calories.

An Education That Matters

What For Darfur

What for Darfur? I don't have a Clooney.
Genocide? Who is to decide -- Say, what you know about the Congo?

What for Darfur? I don't have a Clooney.

The Western Sudan has a problem man -- It's all those diamonds in the sand!
Now rape and more we must deplore, but what for Darfur? I don't have a Clooney.

Along the spine of the Nile, a brilliant black land. Dafur, what lies beneath your dusty floors?
iron and oil, gold and diamonds they are minin' --
In precious sands
First they gotta tame those Arab tribesman

What for Darfur? I don't have a Clooney.

Genocide, fratricide, infanticide -- Sir Lanka, Burma and Eastern Chad makes me mad!
so, what for Darfur, I don't have a Clooney

(Note: Bismillah -- The above no way intends to minimize human suffering anywhere in our world)

- Darren W. Palmer.