Holy crap. I’m speechless. Take a look at not-so-svelte Neil Cavuto and Anti-Gym hardbody proprietor Michael Karolchyk, who sports a “No Chubbies” T-Shirt, take a crap on the President’s nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin (see my earlier post).
A screen cap of Benjamin is on the right. Does she look wildly obese to anyone? Did anyone protest about C. Everett Koop’s portly figure as a disqualification to serve? Wow. Weight-proportional-to-height status is not the sole marker of health anyway. Jim Fixx, a slim long-distance running advocate, dropped dead of a heart attack. Obesity is clearly a health risk, but so is family history of cardiovascular disease, or Type II diabetes, whether you smoke, along with a variety of other factors. I certainly don’t see Dr. Benjamin, first black woman to become president of the state medical society of Alabama who by any stretch of the imagination is qualified to serve, as worthy of this sort of disgusting, pious slam.



21 Comments



C’mon – they’re just showing compassionate concern…about the weight of her complexion.
It seems as though not a day goes by that a news item doesn’t force me to fire up a Bill Hicks CD. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v… )
Good point…….…..about Koop Pam.
Besides that the average woman is a size 14/16. I hate to think what the average man’s waist size is.
Yeah well…we all KNOW that they only way that women can prove that they are healthy is for their ribs and vertebre to be visible.
Their issue with her is that she’s not a size 6.She can carry her own file boxes, as shown in the photo.
In an emergency, she could probably tow either one of these gasbags up the staircase to the attic of the flooded house, perform a tracheotomy and run back for the other gasbag–with a build like that.
And since women are supposed to be breakable like other useless pretty things, that’s scary.
Folks are obsessedAlthough I think this Fox News piece was done just to be mean and nasty, talking about obesity is seriously all the rage these days. My partner, who does health policy work, spent three full days last week at a conference on preventing obesity. Discussion about obesity, its effects, and its prevention are in the news constantly.
While it’s great that health issues are being brought up publically, I think there’s a lot wrong with how obesity is being addressed. For one thing, I’m mortally offended by news crews filming an overweight woman’s ass as she walks down the street, and you see that all the time. And for another, the local news will do these pieces about the health risks of obesity, immediately followed by ads for McDonald’s and Taco Bell.
As for Dr. Benjamin, she looks to me to be in better shape than most of the Surgeons General we’ve had in my lifetime. Not to mention that she’s an adult, and a doctor, and she can make her own decisions.
Dippy even for Fox NewsThis is a “Guess Your Weight” booth from a county fair being presented as news. The whole idea that weight is the sole–or even the prime–indicator of health is screwy. There are plenty of thin people who are in terrible health, and plenty who are just in terrible shape generally. ”Fitness guru” Arthur Rodale, founder of the Rodale Press, dropped dead on the Dick Cavett Show moments after declaring that he was in perfect shape and would live for decades.
Republicans…..way to get female votersAttack Dr. Benjamin on the basis of her size. Maybe you could attack older voters for wrinkles. You pretty well turned off every Latino/a voter over Sonia Sotomayor with your wise Latina wisecracks, and your rude interuption of her with Ricky Ricardo schtick. Any gorilla or monkey reference to Michelle Obama, you haven’t used, was obviously based on time restraints, not for lack of trying.
Where do you folks find the time to cheat on your wives, with all these clever strategy meetings going on, is beyond me.
It all comes backto a “woman’s place is in the home” mentality.
If she is married, she should be at home- where her sole concern of anything even slightly medical includes applying a band-aid to a child’s scraped knee (which then of course begs the question of whether or not she was negligent as a mother, allowing her child to be at risk for said scraped knee) or giving her child cough medicine/ Tylenol (which again, raises the question as to why the child is sick in the first place and requires concerns to be raised about this woman’s ability to be a responsible parent).
If she is single, she should correct her ways as to land a husband.
The only acceptable work places, if she is STILL unable to trap a man, are as school marm, librarian or nurse- until she is able to win herself a wedding ring, the ultimate prize.
If after THAT she is still unable to nab someone to father her children after the proper time and a church-sanctified marriage ceremony, she should admit her failure as a woman and become a nun.
Because at that point, “nun” will have her and she is a failure as a woman.
(OMFG snark above!)
Since in this case, Regina Benjamin has so far over-stepped into the realm of MEN as to be considered for the job of Surgeon General, it is imperative that MEN such as those at Fox denounce her wicked ways loudly and publicly, saying absolutely whatever is required, whether based in truth or not, to make her correct these errors.
Thank God above and Rupert Murdoch that SOMEONE knows the path of righteousness!
Hey, what’s up petey?By the way, attacking Benjamin for her size is also not so vaguely racist.
But I don’t recallthat they attacked Dr. Elders in this fashion. For Dr. Elders views, yes (which I personally loved) but not her appearence.
*cough!* RUSH LIMBAUGH!!! *cough!*Anyone else remember when he blames the obesity crisis on the Liberals?
Times have changedThat was when the folly of men allowing women to be considered “equals” wasn’t as apparent as it is now.
Honestly, I’ve been surprised that the economy problems weren’t laid at the feet of women years ago. Just think how many jobs there would be for MEN, if all of the women would stay home as God intended.
hey KevMy puter crashed and burned so I’ll be stopping in briefly for a couple weeks til I’m up on my own notebook again.
Hope your mouth is healing quick. My lover is still suffering from 3 teeth pulled 2 weeks ago, that became dry sockets.
I suggest Cavuto avoids crowds of Black women for the foreseeable future, and don’t eat any food a Black waitress or cook presents to you Neil. In the kitchen they will take the meat portion and step on it, and spit in your lemonade….then they’ll laugh and laugh, and laugh after you eat it.
I’ll never forgetwhen my granddad smacked me on the back of the head when I was acting bratty to a waitress in a resturant once. He explained that you never, ever disrespect anyone who serves you food for the exact reasons that you state. And I’ve worked in a couple of resturants to know…yes, that happens…
I limited myself to dumping some red hot peach cobbler a la mode on this church lady given me the blues on a busy Sunday…but I digress from the topic:)
In the genesMost of the women in my family, particularly on my mother’s side, gain weight as they age. They also live to 100 or more.
The only woman on my mother’s side of the family who died young was my mother.
She died at age 28 from BULIMIA!
A friend of my mother had waitressed several placesShe was a white waitress, and when aggrevating men would pinch their asses, or disrespect them, the cook would let them step on their steaks.
I think it has to do with the complexion of our PresidentSeriously. The Right is seeing their nightmares come true. See, they were afraid that whenever the US actually got the spine to elect a non-white or non-male President that said Prez would appoint other non-whites and non-males to positions of power that are supposed to “belong to them”. It was okay for Bill Clinton to appoint Dr. Elders because, well, at least he was still white.
Appointments of the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor and Dr. Regina Benjamin further goes to show that the claims of biologically “proven” superiority of white males over everyone else is indeed false. No one group is superior over another and that this is being shown is making many people sh*t bricks.
You got it!To them she’s too black and female to serve.
But…the far right didn’t make this kind of stink about Susan’s Rice’s appointment to be UN Ambassador, either. Maybe it was the last name or something.
Whydo you think they are attacking Dr. Benjamin for her weight?
Too fat, too fit?Aren’t these the same people who were once claiming that Obama was “too fit” to be president?