Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 11, 2009

with a diet coke, no doubt

This is breakfast; coffee with sweet-n-low.

yyyguy - yup, it never fails to amaze me how someone can pig out then order a diet coke.

yep,i think this is a retread.

is that a cincinatti bengals hat?

As my mutually-adopted-sister’s ex says, “Page 3, and a diet coke!”

I’m not defending the idea of eating oneself into an early grave, but the customer here is basically right. The liberal elite is definitely looking down its nose at Joe Doe, the regular guy on the street who savors his simple pleasures. And the best evidence of this? This cartoon!

Excellent example from GEE1A of how to set up a straw man argument. Because I think Joe has the right to eat what he wants, I must be advocating his right to endanger others. What is missing from this interpretation is any recognition that America is a free country. (Mostly. So far.)

And if you don’t think there is such a thing as a liberal elite, you haven’t been paying enough attention. Start looking in Washington, zip by Harvard and Yale, then spend some time in Hollywood.

As for your quaint choice of words, I assume they are uniquely yours and not a Leftist regurgitation. Depending on what you think the Right is, I may look like a rightist from where you are, but the Right dislikes my views almost as much as you do. But I don’t feel like typing a manifesto this morning.

[Harumph. GEE1A’s comment I’m responding to seems to have been deleted.]

Yes the customer is right. People should be allowed to eat what they like.

but CORPORATIONS should be required to supply basic nutritional information on their products.

Gee, I really hate to be the one to break the news, but this country has never been a “free” country and never will. There have always been rules and regulations and insufferable twits seeking to control others. Religious fools try to control the actions of others, the conservative elite (yes they do exist) also wants to control. As the population grows so will constraints on the actions of the populace. You cannot do and act as you please. With rights go responsibilities.

Now what’s the plastic sheeting for (the thread is rerun, which ended with “today’s” strip)?

“Now what’s the plastic sheeting for?”

Garry is saying that “the hefty” not only eat too much, but are slobs and need a large plastic tarp placed under them as a bib to aid in clean-up after they “pig out”.

It’s horrific to make fun of someone’s appearance based on race or sexual orientation (just ask Mr. Imus), but I guess fat jokes will always be okay.

All I want from chain restaurants is the acknowledgment that calling a food item healthy is ridiculous when fat, calories, and sodium are more than a day’s intake for that one item. Just because it’s grilled doesn’t make it “good for you”. Change the label and I won’t complain and I still won’t eat it… but I’ll feel less like I am being deliberately mislead.

Bagel toasted with melted butter and yarlsburg cheese, cantalope, and a coke zero. I am a happy old man this morning.

Is it really necessary for me to point out that no one is stopping the customer from ordering a Bad Boy Special, or even more than one in a sitting? What GT is pointing out is that the customer (or a real life one, at least) probably already knows that eating a Bad Boy Special is probably not the optimal use of the food dollars, and the calorie count is a reminder of that.

Let’s face it: what restaurants really hate about these food regs is they will motivate customers to order smaller portions - or avoid their fat-laden menus altogether - therefore potentially reducing revenue. Burden to the business? You are going to have a hard time convincing me food services don’t already know - or can’t quickly determine - the calorie count of their products.

I think this is hilarious and couldn’t by any stretch of the imagination be considered an “elite” of any group. But I have to commend whoever came up with the concept of a “liberal” or fill-in-the-blank type of elite. Genius idea, setting up a vague but sinister bogeyman out to destroy the basic American values everyone seems to swear by but noone really embodies, at least from where I’m sitting. Easy but effective way to push some reactionary buttons and consolidate support around the fear monger. You don’t have to look much farther for a true “straw man.”

And as for the subject of the strip itself: there’s no question that obesity and heart disease are increasing in our society, and that our food choices and quantities are a substantial contributing factor, but I guess for anyone to point this out, even in a humorous manner, is way out line. The funny pages are no place for satire.

When I see how widespread ignorance and idiocy are, how many people resist anything educational and welcome dumbing-down, then I hope I belong to some sort of “elite”.

I’m pretty sure that this one has already been shown as a re-run.

So that makes it a re-run, re-run.

“Nemesys: There is a difference between race or sexual orientation and gluttony.”

But there’s no difference in perpetuating stereotypes based upon personal appearances. Commenting on socital overeating is appropriate - referencing “plastic sheeting” for laughs becasue it’s funny to say that overweight people are slobs is simply malicious.

Don’t worry… I’m not advocating the same victim status for overweight folks as has been granted for those of racial or sexual criteria. I’m normal weight now, but as a child I was very obese. Overweight children are taunted viciously and socially outcast by their classmates, as well as by adults, through no real fault of their own. It’s just sad that we can find ways to rationalize hurtful “fat slob” stereotypes simply because… well, just because we can.

I admit that this pushes a very old button of mine.

looks more like a ‘da bears’ hat to me….although the bengals and bears both are black and orange… I’m reminded of the SNL skits about the porky bears fans having heart attacks and continuing to swill beer and chow down

not sure the plastic sheeting means the obese are slobs - think back to Monty Python’s Meaning of Life - mint, sir?

PS Shearer:

And if you don’t think there is such a thing as a liberal elite, you haven’t been paying enough attention. Start looking in Washington, zip by Harvard and Yale, then spend some time in Hollywood.

Now tell us about the conservative elite please.

Since I doubt PSchearer will, I shall make note of the conservative elite.

Bankers. Union-busting big business owners. Preachers with congregations larger than a small town. Newspaper owners (the reporters tend to be liberal but their corporate owners are red-state loyalists). Rupert Murdoch.

(Heh. Weird Al Yankovic’s “Pitiful” just came up on my iPod while I started discussing the conservative elite in this country… coincidence?)

the conversation is lively today.

Well Nemesys, that reminds me of 1995 where much criticism was made by African-Americans of Lion King for showing Scar with shadowy features (at same time as OJ trial was ongoing)–but how many complaints do you remember from naturalised Limey-Americans (or even from non-naturalised, not even necessarily present in US Limeys) about the use of Jeremy Irons as Scar’s voice?

Answer: there were none! Use of British actors to portray villains in US films is still considered fair-game.

I think that high fructose corn syrup is a nemesis and now the makers are advertising it as natural.

Regarding “elites” of any leaning, I used the word only after someone else did; it’s not how I generally think of these issues. I also generally avoid the word liberal because of its history, once meaning “pro-freedom” but hi-jacked by the Left to mean “pro-big-government”. I’ll be more careful in the future not to resort to other people’s terminologies in the failed hope I would be better understood.

I suppose there is a conservative elite (I’ve just read a few reviews of Christopher Buckley’s book on his disgusting father and mother), but guess what, I despise most of them almost as much as the leftist fanatics here do. And the mega-church preachers are the worst of the lot, would they could burn in the hell they imagine. So don’t interpret a criticism of a liberal elite as a defense of a conservative elite.

As for BlueRaven’s “Union busting big business owners”, I’m neither for or against unions per se. In fact, I think unions could be an excellent idea. But only after all laws FOR or AGAINST unions are repealed. (One small reason among hundreds why I am neither Left nor Right.)

[Hey, Potrzebie: Is your tag from Mad?]

pschearer:

GLORK” or “PATWANG-FWEEE”,furshlugginer, veeblefetzer and axolotl!