Strawmen Are Flimsy

I happened to be reading Fark.com, and I happened across The Daily Beast's "article" claiming that America is the laziest country ever (amusingly enough the website is mostly [IMO] internet garbage run by a non-American).

Here to refute pretty much the entire basis of 'Merica being the laziest country ever are statistics:

- Americans are the most productive workers in the world in terms of both wealth generated per year and per hour (thanks to the invention of the interwebs). Here is another fancy version with charts!

- Americans have fewer paid holidays and paid vacations.

- Americans don't experience paid maternity leave.

- Americans are working harder with fewer employees.

- You can't even keep the Americans down during the economic recession. Productivity rises 2.5% while Europe takes a 1% dip.

- In case you were wondering, here is the list of countries listed via nominal GDP.

I have to say my favorite statistic from the original article was about how Canadians use sooooo much internet during the month of December at 43 hours per person... This translates to less than 1.5 hours a day on the internet. And that is during a month when pretty much everyone is home for the holidays.

Far be it from me to start chanting out USA USA (other than a joke), but come on. You could find some of my statistics with a few easy google searches. Just posting an opinion like that without fact checking just seems... lazy.

I Thought You Were A Life-Sized Paper Doll

So February is Eating Disorder Awareness month, and we probably are not going to hear much about it (a few articles here or there). It’s also Black History Month, I’m sure children all over America are being treated to the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. At the same time, I don’t think kids in the early portions of the education system are being taught a healthy concept of weight in school besides running around in circles in gym class. Also, I don’t believe that Middle/High schoolers are being taught the many facets of the issue (genetics, production of food, cost vs. quality of food, etc) besides throwing the USDA’s pyramid at them.

Anyway, in the modern world of social media, supporting something is as easy as a mouse click away. Support the troops! *click the like button* Support same sex marriage *click the like button* Support Haiti *click the fan button* I guess it is easier than voting, and better than nothing. You don’t need to think beyond “I like this” or “I dislike this”. So I ran passed a few posts in response to an article that throws around some statistics (without actually saying much on the topic) and figured I’d post them up for other people as my contribution (something slightly better than just "fanning" a page about it). My apologies if they are a tad too depressing, but eating disorders don't make the cheeriest of stories.

Side note: the names are from an Internet forum

I've never understood anorexia. George Carlin described it as "rich c*** don't wanna eat? Ah, f*** 'em."

Then I met my half-sister a little over 10 years ago. She was 5'8" and about 140 lbs. She looked great. Pretty, funny and very intelligent. We hung out for hours smoking, drinking and talking.

We lost contact for a few years. Then, she needed help moving so I drove to Seattle to assist. She was down to around 115 lbs but wasn't scary skinny.

We lost touch again for a couple of years. Then I found out her dad had talked her into going to anorexia/alcoholism rehab. She had gotten down to 80 lbs. In two months she was back to 120 lbs and was released. She later told me the place only made her a better anorexic because all the patients traded tips.

After she got out, she immediately lost over 20 lbs. Her fiance left her. I'd always wanted to live in Seattle, so when she asked if I'd like to share an apartment in Seattle, I jumped at the chance. She was around 90 lbs at the time.

The next few years were fun. Even though she was chronically unemployed, I made more than enough to support the both of us. She was a blast to hang out with. She was so smart and funny.

After being let go from her third job in under a year, something changed. She was depressed she hadn't finished her triple major (mol bio, chem and physics) at the UW. She owed them too much money to go back. Also, she had defaulted on over $50,000 in student loans.

I was working a lot of overtime, so I wasn't home much. She spent her days lying on the couch, drinking wine and "looking" for work. She started wearing really baggy clothes. Her cognition started to become spotty. She would tell a story, then tell the same story 5 minutes later.

My other sister has her masters in psychology and is building a counciling practice. She got a social worker to have some crisis workers come over to try to get her to get some treatment. She refused. She was smart enough to talk her way out of being committed as a danger to herself.

Last May (about a month later) I got her to weigh herself. She was down to 73 lbs. My sister and I convinced her to go to the county ER to get checked out. Anorexics can't stand losing control of anything, so we assured her there was no possibility of commitment. Actually, we were hoping they would see how sick she was and give her a 72 hour hold. Nope, after treating her like a crack whore for 14 hours, they diagnosed her as anemic, gave her a script for vitamins and released her.

Over the next months, she tried to eat occasionally but would usually puke it up into a 32 oz widemouth bottle she kept by the couch. My sister and I tried 2 more time to have crisis talk her into treatment but again she talked her way out of it. The 3rd time we were warned we could be charged with harassment.

About a month later she could barely walk. Her face was sunken and her sclera were yellow. She complained of intense abdominal pain. My sister and I decided to risk a harassment charge and get crisis out there again.

After about an hour of talking she was told she could either come willingly or the cops and an ambulance would take her in anyways. We finally got our 72 hour hold. We were sure IV fluids and nutrients would fix her.

Luckily, county ER was full so we got her into another hospital. After some pushback from the ER doc, she was admitted. Or maybe it was the phrase "ward of state" that got their attention. I was subpoened to testify at her hearing in three days.

There never was a hearing. The doctors discovered that she had multiple organ failures. Her kidneys were shutting down, her liver was almost completely gone, her intestines and stomach were not moving at all and she had the pancreas of a "70 year old Ukrainian (WTF?) alcoholic."

In short she was terminal. We organized shifts so someone was always there with her. For the first few days she seemed okay. She talked and joked around with everyone. Then, late one night she aspirated bile into her lungs causing her O2sats to drop. They stuck her on a vent and pumped her full pain meds and Versaid. She never talked again.

After several days waiting for her boomer parents to realize there was no hope and that my sister was suffering, we got them to discontinue life support. They said it would be a matter of minutes.

Nope. It took her almost four hours to die. All the while making this horrible gasping sound. And then it was over. She would have been 35 six days later. She was my best friend.

- Jebus Slaves

Having watched somebody go in a similar manner, I know how you feel but don't know what to say.

The gal I knew wasn't even 30 and it took her days to die. One of the last things she said was that she was worried about how she was going to look at the funeral, she was worried that she was to fat and that people were going to make fun of her.

Didn't go to her funeral.

What makes people do that? It's horrible.

- Veteran of the Cola Wars