Free Republic

In my efforts to be prepared for the civil unrest that is undoubtedly coming, I'm on a mission to get into better shape in my early fifties, and have revisited the health measure called Body Mass Index (BMI.) Just needing the input from some of you who agree or disagree with this seemingly arbitrary calculation. It seems to be absolutely ridiculous to me in one sense. In my healthiest lean days I was still considered "overweight" according to the BMI calculation. Now, I'm considered "obese," when anyone looking at me would never describe me as such. If I got down...

As advertisers, affiliates and the general public continue to raise cain over Rush Limbaugh’s inflammatory comments about Sandra Fluke, another party has added his voice to the protest. A rep for singer/songwriter Peter Gabriel posted a message on his Facebook page insisting that the Brit's music no longer be used on Limbaugh’s radio show. Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” was utilized in the background of Limbaugh’s now-infamous rant, in which he called the Georgetown student a “slut” and a “prostitute.” The Facebook message reads: “Peter was appalled to learn that his music was linked to Rush Limbaugh’s extraordinary attack on Sandra Fluke. It...

Gov. Rick Snyder recently proposed an unprecedented plan to have doctors report the Body Mass Index of individual children into a state database and tracking system (the Michigan Care Improvement Registry). Contrary to the governor’s claim, this is not anonymous reporting. The records in this database would be accessible not just to doctors and nurses, but also to schools, day care providers and insurance companies — all without parental consent. Specific children could be tracked over time, as could their compliance (or lack thereof) with a doctor's recommendations. The scientific and statistical reality of this intrusiveness is impossible to ignore....

Gov. Rick Snyder plans to direct doctors in Michigan to begin monitoring the body weight of their young patients and provide the data to a state registry in one of the most extensive government efforts to address the growing problem of pediatric obesity, the Associated Press has learned. The move would help track the state's growing obesity problem while opening the way for doctors to be more proactive in offering advice, Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The Republican governor will announce the initiative Wednesday as part of his proposal for improving Michigan residents' health. The...

The secret to maintaining a happy marriage is based on the wife remaining slimmer than her husband, according to a new study. By Martin Evans 9:33AM BST 19 Jul 2011 Researchers claim both partners are more content if the woman has a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) than the man. A four-year study found that relationships lasted longer if the woman felt more attractive and desirable than her other half. But relationship experts have already dismissed the findings, insisting that size is not necessarily a key factor in a husband finding his wife attractive. The study at the University of...

Since the anti-obesity campaign is allegedly motivated by scientific findings, it would seem reasonable and prudent to make doubly sure that those claims are factual and trustworthy. Yet, we continue to find that the case against obesity is significantly flawed. Not only are the claims of an obesity epidemic often wildly exaggerated, but the science linking weight to unfavourable mortality outcomes is also frequently nonexistent or distorted.

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...P.R.O.’s license the music of the songwriters and music publishers they represent, collecting royalties whenever that music is played in a public setting... ...a significant portion of BMI’s business is to “educate” and charge — by phone and in person — the hundreds of thousands of businesses across America that don’t know or don’t care to know that they have to pay for the music they use. Besides the more obvious locales like bars and nightclubs, the list of such venues includes: funeral parlors, grocery stores, sports arenas, fitness centers, retirement homes — tens of thousands of businesses, playing a...

Quick! Run! Here comes the new fat czar with a tape measure! In case you spent last week under a rock there are a couple of news stories you need to know about, so sit down and take a deep breath.

In 1997, under the direction of Andrew Niccol, people viewed on their cinema screens a sterilized world of growing government perfection. The movie, “Gattaca,” depicted a world where through genetic selection only children with their parents’ desired hereditary traits were given societal acceptance. The children that were born naturally, void of the process called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, were labeled “in-valids” and were treated as societal junk and placed in menial labor jobs.

New federal regulations issued by Obama’s administration will require doctors to record their patient’s body mass index (BMI) ratio. No longer will your weight problems be a matter between you and your doctor. Thanks to Obama, now your doctor will be required by law to snitch to the feds on how fat you are. Like most of what goes on in Washington, this new little regulation was stuck a bill otherwise wholly unconnected to healthcare, the stimulus billsection 301) According to the government’s new HIT Standards (Health Information Technology), each patient’s BMI numbers will be recorded and must be available...

Suck in that gut and start working off that muffin top midriff. The nervy Marxists who run our lives have given themselves the power to decide who is and who is not too fat to receive government healthcare benefits. Under a new law signed by Obama our medical records will include our height and weight and our Body Mass Index (BMI) to determine if we are obese by government standards. BMI will be part of our permanent electronic health record and will be available for inspection “with appropriate security measures--on a national exchange.” In other words a clerk (union member...

New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity. The obesity-rating regulation states that every American's electronic health record must: “Calculate body mass index. Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI) based on a patient’s height and weight.” The law also requires that these electronic health records be available--with appropriate security measures--on a national...

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THE BLOG TUESDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2009 AT 6:55 AM Facts Are Stubborn Things Posted by Macon Phillips Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things." Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions. In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to...

New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity. The obesity-rating regulation states that every American's electronic health record must: “Calculate body mass index. Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI) based on a patient’s height and weight.” The law also requires that these electronic health records be available--with appropriate security measures--on a national...

Researchers investigating the use of phenols, phthalates and phytoestrogens, used in packaging as well as perfumes, lotions and shampoos, has found evidence they can cause harm by interfering with the body's hormones. A study of the effects of the three compounds on 1,151 pre-pubescent girls in the US found they caused a variety of problems in puberty. Dr Mary Wolff, an oncologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, said: "Research has shown that early pubertal development in girls can have adverse social and medical effects, including cancer and diabetes later in life. "Our research shows a connection...

PARIS (AFP) – Cardiovascular disease linked to obesity may be worse than thought while health problems associated with being underweight may have been overstated, according to a study published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on Wednesday. The paper, written by doctors in Britain and Sweden, seeks to finetune a well-known tool -- the body mass index (BMI) -- which is used to measure obesity and ill-health. BMI entails taking one's weight in kilos and dividing it by the square of one's height, in metres. A BMI of 25-30 is generally considered overweight. while a figure of above 30 indicates...

Larry Armstrong has been volunteering with his local Boy Scout branch for years, chaperoning trips, serving on the council committee, even becoming certified in archery instruction for a day camp. But Armstrong, at 6-foot, 2-inches tall and about 370 pounds, may no longer qualify for some scout outings because he's overweight, part of a new push by the national organization to ensure the scouts and their volunteers are healthy. A new mandatory weight requirement by the national Boy Scouts of America that will take effect next January has some longtime volunteers concerned they will be left out of trips they've...

British airline BMI has apologised after in-flight maps on its London-Tel Aviv service did not identify Israel. The moving maps marked Islamic holy sites but showed only the city of Haifa in Israel, identified by its Arabic name, Khefa. Israeli officials accused BMI of trying to "hide the existence of Israel". But BMI said it was a technical error - the maps had not been changed since the planes were taken over from a former airline which flew to the Middle East.

Saying she still has no idea who sent her a box of dead fish, former top homeland security bioweapons official Maureen McCarthy says she has resigned from the department and begun legal action to clear her name. Occasionally breaking into tears during a 45-minute telephone interview, McCarthy called her resignation "involuntary" and said she had suffered severe financial distress since being suspended without pay in February over the incident. "I resigned against my will," she said. "I had no income, and I couldn't use my accrued annual leave" for cash. "By resigning I got that back," she said, and could...