Free Republic

Barney Frank got the snot kicked out of him tonight at a raucous Town Hall, but "punched back twice as hard." TV clips show enraged constituant after constituant asking him how he could support such a horrid bill. He refused to budge an inch, although he was sweating heavily in the summer heat. His money quotes: "We'd already have the money for national healthcare if Bush hadn't started his illegal war in Iraq" and, to his constituants, "talking to you is like talking to a table." Perhaps the glow is off the Barnster come Nov 2010.

Obesity is more dangerous than smoking and will dramatically shorten the lives of millions, a landmark study has found. While smoking reduces life by an average of ten years, the research says being seriously overweight can cut life expectancy by as much as 13 years. The Foresight report, written by 250 leading scientists, says Britain's obesity crisis is so severe that it would take at least 30 years to reverse. If current trends continue, by 2050 about 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women and 25 per cent of children in the UK will be clinically obese...