from the good-news-following-the-Xmas-binge dept.
Europe's top court has ruled that obese people can be considered as disabled, meaning that they can be covered by an EU law barring discrimination at work.
The decision on Thursday followed a question from a Danish court, which was reviewing a complaint of unfair dismissal brought by Karsten Kaltoft, a child-minder, against a Danish local authority.
The Court of Justice of the European Union was asked to rule on whether EU law forbids discrimination on the grounds of obesity or whether obesity could be considered a disability. The Luxembourg-based court ruled that EU employment law did not specifically prohibit discrimination on the grounds of obesity, and that the law should not be extended to cover it. However, the court said that if an employee's obesity hindered "full and effective participation of that person in professional life on an equal basis with other workers" then it could be considered a disability.
(According to statistics from the World Health Organisation, based on 2008 estimates, roughly 23 percent of European women and 20 percent of European men were obese.)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by gallondr00nk on Friday December 26 2014, @03:42PM
Being obese can be incredibly disabling. Obese people deserve the same chance of happiness and a fulfilling life as anyone else, and if legislation is needed to do that, then so be it.
Some people are genetically predisposed to being fat, and cause themselves immense misery by trying to force themselves to be otherwise.
Some of the backlash I read when the news originally broke struck me as little more than lifestyle purtianism and emotional territorial bullshit.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by tibman on Friday December 26 2014, @04:08PM
Even if the obesity is self-inflicted it would still be disability. Whether someone loses an arm from a machine at work or a sword fight at home, they are still disabled.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 26 2014, @04:26PM
OK, my laziness and lack of discipline hinders my full and effective participation in professional life on an equal basis with other workers. I might have been born lazy and undisciplined- as far as I can remember I have never been very hardworking or particularly disciplined.
But just because I lack the same drive, discipline and energy that some have doesn't mean I should be discriminated against right?
After all I can (and do) still contribute - I may be lazy but I'm not that stupid... Plus as tech improves computers and robots should be doing more and more of the stupid stuff right? ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 27 2014, @08:07AM
Maybe my laziness isn't bad enough for me to qualify yet?
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Saturday December 27 2014, @09:44AM
The courts ruling was quite clear. Being obese is not enough on its own, there has to be some kind of medical reason for it. It could be a physical problem, it could be a mental illness like depression. I'm glad we can recognize that not all obese people are simply lazy and stupid.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by cmn32480 on Friday December 26 2014, @04:16PM
So does this mean that if you physically can't do the job, I still have to keep you employed, despite the fact that your obesity is preventing you from doing the job because now you are "disabled"? If that is the case, I have a problem with it.
I can see the lawsuits coming for people not getting hired for a job they are not able to physically do due to their obesity.
Let the whining begin!
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 26 2014, @04:42PM
> So does this mean that if you physically can't do the job, I still have to keep you employed, despite the fact that your obesity is preventing you from doing the job because now you are "disabled"?
Not a problem. just send them to Florida to work for lawn services. In every lawn crew that I have seen, everyone has a 28 inch waist... except the guy on the big zero turn mower. I have yet to see one that is under 350 pounds.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by theluggage on Friday December 26 2014, @08:29PM
So does this mean that if you physically can't do the job, I still have to keep you employed, despite the fact that your obesity is preventing you from doing the job because now you are "disabled"?
Go ask a lawyer - but that's not the issue here. The issue is why someone with seriously debilitating obesity should not enjoy the same legal protections as people with other debilitating conditions.
We don't tell someone pushing around an oxygen cylinder "sorry - you don't qualify as disabled because you shouldn't have smoked all those cigarettes", or someone in a wheelchair "Tough - you knew skiing was a dangerous sport".
I'm sure there is plenty of case law on the issue of employing people with those sorts of conditions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 27 2014, @07:21AM
initially i though you were making a fair point, but i quickly realized that employers shouldn't be required to support those examples either
if you have an accident and you don't have income protection insurance, why should you be any better off than someone who had the foresight to pay for income protection insurance?
no different to if your house burns down and you don't have home/contents insurance... it shouldn't be society's responsibility to drag your ass back into the middle class because instead of protecting yourself from life's risks you chose to spend your money on a bigger tv
if this nanny state bullshit continues, why should anyone bother insuring themselves against anything, or even going to work at all, cos the government will just look after everyone won't it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 27 2014, @06:52PM
You're a beautiful human being, you are...
Vanish from my sight.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 28 2014, @07:52AM
I have had depression since a very young age and I am certain my parents would not have paid into income insurance for me because they do not believe depression exists. I would prefer not to starve in the streets.
Or are you planning on exempting disability from congenital disorders and childhood illness?
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Saturday December 27 2014, @09:53AM
Employers are required to make reasonable adaptations and allowances for disabled employees. For example, a wheelchair user could expect ramps to be installed, and to have a suitable desk and workspace where they can reach everything they need. Employers can't base their hiring decisions on how much effort/money it would require to make these adaptations, as that would discriminate against disabled people. I believe that many European governments offer some financial assistance to small businesses to prevent these requirements being an undue burden on them.
In this case the claimant it arguing that his employer should not have fired him because he was obese, they should have helped adapt the job to his limitations. Essentially it was like firing a wheelchair user because they can't play as actively with the kids as an able bodied person, rather than finding an alternative way to work or providing some extra equipment.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 26 2014, @04:48PM
I'm surprised this is being legislated in Europe. We're talking about the land where academic CV's still have to have a photograph attached, to see if you look the part. God help you if you look fat or lazy in your CV photo.
In America, that sort of thing is either illegal or incredibly frowned upon, depending on the state where you live.
(Score: 3, Informative) by acharax on Friday December 26 2014, @07:54PM
Europe is not a "land" neither is the inclusion of a photograph practiced across all European countries. Further, it's not uncommon for US firms to request health related information alongside your job application for higher ranking positions in the US and abroad (where permitted) with similar outcome and a related reasoning behind it, a practice that wouldn't fly in many European countries. I do concede that you have a point otherwise though.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 26 2014, @09:13PM
Further, it's not uncommon for US firms to request health related information alongside your job application for higher ranking positions in the US and abroad (where permitted) with similar outcome and a related reasoning behind it, a practice that wouldn't fly in many European countries.
"Higher ranked positions", like what?
(Score: 1) by acharax on Friday December 26 2014, @09:55PM
Pretty much anything in senior management.
PS: Looks like my previous reply didn't go through (Server hiccup?). Disregard if this shows up twice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 27 2014, @07:25AM
In California that's illegal, except inasmuch as it pertains to your physical ability to perform the labor required of a job (i.e. working in a warehouse requires you to be able to lift boxes). Maybe in some of the southern states it's legal, but in many states employers can't ask for health information (or marital status).
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Saturday December 27 2014, @09:59AM
Requiring a photograph to apply for a job would fall foul of anti-discrimination laws in the EU. I'd be incredibly surprised if academic institutions were requiring it, as aside from facing imminent legal problems or even prosecution, they are usually quite good about issues of equality.
To give you some idea, EU rules on this sort of thing prevent employers asking your age when applying for a job as the only reason they could possibly want to know is to discriminate. They only ask after you get the job, for HR purposes, or as part of a secret diversity survey form that is only seen by HR and never given to the person doing the hiring. Similarly they can't ask about your race, gender (unless relevant to the job), social status, religion, hair colour etc.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Friday December 26 2014, @05:07PM
I know a guy who used to say that he was 'big boned' and genetically predisposed to being fat:
then he cut out the high fat and sugar diet, started eating less and started exercising, and now he is neither big boned or predisposed.
If i am an alcoholic, should you be forced to keep me employed even though i 'occassionally' drink on the job?
If i am a psychotic serial killer (which i would think would be a 'disability'), should you be forced to keep me on the job?
And if i am obese, should your work healthcare look after me or should there be a clause for 'pre-existing condition' so they don't have to pay for it?
PEOPLE... we need to start taking responsibility for ourselves and our actions, and not making it a problem of the state or our employer.
Hands up: how many obese people have a fridge full of vegetables and very little in the way of 'goodies' (Goody goody, yum-yum). How many get off their Rascals and take a walk.
Why are we holding their hands and babying them?
I am a bit overweight: I have always been able to eat and not worry about it, but since turning 40 that has REALLY stopped (my lifestyle has slowed: my eating hadn't). So I am watching what i eat, trying to exercise more and eat veggies/fruits and drinking water instead of pop.
I am taking responsibility for myself.
Again,
Hands up: how many obese people have a fridge full of vegetables and very little in the way of 'goodies'. Don't forget the cupboards where the Ding-dongs are......
Be honest with yourself, cause i don't really care. I am responsible only for myself (well, and my family... another matter entirely).
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RedBear on Friday December 26 2014, @08:02PM
Parent is not funny. Its information is very old and very wrong.
Evidence currently indicates that for every person who successfully loses weight and keeps it off for 10 years, there are 99 people who lose weight and then gain it all back (and then some) sometime during the ensuing 10 years.
Restating: Only 1% of the population seems to be capable of permanently solving their own individual problem with obesity over the long term.
It is very easy to lose weight temporarily. A little more exercise, a reduced calorie diet, the weight drops off, no problem. It is very emotionally satisfying to sit around looking at obese people and simply marking them off as being lazy gluttons who got that way (and stay that way) by "choice". But for every person you've seen on TV who got amazing results from any given diet or exercise program, there are a ton of people who tried that exact same program and failed to lose a single ounce of weight. Some even gain weight when they start exercising. And come back in a few years and check on those people who had great success with their diet/exercise program. Almost every single one will end up weighing more than they originally did. I guarantee you that virtually every obese person you've ever seen has been struggling with weight loss their entire lives, and has lost and gained tremendous amounts of weight on multiple occasions.
Permanently becoming un-obese is a HARD problem, and if we don't really find the ultimate cause of and solution to widespread societal obesity (which is now starting in the womb, by the way) it will eventually affect your family too, so you better start caring at some point.
And this of course isn't even getting into the fact that around 60% of all you "normal"-weight folks, who think you're so healthy just because you aren't obese, are actually riddled with unhealthy fat internally and arterial plaques that will end up killing you at an early age. Those same 60% of normal-weight individuals also already have or are at extreme risk for diabetes. Meanwhile about 40% of the "unhealthy" obese people inexplicably have clean arteries and many will end up outliving a lot of supposedly "healthy" skinny people. I believe I'm quoting Dr. Robert Lustig who said the only difference these days between fat people and skinny people is skinny people are fat on the inside.
The entire Western world is having a severe public health crisis (over half a million rip-your-chest-open, multiple-bypass heart surgeries per year and climbing!) and it's affecting EVERYONE, so discriminating against someone simply for being obese is utterly pointless and really helps no one.
Go give your "personal responsibility" speech to all the morbidly obese infants we are now dealing with. Tell them to stop drinking so much breast milk and start running more marathons like "normal" infants do. Tell them how their obesity, which will be with them all their lives, is all their fault, even though they're only six months old and won't understand what a calorie is for another decade.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 26 2014, @09:52PM
Oh hey, I'm one of those 1%.
You try to make it out like the solution is hard, quote a bunch of unsourced BS and keep going. Well...... shut up because I'll tell you how someone who has a family with history of heart disease, a ten ton grandmother, someone who was well on the way on getting that big himself managed to be your 1%.
I never stopped.
See THAT is why people fail to keep the weight off. They stopped. And they dont stop because of injury, that is excusable. They stopped because of "reasons" that when you look at them, are bullshit. They went back to consuming the shit they ate beofre. they stopped exercising. I eat like shit too, I wuoldnt be exercising so much to burn it off. But I like my pizza and chocolate so that is why I'm about to go hit the bike for a few hours.
And you try to make it out that the question as to why is hard? It's not. People eat shit, they become shit. They sit on the couch, they become part of the couch. Pregnant mums have fat kids because they feed the kid shit. It not actually that hard to answer.
The solution isnt easy, oh yeah I'll admit that. But for every excuse, I'm next to perfect the response. Injury? Should see my knees. Time Poor? Turne dmy 1.5 hour commute into a training session. Genetics? Well genetics can be over ruled. Oh but ..... NO FUCKING BUTS!!!! You have to be one of the tiny percent who honestly are diseased and genetics fucked to not be able to solve your fat problems.
So..... Dont Stop. I didnt say it's easy, I said that's the answer.
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Friday December 26 2014, @11:28PM
You don't get it. We're having a generation of children being born that are literally primed for morbid obesity from the womb. As babies, they scream incessantly to be fed 20-30 times a day, and they'll be in starvation mode for their entire lives, just getting bigger and bigger. This isn't normal, and it isn't the mother's fault. They aren't feeding their babies Twinkies when they're a month old. Babies historically did not become morbidly obese from breast milk or formula.
The only way for these individuals to maintain a healthy weight is with superhuman willpower and living their lives with tightly restricted diets and the constant feeling that they're starving. By definition, the vast majority of humans do not have superhuman willpower. Evidence is showing that 99% of the population simply can't keep up the supreme motivation over the long term to deal with having a broken metabolic regulator. This societal obesity epidemic is simply not normal and not something with a simple explanation or solution. Continuing to blather on about individual responsibility just plain isn't doing anything to actually solve the problem. Infants do not have "personal responsibility". Non-obese infants do not spend an hour each day doing cardio and weight lifting at the gym.
Congratulations on having some success with your own weight issues. I wish you the best of luck dealing with it henceforth. The closest thing I've seen so far for a possible long-term solution as far as diet goes is going completely whole-foods mostly-raw vegan. Starchy foods (beans, legumes, grains, tubers, etc.) plus vegetables and fruits, all in as close to their unprocessed natural forms as possible. There is something in the Western diet (which we are rapidly spreading to the entire world) that seems to be at the heart of this epidemic of metabolic disregulation. Whether it's excess sugars, excess fats, excess animal byproducts, excess hormones or some combination thereof is yet to be fully fleshed out. But going whole-foods vegan avoids all those factors, and seems to be a pretty damn healthy way to go no matter what. I highly recommend it.
The 99% thing I keep quoting is from one of Dr. Robert Lustig's talks about sugar and obesity that can be found on YouTube. I can't recall which one specifically.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 1, Insightful) by KiloByte on Saturday December 27 2014, @01:16AM
The only way for these individuals to maintain a healthy weight is with superhuman willpower
So refraining from stuffing yourself is "superhuman" for you?
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Kell on Saturday December 27 2014, @03:13AM
This mentality is a big part of the problem. It's not as simple as "not over indulging".
In metabolic syndromes where hormonal balances that regulate saity are messed up, you can literally feel hungry all the time. When I had an obesity problem (down 17 kg and counting!) it would literally feel like you were dying if you didn't eat that very minute. I'm not kidding - it felt like if you didn't eat something /anything/ -right now- you would die. I challenge anyone to have the kind of will power where your body felt like it was on the brink of starvation and hold back. It was easier to put your hand in a fire than not eat. And it didn't matter if it was easy 'fatty' calories or the healthiest food every.
So how did I beat obesity? Well, I haven't completely yet. I've got about another 10 kg to go... but I changed my lifestyle so that I walked to work and was eating food that was very difficult to get fat on, and I eliminated all eat-without-cooking-or-extensive-preparation food from the house so that there was no easy way to give in to cravings. And then I suffered. I suffered a lot! My partner got fed up with me walking around the house complaining about being hungry. Lying on the floor in pain from being hungry. And it is literally pain - you HURT. And I did it for weeks. I didn't concentrate at work, and I didn't get anything done at home. It was awful for a long time until it slowly got better.
I can understand why most people don't succeed. Without a supportive spouse who took control of my food preparation for me, I would never have succeeded. If I had done the shopping I would never have had been able to fight it.
People who say it just takes "will power" are idiots who have never been there. When your internal balance is that messed up, you just can't do it alone.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 1) by terryk30 on Saturday December 27 2014, @06:34AM
but I changed my lifestyle so that I walked to work...
The reason people are so out-of-shape, unhealthy, and fat is they drive their butts absolutely everywhere.
(That may turn out to be not all that much of an oversimplification...)
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday December 27 2014, @04:17PM
YOU don't get it... this friend of mine who used to say he was 'big boned', etc, used to eat a SALAD BOWL (the big kind you make a BIG family salad in) of cereal, and he would spoon on the sugar for breakfast.
His lunch bag for school used to be a cookie bag: he ate so many cookies, he always had a cookie bag handy for his lunch to go into, consisting of lots of food and SURPRISE cookies.
He over ate, over sugared, over fatted.
Then he decided he hated it: girls wouldn't look at him, he felt like shit. He decided to take responsibility for himself, no excuses. He changed the way he ate, he exercised, he changed his lifestyle.
No excuses.
Now he is married and has carried his new lifestyle with him.
NO EXCUSES....
NO EXCUSES... You change your diet and the way you think (hang with fat people? Stop!)
NO EXCUSES... sit on the computer too much defending fat people? Get off the computer and stop being fat.
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT BY TAKING RESPONSIBILITY. CARPE DIEM!!! SEIZE THE DAY AND STOP BEING FAT!
Like i said: i myself have put on some weight due to slowing down... i hit 200 pounds when i was ideally 160... i have now started speeding up and i am slowly losing weight. No excuses. Cut the crap.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 28 2014, @03:32AM
No YOU dont get it. DONT FUCKING STOP.
I'm proof you are full of shit
(Score: 1) by Darth Turbogeek on Sunday December 28 2014, @03:37AM
All you are doing is posting excuses. Like the anon coward, I have all the excuses in the world.
Wrong. No excuses, do NOT accept excuses. It's not rocket science like you think it is. It even doesnt have to be that hard and you do not have to go like I have. I used to be fat, now I do Ironman.
(Score: 1) by German Sausage on Saturday December 27 2014, @02:06AM
Wow, I must be Superman. I have the unhuman will power to eat oatmeal and a banana for breakfast instead of donuts, a green salad and some fish or chicken instead of a cheeseburger for lunch and stir fried green veggies with a bit of meat for dinner instead of 16 ounce sirloin and a baked potatoe swimming in sour cream for dinner. After supper I put on my super power ring and cape and hit the gym for an hour or go ride a bike with my kids. What a shame ordinary mortals can't possibly achieve such superhuman feats of awesomeness and are doomed from birth to be obese.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday December 26 2014, @09:45PM
If you are an alcoholic, you aren't drinking, you are having a meal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by digitalaudiorock on Friday December 26 2014, @07:12PM
Yea...struck me the same way. I can understand the concern about businesses having to make all sorts of accommodations for people simply because they're obese I suppose...but if laws around actual physical disabilities started making distinctions about what ailments are "you're own damn fault" how the fuck is that going to work, especially when proof of cause and effect is impossible? If someone has chronic emphysema are they denied benefits if they do, or have ever smoked? Craziness.
My guess is that it would mean people getting the same benefits they would have in the first place, but only after making lawyers richer and costing the system more than it would have in the first place.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by iamjacksusername on Friday December 26 2014, @05:05PM
My initial reaction was world-weary sigh. While obesity is not always a lifestyle choice, only a small minority of people have actual hormonal issues that make them medically unable to not be obese. For the rest of us schlubs, having some extra weight is a lifestyle choice that we manage to varying degrees of effectiveness. If your lifestyle choices make you physically unable to do your job, is it really a disability? I usually err on the side of personal responsibility, but let me relate this Not-so-CSB.
I was in Target a few years ago with my then girlfirend. This Target had a Starbucks and we stopped to get some coffees. While we sat drinking our coffees, a morbidly obese family waddled (I am not trying to be insulting - they were doing the obese person waddle-walk) up to the Starbucks counter. Mom and Dad were easily 300+ pounds and they had a young son. By the way their son spoke, and the fact he was sitting in the cart, my guess is that he was around 5 or 6 years old. The son looked to be at least 80 pounds...the only when I can describe it is to imagine a 5 year old encased in a fat suit.
So this family orders a round of large iced mochaccino. Each person got an individual mochaccino, including their morbidly obese child. For those that have never seen them, a mochaccino is basically a shake flavoured with coffee. I turned to my girlfriend and said, 'This child never even had a chance." I felt sorry for the child. The likelihood that this child will not be a a diabetic with multiple obesity related medical conditions when he reaches adulthood is slim, given the way he was being raised. So, is it this child's fault if he is morbidly obese if, all his life, he has been raised and acculturated by parents who feed him poorly and stuff him full of sugar? It is not a 5-year old's fault that they are obese - it is on the caregiver. But, if someone is raised in such a way. do you treat this person as having some moral failing or someone who has an inherited disease? One not passed down through genetics but through culture.
I relate this story because I believe that obesity has become a culturally driven condition. The CDC and NIH already treat it as an disease-driven epidemic. So, when it comes to the law, do we treat these individuals as people whose own choices have created this or do we manage it as a disease that our whole society must address? Clearly, the law would grant medical accommodation - either through leave or some workplace change - to someone who is recovering from some injury they may have gotten when skiing. Is obesity different from that injury?
I would say it is different in the sense that being injured from skiing, or any sport related accident, is a culturally acceptable reason to be disabled. Being obese is not culturally acceptable. I am not arguing that we should make obesity culturally acceptable; that would be disastrous. I am arguing that, in the eyes of the law, these are new issues being argued under rules formulated years or even decades ago. As a society, we are all going to have to work through what the best response is to prevalent obesity. Personally, I hope the answer involves helping people not be obese.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday December 26 2014, @05:24PM
Parent +1 Anecdotal. ;-)
We have a society - a "civilization" - geared to excesses of every nature on consumption, in profit and all forms of wish fulfillment. Glorious GROWTH! Bigger, and MORE! is an organizing principle from Corporate board room to Government assembly and Celebrity car collection. There is a deep unconscious push to get MORE, what ever way you can.
This drive to excessively consume by your family of waddlers is just a single, gross manifestation thereof. Poor creatures have adapted to the imperative for excess through the only avenue that is sociology-economically available for them. Namely, that is the massive consumption of endocrine-pleasurable, cheap industrial corn sugar. The very same cheap sugar that returns dollars, for pennies of investment by the ever GROWING mega-conglomerates.
When the primary driving ethos, embedded into the fabric of your culture and civilization is identical to that of the cancer cell, how can you expect anything less than this?
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 4, Funny) by ticho on Friday December 26 2014, @06:15PM
No matter what society conditions you to, there is always personal respons... Ooh, look, a discount!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday December 27 2014, @06:22AM
I think obesity is mostly a symptom of another problem. I was (and still am) a bit of a chubby bastard, and the better my life became (personally, professionally) and the more my worries went away (making enough money to pay bills and have fun), the easier it was to exercise. Now I run on average 5 miles a week and lift weights, though I undo a lot of that effort with Ethanol-fuel and Mexican food.
What sucks is that things compound. If you're not happy in life, then it's easier to be self-destructive and unhealthy. If you are happy, then you have more motivation to compound your quality of life. Unhappiness (whatever its causes) is the debilitating disease, everything else is just a symptom.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 26 2014, @06:06PM
hurry up and invent Wall-E already!