Topic: The 100 Weirdest News Stories We Dugg in 2009

[nickclone]

Fun read and a good time killer.

http://www.asylum.com/2009/12/15/the-100-weirdest-news-stories-we-dugg-in-2009-100-91/

99.  Too Fat to Work Family Says $36,000 Is Not Enough Benefit Cash (1,504)

The Chawners, a married English couple and their two adult daughters, haven't been able to work in 12 years. The reason? They're too fat. Weighing in at between 240 and 340 pounds, the Chawners claim they're too heavy to find work and that the 36, 000 dollars they get a year in government assistance isn't enough to, ahem, "put food on the table." Diggydougie isn't buying it: "Ever hear of a call center? The most fat can still talk."

[idolminds]

I'm 230, WTF 240 and you cant work?

[Quemaqua]

Bull fucking shit.  I was 260 at one point and I worked just fine.  That isn't fat, that's chubby at best (unless you're 5'3"... and then it's still just chubby... just more chubby).

[Pugnate]

Yea those people are definitely not so fat that they can't find work. Idiotic.

On a person of less than 6 feet, 260 pounds is fat. On a person who is 5'3''? That's obesity.

[beo]

if you're that fat and can't afford to eat for a while - fucking starve. it'll do you good.

also, being fat isn't a disability. i can't fucking stand it when people claim it is. it's entirely self inflicted through gluttony and if you can't control yourself, you deserve as much respect as the average junkie.

[Xessive]

I can understand morbid obesity being claimed as a disability (with any number of factors affecting it whether mental or physical) but that is an extreme condition. None of the people in that story would qualify for that though. They're just fat. They could get jobs as jolly anything! Jolly bartenders, jolly baristas, jolly insurance brokers, and if they're in luck even jolly ranchers!

[Cobra951]

Even jolly comedians!

[Schlotzky5]

I think that there is a lot more to morbid obesity than stopping eating. The body is very fragile when it is nutrient depleted. Ive watched a bunch of shows about the super crazy obese people and its not that theyre eating a ton of food, its that everything they eat is nutrient deficient. If they ate 10k calories a day thats not the worst thing in the world, but when all of it comes from pizza dough and chips what do you expect? When they start dieting, instead of getting lots of fat and calories that they are craving, they go on some super calorie/fat restricting diet. Instead of just eating good quality food in similar quantities, they starve themselves. Temporarily of course, because a person of that size has large nutrient demands.

At the same time, its not a disease. Its just not. They never learned to eat properly and they are paying for it. If someone never learned how to manage their finances, you wouldnt claim that their debt is a disease would you?

[Ghandi]

They would look pretty normal for Americans.