Why is it that our most religious political party (Republicans) are always the ones most in favor of the death penalty as it's currently administered? What happened to turn the other cheek? Why is our country fourth in the world when it comes to killing our own citizens behind such pillars of human rights as China, Saudia Arabia and Iraq? Why is our justice system based on retribution instead of reform? Why is it more important to build more prisons but not more schools? The "why's" could go on all night.

Granted, I'm all for the death penalty when a person exhibits no remorse, clear guilt has been established AND they have been given a fair trial but can anyone with a clear conscience really believe that poor black men who murder white people get the most competent attorney available?

Not to mention, it costs the taxpayers significantly more money to house a death-row inmate than it does if we just locked them up for life. Why is the death penalty so attractive to so many? The victim's family rarely feels forgiveness or justice when the killer has been put to death, only relief, relief that it won't happen again. This same relief can be accomplished by life prison terms.

I just don't get it. . .
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Land of the Free, Home of the Fat.   Another book on why we're fat, how we get fat, what leads to fatness and what we can or can't do about it.  Disclosure: I'm not fat, I've never been fat, and it's unlikely, short of some medical problem, that I will ever be fat because I get tired of eating.  I can easily go 24 hours without food and since I can't afford sushi and/or seafood at every meal, sometimes I just don't eat.  So I'm sympathetic and not empathetic to this cause.  That said. . .

Believing strongly that our evolution effects every single decision we make, be it conscious or unconscious, I think obesity is a direct effect of our evolutionary background as hunter-gatherers.  Studies of primates show that they primarily eat fruits and vegetables.  Look at our teeth, we clearly aren't meant to eat much meat, and hence much fat.  And, our instincts tell us that if we have food, we should eat it because who knows where the next meal is coming from.  And when something sweet came along, a rare treat in our history, we knew it was something good and hence often gorged ourselves.

And now, in the age of fast-food and easy to fix meals, our evolutionary traits are actually bad for us.  No animal, humans included, is good at restraint.  Restraint does not get one's species to the top of the food chain.   In our evolution, when a meal was available, we ate as much as we could because there might not be another meal coming soon.  MacDonald's competely changes this dynamic.  610 calories in a serving of fries from said fast-food company.  That's 20-25% of one's daily caloric intake.  Couple that with soft drinks, nothing but empty calories good for instant fat gain and rotting teeth, and we seem kind of prone to becoming an obese species as in general.

Nowhere is this more evident than America.  I work with a guy who probably drinks 2 liters of Coke per day.  Thats 800 calories and change from a liquid which is useless in providing any kind of the energy that one's body needs to perform normal functions.   I don't need to point out that he's mucho overweight.  Combine that with a couple of Super-Jumbo-Fuck-Up-Your-Arteries Combo meals and you're looking at well over 3000 calories a day, a full 50% more than the recommended intake.  It's so easy to get fat, it seems practically impossible to get, and more importantly, stay thin.

So what does all this mean?  I'm an optimist by nature when it comes to mankind and I have a hope that we can overcome our genetic instincts and rise above that based on our extremely evolved mind.  But I'm also a realist and that side of me isn't so sure.  We can't stop killing people in anger (Gun-control types always seem to forget that we, as most animals with any kind of societal hierarchy, are a violent species.  Look at a troupe of chimps, they constantly fight for position.  Guns just make it so much easier-done with the digression), we can't stop having sex with anything that's available, and I'm not sure we can stop overeating. 

I think Americans are destined to be fat.  Our culture plays too strongly on the negative aspects of our evolutionary background.   It's sad but I think it's inevitable at this point.

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