Paula Deen, Greek Socialists, Wisconsin Democrats, and Murder/Suicide

Occasionally we have to marvel at the capacity of the human animal to not only choose a path of self-destruction, but also to recruit others onto that same path, and then finally to press on dragging themselves and us down even when exposed.

"I choose to destroy myself with food"

I speak of Paula Deen, who has a cooking show on the Food Network that is distinguished by the excessive amounts of cream, sugar, and lard she uses as ingredients. Her disgusting food is only the beginning of her treachery: she recently came out with the admission that for three years now she has had type II diabetes. For those who don’t know, type II is the kind that can develop later in life, often a result of poor diet (type I is the lifelong version).

Much has been made of the next level of her horror: along with her revelation that her food is literally poison, she announced that she is now a paid spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk, the drug company that sells drugs to control diabetes. I particularly love the remark by Anthony Bourdain, chef and host of the Travel Channel’s “No Reservations,” who said

“Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later” <source>

"Won't you join me and destroy yourself too?"

But I am far more outraged by her refusal to condemn her own cooking, which has now been revealed as a complete disaster. On the contrary, she is determined to help people “live with the disease”:

I’m working on a new program called ‘Diabetes in a New Light.’ You can go to our website. I’m going to be there for you and help you manage every day of your life with this, because it can be done.” <source>

Isn’t that just rich: she cooks poisonous food, eats it for years, gives herself diabetes, encourages viewers to do the same thing, and now will make money by helping these same people “live with the disease” that she helped give them. What a wonderful woman.

Here’s a message for you Paula: if you want to help people and yourself, (1) admit the error of your ways and condemn your recipes; (2) apologize to the millions who’ve been influenced by your cooking show; and (3) stop making money from selling crutches to the people whose legs you’ve helped break.

Greek Socialist

But in her miserable story I see many analogies in today’s disgusting world. Greek socialists, for example, have destroyed their own country; they have bankrupted it by gorging themselves, like pigs, on other peoples’ wealth and now they are left to take orders from Germans while their standard of living plummets by the hour. And yet they do not repent, oh no, they throw bombs in protest against those who say “NO MORE” and who call them what they are: pigs.

And how about Wisconsin Democrats who support the state’s public sector unions over the Governor’s attempts to finally reign in their decades-long orgy of pay and benefits raises. Instead of realizing the folly of socialism within their state, they embrace the pig life even harder and fight to preserve malignant policies.

These are all the same thing: people whose gluttony destroys not only themselves, but all those around them. But let’s not forget the kicker, which is that when the horror of their actions is finally revealed, as it has been in each of these cases, the perpetrators refuse to admit the error of their ways, choosing instead to double-down on their attempted murder/suicide.

That they pursue their own destruction is tragic; that they seek to drag us down with them is morally outrageous.