Most readers of this blog know that I am not an advocate of large and liberal approaches to the definition of genocide. But the exaggerated, indeed hyperbolic, use of the term seems to have hit a new low with a recently published book: Genocide: How Your Doctor's Dietary Ignorance Will Kill You!!!! by Dr. James E. Carlson. According to the blurb on amazon.com, the book 'breaks the chains of ignorance when it comes to dieting and staying healthy. Concern for his patients led this medical doctor to unveil common misconceptions regarding carbohydrates, fat, proteins, sugars and cholesterol that are perpetrated and perpetuated by the medical community. Regrettably, with the advice of doctors millions of Americans are eating themselves into an early grave. Now, avoiding a priori reasoning, readers are able to draw their own conclusions on what lifestyle is best for them and how to initiate the most sensible diet possible.' Raphael Lemkin, the great international criminal lawyer who invented the term 'genocide' described how starvation diets imposed by the Nazis on Jews and other minorities was part of a plan of extermination. But I don't think that when he coined the word he every dreamed it would come to this.
Monday 14 April 2008
Lose Weight through Genocide
Most readers of this blog know that I am not an advocate of large and liberal approaches to the definition of genocide. But the exaggerated, indeed hyperbolic, use of the term seems to have hit a new low with a recently published book: Genocide: How Your Doctor's Dietary Ignorance Will Kill You!!!! by Dr. James E. Carlson. According to the blurb on amazon.com, the book 'breaks the chains of ignorance when it comes to dieting and staying healthy. Concern for his patients led this medical doctor to unveil common misconceptions regarding carbohydrates, fat, proteins, sugars and cholesterol that are perpetrated and perpetuated by the medical community. Regrettably, with the advice of doctors millions of Americans are eating themselves into an early grave. Now, avoiding a priori reasoning, readers are able to draw their own conclusions on what lifestyle is best for them and how to initiate the most sensible diet possible.' Raphael Lemkin, the great international criminal lawyer who invented the term 'genocide' described how starvation diets imposed by the Nazis on Jews and other minorities was part of a plan of extermination. But I don't think that when he coined the word he every dreamed it would come to this.
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Well, yeah, that is a new low, but it gets even worse. As communities across North America have taken steps over the past few years to ban the keeping or breeding of pit bulls, the dogs' aficionados have responded with predictably uninformed outrage, referring to the measures variously as "genocide", a "dog holocaust", "canine racism" and, perhaps least explicably, as "rape". Talk about unclear on the concept! (At least Dr. Carlson's subject is human beings ...)
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