After a long weekend, and 1,273 comments later, it looks like The Great "Hello, I'm Fat" War of 2011 going on over at our sister wife blog Slog is finally (and thankfully!) coming to an end. Last night Savage posted his own manifesto in response to Lindy's manifesto—and if you have no idea what's going on and want to catch up, my Cliff Notes manifesto to all this weekend's shenanigans resides here.

Anyway, here's a clip from Savage's extremely long (for a blog post anyway) response to Lindy's blog post—NOW WITH OPEN COMMENTS!

Look, Lindy, I hear you. You don't like my posts about obesity. You don't think they're helpful. They're not necessarily meant to be helpful. You seem to assume that I post in the hope that fat people will read my posts and drop the weight. That's not my motivation; neither is shaming fat people. I'm interested in the obesity epidemic and I'm following the news about it and I assume other people are too and I'm posting about it and I'm ticked off about some aspects of it (including, yes, the vitriol that has been aimed at me over the years). And, yes, I believe that people should be fit—fit, not skinny; active, not sticks—not because Fat Is Gross, but because healthy—which doesn't always translate to skinny—is better than non-healthy. it's pretty much the same reason why I think people shouldn't smoke or fuck strangers without protection or play on railroad tracks or smoke meth or vote Republican.

I am not, however, responsible for your shame (RIP). You arrived at my posts with your shame, my posts didn't create it, and you managed to conquer your shame despite my posts. Good for you. (No snark intended in that "good for you." Seriously, Lindy, good for you.) If you don't want to read my posts about this subject—about any subject—just skip 'em.

Naturally, this is a bit out of context—there's much, much more here if you have the time and tenacity to read it. (Now can we finally get back to arguing whether or not Alison Hallett is an "art criminal"?)

If you were watching Blogtown over the weekend, you probably read about the dustup over at our sister wife blog Slog, where Lindy West took on her boss Dan Savage regarding the language he uses to label people who are overweight… mmmmmmm… "weight enhanced?" Anyway, that battle got super heated with their commenters who have logged in a whopping 1049 comments (so far anyway). READ ALL THE BACKGROUND HERE, and then hop over to Slog to read Dan's response this morning. Good enough, you think? Or should he have not even bothered? You be the judge!

UPDATE: Okay... umm... now things are getting ridiculous.

For those who love a good—and actually thoughtful—internal blog fight, hop over to our sister blog Slog (kind of sounds like "sister wives," doesn't it?) to read Lindy West take on her boss, Dan Savage, over comments he made in his "Ban Fat Marriage" post.

Lindy responded to the post by blogging this:

Hey, Dan—so now that you're equating the stigmatization of fat people with the stigmatization of gay people, does that mean you're going to stop stigmatizing fat people on this blog?

To which Dan responded in the comments:

I'll respond to Lindy's post with a post 'o my own.
In the meantime, and for reference, please link to all the many, many posts — or columns or YouTube videos — where I be all "hating on fat people." I do it constantly, I'm told, so there should be lots of examples, tons of recent ones and lots more from olden times.

Which in turn inspired Lindy to write her must-read manifesto "Hello, I am Fat." Here's a snippet:

You asked me for links, Dan, so here are some links for you. There are plenty more, but if you want me to go through each one and explain to you how these words and implications hurt and shame people, you're going to have to pay me overtime (in Doritos!!!!!). I get that you think you're actually helping people and society by contributing to the fucking Alp of shame that crushes every fat person every day of their lives—the same shame that makes it a radical act for me to post a picture of my body and tell you how much it weighs. But you're not helping. Shame doesn't work. Diets don't work. Shame is a tool of oppression, not change.

This post is currently at 525 comments, and climbing—but regardless of who's right and who's wrong in this bloggy battle royale, it's a fascinating topic and one that's worthy of our thought and consideration. (Besides, I'd bet this particular argument is far from over!) Check it out!

The last few months I've been getting a kick out of a regular feature at The Hairpin where writers/bloggers Julie Klausner and Natasha Vargas-Cooper tackle the classic game Fuck/Marry/Kill. For beginners, this is a game in which you choose three people, usually celebrities, and decide which one you would fuck, which one you would marry, and which one you would kill. It's kind of extreme, and the latest installment takes us to unheard of lengths with the ladies choosing between brilliant man-beast Philip Seymour Hoffman, lovable weasel William H. Macy, and John C. Reilly. For once, they reach the same conclusion, which includes the controversial decision to eff Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Klausner:

...the first scene of Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, proved an easy target for people (mostly guys) to point out how “gross it is” to watch Hoffman naked, pumping Marisa Tomei from behind. It succeeded as vérité in that it showed what men look like when they are fucking. That shot of his gut resting on Tomei’s bare tuchus, wheezing his evil into her, reeked of a déjà vu realism that, if you fuck men, you couldn’t help but find yourself under the spell of. It made me feel feelings.

Wow. That makes me want to fuck him.

Be sure to check out past favorites which include Warren Beatty/Jack Nicholson/Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray/Steve Martin/Chevy Chase.