Take a look at the list of SnyderTalk pages in the column on the right. You’ll notice a new page that’s titled “Health and Obesity.” Click on it to see the articles. The information in those articles proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that the heath consequences of obesity are staggering. Since healthcare is on the political front burner right now, you need to realize that the healthcare costs associated with obesity are astronomical.

Intro to SnyderTalk

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“For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.” Thomas Jefferson

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Facebook Group His Name is Yahweh

I use the Facebook group His Name is Yahweh to notify people when a new SnyderTalk has been posted. If you are not already a fan, you should consider signing up. Click here to visit the site. Eventually, this may be unnecessary, but for the time being it seems to be an effective way to distribute information.

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Music with Video: Fantastic Songs

He is Yahweh—click and enjoy.
Yahweh—click and enjoy.

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Business: Charles Schwab, Fidelity Funds, Google Finance, Precious Metals Prices, Vanguard Funds, Yahoo Finance

Debt Clock: The Debt Clock

Email: Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail

Entertainment: TV Guide, Yahoo Movies

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Search: Bing, Google, Yahoo

Shopping: Amazon, BizRate, Google Product Search, Yahoo Shopping

Sports: College Football Polls, ESPN, Yahoo Sports

Weather: The Weather Channel, Yahoo Weather

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Today’s Feature

Seeking Yahweh

Yahweh is holy. For us to enter into a personal relationship with Him, we must be holy too. Moses was ready to approach Yahweh directly when the Children of Israel reached Mount Sinai, but everyone else had to prepare to meet Him. They had to wash their clothes and spend three days getting ready.

Exactly what did God expect them to do during those three days? The answer is that He expected them to do what He expects us to do today—turn their hearts toward Him and seek Him with all their hearts.

Deuteronomy 4: 29 says, “Seek Yahweh your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”

This verse is very clear. We must seek Yahweh, but we must do it with all our heart and all our soul. Unfortunately, that is not the way many people seek Yahweh. God wants us to have a burning desire to know Him, and then He reveals Himself to us in a close, personal way.

Be honest with yourself, and think for a moment about the way many people seek God. For many of them, it is a once a week activity at best—a Sabbath day event. On the Sabbath day, they head for church or synagogue religiously and take their seats. Someone (a preacher, a rabbi, a song leader, or maybe an elder) stands in front of the congregation and reads from a script, and they dutifully follow along by doing whatever they are told to do. Some congregates are prepared before they arrive, and they are actually seeking Yahweh. But others are not ready, and they are simply going through the motions.

They stand up. They sit down. They read a verse from the Bible. They sing a song. They go through a well-rehearsed Sabbath routine, and they call it worship—seeking Yahweh. But they are not seeking Yahweh with all their heart and all their soul, and Yahweh is under no obligation to reveal Himself to them.

Many congregates are simply engaging in religious activity, and God never once promised that He would honor religious activity. In fact, He said just the opposite. Take a look at Isaiah 29: 13-14 and see what I mean: “Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be concealed.”

These verses make it clear that Yahweh hated their religious activity, because it was not what He desired, and He punished them for it. He aimed His remarks primarily at the religious leaders, the priests, because they should have known better. By their actions, they were leading the people astray. In effect, they were mocking Yahweh, because they must have thought that He did not know or, worse, that He did not care. Isaiah was telling them to wake up and do right or suffer the consequences.

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SnyderTalk® Commentary

Take a look at the list of SnyderTalk pages in the column on the right. You’ll notice a new page that’s titled “Health and Obesity.” Click on it to see the articles. The information in those articles proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that the heath consequences of obesity are staggering. Since healthcare is on the political front burner right now, you need to realize that the healthcare costs associated with obesity are astronomical.

Roughly 45% of our nation’s people are obese and about 75% of them are overweight. When you take into account the childhood obesity epidemic in our nation, you begin to understand that we are looking at shocking healthcare costs just around the corner. Somebody has to pay for it, and judging by what we’re hearing, it won’t be China.

The statistics are unsettling, but to me, this is even more disturbing. Many chronic overeaters get aggressively defensive when you mention the obesity pandemic. They shouldn’t be defensive though. In the end we—that’s all of us, you and me included—will have to pay the tab for their overindulgence through a combination of higher insurance premiums and higher taxes. That’s a simple, undeniable fact. You can count on it. As far as I’m concerned, if people feel comfortable imposing their costs on me, I’ll take the liberty to tell them the truth. I think that’s more than fair.

In most states, motorcycle riders must wear helmets. It’s the law, and it’s there for a reason. In case of an accident, head injuries can be reduced dramatically if the riders are wearing helmets. The same is true about seatbelts. You’ve seen the signs: “Click it or Ticket.” We are required by law to use seatbelts because they reduce injuries and deaths and cut accident costs. Both helmets and seatbelts save lives. That’s why lawmakers have decided that it’s in our best interest to require people riding motorcycles to wear helmets and passengers in cars and trucks to wear seatbelts. You may not like the law, but you obey it or you pay a penalty. Interestingly, those laws actually work.

Using similar logic, I think it’s time for us to hold people accountable for their overweight condition. I don’t profess to have THE solution to the problem, but I do have some ideas. For example, why not include an “overweight condition” premium on health insurance policies. If people want to overeat and expose themselves to the ensuing risks and costs, fine, but let them do it at their own expense. Since 75% of the people in the U.S. are overweight, increasing their insurance premiums and taxes would raise a lot of money that could be used to help pay our healthcare costs. To me, that seems reasonable. It’s a form of pay to play. You can eat to your heart’s content, but it will cost you something.

I’ve tried to be sensitive and I’ve avoided confrontational language. At the same time, I’ve attempted to be candid, so I realize that my remarks will offend some people. That said, no one can refute the voluminous factual, scientific data supporting my assertions. Keep in mind that at SnyderTalk we follow Thomas Jefferson’s credo: “For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.” I spent most of my adult life as a professor at the University of Virginia—a school that Thomas Jefferson founded—and today I am a professor emeritus at UVA, so I have no qualms about invoking his perspective on controversial issues.

As new articles on the health consequences of obesity are published, I’ll post them in SnyderTalk and store them on the “Health and Obesity” page. That way you can find them easily. You can also point any overeaters you know to SnyderTalk. They can read the data for themselves. That will take some of the heat off of you. In the meantime, you should familiarize yourself with the material on the “Health and Obesity” page. The cost of obesity is too high and the health effects of overeating are too dangerous to ignore.

I watched my father die from complications associated with obesity. It wasn’t a pretty sight. As his health deteriorated and it became apparent that he was going to die, he did everything he could think of to prolong his life, except curb his appetite. This problem touches all of us in one way or another, and pretending it doesn’t exist makes no sense.

My father was like most other overeaters I know. Until he became essentially immobile, he argued that he was healthy, that he had a strong heart, that his cholesterol and blood pressure were under control, etc. He held firmly to those beliefs until the complications associated with obesity took complete control. That was a matter of months before he died. This is the bottom line. The facts don’t support those arguments, and it’s time to stop playing make-believe.

In case you think I’m off base or exaggerating, take a look at the articles below. After doing that, if you still don’t believe me, google any disease you want this way: “[put the disease name here] and obesity facts.” You’ll be shocked when you discover that there is a direct and significant link between just about any disease you can imagine and obesity.

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Today’s Events Shaping Our World

Spinning Globe

U.S. and Western Hemisphere

Hunters and anglers lobby for climate bill They may be good ole boys, but they aren’t well-informed.
Deeds trip targets disaffected in Northern Virginia
Brazil vows safe Olympics after 14 killed in Rio
U.S., Britain say global climate deal possible
Will U.S. factories show signs of life?

Video (click title)—Is Obama tough enough?

Candidly, that is one of the most idiotic lines I’ve ever heard. Dan Rather is fired by CBS for making up news. CNN and MSNBC are so biased that they don’t even pretend to be fair. What is the White House’s response? Fox News isn’t even news. Give me a break. That’s ridiculous. It makes the White House staff look like a bunch of crybabies.

Video (click title)—Obama: economy is in better shape

Video (click title)—U.S. warns Iran to commit to nuclear diplomacy

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Israel and Middle East

“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind Yahweh, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

Isaiah 62: 6-7

The Old City

Shops and Restaurants on the Sea of Galilee Early in the Morning

The Temple Mount

Iran bombing kills 5 revolutionary guard leaders
Suicide bomber kills 31 Iranian revolutionary guards
Iran blames satanic U.S. for suicide attack, vows revenge They’re imbiciles.
Iran accuses Pakistan over attack Are they deluded, insane, or confused? Maybe it’s a combination of the three.

Video (click title)—revolutionary guard commanders killed in bombing

untouched originals 094

In the Arava North of the Dead Sea at the Intersection of Highways 1 and 90

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China, Russia, India, and Asia-Pacific

Video (click title)—militants die in Pakistan army attack

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Europe and Africa

Video (click title)—Afghanistan: lessons to be learned

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Statistical Information for SnyderTalk

51,254 hits from June 24 through July 31, 2009
59,814 hits in August 2009; 2009 total: 111,068
111,213 hits in September 2009; 2009 total: 222,281

There is a wealth of material available for free download on www.hisnameisyahweh.org including the book His Name is Yahweh. His Name is Yahweh is also available at Amazon on Kindle for just $5. If you haven’t read His Name is Yahweh, you should. The importance of Yahweh’s Name is becoming more apparent with each passing day.

HNIY bookcover in JPEG Kindle edition