Glorious Mud

I was listening to a report on NPR about Army recruitment. They are having difficulty keeping recruitment up. I know. No Duh. The reasons they cited, though, were not the ones I expected. I figured that the 100% chance of going to war might put a dent in their efforts. But the reason the Army recruiter cited was (are you ready for this) obesity. Too many of the young men coming and inquiring about becoming part of The One were too fat to be able to handle the physical rigors of the army life. Now I know some of these guys are the victims of bad genes - but not all of them. In fact, not most of them. One of the guys interviewed said he knew he was overweight when he applied. He was 5'10" and 280 pounds. The army has somewhat lenient rules concerning obesity, but he was still over the limit by 70 pounds. Why was he overweight? In his own words: beer and the X-Box. He said that he worked all day in a sedentary job, then came home and consumed two six-packs and played vi...