It's official. Gawker has even declared Obama "a living meme." Obama stuff is all over the internet. And in my very informal survey of what's out there, a whole lot of it seems positive. This is notable itself in an election year.

In 2004, it seemed that all the internet memes and viruses had a real political focus. Now some of the websites that feature Obama seem more about celebrating his celebrity. His...Obamaness. Issues are not mentioned. The uninformed observer may not even be able to discern what political party he belongs to.

Of course you have your Obama swag. There's all the prerequisite tee-shirts and hats, but how about you surprise your Republican date with the Obama thong? Surprise, Democrat! Let's watch how fast the evening goes downhill after that. I don't remember there being Kerry thongs. I guess Obama just has that "sexee factor" that can get him slapped onto the butt floss. And don't get me started on the wrongness of the Hillary thong.

And here's what I mean about the adulation of Obama as a celebrity: many of us have seen Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle, because it's been Twittered and blogged like mad. There is not even real political subtext here, and the giant text on the page screams at you like pop art. You may have clicked on it for a minute, gone "hur hur" and then clicked away. But can you live without the book, Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle? Yes? Well, I'm sure someone will want it. Kind of dicey, releasing it in August, though. But who knows, maybe the primary will still be going on then!

Killing time at work? Then you can play with Obama. Try the Race for the Whitehouse game, a copycat of Snood, the latter of which has better sound effects and cuter graphics. Your call on that one. (As an aside, I will say that I am dismayed to see that the Snood people have piggybacked on a trend and created "Snoodoku" based on my nemesis "Suckdoku." Math is evil and will kill you in your sleep.) Ooooor, Dress up Barack! Is there something really wrong with this, or what? Well, if dressing Obama in Crocs, a polo shirt, and a Strong Bad mask is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Obama Fever! reaches its apex with Barackula, the Musical. Obviously, the title is a shout out to the old "blaxploitation" movie "Blacula", and other cultural references are embedded as well. Set in 1990 during his tenure at Harvard, in the short movie Obama fights off the vampire society that wishes to induct him into their ranks, singing to them about his dream for improving society as the President of Harvard Law as a non-vamp.

A selection of the lyrical stylings of Barackula:

Honolulu, Indonesia, never Transylvania/
Chicago, L.A., Africa, I could never be Barackula

There doesn't seem to be any deeper subtext than that. Obama will unite the mortals and the immortals, so they can work together. Maybe the message is that you should vote for someone who can talk vampires out of biting him?

That said, I find Barackula mostly rad, because like most of the web, it's about Barack the Entity, rather than anything of political substance, which makes it massively entertaining. Plus, it has pretty good singing and West Side Story-style vampire jamming.

Enjoy the Obamageist!

SJ also applies Obama to her mama at I, Asshole.

What's happening in fashion this week?

Fashiontribes creates an urbane tomboy outfit.

Couture in the City reports Giant Jewelry as a big (no pun intended) runway trend.

Second City Style has shorts to flatter every figure.

Fabsugar gushes over iGoogle's designer homepages.

Papierblog adds a couple of names to Success Magazine's Greatest Fashion Entrepreneur list.

The Budget Fashionista shows you how to wear Black and White as a spring fashion trend.

SheFinds has you covered if you're going to Meet the Parents.

The It Lists is loving Martin + Osa, the new concept store brought to you by the folks behind American Eagle.

And over at Omiru: Style for All, we dish about How to Accessorize a Little Black Dress (LBD).

Photo courtesy of Fabsugar.

The facilitator shared the overweight employees stopped by a day ahead of time. They didn't want to be embarassed. It was a good thing. All the chairs had handles and the employees would not have been able to fit. So they make a special request to ensure the employees would have suitable chairs when the training was scheduled.

For that article, I talked to Carol Hamlin, a surgical nurse who lost 110 pounds over 25 years ago by having her stomach stapled. She said after she lost weight doctors did seem to listen to her more. She said, " I seemed to become more believable." But it was not all good.

As she told me, “Many people have a negative reaction to people who have the surgery, thinking that they didn’t lose the weight honestly. People have the attitude that the surgery is cheating,” says Hamlin. It is her belief that because of this, many of the negative characteristics associated with overweight people —lazy, unproductive and lacking leadership ability –will continue to plague those who have their stomachs stapled.—even when they are thin. Her advice: get a new job, and be selective in sharing how heavy you used to be.

When I first wrote about this issue four years ago Time Magazine writer Richard Schickel had a review on the documentary Supersize Me. There was a line in the review thatook my breathe away. Schickel wrote," Everyone knows that fat is ugly and it kills.” Evidently neither the writer, the editor or the magazine executives had an issue with such a blatantly bigoted statement.

Now, four years later, the issue of fat employees is back in the forefront. The Conference Board recently released Weights and Measures: What Employers Should Know About Obesity. Kristina Cowen posted about the report and its implications on Blogher in a post called American Workers Too Fat?

According to a Conference Board report, obese workers cost private employers as much as $45 billion every year in medical expenses and lost work. That’s a heavy financial burden to bear. Does it justify employers hiring thinner job candidates, rather than those who are obese?

Workplace discrimination such as this—or in any other form—is uncalled for. But the growing costs of obesity increase the odds of it happening, along with other problems for employees and employers.

Everyone’s Problem

For employees, it can be difficult to prove employers have discriminated against them because of their weight. But an article in the International Journal of Obesity says weight discrimination is already prevalent, and just about as frequent as racial discrimination. Add to this the billion-dollar losses mentioned above, and you have a perfect storm: more employers could avoid hiring obese candidates, treat them unfairly, or pass them over for promotions.

Shirley Skeel , writing on MSN Finance asks the question, What if no one were fat? She suggests that a lean and healthy America would result in a savings on medical, fuel , food and other costs to the tune of $4000 for every U. S. household

Billions of dollars would be saved in gas. Airlines would double their profits. A dearth of diabetes and other diseases would save billions of dollars more -- and put thousands of doctors on the street. McDonald's would sell not Big Macs but little steamed chicken snacks -- or watch its profits melt away. Productivity would rise, potentially creating tens of thousands more jobs or higher wages all around. Add up the savings up on health, food, clothing and efficiencies, and you could buy a professional home gym for every U.S. household -- or hand each $4,270 in cash. $487 billion in gas, sweat and stretch pants Yes, it sounds a little wild, but the implications of a leaner, meaner country add up to a weighty $487 billion. That's almost 3.5% of gross domestic product, no small sum.

Cthulhu's Cafeteria took great offense at the assumptions made in Skeel's article including her assumption that fat people are behind much of the airline's financial problems.

Savings in the air are far greater: The jet-fuel savings alone could double North American airlines' forecast 2008 profits to $3.8 billion and maybe persuade them to stop stranding passengers because they can't afford the fuel for flights.

Yes, you read that correctly: fat people are responsible for airlines' bankruptcy, and, worse than that, for all the Skinny Folk getting stranded at the airport. Because it has nothing to do with fuel prices, or airlines' fiscal planning. Your fat ass is why Delta and Northwest just merged. Kind of makes you feel powerful, doesn't it? I'm getting a headrush from all my Fat Power! Let's see what other financial woes I'm responsible for!

Plus-sized clothing costs 10% to 15% more, so shoppers would save $10 billion on shirts, pants and dresses. And clothes might fit better too. Cynthia Istook, an associate professor in textile apparel at North Carolina State University, says the economies of making fewer sizes would be tremendous. Clothing makers could then afford to offer more variety in hip and bust sizes, rather than asking every woman to squeeze into an hourglass shape.

God, if you FAT PEOPLE would stop being so selfishly fat and demanding clothes that actually fit properly and look good, why, the rest of the Skinny Folk would have more clothing options! My skinny mom is going to be forced to go to work in a POTATO SACK because I just won't stop being fat!

A year ago, writing on her own blog, The Salary Reporter Kristina Cowan wrote about Clarian Health partners, an Indiana hospital chain that next year in 2009 will start charging workers "who smoke, are overweight ,or have high blood sugar or cholesterol."

The plan, which could charge workers up to $780 a year, has drawn fire from opponents. According to the Chicago Tribune story:


Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a Princeton, N.J.-based employee rights group, called the trend "a very dangerous road that could lead to employers controlling everything we do in our private lives."


The BusinessWeek story says other employers are interested in Clarian's approach, quoting one source who says it might be a trend.

The problem is that most of us do agree with writer Richard Schickel that fat is ugly. It is still socially acceptable to make fun of fat people and many people think that a fat employee would be bad for business.

From a post I wrote in 2005 called Fat Chance here is conversation that I had with a professional recruiter.

... I was taking a walk with a friend who had spent 20 years in the recruiting field. I asked her about recommending the overweight for job positions. This isn’t exactly the conversation, but it's close.

“ Well, I would never recommend an obese person for a job that required client contact,” confessed Claudia, a former recruiter.

“Why not?” “ Because its bad for business. A fat person hurts the company’s image. It says the company is sloppy and not disciplined.”

“So you don’t buy into the theory genetics plays a big role in weight?”

“No. I believe its all about self-discipline."

"Isn’t that discrimination?"" I implored.

"I think it's different," defended Claudia, "Fat people make others feel uncomfortable and that’s not good business.”

"Well," I said, "I think you could substitute any minority in that same sentence and at one time businesses felt uncomfortable with women, blacks, Hispanics, and gays.”

Claudia concluded, “The difference is you don’t have to be fat. It’s a choice.”

I wasn’t surprised at Claudia’s response. She is obsessed about her weight, my weight and her daughter’s weight. Heaven forbid we go from thick-wasted to super-waisted.

The fact is people who are overweight have a difficult time proving discrimination and an even more difficult time fighting it. There are very few situations that would allow someone to file a discrimination claim based on weight.

Meanwhile, businesses are doing their part to tell people of size that corporate life may not be for them. In an article, written in 2003 on the Fox News website,Liz Porteus writes about companies who actually pay employees to lose weight. The rationale: it’s less costly than paying for insurance.

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness