Attack by "Shot in the Dark"

Sheila and I were featured in an article in Sunday’s Star Tribune titled, “Whose Life is it Anyway?…” The article lacks the normal bias of most Star Tribune articles; however, it doesn’t necessarily put us in good light.

Shot in the Dark, a website/blog devoted to current events unfairly attacked us reagrding the Star Tribune article. The author, Johnny Roosh, went so far as to call Sheila a “jackass”, which I believe was completely uncalled for and Mr. Roosh completely missed the point of Sheila’s comments. The blog post can be found here.

This compelled me to make a comment on the Shot in the Dark blog:

I am writing to express my disappointment in an article posted on “Shot in the Dark” titled “Obese? Smoke? Do not pass go. Do not collect $200”. As a fellow writer of a blog devoted to personal liberties, I find the authors remarks to be incredibly myopic.

The general point of the article is well taken; that individuals need to be accountable for their own actions. I couldn’t agree more. In our society, there are too many that believe that everyone is to blame for their own misfortunes—everyone, that is, except for themselves.

The author of the article posted on your blog, Johnny Roosh, writes the article with an incredibly insolent and judgmental attitude, and should have taken some time to do a little research on the issue at hand. Mr. Roosh also resorts to attacking and name-calling of Sheila Kromer, the co-chair of Ban the Ban Minnesota, as well as attacking me personally.

In my opinion, the article loses all credibility when Mr. Roosh attacks specific individuals, such as Sheila and myself. He also resorts to calling Sheila and me names, such as “jackass”, which seems incredibly childish and counter-productive.

Furthermore, Mr. Roosh does not seem to comprehend the point of group health insurance. It’s called group health insurance because everyone in the “group” typically pays the same rates, regardless if you smoke, drink, skydive, engage in unsafe sex, drive recklessly, or have 20 children. Nearly everyone can point to other individuals and blame them for their lifestyle choice resulting in obscene health insurance premiums. We are humans and we are not perfect.

If Mr. Roosh would have done a bit of research, he would understand that those who have unhealthy diets and those who smoke do not necessarily cause undue drain on the health care system. For example, a Dutch study shows that, “The researchers found that from age 20 to 56, obese people racked up the most expensive health costs. But because both the smokers and the obese people died sooner than the healthy group, it cost less to treat them in the long run.” And to assume that Sheila, as an individual, will cost the health care system more than any healthy non-smoker is completely baseless.

Also, keep in mind that smokers pay for an incredibly regressive federal and state sales tax, a Minnesota “Health Impact” fee, and the State of Minnesota and Blue Cross Blue Shield tobacco settlement. This results in over ½ billion dollars coming back to the state and to BCBS per year.

Mr. Roosh’s idea of liberty is essentially being an apologist for corrupt insurance companies and socially engineering everyone in our society to walk side by side on treadmills sipping tea. I’m sure if I were to examine his lifestyle closely, I could find a potential unhealthy activity or two in which he engages, so perhaps he should realize that singling out only two specific potential health risk groups is unfair and judgmental.

I understand that blogs are intended to be a venue to express specific opinions. At the same time, I felt it necessary to share my opinion on this particular issue. Thank you for your time.

Shawn R. Gertken

Co-Chair, Ban the Ban Minnesota, Inc.

I am going on the record as stating that I completely agree with and support Sheila’s comments in the Star Tribune article. It’s time that greedy insurance companies get their noses out of our lifestyles, particular when the lifestyle choices in question are not “politically correct”. Sheila was brave for making the comments that she did, and I admire and respect her for doing so. Thank you for telling it like it is, Sheila!!