The Monster's not on my diet. But I had a regular ThickBurger when driving back from Birmingham with my grandmother -- since she was immobile, we had to do drivethrough. I found it surprisingly good; it reminded me of the burgers at the old-fashioned drive-in in Maryville, TN ("The Burger Basket") when I was a kid.

It's not really my cup of oversweetened, high-caffeine tea, but it's not the sort of thing I'm likely to find repulsive - unless, of course, it's executed poorly, not an uncommon occurrence in Fast Food Hell these days.

I'd classify it as "justified on the basis of the enemies it makes."

I would order this burger because I was told not to.

It's not the salemanship, its the food police.

Looks good too.

Do I want one? Hell yeah!
Am I going to get one? Heck no.
Morbid obesity is causing me enough problems as it is. Now, if the MTburger can function as a replacement hip joint, I'm in for a penny and a pound.

But Hardees is to be applauded for offering choice to the consumer. My libertarian heart (clogged as it is) rejices.

Would I order it? Hell, yeah! Would I eat it? Errr, maybe over the course of a couple of lunches, sure. We red-state hicks *can* exercise self-control (evidence in photographs of my august personage to the contrary).

Looks really really good.

Anybody want to split one?

More likely.

This is nothing. There is a place in Sunnyside WA where you can get a burger called the "Super Trucker." It had everything the MT has, with a slice of ham and a fried egg as well. The egg really burnished its credentials as a high quality breakfast food. It was delicious. . .

That burger is what I want for my birthday. Fed to me by my naked husband.

That burger is what I want for my birthday. Fed to me by my naked husband.

Apparently, I want it twice.

The best part is that I can hear Ralph Nader's forehead veins exploding from where I sit. Back in the day (heavy exercise, 30 years old, 235 pounds of muscle and bone) I could've eated two of the damn things and workde off the calories by nightfall. Hey! Food police! Not everyone is an anexoric NYCmodel-wannabe.

All it needs is a Yosemite Sam trailer flap saying "Back Off, Food Police!"

Lucky guy.

I'm eating lunch right now. A salad (admittedly with some bacon in it) and water to drink.

So, no, I doubt that I am part of the target demographic for early death.

Granted, I'm not currently residing in Hardee's territory, but I can say that that burger's given quite a few up here the vapors.

As for that ad, well, have known more than one vegan with the same fantasy.

Oh to be 18 again and able to burn that many calories in an hour.

Looks good to me, and I miss Hardies! I don’t think I’ve seen one here in the DC area. Gosh, I miss the best of the south. I also like a little burger with my mayo. They’re no good unless you have condiments dripping down your arms when you eat them. A little vent here, but frankly, I get tired of people whining about these “diet nightmares”. What ever happened to being appreciative of good value for the money, huh? There is a lot of beef in that sandwich and a lot of good protein. And that beef contains a lot of CoQ10, an enzyme which is essential to good heart health in humans. The bun is the part that’ll kill ya !

The other problem with this monster is the level of sodium. If I correctly checked, this thing has over 2100 mg sodium. The recommended daily intake should be 1100-1300 mg.

I have no problem with the ingredients per se but there is no reason for that much salt in one item (unless it's a salt shaker!).

W-e-l-l, if a Hardee's was the only place around, I'd definitely get the Monster Thickburger. But in South Texas, half- and full-pound burgers abound (and thrive) everywhere EXCEPT the fast-food chains. Still, mad props to Hardee's for spreading the Gospel (and butt) of St Bubba.

Heck yes I want one. WTF

I approve of anything that CSPI dislikes.

And Ross is right, a fried egg and maybe ham (I consider it optional if there's bacon) is absolutely necessary on any DoomBurger.

The blunt salesmanship works for me but not nearly as well as the food nazis attempt at telling me what I can and can't eat. Nothing makes me want something more than some sanctimonious preacher telling me I can't have it.

> does the blunt salesmanship make you more likely or less likely to go to a Hardee's and order a Monster Thickburger?

I've already HAD my massive heart attack. Don't feel like going for 2.

Like slimedog said, in South Texas we get those kinds of burgers everywhere. Whataburger will put as many patties on a burger as you want, along with bacon and jalapenos!

Regardless of the product being sold, straight-forward sales techniques make me more likely to consider or purchase the product.

Well, if Daniel is going to be stingy about posting additional pictures of Salma Hayek, I guess this picture is second best. Especially at lunchtime.

I would rather eat two Burger King Whoppers than one Monster Thickburger to get my 1400 calories. Bacon and cheese on one, maybe go with the "Western Whopper" for the other. Trying to work your way through a Monster Thickburger would just get a little monotonous.

And yes, Phil, there is a Hardee's in Washington DC -- it's on 1st & K Streets NE, right by Union Station. There are none in Fairfax County, but a few in MD.

karen, is that just another way of saying you want multiple gorge-asms for your birthday?

I just made that picture my pc's background image. I may have to make a pilgrimage to the one Hardee's in the Pittsburgh area to try one of the things. With a diet Coke of course.

The food police people obviously don't have to work, and work hard, for a living. Anyone out there "made hay" or toted sacks of concrete, or dug a ditch? It takes energy to do lots of hard physical labor and 1420 calories is just a measure of food energy.

As to the sodium, ever tasted your own sweat? It's salty; sweat enough and you need to replace it with more sodium chloride.

While not a union guy, the bumpersticker they hand out is something Blue Staters don't seem to believe in:

"Honor Labor."

I've been to Hardee's since those came out, but won't order them... just because I don't need that much food (probably couldn't finish if I wanted to), and it's just too much saturated fat. I don't care about the calories though, I'm one of those guys everybody hates for eating whatever they want and staying thin.

Hardee's should absolutely keep offering such things though; personal responsibility is going extinct in this country, but one's own health surely deserves to be a matter of just that.

I want to know how she does it. I tried it and nearly locked my jaw.

Karen - ewww!

Here in OK, Hardee's goes by the bizarre moniker "Carl's Jr." which I guess means "The Junior Version of 'Carl's'" or "The Junior of Carl." Either way, I've never heard of Carl.

That delicious burger looks like three lunches to me. The problem is, I wouldn't be able to resist and would eat the rest for dinner.

I think CSPI does good work. I DO want the research and knowledge.

I DO NOT, however, need the whining and preaching.

Everyone can stand a decadent meal every now and then. I prefer my excessive doses of fat to come from duck or well-marbled steak, but hey, why not a ridiculous burger, if that's what strikes your fancy.

>I don’t think I’ve seen one here in the DC area.

1005 First St NE
Washington, DC 20002

I am a vegetarian and I tend to excessively conscientious about maintaining my weight--so the burger's really revolting to me. However, I question the connection between Republican politics and unhealthy eating habits. There may be not be a single Hardee's in the Northeast, but there are plenty of joints where folks who wish gorge themselves may do so. I happen to know a lot of Republicans and Christian fundamentalists who are very careful about their diet. By irony, it's one of the new fads with televangelists: combine healthy eating habits and exercise with prayer in order to lose weight. Some, such as Kenneth Copeland Ministries, I believe, even have exercise videos. I'm Roman Catholic myself, so I'll just remind you little heathens to stay away from Hardee's on Friday. ;-)

When I wrote about this back in November, I made mention of the idea that...

....for all the tut-tutting going on.... this new offering from Hardees isn't even the biggest fixins out there... I've engaged a Wendy's triple from time to time over the years... (That's a 3/4 lb burger, gang)...so this Hardees thing at 2/3 of a lb is no big feat.

And the nearest US Hardee's to me here in Rochester is about a 4 hour drive from here. (Two exits into Ohio, I think, on I-90) Still, given that I'll likely piss off the food nazis, I may just make the trip.

The Monster Thickbuger is one of the root causes of terrazm. The consumption of pork in a pornographic cocktail of grease and white bread only shows our contempt for Allah.

I just googled Hardees - there's a $1 off coupon available, in addition to a restaurant locator - its a 100 miles to Cheyenne – Kinda like “Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle” only different…

"The bun is the part that'll kill ya!"

Wow, Phil. Hear that knock on the door? That's Darwin...he wants his genes back cause you've outgrown them.

Yes, that burger looks very very tasty. But unless I was baked senseless, I'd couldn't even begin to imagine ordering it.

Witnessing the poor fat slobs waddling around Wal-Mart in Portland OR yesterday I can only assume that this will be a hit. The divide isn't between red and blue america, it's between poor dumb america and rich educated america. For rich educated america it's a guilty or not so guilty pleasure. For poor dumb america morbid obesity is the opiate of the masses. They pay for their burgers.
We pay for their by-passes.

Yup - love the marketing campaign even if we *sniff* don't have Hardees.

An odd aspect of much of the Lifestyle Left is its prudery and Victorian attitudes on everything *but* sex - after all, everything you do, everything you buy, every thought you have *is* a political statement! Glorious burgers? Offensive to bien-pensants, critter lovers, and starving third-worlders everywhere (unless they live near a Hardees), and a sign of the Evil Rethuglican Globlizing Blood-for-Oil Cabal.

But I bet that Michael Moore wouldn't mind one or three...

Not on a bet. Maybe if I lived in the Arctic and needed 6,000 calories a day to stay warm.

Hey, I eat healthy food and I run. Also I make it a point never to buy at a restaurant something I could cook better myself, which doesn't cover a lot but at least covers burgers. So does this make me a better person than someone who would order, and eat, a Hardees Monster Thickburger? Yeah, pretty much.

I'm not saying fast food restaurants should be legally liable for obesity, just that people who invite obesity should be mercilessly shamed and mocked. Anyone got a problem with that? Anyone want to restrict my freedom of speech like they did under Stalin? Help, help! I'm being oppressed!

OK, we all know blue states subsidize red states through the federal budget. What I want to know is: to what extent does blue state wealth subsidize red state health care costs. If we cut off the blue state spigot, then, I say, go right ahead red staters, eat all the monster burgers, and have all the heart attacks you want!

Food Barista;
Yeah, the point about Moore is well taken.
One of my readers pointed up that this thing was likely Carl Rove trying to kill off Moore.

Saw the ads, bought a burger. It took me two lunches to finish it, but it was very tasty. As mentioned above, I wanted to buy one because the food police said not to, and because, what the hey, it looked good.

I could've eated two of the damn things and workde off the calories by nightfall. Hey! Food police! Not everyone is an anexoric NYCmodel-wannabe.

True dat. My ex-boyfriend was a varsity track runner in high school. He was a skinny beanpole and I regularly observed him put away 6 Burger King Whoppers in a sitting.

Noah-

You're in Pittsburgh and you're going to get a burger at Hardee's instead of Tessarro's?

What is the world coming to?

If I worked like my Grandfather did on his farm in Blount county who died of hardening of the arteries at the age of 85 I could eat that and love it.

i haven't had the thickburger yet, but i have polished off many a wendy's triple w/cheese over the years.

historically, the only reason to go to hardee's has been for the sausage, egg and cheese biscuits after a night of drinking.

Tell the truth, Dr. Drezner. You developed this post (and labelled it porn) to get hits from Wonkette.

Man, if only there was a Hardys at Emory. then I could install an oil leak in my '97 F-150, and drive around the campus while chowin' down on one of these.

I wish to be judged, in part, by the quality of my enemies.

I really can't think of a better term for that thing than food porn, and I'm a carnivore. Just looking at that sandwich makes my mouth taste like puke.

If someone is stupid enough to eat that horrible thing because: a.) someone told them not to; or b.) someone told them not, then let them have their heartattack and clean out the gene pool.

Red state or blue state, this country is chock full of fucking idiots.

I'm not in Hardees territory either, but I don't suspect I'd run out and get one of these. That probably has as much to do with my one and only Hardees hamburger experience (very dry burger) than anything else, though.

I do have a question that some of you Hardees eaters may be able to answer. Butter on the bun? My assumption is that they simply do that for all sandwiches at Hardees. Otherwise, I want audio of the meeting where that got added to this burger.

The Center for Non-Science in the Public Disinterest is IMHO the root source of the "nanny state" frame. They posture on something new every six months or so. Doing so gets them some headlines, and pisses off 67% of the voters in the US, Red or Blue.

Cranky

Why is there never any uproar over the high-calorie high-fat foods served at nicer restaurants? Check out the nutional info at LoneStar Steakhouse and you will see prime rib has 1248 calories and over 100g of fat. A baked potato adds 663 calories. Then there's the butter and sour cream, and the salad with ranch dressing... Could it be that there is an assumption of better self-control among people who can afford prime rib?

I am a pretty blue guy. I live in Minnesota and go to school in New York. My politiics though don'g get in the way of my enjoyment of america. People have died for the right to eat yourself stupid or buy what you want when you want. Don'g get down on harddess for it, and most of all dont take my burger away!

"...the fact that institutions like the Center for Science in the Public Interest preach against it. Indeed, their decision to label all Thickburgers as "food porn" guaranteed that they would earn sound bites, but the effect might be the opposite of what they intended."

Reconsider what the purpose of the Center for Science in the Public Interest really is, it ain't getting people to eat in a more healthy manner. Follow the money: it's to make money for themselves. It's to stroke their own egos by getting publicity.

Bluestatesman,
"What I want to know is: to what extent does blue state wealth subsidize red state health care costs."

There are no subsidies. We get no health care in Bush's America unless we pay for it ourselves by selling our double wides or ceding to the doctor the Droit du Seigneur on our daughters.

Okay, first of all I have known about this for months. It has been on the CSPI website as food porn since the summer (I think). It was all the buzz on the Weight Watchers online boards then. I was discusted and amused by it.

Now I see this posting and all I can say, is why is this a red state blue state thing? This is the typical depiction that ALL blue staters are a certain way and ALL red staters are a certain way. Quite frankly most Americans in both red and blue states would probably equally consume a burger such as this.

The real issue when it comes to the so called "food police" is not telling consumers what to eat or not but exposing the food industry's ways of getting us to eat all this food. 20 years ago burgers were smaller, sodas were smaller and people generally weighed less.

A burger like this is fine maybe once a year but why not just eat a regular burger with bacon and mayo, isn't that good enough!

First comment, on CSPI: I keep waiting for their report on soul food. Where is it? That's pretty unhealthy food, and since they've already hit Italian, Mexican, coffee drinks, and restaurant salads, I think it's high time they got around to this cuisine.

For Californians and other people out west, Hardee's is called Carl's Jr.

I might have one when over a weekend I spend roofing for extra income.

I might have one over a weekend I spend roofing for extra income.

Sorry 'bout the typo.

I admit to trying one of these burgers (with a Diet Coke, of course) during December (I'm going on a diet next month, might as well make this month as good as possible!). It was very good. I finished the entire burger, but then I've always been able to eat a lot at once. It was very filling; I didn't have much of anything for dinner that day.

I read another blog (I think it was linked to by the Carnival of Capitalists) commenting on this burger, and how it was part of the positioning of Hardee's. They weren't going to supplant McDonald's or Burger King, but they could carve out a niche for people who want a big meal and work off enough calories to eat a big meal, like construction workers.

Remember the first Angus burger at Hardee's? Didn't one of the commercials feature a construction worker, who could only find a Hardee's for lunch for the crew? The commercial was all about how these are good burgers, unlike their old burgers.

What the heck....eat healthy....exercise daily....die anyway. Food is the other half of a good life.

"For Californians and other people out west, Hardee's is called Carl's Jr."

Ahhh, thank you, Tim. I'd just been looking at the Hardee's map (thanks, Bob!) and crying because the nearest Hardee's is about 2,000 miles away. Was just telling myself I'd have to be content with the Carl's Jr. 1lb monster when I hit your comment.

I'll walk to the local Carl's. Yeah, that'll do it.

And I know there's a Hardee's in Washington DC, or at least there used to be, due to this humorous story. My family went to eat there while on vacation. There was one person in front of us in line. It took 45 minutes to get our food. And we couldn't have fries, since no one had keys to the fry freezer. Wonderful, huh?

Let the Red Staters eat all they want. And let them get sick and die. And tell them to keep their fat, greasy hands off the federal dollars from Blue States when it comes to their health care. Unless, of course, they are videotaping their heart attacks and such. Then, we would be glad to fund that project...only if we receive copies of the videos to gloat over while we eat like human beings.

I want one, after reading this- food porn is right- this post engenders lust in my greedy little heart- the four basic food groups is a particularly licentious quote- give me beef, pork, mayonnaise and butter, and a place to eat them, replete with napkins, and I shall move the world. But I've never seen a Hardee's in New York; I guess I'll have to track one down next time I'm in Florida.

That is a _lot_ of calories for one sandwich, but... a nice French dinner packs a serious calorie wallop too (I'm thinking of the last time I had the Table D'Hote at Les Chenets- a great French restaurant in Montreal- I have a feeling that meal was well over 3000 calories, when all was said and done- and then of course there were the libations- what a wine list- "EST, EST, EST"!), and I can't recall CSPI going after fancy French restaurants (tho I don't pay much attention to them, so perhaps they do)- seems like a lefty analogue of the guardrail theory to me.

Maybe both redstaters and bluestaters like to stuff themselves, but redstaters tend to fuss less over the eating habits of their bluenosed neighbors?

Anyway, I shouldn't be too flip about this- I laugh at the idea of eating 2000 calories a day- I would waste away to nothing. I consume about 4000 and stay pretty slim- on 3000 I would lose weight really quickly. I think the idea that people have different "metabolisms" is discredited at this point- but people do differ in their level of nervous energy, and you can burn a lot of calories fidgeting and pacing. (I feel a new fitness book coming on... "The Worry Bead Diet", anyone?)

The Monster Thickburger, and its similarly lewd kin, fancy and low-brow, have their place in a balanced diet. That place is not, probably, a daily seat at the lunch table... just as the manacles, dog collar, saran wrap and 40-weight should likely appear only on special occasions in a healthy sex life. Of course it's been so long since I had a sex life that I have completely forgotten who wears the handcuffs- but I am still free to take out my frustrations on a meal of epic proportions, thank God. What a great country. You'll pry that Monster Thickburger from my cold, pudgy fingers, dammit, probly several days after my coronary, when my body is discovered- and the lascivious smile on my face will endure until the rigor mortis has passed.

"Butter on the bun?"

I assume that they put butter on it before toasting it on the griddle. Like you would make a grilled cheese sammich.

"Could it be that there is an assumption of better self-control among people who can afford prime rib?"

The uproar I, again, assume is that most people think of a fast food burger as lunch. If you have a monster thick burger for lunch, dinner will kill you. Plus, at the price, you could have a monster thick burger everyday. A 1000 calorie Prime Rib would be reserved for less frequent occasions.

2/3 of a pound and everyone's this up in arms? Pansies.

Just have to say the notion that blue-staters "don't honor labor" is on a par with the notion that Republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility.

I had one last week in Bristol, TN while driving back up to DC. It was delicious!

Can I get some fries with that?

From Webster's "pornography: (n) 1. The depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement; 2. Material (as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement." While I no doubt suspect many red-staters do in fact become sexually aroused at the site of the monster thickburger (sounds like a self ascribed nickname for 'little Kerrick'), what did porn ever do to deserve being equated with this repulsive colonic nightmare?

The ad campaign is great. We all know that fast food is bad for ya.

The advertising capitalizes on the resentment we all feel when the food-nazis tell us what to do. It doesn't pretend we don't know whats best for us and it doesn't think we can be fooled - a polar contrast to food-nazi rhetoric.

I tend to eat very healthy - I think it is common among conservatives. Of course the burger and beer stereotype fits like a glove onto the oh-so-superior liberal mind.

I miss the good old days when liberals were the only ones speaking in hyperbole. Just who are these 'food-nazis'? Since when did CSPI have such influence over access to or availability of crap? Most defenders just seem to like the sound of their own rant.

I'm all in favor of people having the choice to eat themselves to death, but I'm amused to see how many people wish to eat the Monster Thickburger primarily to spite the CSPI. So when the CSPI singles out pickled goat intestines, how many of you stick-it-to-The-Man eaters will be lining up to sample some?

You know who the food-nazis are ...

there was one in Wizard of Oz, lived in a cornfield, thought he needed a new brain,

remember ... the straw-man.

Epic Proportions:

The more I learn about Aussies, the more I like them. Those sound like my kind of fries. OTOH, I tried their steaks, and they were wanting. Thanks for the link though- I do my best to gain insight into other cultures. Anyone ever had Putine? That's yummy.

But- y'all are getting awfully worked up about a hamburger, IMNSHO. The red state/blue state thing has to stop at some point on the food chain- tho from the looks of it we'll soon be arguing over the political affiliations of protozoans and yeasts (another culture I know little about- but I'm eager to learn).

People like to gorge themselves. "... while we eat like human beings" has resonance, after our latest calamitous century, but it is a frightening resonance.

Love the Burger! I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, in the same context, the companion tome "Eat What You Want and Die Like A Man" by Steve H. Graham of HogonIce.com. (shameless plug, but I don't profit - unless you just want to send me money)

Puzder and the Hardee's execs are laughing all the way to the bank. Their strategy's so obvious it's a wonder their critics have fallen hook link and sinker for it.

If you want to sell a junk movie to adolescents, give it an 'R' rating. If you want to sell junk rap, get one of those Obscenity Warning labels on it. If you want to sell junk food, get the greenies and health gurus to give you more free advertising than you could possibly budget in ten years. Brilliant.

how many of you stick-it-to-The-Man eaters will be lining up to sample some?

Ain't afraid of no man-eaters here. Nothin' but a paper tiger.

Sean,

Let the Red Staters eat all they want. And let them get sick and die. And tell them to keep their fat, greasy hands off the federal dollars from Blue States when it comes to their health care.

Um, sorry to piss on your tofu, Sean, but the biggest consumers of junk food in this country, by far, are African-Americans.

Also, you might wish to direct some of your ire at Mikey "FoodPorn King" Moore, who, last I checked, lives in Manhattan.

First, regarding politics, if people aren't even responsible for what they CHOOSE to put in their mouths (and stomachs), what the *%$@$! are they responsible for?!?

Second, regarding calories, the 2000 calorie diet is a joke. My metabolism TANKED after having mono (slowly recovering, years later), and I still am only about 15 pounds overweight after eating 3000+ calories a day and sitting on my butt ALL THE TIME.

Third, 2/3 of a pound? LAME! There's a little place in Texas called Arnold Burger, where they serve burgers by the inch. Their "baby" burger is a quarter of a pound, their "junior" burger is a half-pound, and the their "normal" burger is... I don't know, more than that. It's referred to as the 6" burger - because it's 6 inches across. They offer 6", 9", 12", 16", and 18". They bring the bigger ones out in pizza boxes. No, I am NOT kidding!

I'll probably never have one of those Monster burgers. What pleases me however, is the sight of a businessman standing up, however modestly, to that which is politically correct.

Usually, businessmen cave at the first sight of a PC cop.

Hopefully other businessmen will follow Mr. Puzder's lead.

It's pretty surprising how all the comments are focusing on the calories in the burger--which you can in fact exercise off, or whatever--rather than on the incredible amount of saturated fat in it (more than 10 times the upper limit of what you can eat regularly without sending your risk of developing heart disease straight off the charts).

It's the 'blood-sludge'--which you can never, ever get out of your body, no matter how much manual labor is involved in your job, and which causes the heart disease that makes men just flat-out die (the no. 1 cause of men's deaths in the U.S.)--that is worth worrying about here. The blood sludge is also what, straw men notwithstanding, is what would make anyone who ate this thing nuts, and drives my own anger at Hardee's intentionally setting out to make the fattiest possible burger.

Even when you're 18, sucking saturated fat through a straw is bad. It won't make you drop dead on the spot, but it will definitely, provably increase by a big multiple your chances of dropping dread a couple decades down the road (even if you're skinny at the time). Which is worth worrying about.

I also love how, although the Government is not involved in this debate at all, as far as I can tell--only a small, underfunded website called the Center for Science in the Public Interest--conservatives are reflexively using all their usual rhetorical artillery to promote . . . heart disease? They're literally trying to politicize BMI, or Body Mass Index, as a government ploy to do something wicked. I'm pretty sure they're going to say that bathroom scales are a government conspiracy next. It's amazing--look at www.consumerfreedom.com (be sure to read "About Us" for their failure to specify their funding sources while you're at it) and you'll quickly see what I mean.

To be accurate, I guess this is really an example of Republican openness to promoting any old thing a large corporation wants to promote, however ideologically incoherent it is, rather than of "conservativism" in action--there's nothing actually conservative going on here that I can identify, in the "I'll Eat a ThickBurger, Die, and Love It, Because It Pisses Off Meddling Liberal Nannies!" strain of discourse. It's something else.

This burger is mere child's play compared to the Mega Mel Burger at Mel's Country Cafe in Tomball, TX. Try this on for size:

1 1/2 pounds of meat, 1 pound of bacon and 1/2 pound of cheese with all the trimmings on a light fluffy roll.

Hardee's is for chumps. Mel's is for champs.

C'mon red staters, eat another Thickburger. Smoke a couple of cigs while you're at it. Then get drunk and go deer hunting. Jesus says it's OK.

http://anonymous.coward.free.fr/temp/fat-vote.gif

burgers made at home don't have all the garbage in them that fast food junk does. eating meat won't kill you, we've been doing this for millions of years, junk, however will kill you, processed food is poison.

When a blue stater, or anyone else, has a long meal at a French restaurant, including 1/2 of a nice bottle of wine and a decadent desert, the calories and fat grams likely surpass this fine hamburger.

Humby:

Can I call you Humbert Humbert? Is that what you meant to evoke with that nick? Just curious. I've noted an interesting phenomenon lately, as the blue state/red state thing has heated up. Many blue staters I meet seem to consider themselves well read _by right_ of being blue staters.

It's not that they've read much beyond what was assigned in high school- it is just that their self image includes "well read" as an attribute. They are capable of saying "Dylan Thomas- yeah. I think I've heard of him" (as an incorrigibly smug blue stater said to me last night)- and they still consider themselves well read- well, that is fashion, I guess, and the blue/red divide is all about fashion.

Do you actually mean to imply what your nick implies? Humby is the second best known name in English literature, I'd guess, after Ishmael.

Anyway, Humbert, I dislike the right as much as you do- I dislike it, mostly, for its totalitarian tendencies. I dislike it for its drug policies, among other things. What one ingests is one's own business, IMHO, as long as one doesn't mug little old ladies to get money for smack- a few years back the American Left had that idea going for it at least.

You are wrong when you dismiss the idea that what people eat might be regulated. We've seen the first suits, by prominent trial lawyers, against the fast food chains. These guys are mercenary- they sue only where they think there is the potential of profit- but they look at the long term- suing McDonald's, today, seems as silly as suing Philip Morris seemed 20 years ago.

It's easy to dismiss queasiness about state control of diet as "Rethuglicanism". But let's cut to the actual meat of the subject- you can be as repulsed as you like by that sandwich (tho I'd suggest that being seriously repulsed by a gif of a sandwich indicates deep problems, or an agenda).

If you were not a totalitarian, at heart, you would feel no need to politicize 2/3rds of a pound of beef on a bun. Politics is _always_ about telling people what to do. That is the function of government.

I laugh my ass off watching people who have spent years fighting to legalize heroin (and have succeeded in getting the government to hand it out in the form of methadone- smack in a cup) flip out about hamburgers.

You are right that there is a red/blue dimension to this, though- when creme fraiche, foie gras, etc are as demonized as the mighty mighty Thickburger- well I'll still think that hamburgers shouldn't be regulated.

I love all the sanctimonious "blue staters" chiming in about hoping people die. I also love them chiming in about having to subsidize my "health care". Guess what? I have spent plenty of money subsidizing yours, honey. The company I work for has the vast majority of it's work force in "blue states". We get a yearly physical paid for by the company. Mine has come back clean for the last 17 years (my length of employment with them). I smoke, I eat burgers, I own guns and I do just about anything that some idjit Mooreon/Deaniac would be against.

In my department we have a card carrying member of the Green party (really!). A true blue Mooreon, member of moveon.org, a strict vegatarian, a driver of a totally elecric car with all the politically correct LLL bumperstickers on it who makes the same kinds of snarky comments that our "bluestate" posters do. Guess what? This man has been hospitalized numerous times over the last 15 years. He has high blood pressure, heart and digestive problems, etc. The last time it was because he had so little iron in his blood he started bleeding internally! Why? Because of his "healthy" diet. I have paid thousands of dollars into my companies health care plan to subsidize his "healthy lifestyle".

I think back and will always remember these fine examples.

James Fix, inventor of the jogging craze and "health nut"-Dropped dead in his 50's.

Doug Henning, magician, macrobiotic dieter and classic LLL-Dropped dead in his 50's.

George Burns, comedian, smoker, drinker, carouser-lived till he was 100.

My father, smoker, tobacco chewer, loved burgers whose idea of 'exercise" was watching Golf on TV, a card carrying member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party-Died at the age of 91 in his sleep of natural causes. Never had any of the "health problems" that the "bluestaters" shriek about from living life like he did.

Forgot to add that the other person in our department who has major health problems is our other "bluestater" LLL. He is a rabid Democrat from New Jersey, Mooreon/Deaniac. Guy ends up in the hospital for something or another about every 90 days.

Will leave you with something my father said.

"Everything causes cancer-and nothing does. Everything is good for you and everything is bad for you.

These idiots who put out these studies trying to tell you what is and is not good for you have an agenda they want to push. I don't believe a word of their bullsh*t"

First, Sean said:

Let the Red Staters eat all they want. And let them get sick and die. And tell them to keep their fat, greasy, hands off the federal dollars from Blue States when it comes to their health care.

Then, Thibaud replied:

Um, sorry to piss on your tofu, Sean, but the biggest consumers of junk food in this country, by far, are African-Americans.

Thibaud, what part of Sean's post even mentioned race? Apparently, you believe that we African-Americans live in a part of the country which is neither "Red" nor "Blue"...

(For the record: I do occasionally enjoy a Whopper (no cheese) now and then, but the best burgers I've had recently are the ones I cooked on my George Foreman Grill...)

All it takes to get you people to want to do things that are unwise and unhealthy for you is for a supposed liberal to tell you it's bad for you?

As a proud, bleeding-heart liberal from a true blue state I tell you all this--

DO NOT play in traffic.
DO NOT drink a whole 5th of Jack Daniels and drive a car.
DO NOT let your five year-old run with scissors or play with a loaded gun.
DO NOT cover yourself in honey and jump into a bear enclosure at the zoo.

Seriously, just how reactionary and myopic can a bunch of adults be? I personally am sick of how excessively health-obsessed American culture has become, but in this case it's totally justified.

All that people are doing is pointing out the obvious-- that the eating habits of Americans are atrocious and that the popularity of such "food porn" can and will be a drain on our entire society. Jeebus, if ya'll think the health care system is screwed up now it's only going to get a lot worse due to a lot of health problems that are preventable.

There are many other constructive and creative ways to be irresponsible and thumb your nose at (supposed) liberal messages. Frankly eating food like this isn't one of them. You're only hurting yourselves.

Do we really want to be known as the country that proudly ate iself to death? Last time I checked, sloth and gluttony were both deadly sins. Although in this case, it's literal.

I'll have to do some detective work and see if the Hardee's here in San José, Costa Rica sells the Thickburger. I wouldn't order anything like this in a month of Sundays (I can feel my gorge rising at the very thought), but I applaud Hardee's for not giving in to the Health Fascists. The CSPI is a repellent organisation - a partisan left-wing attack group that hates capitalism and consumer choice.

Ah, yes, the perpetual adolescence of American culture. Just because someone says "you shoudn't do that" makes it all the more attractive.

It's not like anyone is trying to outlaw gorging on meat, or take away your right to decide what foodstuff to shove in your mouth. Yeah, a few lawyers are going to try to play the fast food companies for the money, but no one is going to pry that burger out of your hands.

What even makes this a red/blue issue? There are dozens of places in L.A. where you can get huge burgers, smothered with cheese and swimming in chile, with nary a "food-nazi" picket to be seen.

I think folks are getting all hot and hostile over this because they want to, not because anyone's ox is in danger of being gored. (Gorged, maybe...)

Just out of curiousity, what ever happened to personal responsibility? No one is forcing people to eat this thing, but you know what? I go to the gym 4 times a week, I usually eat pretty healthy, but every once in a while I might want one of these things. These people at the Institute for the Center of Science and Stupidity or whatever it's called is telling me I can't? Sorry, pal, that doesn't sit well with me.

Once again our society demonstrates how they can't handle making their own decisions, and somehow it's Hardees fault that we weigh 600 lbs and scarf down three of these every night.

This is why I refused to watch Supersize Me. What exactly was the point of that movie? What message was it telling us? That fast food is unhealthy? That if you eat every meal for 30 days at McDs you'll grow fat? If you didn't know that already you should be banned from reproducing, and should just go hide yourself in a corner somewhere and stop dumbing down the rest of the gene pool.

>>Let the Red Staters eat all they want. And let them get sick and die. And tell them to keep their fat, greasy, hands off the federal dollars from Blue States when it comes to their health care.

You might want to check out what opinion journal.com calls the Roe Effect. You blue states are too busy packing the waiting rooms of reception clinics, you'll be gone long before we will.

And personally, I would eat this Thickburger very rarely, if at all. I think what gets some of us hot under the collar is this lefty organization blaming Hardee's for this. If people are going to buy it, they'll sell it. But if you go after the people and educate them about wise eating habits, there will be no market for the Thickburger. But blaming Hardee's isn't going to get you anywhere.

>>You might want to check out what opinion journal.com calls the Roe Effect. You blue states are too busy packing the waiting rooms of reception clinics, you'll be gone long before we will.

Ha! I messed that one up. Should be "reception rooms at abortion clinics". I wonder what a reception room is.

Maybe I should try the preview button

:)

"Thibaud, what part of Sean's post even mentioned race? "

His post was apposite. He pointed out a fundamental hypocrisy. Let me put it this way: if I had posted this: "Let the Niggers eat all they want. And let them get sick and die. And tell them to keep their fat, greasy, hands off the federal dollars from White People when it comes to their health care..." you would be outraged. You would be right to be outraged. (and for the illiterate, don't email me telling me how outrageous that is- I know that it is offensive- that is the point- it does not, in any way, represent my beliefs).

But I only changed three words. Is the idea I presented above one that you want to stand behind? No, unless you're a Klansman. Is it one you want to stand behind when it applies only to white guys who watch NASCAR?- well, that's up to you. I assume that everyone I meet is human- I might divide people into classes, but I assume that they are still people.

In California, "Hardee's" are called "Carl's Jr." Carl's Jr. was started by Carl Karcher, who named the chain after his hotdog stand. There are many Carl's Jrs. on the 5 through the Central Valley. Carl Karcher was a frequent target of "liberals" due to his donations to right-wing causes.

For many people, the RDA of calories is above 2000. I consider mine to be 2500 to 3000.

For some details about CSPI that might cause you to doubt their word, see this.

Hey, Humby: what's this "blood-sludge" you're talking about? Is that a technical term?

Are you arguing that we never, ever metabolize saturated fat?

I can not get over this red state blue state myth!! What planet do we live on? I am from Upstate NY, I have NEVER eated fois gras, most people I know never have either. I lived in Wisconsin for a while, also a blue state and do you know what people eat there? Beer and sausage and they hunt and like NASCAR. And you know they do that in NY also!!

I am sick and tired of this stupid idiotic idea that liberals and conservatives fit into some sort of social mold. I like dive bars and beer and burgers and one of my most conservative, red state friends likes fancy trendy expensive bars and drinks cosmopolitans.

I can not believe that so many people on both sides have so completely bought into the myths of the latte drinking, volvo driving liberal and the beer drinking burger eating truck driving conservative!!! These stereotypes are manufactured by the inept media. I just think this is all so stupid.

Klug: According to many hundreds of studies over the last forty years, excessive saturated fat intake increases levels of low-density cholesterol in your bloodstream, which will then build up on the lining of your blood vessels--this is the 'sludge,' building up like sediment wherever it can find receptive blood-vessel walls, that I was invoking. When you have a lot of plaque built up on your blood-vessel walls, narrowing them (this condition is called atherosclerosis, or the 'hardening of the arteries' that an earlier poster seemed to be unaware his late father's diet could itself have caused--since it's not an inevitable consequence of aging, but depends almost entirely on heredity and on what you eat)--anyway, once you have plaque built up all along your blood-vessel linings, and sometimes flaking off and tumbling into position to block your veins altogether, you have the makings of coronary artery disease and perhaps a heart attack. That caking-up of your blood-vessels can't really be reversed (this side of an angioplasty). See The Harvard Guide to Men's Health, chap. 3, for more information. And that's why I'd think twice about eating anything, like the Monster ThickBurger, that contains 107 grams of animal fat.

Tagore Smith: The answer to your question would be no! (I am happy to hear, though, that you are genuinely well-read and not just bragging about it, unlike those others you could name. Not to mention your being impressively unafraid to say the N-word--though of course Purely For the Sake of Argument.)

For my part, the only red-blue issue I can see here is cynical use of libertarian sensibilities by big junk-food businesses--invoking 'food Nazis' who are about as clearly a fantasy as any useful bogeyman could be, unless every American doctor is a food Nazi as well--to politicize a series of straightforward public-health issues simply as a way of changing the subject. The medical arguments here are unanswerable, so they don't try. They just wave the bloody shirt of nannyism and watch right-wingers line up behind them. Reflexively.

It's smart, and it seems to work pretty well at this point for more or less any issue, however random (though I have to say this is about as far as I could ever have imagined its being taken, attacking the very idea of 'healthy weight' as itself being a totalitarian-leaning intervention by Big Government). Microsoft, for instance, actually tried to do more or less the same thing--didn't they (through their Astroturf organizations) say something like, the government wasn't trusting people to choose to have Internet Explorer tied to the foundations of Windows, or something? You may think that was a stand on principle, too--but I think if you look at the loudest voices taking part in this conversation, it has a lot more to do with specific companies' interests than with American freedom.

Anyway, there's probably no hope of common ground here (with Tagore Smith), since you bring up the tobacco lawsuits as a scary example of what might happen if we don't stand up for Hardee's ThickBurger. So I am guessing you think the anti-tobacco lawsuits were a scandal, while I on the other hand am delighted that the tobacco companies that had boardroom conversations about how to drive up the addictive potential of their cigarettes to is absolute maximum with additives like ammonia, and about actively obfuscating the public health issues surrounding smoking, eventually had to answer for it.

Speaking of trust in the people--I think if you believe in trial by jury as a good means of finding out the truth about things, the prospect of private citizens suing each other to settle matters when they think they've been wronged is not something you need to bring in the government to shut down. Foreclosing recourse to one of the basic elements of Anglo-American liberty--trial by jury--seems to me unlikely to do anything except help limit democracy, rather than promote it. And I'm quite sure I'm not a 'totalitarian' for believing that.

Oh you poor poor pitiful people with no Hardee's near. I guess you haven't seen the earlier commercials, like "why the last place you would ever go for a burger is now the first," or "I sell hamburger patties to restaurants, so when someone called up and asked for a half pound burger made of angus beef it was the best quality patty I'd quoted for years, and when he said he was from Hardee's I fell out of my chair." It's true, Hardees burgers used to be greasy grotesqueries. They were like a down-market, super-sized White Castle. The only thing worse than a burger at the *old* Hardees was the droopy, flabby, greasy, undercooked fries. Now Hardees has great burgers (with a lot of calories, but everyone can eat a big meal once in a while), crispy fries, and Hershey's brand scoop ice cream (try the peach). The worst thing about it is no Coke products. Pepsi products only. So go with a Mountain Dew, why not?!

It's like this. Eat a horse, err, a Six Dollar Burger one day. Run around and whinny the next day, and eat salads for lunch and dinner and a handful of pistachios for snacks. Play an extra round of golf, or run an extra couple of miles. Enjoy your life, and don't hold back.

Cheers,
Loren

"I'm going to eat something because x told me not to"

wow....we (as a nation) really have turned into a bunch of spoiled children, haven't we?

"This is the epitome of corporate irresponsibility, marketing this kind of junk," said Michael Jacobson, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "We call this kind of product food porn."

This fool needs to run a few focus groups on his choice of attack lines. If he had, he might discover that "food porn" is a highly positive tongue in cheek term that those who love food and cuisine often use to describe lush images of rich food, or shows like Alton Brown and Iron Chef.

For that matter, he might've discovered that there an extremely popular LJ community called that, devoted to people posting decadent pictures of food.

"This is the epitome of corporate irresponsibility, marketing this kind of junk," said Michael Jacobson, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "We call this kind of product food porn."

This fool needs to run a few focus groups on his choice of attack lines. If he had, he might discover that "food porn" is a highly positive tongue in cheek term that those who love food and cuisine often use to describe lush images of rich food, or shows like Alton Brown and Iron Chef.

For that matter, he might've discovered that there an extremely popular LJ community called that, devoted to people posting decadent pictures of food.

Apologies for the DP.

Obesity epidemic in Yankeeland?
Noooooo...
I´m hungry now.
Look the other way!
Eat, then look the other way.
Obesity? nah.

Anyone who takes anything the food police says serious should read Terry Pratchett's "Good Omens" In it, Famine, a member of the famed Horsemen of the Apacolypse, has taken the job of world renown diet doctor, inventing various forms of "foodless food".

Since I read that, I have never been able to take anything these folks say about obesity seriously.

So, reverse psychology and threats of banning a product or practice causes Red-Staters to heartily embrace them? If so I'll chip in for public service announcements featuring Hillary Clinton and Michael Moore. They'll be advocating a constitutional amendment making it illegal to eat Drano and wash it down with bleach, effective anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

All this talk by the Food Police makes me think of a Pro-Choice bumper sticker I once saw: "Against abortion? Don't have one".

I believe the Blue State types could at least be intellectually consistant if they embraced a similar slogan:
"Against Monster Thickburgers? Don't buy one".

Hmmm, I don't recall anyone suggesting banning this burger.

I do love though how people blame "Liberals" or "Government" telling them how to eat and think but nobody ever mentions how large corporations and food companies try and use that line of thinking to sell more burgers or other products.

I don't care if someone eats this thing but I do find it strange when "Conservatives" blame "Liberals" for telling them what to do and then they look at Hardees or Wal-mart and say, " I am being a good American, I will eat myself to death."

It's just like people who say that universal health care would impose too much bureacracy on all of us, when we already have bueacracy run by the insurance companies. Which would you rather have making the decision? someone concerned about the bottom line or your health?

Let's point fingers at the ones who are actually telling us what to do not who the media and big business tell us to.

Doesn't the "fist girl" have lovely "real woman" curves? wouldn't she just make a splendid dessert?

The advice has some stereotypical Murikanisms in it:

Avoid [] unpasteurized juices, [].

Fresh (orange) juice is indefinitely better than that stuff they sell in glass or cardboard.

(Fresh as in direct from fresh fruit. Not fresh in the modern meaning of 'not frozen'.)

Anybody know who she is? Just curious...

Hey, CSPI, I thought porn was supposed to be Constitutionally protected speech, and only unenlightened prudes could possibly have any objection to it?

What up?

I love how the people who complain about the "food police" are the same people who complaint that the cost of healthcare is due to malpractice lawyers. Check your cholesterol, fatties!!

Hey, we had this up before you did!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/pickin_boogers/cheeseburgerhelmit9dy.jpg

My son told me the secret to eating something so large in order to win a contest is to break it down to it component and eat one ingredient at a time.

Why don't they just call it
"The HeartAttack?"

Urgh. If I might prompt your editor, big red pen the next time you make snarky statements about 'blue staters' vs 'red staters'. You try to weasel out of it with a joke that this is about the What's the Matter with Kansas notion that "red states" voters are getting fooled; but then later on you connect this supposed metaphor to reality by associating the red state to lifespan due to eating thickburgers.

There are health-conscious Republicans and non-health conscious Democrats. Creating an artificial divide that simply caters to stereotype (liberals are wussy vegetarians, conservatives are manly meat-eating he-men) is just label-baiting.

I love a good hamburger, but just looking at a picture of this thing--- let alone the idea of actually eating one--- is enough to gag a maggot. Anyone who thinks that that bacon, cheese, and mayo all slopped together (whether on a hamburger or not) is a taste treat has some real food issues going on. I can't imagine a more revolting combo.

This burger is symbolic of all of America's bad qualities.

It's actually a Blue state strategy to reduce the population growth in the Red States.

Just picked up a story about a 5 lbs burger, with 5 lbs of toppings, being served up at a bar in Clearfield PA.

Apparently, the only person who was ever able to eat the whole thing inside three hours was a 110lb coed from Jersey who made the 5 hour drive just to eat this thing.