Jan. 18 - You want paddles with that?

Today I learned, yet again, that as a society we will do anything we can to lay blame elsewhere instead of taking any responsibility for ourselves.

The latest evidence of this comes courtesy of Paula Deen, cheerful purveyor of southern recipes - if by "southern" one means "heart attack-inducing" as everything she makes involves a pound of butter, a dozen eggs or perhaps some lard sausage.

Yesterday Paula revealed that she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes three years ago, and that she now plans to adjust her recipes to fit a healthier lifestyle (oh, and she'll be promoting a diabetes-management website for a pharmaceutical company - handy coincidence, that).

And yet all I've seen yesterday and today are declarations of outrage about Paula and her deception. How can she push her food on us knowing that it isn't healthy? She has lied to her fans! She has contributed directly to the epidemic of obesity in our society!

Really? Let's take a look at this:

This is what Paula calls "The Lady's Brunch Burger." It is a half-pound burger, topped with a fried egg and two slices of bacon, and sandwiched between two doughnuts that serve as the bun.

I know not everyone has access to the same levels of education, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that this is fucking crazy. Ground beef, fried eggs, greasy bacon... oh yeah, and DOUGHNUTS. And I love how in the picture you can see the grease from the burger running down the doughnut on the bottom, mingling perfectly with the sugary glaze.

Will it kill you to eat that burger once? Not likely. And I bet it's delicious, with the sweet-savory combination of it all. But on what planet could anyone expect to eat meals like that on even a semi-regular basis and not test the physical limits of the elastic waistband? (or a defibrillator, for that matter)

Now, I don't believe for a second Paula's proclamation to Al Roker that "I have always encouraged moderation" - not from a celebrity who is on my TV every day showing me how to make mayonnaise truffles. The woman has built an empire on gluttony, and the fact that she has only now revealed her disease - when she'll be paid to endorse ways to manage it - doesn't make me believe her claims of responsibility any more.

So perhaps she's a hypocrite. But she's not a moron. And we shouldn't be morons either.

Is it bad if I wonder whether that burger comes with fries?