Everything Is Bigger In Texas

I've mentioned before that I'm a Charles Barkley fan. Of course, with Sir Charles you have to take the good with the bad. For example, in his TV basketball analyst gig he has instituted an annual tradition during the playoffs in which he bad-mouths the lovely city of San Antonio. (For the record, I grew up in and around San Antonio. I currently live about 30 minutes outside of the city.)

He did it again this year.

Charles Barkley, the opinionated analyst on TNT's Emmy-winning "Inside the NBA" studio show, likely didn't earn himself any new female fans in San Antonio, Texas last night. As tends to happen on the show, the group got to talking about something off-topic Wednesday night, and that conversation veered toward the women of that Texas city.

"There's some big 'ol women down there," said Barkley. "That's a gold mine for Weight Watchers." He added, "Victoria is definitely a secret.. they can't wear no Victoria's Secret down there."

This has become something of a running gag between Chuckles and S.A. Most folks down here understand it's done in the spirit of good-natured ribbing. But there are some who take his comments quite seriously.

The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance has asked Barkley to apologize.

"Making slurs about body size is just as offensive as making comments about body color," a spokesperson told TMZ Sports "One would think being a black man, he'd be more sensitive to having his physical body criticized. It's totally out of line. He should absolutely apologize."

I had never heard of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. I had to Google it to make sure it wasn't a joke. (It's not.) However, like many special interest groups today, it's more about making people feel good about themselves while ignoring facts.

First of all, being obese puts your health at risk. Boosting the self-esteem of overweight people, as opposed to encouraging them to lose weight, does little to help them avoid health problems.

Second, San Antonio is full of overweight people.

San Antonio: second-fattest major U.S. city

Figures recently released by Gallup show that San Antonio has the second-highest obesity rate among major U.S. cities.

The survey shows more than 31 percent of San Antonians are obese...

(It's all that Mexican food and margaritas.)

In other words, 3 out of 10 S.A. women could stand to lose some poundage. (FWIW, I fall into the overweight category myself.) But we also have our share of gals who are easy on the eyes.

San Antonio Spurs fans

We also have a pretty good rejoinder to Charles.

That should shut him up ... for a while...