It almost sounds like a bad southerner joke: Did you hear the one about the hospital that wouldn't hire fat people? They're worried they'd scare the old people to death.

It's sad but true. As we reported here late last week, a hospital in Texas (where everything else is bigger) officially banned anyone with a BMI of more than 35 from even applying for a job there.

On its face, it sounds like one of those made-for-the-courtroom cases of employment discrimination in this already overly litigious society – especially when Citizens Medical Center CEO David Brown said in an interview that, "the majority of our patients are over 65, and they have expectations that cannot be ignored in terms of personal appearance."