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HWNN1961 |
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United States |
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Saturday, February 13, 2010 |
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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 11:22:55 PM |
2,844
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It won't work Maggie:
If you make all the wrong choices: you smoke, you drink heavily, you eat cheeseburgers till you burst:
Sooner or later, you, or people that make similar choices will show up at the nation's emergency rooms. You'll depend on medicare or medicaid. Even if you are wealthy enough to never need medicare, your costs will drive up the cost of private insurance for everyone. We are going broke spending on healthcare because our people are increasingly in chronic ill health due to their atrocious diet.
I will either pay for your bad choices in the form of higher health premiums, copays, lower employer contributions, and/or directly in increased taxation.
That being the case, your choices affect me, and the fiscal health of the nation. So, if you choose to mainline 12 sugar laden coca colas a day, I see no problem with taxing you to pay for your bad decisions.
The choice remains yours. You are simply expected to pay for health care consequences that result.
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)
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Some points to consider:
1. The principle of "sin taxes" is well-established policy in the US:
a. Wine, beer and liquor are heavily taxed.
b. Cigarette taxes are onerous to say the least!
So, I think it entirely reasonable to apply the same principle to foods (I use that term loosely) that are contributing to runaway health care costs in this country.
It's the same principle. If you are against this, then I just know you want to eliminate the taxes on those other products as well?
Also, it was stated in the original post that inactivity is the culprit, more so than what one consumes:
Any doctor or nutritionist will tell you that health and proper weight are a combination of exercise and nutrition. But: if you choose to eat junk, drink too much soda or beer, you cannot possibly work out long enough or hard enough:
Even a vigorous workout like alpine cross country skiing might burn 1000 calories in an hour, and God bless you if you can keep that pace for an hour without collapsing! You can easily consume twice that many calories at one sit-down meal at Mickey Dees!
In a race between caloric intake, and the most intense workout that even the most dedicated fitness fanatic can put in, the fork is mightier than the sweatband.
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)
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Ray41 wrote:There has been a period of time in the not so long ago past when the Government completely controlled the diet/fat/sugar intake of the whole of it's population. Great Britain was at one time down to one weeks food supply,and that was with strict rationing. From the start of WW2 to at least 1950, the people were issued with ration cards. The Government had worked out the necessary dietary intake for men, women and children, and coupons were issued accordingly. Coupons were issued for bread, but you could use the same coupons for either cake or flour, but you gained nothing extra as the volume/weight varied according to which choice you made. Meat was rationed, sugar was rationed(kids got 4oz of sweets a week). If you kept a pig for meat/bacon/ham you got pig meal in lieu of your pork based coupons. If you kept hens, then a meal for them replaced your egg coupons. Was mainly powdered egg which was only good for cooking(that's if if you chose flour and not bread or cake). Margarine (made from whale oil) was 6oz per person each week, butter 2 ozs. My Mum always referred to butter as bread and scrape, put it on and scrape it off! Concentrated cod-liver oil and orange juice were supplied in bottles, and it was a teaspoon of each that was deemed necessary to supply one's daily needs for certain vitamins. The list goes on, but, the health of the British people during that period was the best ever recorded. Heart related illness almost disappeared, as did many other illnesses. Does this not give foundation to the argument that there should be some controls on what is stocked on supermarket shelves? Why should those who choose to live a healthy lifestyle pay the medical costs of those who exercise no self control, grow obese and clog the hospital system to the same extent they clog their arteries.  It pees me off when I go into the local supermarket and there are more aisles/shelves dedicated to soft drinks, potato crisps, sweets, chocolate, ice-creams, cakes and general junk food than there are for healthy nutritional food.  Sure, people should have choices, but, some regulations of some kind can only benefit ourselves, our children and the following generations from an overwhelming increase in heart disease and diabetes. Canteens in Oz schools have had in practise for many years the selling of healthy food and drink only. Some schools monitor what is taken to school in lunch boxes, after-all, if the parents cannot be bothered, then someone needs to step up to the plate.
Lighten up, dude,
I just want kids to have some basic nutrition. I'd rather it be from parents. If they fail, we shouldn't....we collectively being the "government"...ooh aaah.
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)
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Country Boy, your post could serve as a recruitment ad for Jimmy Jones:
If you feel the need to remove your kids from public school, so great is your fear that they won't be able to stuff their faces with the chcolate cake and doritos you put into their lunch bag, then you'll have to go to Guiana to get away with that!
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)
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If a teacher notices that a child brings chocolate cake in her lunch bag, and nothing but chocolate cake, or twinkies, or tootsie rolls:
I've no objection whatsoever to that teacher intervening for the health of the child. This is a form of neglect, possibly one of abuse. It may be a red flag for larger problems in that family.
I applaud efforts to take vending machines out of schools, coca cola, Doritos, what have you are all available the other 18 hours of the day. Sorry if there is a potential revenue stream denied to these purveyors of ill health and obesity.
There were no vending machines in school when I was a kid in the 1970s. Somehow we soldiered on. Our freedoms intact.
Its funny how when one speaks of "the government" some are spooked. When we change "government" to "a teacher spoke to her princpal about little Judy's chocolate-cake-as-lunch" most, except for the Black Helicopter set, applaud it.
As I said further up the thread: where is the outrage over real threats to our freedoms such as that oxymoron called the Patriot Act???
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)
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Jeech wrote:The war between librals and conservatives (or neocons) has emerged with a vivid impact in American politics.
I'm curious, how much is it observed there, the 'missuse' of the Patriot Act?
Jeech, much of the patriot act is misuse of a citizen and their rights. It's happened before when people are scared enough:
The Red Scare of the 1950s
Internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry in camps
What's worse about this is there seems to be no going back. Much of the loss of privacy is insidious and invisible. But, it is so open to abuse that there should be outrage. That there isn't much of that is what is really scary.
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)
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http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/why-are-the-nypd-watching-ub-muslims
I'm not really concerned about Big Brother counting my calories. Something like this is so much more of a threat to liberties and personal privacy.
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)
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Truthseeker wrote:HWNN1961 wrote:
Anyway…I didn’t mean to go off on a rant….but, the bottom line is that there are so many more and juicier targets to complain about than adults having some control over what kids eat.
The issue isn't whether ADULTS have some control over what kids eat. It's whether the GOVERNMENT should have control over what everyone eats.
Read the first paragraph of my post. It's my experience that I've no trouble, as an adult, getting whatever kind of food I want. To the extent that there are controls, they are in schools, and the government, in the form of teachers, administrators, and food service workers are exactly the people that I trust with the welfare of school children. Not the lobbyists for McDonalds, Pepsico, Pizza Hut and so on that want to make a freedom issue out of their desire to shovel more fast food and junk into our already obese kids.
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)
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So far as my own experience goes, I’ve noted no limitations to people eating as many grease burgers as they choose, when they choose. It’s been pointed out above that there should be warning labels on some of the worst foods. I’d have no problem with that. It doesn’t stop you from eating to your heart’s discontent! But:
Specifically to food choices for school kids: I have no problem with their choices being limited by adults….they are kids after all. They don’t vote, they don’t drive, and if left to their own devices they’d drink soda pop all day long, and their version of the food pyramid would have such entries as twizzlers, gum, ice cream and potato chips. If anything nutritious passed their lips, it would be entirely accidental.
I’m reminded of the old Bill Cosby skit where dad is in charge of feeding the kids breakfast, and he reasons that since milk and flour and eggs are in chocolate cake, he can safely feed his brood cake for breakfast…..until his wife finds out, anyway. So, if a teacher notes that little Johnny's lunch bag always has chocolate cake and nothing else, I have no problem with that teacher taking action!
So, I don’t feel the noose tightening, I don’t fear the jackbooted thugs that aim to deny children easy access to Coca Cola for lunch at school.
My post was meant to make a larger point:
It’s been my observation that extreme conservatives and extreme liberals both want to limit freedom. They sometimes even overlap on some issues. The principle is the same as their approach to taxes and deficits. An extreme liberal will deficit spend on social programs. An arch conservative will spend ruinously on the defense budget. The end is the same: red ink.
It is hilarious in the extreme that conservatives seem perfectly comfortable with the legal snooping into computer records, library records, routine wire tapping of telephones, full body screens at the airport, having to take ones loafers off before boarding a plane. I know the knee-jerk response: “9-11, these invasions and intrusions keep us safe”. To which I reply that he who would surrender his freedoms for security will have neither!
But, apparently food restrictions on minors is where they draw the line! This is absolutely precious. You can’t make this stuff up!
On the liberal side, the most obvious example is the over-reach that has become politically correct speech in the USA.
Either way: The Patriot Act, the Thought Police, your freedoms are eroded.
Why no hue-and-cry against the roadblocks that cops set up randomly to screen for drunk drivers….what happened to probable cause, and illegal searches?
Anyway…I didn’t mean to go off on a rant….but, the bottom line is that there are so many more and juicier targets to complain about than adults having some control over what kids eat.
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)
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Am afraid that Mr. Assad is perfectly comfortable with his status as an international pariah. I think the only way he leaves office is feet first.
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)
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