RoR: Forum

Why not go further? Minimum age laws. That way twinkies and coke can become "cool", like cigarettes and beer, and maybe the Marlon Brando types will be rolling their own yodels.

Post 1

Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 12:26pm

When will these megalomaniacs be honest and confess that the root of all world problems today, in their view, is individual rights? Perhaps they just want to soften us for generations until we swallow their vile message whole:

"Clearly, you cannot even manage your own weight effectively. What does that failure say about your capacity to handle firearms, or alcohol, or automobiles? Do you really think you can handle anything yourself without absolute guidance from a noble and benevolent despot?"

Post 2

Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 3:10pm

Now Jerry Falwell will start a campaign against food education in the schools...

Post 3

Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 4:01pm

He'll start with the preschoolers. Tinky Winky eats Twinkies!!!!! LOLOLOLOLOL.

Kat

Post 4

Friday, November 25, 2005 - 1:44am

I remember a teacher who scolded me back in 1980 about having a biscuit in my lunchbox, saying it wasn't good food - and I told my parents who told her where to go! The more things are banned at school the more exciting and entrepreneurial kids will get at finding ways to bring them in - awfully exciting - I wouldn't have taken alcohol to school once had it been allowed!

Post 5

Friday, November 25, 2005 - 11:12am

The Prohibition and drug laws promoted organized crime.

Perhaps drug dealers will expand their business to include brownies containing pot and Coke laced with ... well .... you know what.

Post 6

Friday, November 25, 2005 - 3:16pm

All food is good. Tell someone starving that a biscuit is not food. It might not be good if you eat too much of the same thing or too much sugar, too much fat, or whatever, but in and of itself both are good for you.

Post 7

Friday, November 25, 2005 - 5:57pm

When my youngest daughter was in high school, her mother would make her lunch and usually include a can of soda. One lunchtime, my daughter discovered that her mother had packed a can of beer by mistake. She and her friends had a good laugh about it. Fortunately, she also had the good sense to just put it back in her lunch bag without drawing undo attention. Otherwise, there would have been much explaining to do to the school authorities.

Post 8

Friday, November 25, 2005 - 6:38pm

I do not believe there's any such thing as "junk food". It's a label based on totally arbitrary terms. It's usually thrown around by the same people saying things like "empty calories" (another phrase that drives me up the wall). I'm often heard asking, "If it provides the body with calories, what's empty about it?" A typical reply is that "empty calories" are foods that don't have enough vitamins and/or minerals. Of course I've never heard an explanation for how much vitamin or mineral content is required for anything to qualify as "real food". And if vitamin and/or mineral content is enough to remove something from the "junk food" category then would all of the vitamin/mineral fortified breads and breakfast cereals qualify as the ultimate or perfect "real food"?

"Junk foods" and "empty calories" are constantly being blamed as the cause of people being overly fat. But given the most common criterion for defining those terms then you have to assume people only get fat because they don't get enough vitamins. Bullshit. You can give the average obese person vitamins all day long and they'll still be fat. The idea that more vitamins will somehow counteract overconsumption of calories is ridiculous. The bottom line is that fat people are not malnourished, they're over-nourished. It's not an issue of too much "junk food", just too much food, period.

Post 9

Saturday, November 26, 2005 - 9:13am

Oh, God forbid they do that. I can tell you it won't change the diet of the run-of-the-mill kid. My school district is going to have soda banned the year after I graduate, and the other school district in my area has already banned it. And there is, not a black market persay, but a market for it. Some kids go buy cheap soda, and sell it for about a dollar. They get a nice profit from it. Kids will do that with everything, not just soda.

and I agree, it's like telling kids, "Oh, you have no will power, so we'll help you. As we'll always help you, becuase you're too stupid and immature to take care of things yourself."

Post 10

Saturday, November 26, 2005 - 8:26pm

it's like telling kids, "Oh, you have no will power, so we'll help you. As we'll always help you, becuase you're too stupid and immature to take care of things yourself."

That reminds me of a great quote I just encountered, "It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error."
U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
ROBERT H. JACKSON, 1950

Post 11

Saturday, November 26, 2005 - 10:17pm