politics -- enter at your own risk

[Laycrew]

I didn't even touch on the whole health care shamble. So once upon a time even I could afford to go to the doctor without health insurance. Then this whole mess started up and I couldn't even afford my prescriptions WITH insurance.

[shadowwalker]

And many of those bigwigs did not start those companies - perhaps their fathers or grandfathers did, perhaps they just got hired because they had the college education the government helped them attain.

Of course, everyone knows that people on welfare or receiving government benefits are lazy good-for-nothings - like all those damn kids. And women whose husbands rightfully left them high and dry (along with those damn kids). And veterans who are obviously malingering. And old people who have the audacity to live beyond retirement age (and how dare they claim they paid taxes all their lives!). And the disabled - well, we certainly have history to show us how to deal with that lot, don't we?

Just a bunch of damn free-loaders...

[EccentricKim]

I usually stay away from this forum lol. But just thought I'd look around.

I am an independent voter who tried to vote for Obama but was told I hadn't registered correctly, but that I could go vote in the county I used to live in, 20 minutes away, which I had neither time nor gas money for.

I have political debates with people who do not agree with me (a lot of them at work) and I can respect people's differences. I think some people on both sides are misinformed about the other side. I think 47 per cent of the nation are not freeloaders, nor do they expect to be. I think a campaign run on alienating vast groups of people did not work. If some believe based on their political beliefs that things should have turned out differently, that is their right. But I have also heard some hysterical people (mostly on Facebook) who believe the president is the anti-Christ and that this is the end of the world while simultaneously cursing and quote Bible verses. I am deleting the worst of those offenders one by one! haha

[Laycrew]

I have those on my Facebook as well. I don't spam people my political or religious beliefs on Facebook. It annoys me to no end when others do it so I stay neutral. Some are members of my own family or my husband''s family. Facebook is not a platform for converting others and there is no point in trying in that kind of forum. But I am frustrated, it really didn't matter who took office, it really is just a fine mess we are in.

I do want government out of the schools. When it comes to food? really. I have never seen such a waste as I have seen in the past few years from the changes in the lunchroom. That was the big issue I had with the education reforms that they were trying to pass here. Govenment was trying to make decisions regarding education without any input from those that actually work with kids, awarding big business 180 million dollar contract for technology when the schools have had to pass bonds just to get by from years of complete underfunding. The one thing I am happy about today is that it didn't pass.

I don't like the big brother mentality. I want a giant freaking soda when I want a giant soda. I know that was Mayor Bloomberg.

[rosebud]

When it comes to the general public, I'm with you Laycrew. But when we're talking about nutrition in the public schools I think they need to consider a few things before they pass a broad plan. My boys have always been underweight. Low body fat and thin with high metabolisms. They needed extra calories just to maintain their weight but since so many kids are obese these days they are going overboard in the diet category. If they simply provide healthy choices then the kids can't go wrong. Added sugar from sodas and fats from chips in vending machines are unnecessary for medical and dental reasons as well. There has got to be healthy alternatives to these. I'll bet the kids still buy them once someone discovers that they're not so bad. My boys preferred the healthy choices and still do. They're thin by design...my husband's family has that skinny gene. Lucky them....sort of.

[louiseh87]

There has got to be healthy alternatives to these. I'll bet the kids still buy them once someone discovers that they're not so bad. My boys preferred the healthy choices and still do.

Lots of primary schools over here provide free school milk and a free piece of fruit at break time (orange, apple, or tomato), and got rid of the tuck shop that sold sweets and sugary drinks. They noticed something - the children start to choose the fruit at lunchtime. They pick the healthier option because its what they grow up on and therefore what their taste develops into liking. They also all have a bottle of water on the desk (tap water). These things all encourage concentration. At one point the headteacher used to award points for those that brought healthy packed lunches, and named and shamed those that brought just snack food. That's the kind of healthy policy that works, tackling obesity in schools. The only problem is then parents start undermining it. Banning things is all very well, but it doesn't tend to work without the educational policy to support it.

I don't believe vending machines have a place in schools. Too many children start to see a packet of crisps and a bar of chocolate as a substitute for lunch, and that does nothing for concentration.

[Laycrew]

I should have clarified my take on the soda-If I am in New York and walk into a restaurant or McDonald's and I am really thirsty, I should be able to buy a large soda.

There shouldn't be vending machines in schools with elementary school kids. Now at the high school and jr highs there have been some interesting things there. Some only allow access after school and with after school actvities that makes sense if kids forget to bring food from home and there are there for hours and missing dinner, I am glad there is something there.

If you can't tell, I have worked at an elementary school for the past 5 or 6 years. I am taking this year off completely though. Restricting portion sizes blew my mind. I know of kids that don't have a lot of food at home and they may not get a real dinner or any nutrition when they get home. Or they missed breakfast, they are growing and are starving. That really bothers me when they restrict portion sizes. Then they change to a super healthy format, they say, with all whole wheat products. But most of what they offer is still highly processed stuff. Then they are to give kids food they don't want on their trays which they never did before. Even though they have a healthy choices food bar. Out of all the kids I have known over the years at the elementary school, there are hardly any kids with a real obsesity problem. A majority of the kids I know are also very active with activities outside of school. I have never liked school lunch, it never smells good and it is like they are feeding a bunch of geriatrics.

The custodian that I am friends with has seen more food wasted in the past two years than he has ever seen. He has had that job for over 35 years. It is weird that everything being mandated is so contradictory.

[louiseh87]

We had issues over here with school lunches being processed because they were run by private companies who just manufactured everything off-site, shipped it in and heated it up (it was burgers and chips every day, unless you were last in the queue, in which case it was usually just baked beans). So the primary school sacked them and started doing their own lunches, with locally sourced ingredients. That made it much easier to control stuff at the school level, rather than nationally. Its going a lot that way now, giving schools more control over what they give the children and allowing them to make healthy eating etc part of the wider curriculum. It was one of those areas where, in the end, privatisation doesn't work.

In the end, the government shouldn't just be banning large drinks, it should be encouraging people in other ways to make the choice to limit the size of drink they buy. There should really be education, not restriction. And that's from someone not entirely opposed to socialism

[rosebud]

Well after this discussion I understand now why my boys preferred to pack a lunch.

[Laycrew]

Well after this discussion I understand now why my boys preferred to pack a lunch.

Yeah, my girls take cold lunch quite often anyway. I have some crazy picky eaters that would rather starve than eat things they don't like. Seriously weird children I have.

We had issues over here with school lunches being processed because they were run by private companies who just manufactured everything off-site, shipped it in and heated it up (it was burgers and chips every day, unless you were last in the queue, in which case it was usually just baked beans). So the primary school sacked them and started doing their own lunches, with locally sourced ingredients. That made it much easier to control stuff at the school level, rather than nationally. Its going a lot that way now, giving schools more control over what they give the children and allowing them to make healthy eating etc part of the wider curriculum. It was one of those areas where, in the end, privatisation doesn't work.

In the end, the government shouldn't just be banning large drinks, it should be encouraging people in other ways to make the choice to limit the size of drink they buy. There should really be education, not restriction. And that's from someone not entirely opposed to socialism

Yuck louise. We have a new local food thing going on too. But that is mostly fruit and veggies and not the main part of their lunch. Which is still never appetizing. All the years I went to school and working at a school there was only one school where I ate hot lunch and it was a small country school in Kansas that made all their stuff homemade. I ate on Pizza day and days that they had cinnamon rolls because they were to die for.
At the jr high here, when my first 2 girls went there, the school always offered pizza for lunch. A different local pizza place traded off every week. They have several other choices for lunch as well. When the second two went there, they had the whole wheat pizza thing going on there like at the elementary school. My daughter that is in High school this year hardly eats lunch at all.