Recently on the Truthiness blog, Laura published an article about America's weight problems. The article can be read here.
I think you have a valid argument Laura. Its sad to know that over two thirds of our country is overweight, and shocking to know that over 30% is considered obese. While I don't advocate using body-fat indexes to charge parents with child abuse, I think we do need to change the way we as a society eat.
I must admit, I love an A1 Thick N' Hearty burger from Whataburger every now and then, and I'm a sucker for buttery, cheesy mashed potatoes covered in bacon bits with a steak on the side, but one serious issue that I think could help your argument is lack of affordable, healthy food. The consumer demand for fast, often fried food is so large that it has cornered the market, causing the supply of healthy foods to dimish, sending the prices for good food through the roof. The truth(iness) is that most people cannot afford to eat right. This doesn't mean they have to gorge on bad food all day long, but it is the start of an unhealthy cycle, in my opinion.
Even in foods that are generally considered healthy, this is the case. For example, I can buy apples from Wal Mart for thrity-three cents a piece. But those apples suck. I don't want to eat them, so why would a kid? But if you want an awesome Honeycrisp apple that'll make the toes on your tastebuds curl, you have to find a local food market and pay $2+ for each apple. This isn't convienient, especially not for a mother shopping for her weeks groceries. Consequently, her kids are going to eat the Little Debbies Nutter bars instead of the apple (the Nutter bars are much cheaper than even the shitty Wal Mart apples, too). For one more closing example, we can look at a recent KFC commercial. Yum brands food proposes a challenge to potential customers: Try to make a 7 piece chicken dinner with sides using store-bought ingredients, and try to do this for less money than it costs at KFC. KFC wins, b/c they already know that you can't do it. Why spend more money and take more time to make a healthier meal when you could just go to KFC? In our fast-paced world, people are choosing the quick and easy way over the healthy way. Soda tastes better than water, and mediocre chocolate is better than bad fruit.
Ultimately it is up to the individual to decide what is right for them. I grew up eating crappy food b/c my parents couldn't afford to feed all of their children organic nutricious foods. Fortunately I inherited a lightning fast metablosim, so I get to avoid weight concerns. Still, eating right tastes and feels so much better, that I now choose to drink water and pay retarded amounts of money for good apples. The news is out though, so as people become more informed, hopefully we'll one day be a less Booty-full (in a strictly obese sense) country.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The War For Drugs
Since Richard Nixon created the War on Drugs in 1973 as a means to take the public's eye off of Vietnam, tens of millions of US citizens have been put in prison for being caught with small amounts of various drugs. Marijuana leads the arrest reports. In 2007, 775,137 people were arrested and charged for simple possession (no intent to sell, grow, or distribute).
The hysteria started with films like Reefer Madness, which claimed that pot smokers were psychotic and likely to murder their families. Racial propaganda told us that marijuana caused black men to rape white women, and was used in Voodoo ceremonies. Today, most people understand that these are lies. The most recent anti-weed commercials show us that pot smokers are lazy and unmotivated (Michael Phelps, the last 3 Presidents of the US, Stephen King, and millions of others would argue that this is also fictitious). They claim that smoking pot makes you worse at video games (60% of Halo 3s online community would disagree). The claims have gone from one extreme to basically nothing at all as evidence mounts up against the DEA's propaganda.
Enter the War For Drugs. The top 5 questions Americans wanted President Obama to answer at his last press conference were regarding the legalization of marijuana. America is starting to realize that pot is not as bad as we have been told. We're tired of over-crowded prisons, ruined futures, billions of wasted tax dollars, and gangs and cartels funded by the black-market sales of pot. Media outlets all over the US are beginning to preach the once laughed at slogan: Legalize it.
Currently, 13 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes, despite the federal government scheduling pot as a Schedule 1 drug, which requires that the drug has no medicinal benefits (cocaine, heroin and meth all are considered Schedule 2, not as dangerous as pot). Another 10 states currently have bills for Medical Marijuana Reform. It is expected that by 2011, over the half of the US will have provisions for medical use of the plant.
Another group of 13 states have decriminalized recreational use of marijuana. Some of them are the same states with legalized medicinal marijuana, but not all of them. Decriminalization means that if you get caught with less than a predetermined amount of pot (generally a half ounce to three and a half ounces, depending on the state), the crime is a civil matter rather than a criminal matter, punishable by a ticket and no jail time. Unfortunetly, users are still forced to obtain the pot through illegal means. On top of the 13 states that have already decriminalized, another 6 have legislation in the House or Senate right now to decriminalize, including the author's state, Texas!
Finally, two states (California and Massachusetts) currently have legislation to legalize marijuana altogether, with plans to tax and reggulate sales to boost their state economies. New Mexico is also said to be on the verge of introducing a bill for legalization. The bottom line here is that the states and the people of the US are fed up with the archaic federal laws against marijuana. We want the Change that we were promised. We want to toke up without fearing for our freedom, our jobs, our safety, and our families. The War on Drugs has oppressed us for too long, so we have countered with our War For Drugs.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you... then you win." - Ghandi.
The hysteria started with films like Reefer Madness, which claimed that pot smokers were psychotic and likely to murder their families. Racial propaganda told us that marijuana caused black men to rape white women, and was used in Voodoo ceremonies. Today, most people understand that these are lies. The most recent anti-weed commercials show us that pot smokers are lazy and unmotivated (Michael Phelps, the last 3 Presidents of the US, Stephen King, and millions of others would argue that this is also fictitious). They claim that smoking pot makes you worse at video games (60% of Halo 3s online community would disagree). The claims have gone from one extreme to basically nothing at all as evidence mounts up against the DEA's propaganda.
Enter the War For Drugs. The top 5 questions Americans wanted President Obama to answer at his last press conference were regarding the legalization of marijuana. America is starting to realize that pot is not as bad as we have been told. We're tired of over-crowded prisons, ruined futures, billions of wasted tax dollars, and gangs and cartels funded by the black-market sales of pot. Media outlets all over the US are beginning to preach the once laughed at slogan: Legalize it.
Currently, 13 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes, despite the federal government scheduling pot as a Schedule 1 drug, which requires that the drug has no medicinal benefits (cocaine, heroin and meth all are considered Schedule 2, not as dangerous as pot). Another 10 states currently have bills for Medical Marijuana Reform. It is expected that by 2011, over the half of the US will have provisions for medical use of the plant.
Another group of 13 states have decriminalized recreational use of marijuana. Some of them are the same states with legalized medicinal marijuana, but not all of them. Decriminalization means that if you get caught with less than a predetermined amount of pot (generally a half ounce to three and a half ounces, depending on the state), the crime is a civil matter rather than a criminal matter, punishable by a ticket and no jail time. Unfortunetly, users are still forced to obtain the pot through illegal means. On top of the 13 states that have already decriminalized, another 6 have legislation in the House or Senate right now to decriminalize, including the author's state, Texas!
Finally, two states (California and Massachusetts) currently have legislation to legalize marijuana altogether, with plans to tax and reggulate sales to boost their state economies. New Mexico is also said to be on the verge of introducing a bill for legalization. The bottom line here is that the states and the people of the US are fed up with the archaic federal laws against marijuana. We want the Change that we were promised. We want to toke up without fearing for our freedom, our jobs, our safety, and our families. The War on Drugs has oppressed us for too long, so we have countered with our War For Drugs.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you... then you win." - Ghandi.
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