Every time I enter the L'il Peach in Cleary Square, the kids from the Rogers and Hyde Park High load up on whatever sugar-laden or fat-laden treats they can get their hands on. Many a time, I joked out loud that there should be a snack tax - one that would discourage kids from bollixing up the line by forking over more money for Pixy Stix, Chef's Cajun/Ketchup/Soul chips, and Ring Pops.
That would give richer, tonier, wealthier towns a wicked idea, though. Tack on a quarter to a fist full of Tootsie Pops, a bag of chips, or anything else that looks like junk food. They take a harsher line: they ban any form of sugar in their schools.
I'm wondering if the dearth of cupcakes and crullers really raised the SAT scores - no wealthy family will have their spawn at UMass Amherst to flip burgers or work in a cubicle when they could be at a Big Six accounting firm with a hot trophy wife and five Stepford children.
I think these richer towns have it wrong: You cannot hope to rein in obesity if you have a group of resentful kids and equally resentful parents glaring at you as if you were Captain Queeg. Take away the sugar, and they're bound to find it elsewhere and consume it sub rosa.
Are the kids from Lynn going to become illicit sugar suppliers for the kids in Lynnfield? How about the North Andover kids, jonesing for a can of Coke Classic, surreptitiously going over the border to Lawrence to snag a can - at inflated prices? And Brookline is surrounded by Boston, and it's easy to sneak into Allston and Roxbury to get your fix of Ho-hos and Yoo Hoo.
If these richer towns really want to do something about obesity, the first thing is to take the advice of Richard Simmons - bring back gym, also known as physical education. Letting the kids run around for twelve minutes a day during recess will not only get all that pent-up energy out of their systems, it will help maintain their health without your school administration being branded a nanny-state killjoy. The MCAS and other boutique courses can wait - and you won't be taking away a single cupcake or cookie without a whimper, as they'll be burned off as soon as the recess bell rings.
Second, the teachers should be examples to students, and not live their lives through them. That means they should encourage healthier eating by eating healthier themselves. If the teachers can have donuts and flavored coffee during their meetings and are telling their kids they can't bring in cupcakes for the bake sale, then the teacher's a hypocrite AND a liar. Maybe after a few meetings with the things they're forcing their students to do, they will modify their hasty decision.
Third, and most importantly, it is most important to know that social engineering through food control is a bad idea. Making kids perfect at the expense of letting them be kids is a Sysiphian task. Trying to control children through food also brings up nastier, elitist overtones, as in "Johnny won't be much if he's 300 pounds vs. Jenny's a good girl for being within 99% of her weight and height profile." In the future, Johnny could lose all that weight, or even maintain the weight and be fit (normal blood pressure, good cholesterol scores, etc.), while Jenny is in the hospital yet again because she can't gain control of her anorexia or buliemia, and she's one or two binge-purge sessions away from choking on her own vomit and dying - and she's the same 72 pounds she was in 5th grade, at the age of 21.
I don't talk about these things lightly because I am overweight myself. I am over 300 pounds, although I am 6-4. I have high blood pressure at times, and I am prone to lose weight one doctor's visit, only to put it back on another. I sit in front of a computer all day, and exercise is hit-or-miss. Ice cream is my Kryptonite. So what business would I have telling the school boards that their plans to ban sugar and junk food stinks?
Plenty.
I'm a lot like Johnny: my blood sugar and cholestrol is still good. I don't eat eggs all the time, I don't drink or smoke, or do drugs. I do walk, but not enough to get benefits. My doctor tells me I won't live past 60 if I keep on doing what I do, but losing weight and keeping it off isn't an easy process. There is no magic pill, no exercise program or diet program that will make me 100+ pounds lighter tomorrow. I've tried Weight Watchers and I've found it too heavy on meetings and group therapy (and massive amounts of accounting) and not enough on proper eating.
If these school boards think that sugar and junk food are the obstacles from keeping kids healthy, maybe they should consult reputable dietiticians and physicians who aren't paid to spout out the directives these school boards want to hear, as kids will also overeat the healthy, organic stuff equally simply because they think it's OK to gorge on soy shakes and organic tofu dogs.
Maybe they can bring Richard Simmons to their schools and tell them how to do it right.
Showing posts with label elitists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elitists. Show all posts
5/09/2008
The land of extremely overreactive DON'TS
Entry #1: Don't give delicious 16 cent donut hole treats to babies, or else you'll be fired for "theft." Right, for a 16 cent Timbit (or Munchkins) you get to explain to your unemployment office why your generosity and your fledgling career was struck down by an overzealous manager, who likely has an exact count of every single Timbit in the inventory, including the size and the time the frosting was put on. Good news: she was rehired, but likely Tim Horton's gave the manager a dress-down, which likely went like this: "She gave the baby a freakin' Timbit! We can cover that measly 16 cents in the time it takes for you to go to the john!"
Entry #2: Don't read "Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan" by Todd Tucker, in which Notre Dame students beat the living snot out of the KKK, when in the presence of "affirmative action" officers with a hair-trigger sensitivity. This leads me to wonder: would it have been OK to read adult magazines in public instead of a book that emphasizes teamwork against naked racial hatred? Were I a professor, not only would I assign the book, I'd make sure these college kids read it during summer vacation.
Note to the "Affirmative Action" meddling dingbat: is it any wonder why people roll their eyes and put "diversity" in quotation marks? Many other "affirmative action" officers would recommend several other books along that line, and they wouldn't carry their title with such aggressive seriousness. And why did it take the ACLU, FIRE and several news agencies to make the university drop this? Answer: no one wants their college to be labeled a cauldron for academic Stalinism.
Entry #2: Don't read "Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan" by Todd Tucker, in which Notre Dame students beat the living snot out of the KKK, when in the presence of "affirmative action" officers with a hair-trigger sensitivity. This leads me to wonder: would it have been OK to read adult magazines in public instead of a book that emphasizes teamwork against naked racial hatred? Were I a professor, not only would I assign the book, I'd make sure these college kids read it during summer vacation.
Note to the "Affirmative Action" meddling dingbat: is it any wonder why people roll their eyes and put "diversity" in quotation marks? Many other "affirmative action" officers would recommend several other books along that line, and they wouldn't carry their title with such aggressive seriousness. And why did it take the ACLU, FIRE and several news agencies to make the university drop this? Answer: no one wants their college to be labeled a cauldron for academic Stalinism.
9/04/2007
Where has the middle class gone in Boston?
Leave it to the Globe Magazine to substitute to give its view of middle class flight. Our header is what the Globe should have put to make the article more accurate.
Boston has made a paradigm shift within the past two decades. What hasn't changed is prejudice and mistrust between the classes and races. One neighborhood fears declining property values (sketchy people, groups of kids acting up); another neighborhood fears gentrification (big luxury condos, luxury stores and restaurants) and commercialization (big box stores). In the twain are people who have lived in their neighborhoods for decades, paying higher property taxes - sometimes overriden over the 2-1/2% limit - for what is purported for education and health care, but ends up elsewhere, like the general fund or for pork projects.
The middle class in Boston is existent - but it is not as obvious as it once was. In the 1960s, Blue Hill Avenue used to be a enclave for the Boston Jewry. By 1970, it became mostly Afro-American. You have to travel to the far-flung borders of Boston to see a thriving middle class. Hyde Park, West Roxbury, Roslindale, and other parts of the city are good examples where the middle class has not been shoved out and force to flee to a better middle class climate.
What really ruins the dream of the middle class living in the Athens of America is what has oiled the cogs of Boston for centuries - corruption in politics, sky-high housing prices, elitism, a transit system that constantly begs for more money from riders and spends them on vanity projects, and a smug attitude of "we are the best," even contrary to the fact (viz. The Big Dig) . People who have never been to this city or have toured the city only see the surface of what Boston really is, and if the tourist trolley companies had an all-Boston tour, it would certainly take the Athens of America moniker and turn it into the Most Dysfunctional City of America.
The middle class notices this with a gimlet eye for BS. They are taking a look around in their areas, don't like what they see, and plan to leave the area, and quite frankly, I don't blame them.
Update: Here's a different take. There's also the attitude in the suburbs that "if we were like Boston, we'd be successful too, bringing in all that revenue and taxes so we can have better things." Building multi-million dollar condos in Newton will come after they shove a camel through the eye of a needle.
Boston has made a paradigm shift within the past two decades. What hasn't changed is prejudice and mistrust between the classes and races. One neighborhood fears declining property values (sketchy people, groups of kids acting up); another neighborhood fears gentrification (big luxury condos, luxury stores and restaurants) and commercialization (big box stores). In the twain are people who have lived in their neighborhoods for decades, paying higher property taxes - sometimes overriden over the 2-1/2% limit - for what is purported for education and health care, but ends up elsewhere, like the general fund or for pork projects.
The middle class in Boston is existent - but it is not as obvious as it once was. In the 1960s, Blue Hill Avenue used to be a enclave for the Boston Jewry. By 1970, it became mostly Afro-American. You have to travel to the far-flung borders of Boston to see a thriving middle class. Hyde Park, West Roxbury, Roslindale, and other parts of the city are good examples where the middle class has not been shoved out and force to flee to a better middle class climate.
What really ruins the dream of the middle class living in the Athens of America is what has oiled the cogs of Boston for centuries - corruption in politics, sky-high housing prices, elitism, a transit system that constantly begs for more money from riders and spends them on vanity projects, and a smug attitude of "we are the best," even contrary to the fact (viz. The Big Dig) . People who have never been to this city or have toured the city only see the surface of what Boston really is, and if the tourist trolley companies had an all-Boston tour, it would certainly take the Athens of America moniker and turn it into the Most Dysfunctional City of America.
The middle class notices this with a gimlet eye for BS. They are taking a look around in their areas, don't like what they see, and plan to leave the area, and quite frankly, I don't blame them.
Update: Here's a different take. There's also the attitude in the suburbs that "if we were like Boston, we'd be successful too, bringing in all that revenue and taxes so we can have better things." Building multi-million dollar condos in Newton will come after they shove a camel through the eye of a needle.
5/05/2007
che: the warmongering, imperialist guerrilla with an appetite for murder
Reality check for those of you who like those che shirts so much: che was just as much a warmongering, imperialist guerrilla as those he laid blame on, i.e. The United States.
che guevara still remains among as the ultissimo rebel of the downtrodden, the disenfranchised, etc. che came from a rich Argentinian family, and became an insecure man and a coward who exploited the Cuban peasants for his own gain, and once they were under his spell, he systematically and brutally killed them on orders from fidel castro. And the damndest thing is, people still believe he's a hero, and are willing to plaster his mug on protest signs. Gee, do heroes advocate violent armed struggle these days? How about eliminating the writ of habeas corpus, and advocating that judicial law is an "archaic bourgeois detail?" The most frightening thing is that there are some people deep in the wealthiest circles of society who want to see the same thing happen in America - and plenty of useful idiots, such as celebrities, politicians, blogs, etc. would love to play judge, jury and executioner.
When che was captured by Bolivian forces, his bravado and hubris failed him as he whined, "Don't Shoot! I'm che! I'm worth more to you alive than dead!" Unfortunately for him, their policy was "Shoot, shovel, and shut-up."
UPDATE: That wily Aussie, Jules Crittenden, discovers our "Che With the Machine" article and shares it with his weblog. If you're a Jules Crittenden reader (or, in Alphie's case, a frequent critic), welcome!
che guevara still remains among as the ultissimo rebel of the downtrodden, the disenfranchised, etc. che came from a rich Argentinian family, and became an insecure man and a coward who exploited the Cuban peasants for his own gain, and once they were under his spell, he systematically and brutally killed them on orders from fidel castro. And the damndest thing is, people still believe he's a hero, and are willing to plaster his mug on protest signs. Gee, do heroes advocate violent armed struggle these days? How about eliminating the writ of habeas corpus, and advocating that judicial law is an "archaic bourgeois detail?" The most frightening thing is that there are some people deep in the wealthiest circles of society who want to see the same thing happen in America - and plenty of useful idiots, such as celebrities, politicians, blogs, etc. would love to play judge, jury and executioner.
When che was captured by Bolivian forces, his bravado and hubris failed him as he whined, "Don't Shoot! I'm che! I'm worth more to you alive than dead!" Unfortunately for him, their policy was "Shoot, shovel, and shut-up."
UPDATE: That wily Aussie, Jules Crittenden, discovers our "Che With the Machine" article and shares it with his weblog. If you're a Jules Crittenden reader (or, in Alphie's case, a frequent critic), welcome!
3/20/2007
Narcissist-Leninist, si! Answer Questions? no!
hugo chavez, he of the "free oil bribes" that Joe Kennedy likes to promote, is avoiding one certain reporter in Orlando named Andreas Oppenheimer and his valid questions.
They are not the soft-ball questions Baba Wawa asked on 20/20. These are rational, adult questions that do not have pat answers - at least not ones the useful idiots will swallow like such flavorful candy. "You" in this case is the Venezuelan thug and chief narcissist/Leninist himself:
Our answers: military coups easily mollify protestors and give the dictator-for-life power much quicker; closing down independent TV stations gives you more time for insane, narcissistic ravings from a South American thug; fidel castro is popular because people are conditioned to fear him, as speaking out against fidel is a one-way ticket to a Cuban gulag, and OAS human-rights inspectors aren't loaded full of foreign useful idiots, political activists masquerading as celebrities, fawning editors of newspapers who wish their government could be overtaken in such a raw display of power, and publicity-hungry hucksters who believe the only way the world works is villains = good and heroes = bad. Oh, and those OAS people don't have those kicky blue hats that don't have sulfur in them.
They are not the soft-ball questions Baba Wawa asked on 20/20. These are rational, adult questions that do not have pat answers - at least not ones the useful idiots will swallow like such flavorful candy. "You" in this case is the Venezuelan thug and chief narcissist/Leninist himself:
If you are so democratic, why do you glorify military coups? If you are so progressive, why do you close down independent television stations? If your hero [f]idel [c]astro is so popular in Cuba, why doesn't he allow a free election? If you respect human rights, why don't you allow OAS (Organization of American States) human-rights inspectors into your country?
Our answers: military coups easily mollify protestors and give the dictator-for-life power much quicker; closing down independent TV stations gives you more time for insane, narcissistic ravings from a South American thug; fidel castro is popular because people are conditioned to fear him, as speaking out against fidel is a one-way ticket to a Cuban gulag, and OAS human-rights inspectors aren't loaded full of foreign useful idiots, political activists masquerading as celebrities, fawning editors of newspapers who wish their government could be overtaken in such a raw display of power, and publicity-hungry hucksters who believe the only way the world works is villains = good and heroes = bad. Oh, and those OAS people don't have those kicky blue hats that don't have sulfur in them.
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