freedom fries
while visiting my mother and stepfather last weekend, i participated in a bi-yearly activity called "watching television". i watch tv only when i go to my mother's, which means i watch it maybe a week of of the year. don't ask me who the latest stars are, i have no idea.
so what was watched this time around was a show on cnn about obesity in america. it featured a youngster, who had recently moved here from jamaica and had gone hog-wild on snacks and junk food. he was huge. poor kid. it also featured a lady from the south side of chicago, who pointed out on how impossible it is in the inner city to get food that doesn't kill you. she was pioneering a neighborhood garden program in the hopes of educating folks from the neighborhood and also to be able to supply fresh, organic vegetables to her offspring. i've lived in poor neighborhoods most of my life and know how hard it is for folks to get food that is good for them. this has nothing to do with race, it's the same in every poor neighborhood. now, this information is pretty obvious. maybe not to the folks, hidden away in their gated communities.
there was also a bit on new york's recent ban on trans-fat oils. this was the interesting part. trans-fat oils are bad news. there is nothing good about them. they are responsible for a lot of the collective unhealthiness of this country. so, at first they had people talking about how bad they are and so on. cnn, being middle of the road to a fault and almost the point of irrelevance, was obliged to have "experts" from the other side of the story. so they had some dude from an organization that no-one has ever heard of before, which is always suspicious, talking about how it is not the government's job to dictate what people eat and that people should have the right to eat whatever they want and so on.
first, get real. this is trans-fat oils we are talking about. the government isn't telling people who to vote for. this isn't some kind of rallying call for the militias to overthrow the communist regime that has taken over washington, or maybe albany.
second, as was proven in the early part of the program, poor people have a lack options. money is freedom and freedom is equal to options. freedom does not exist where there are no options and there is no money in poor neighborhoods. the vast majority of poor folks cannot eat right because they can't afford it. if they could afford food that was good for them, they would probably not be living in poor neighborhoods, because they would no longer be poor. therefore, they are forced to eat what is available to them in their neighborhood. food that has no nutritional value and that actually may be harmful to your health causes health problems. it is a statistical fact that poor folks have far less insurance coverage than their middle and upper class counterparts. now when people get really sick, regardless of income, they must go to the hospital. what happens is that the poor people, since they have no insurance, cannot pay their hospital bill. who foots the bill in this case? the government.
i would imagine that, said the proper people, this argument for freedom of choice makes sense. to a poor person, who already has fewer choices, this would seem like an attack on what little "freedoms" they have. in true human fashion, this would also make some folks increase their intake of whatever it is that is forbidden, out of spite.
so i have a few questions for the gentleman who is defending my freedom to continue with behavior that benefits shareholders but damages my body, which i will only ever have one of.
is it not my government's responsibility to protect me? if your answer is no, then maybe you could explain to me what homeland security is. or the army. or police. so it's ok for a corporation to poison me, but not ok for bin laden to fly a plane into my apartment? just where do you draw the line?
also, if the government is footing hundreds of millions of dollars in doctor's bills, then can you honestly say that they shouldn't have the option to regulate the industry that is costing them so much money?
just drop me an email, i'll be here waiting for your answer.
more related goodies:
occupy this
what was the purpose of the occupy movement? what can be fixed? how do we fix it? do we fix it?
pesky nasa pensions
Ideas for How to Run an Effective Tea Party Group
stop the insanity
why not to hire a tea partier to design your website
survival of the fattest
americans getting fatter, especially in the south.
california dreamin'
this state is run by a bunch of morons
against science
people deny the same science which rules every part of their lives
health scare
are they really patriots? dunno.
change?
a 20th century solution to a 21st century problem
thank you mr. paulson
could i get just a little of that $85 billion?
risky business
there's more to the 200 billion dollar bailout of freddie mac and fanny mae than meets the eye.
this author knows sarah palin
got this email forwarded to me from a friend of a friend who apparently knows sarah palin
attention drivers: get back in your cars!
gas is cheap again.
censorship @ the la times
i got censored!!!!
the decline and fall
reading edward gibbon's 'decline and fall of the roman empire.' an interesting read.
a prediction
a parting gift from george bush awaits the next president.
irradiated nation
irradiation is supposed to kill bacteria. doesn't appear to work.
i'll take a burger, hold the diarrhea.
who is responsible for the salmonella spread and why is the fda protecting them?
bitch and moan
americans are selfish whiners.
the bush legacy
just what will bush's legacy be?
future ghettos
the cost of gasoline is going to change the way americans live, whether they like it or not.
iSuck
we hate the war, but are powerless to do anything about it. this is why.
dr. ron paul
a friend suggested i take a look at dr. ron paul, so i did.
cut and run
george bush wants to cut some more taxes to stimulate the economy. this is why we are in this mess to begin with.
political progress
with the election machine ramping up, i am taking some time to think about the coming spectacle.
iran so far away
why bush wasn't able to invade iran
whole foods
whole foods has become the only real option for people who eat organic food in alot of communities. this is really bad.
eminent domain 2.0
the government wants your stuff to make themselves more money. is it a communist plot?
tap dancing
larry craig, just like everyone else in the republican party, is a hypocrite. it wasn't supposed to be this way.
gentrification
i am a white male. i live in an ethnic neighborhood that i wasn't born in. i am responsible for rents going up. such is life.
nice try gw
will anyone fall for this insincere attempt to pacify european discontent of america's lax environmental policy?
dear france
sarkozy?
ladies and gentlemen, hugo chavez
hugo chavez has become a powerful leader of the old left. the old left is completely irrelevant.
a dying colonialism
red dawn, frantz fanon, ho chi minh. america's inability to learn from the mistakes of european imperialism and it's incapacity to understand that other people don't want us to make their decisions for them.
killing is easy
a dummies guide for folks who've never fired a gun
burn the constitution
why the constitution must change or be thrown away.
an odd union
the american labor movement has always aligned itself with the liberal democratic party - even though union members are anything but liberal.
the corporation
is our entire economy built on lies?
libertarians vs. reality
libertarians are the funniest windmill jousters around.
usa uber alles
the current immigration "dilemma" is something that conservatives are, yet again not thinking through.
