Things Heard

Driving through Sewickley, in the rain, I looked over and saw (not heard, not over my radio giving me the daily news) a guy playing a violin. He stood there alone under an awning of an empty storefront (unusual to find an empty store in upscale little Sewickley) and played the violin. Its also unusual to find "street performers" in such a small town. It felt like he was just there to practice or something. I couldn't resist turning off my radio, putting down my window despite the cold rain, and listening while I waited for the light to turn green. Whoever you are, thanks. Then on my way home I heard a commercial for the Libertarian presidential candidate. That's the first time I think I've ever heard a third party candidate broadcast on the mainstream media, even if it was just the radio. Cool. Its about time some alternatives got some steam in this country. Of course the two, the violin and the election commercial couldn't be more different. Except that both were unexpected enough to be a little out of place. And both made me smile. Not everything in America has to fit the mold. Yeah, that's encouraging.

How it is done....

High school students boycott school cafeteria over new lunch restrictions

Published September 18, 2012

FoxNews.com

With new federal guidelines dictating what is served at school cafeterias during lunch time, school districts all over the country have reworked their menus to accommodate the new rules. The changes include serving more whole grains, daily doses of fruits and vegetables, less sugar and salt, and only low- or non-fat milk.

For the first time, school lunches must have age-aligned calorie maximums, capping the amount of calories high school students eat to around 850 calories. The new restrictions all come from the updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and are funded by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 – legislation promoted by Michelle Obama.

While the changes may seem like a step in a healthier direction, not all students are finding them so tasty. On Monday, about 70 percent of the 830 students at Mukwonago High School in Wisconsin who typically buy their lunch boycotted the school’s cafeteria, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The high schoolers were joined by middle schoolers in the district, reducing the number of lunches sold by half. ... One such student from Mukwonago High, Nick Blohm, said the healthier food is not so much the problem as it is portion size. A 6-foot-3-inch, 210-pound linebacker, Blohm said he burns around 3,000 calories during three hours of football practice and weight training. He’s also the class president, and he’s taking various Advanced Placement classes. But the new caps, he said, are making it harder to perform both physically and academically.

"A lot of us are starting to get hungry even before the practice begins," Blohm told the Journal Sentinel. "Our metabolisms are all sped up."

Read more...

This folks, is how it will increasingly be done... government regulates our lives and Americans quietly opt out causing government regulations to become non-viable. Its how we did it in 18th Century Boston and its how we'll do it in 21st Century Milwaukee. I don't know if these kids have learned their history, but they're certainly repeating it.

Don't tell me what to feed my kid. Don't tell me what to eat. I'm an adult (and biologically so are those high schoolers that the government is calorie counting all over) and I know when I'm hungry, what I need, and whether or not what I'm stupidly shoving in my mouth is suitable. Amazing that they would limit kids, in the prime of their metabolic and athletic lives to a cookie-cutter calorie count. Amazing that they'd think for an instant that they wouldn't have competition from the old fashioned lunch box.

So good on you, Milwaukee. Empower your kids to take their health into their own hands, rather than relying on a nanny state. That, after all, is the only way to beat down obesity, anyway. And while they're at it, tyranny.

(end rant... promise!)

Well now... no comment... just talk amongst yourselves.

“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a ‘warm body’ democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction. It depends solely on the wisdom and self-restraint of citizens… which is opposed by the folly and lack of self-restraint of other citizens. What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it… which for the majority translates as ‘Bread and Circuses.’

‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”

― Robert A. Heinlein

Where I've Been

My friend and fellow blogger David asked me the other day why I'm not blogging lately. I haven't forgotten, I've just been free-ranging all over the place. Most recently, I have returned from Alaska, where I avoided being TSA-Cancerified by virtue of traveling with a small dude. I was kind of surprised Alaska puts up with that, since they rely so heavily on air travel up there. Anyway, Anchorage otherwise seems to be radiating everyone, as was Denver and Knoxville this summer. Another reason I hate flying.

That, and the current state of my luggage... after checking five bags on the return trip, four were returned to us damaged, two badly and possibly beyond repair. Thanks United. And did I mention they charge extra for that service? Yeesh.

Anyway, I don't feel like posting anything political... a pox on all their houses! I'd best not blog about baseball (being a Cincinnati fan in Pittsburgh). The church is mostly behaving itself (with the delightful exception of some recent talent displayed at clergy conference). That leaves homeschooling and y'all don't want to hear about that.

So I'm not blogging because I'm either too busy or too cranky. Take your pick.

You have got to be kidding me!

If I ever disappear (okay, I admit, I did not post the entire month of August... that is one thing for which I cannot in any way blame the government. I was on vacation in Alaska for part of that time. For the rest of that time, I was just lazy) then you'll know that our local overloards have found this blog. Seriously, what the heck is going on. I did a little snooping to make sure this was not a hoax, its that out of control, orwellian, creepy. Let's see, that's first, second and fourth amendment seriously under fire in this country... guess the rest are basically a matter of time. Good thing the economy will likely collapse first, eh?