Phat

Ha on a seious note, I just read Renata Greens Curing the Scurge of American Obesity, it was thoroughly entertaining and couldn't agree more with her. First off I would just like to say, I too fell victim to that  packed "embarrassing hippie food" for lunch growing up, yes that one you would try to trade with the other kids for their lunchables but no one ever would, thus forcing me to eat healthy. It's funny though I still know some of the kids I grew up with that had those lunchables and all that junk food, and let me just say I'm glad I ate my embarrasing hippie food. It is fantastic news that the House of Representatives passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, I mean have you really looked at some of the youth today? They make them a little bigger than they used too. This new act will make a huge impact on the way the kids eat now, and in the future. Nothing but good can come from it and the one thing that really caught my eye was "It also addresses the issue of food quality by providing $40 million of funding to facilitate the creation of school gardens, as well as the purchasing of local produce". I mean school gardens, growing some of your own food, how awesome would that be!? Really seeing the fruits and/or vegetables of your labor? Yes! This is definately a great start for that battle against obesity.

Slow Down

Since the dawn of man, communicating with each other has always been necessary to insure the survival of the human race. We’ve come a long way since then, we’ve made machines and systems to make it easier to communicate with almost anyone around the world. We’ve thrived through the years and invented devices that help us get things done faster. From transportation to information, none of this would be currently available to us without communication. Today, we have information to just about everything available at our finger tips. We can get to places thousands and thousands of miles away in just a few hours. And we can talk to one another without distance being a problem. The technologies we use to communicate with each other today were something people only used to dream of because they didn’t think it was possible. Not many people today realize the power they have readily accessible to them.

People these days are all about getting things done, the quicker the better. We’ve taken multitasking to another level, don’t get me wrong multitasking is great, but when taken in moderation. There are just some things we shouldn’t do while operating heavy machinery. Or more to the point, while your behind the wheel. It’s crazy to think something like texting has become an unexpected threat in America. Studies have shown that texting while driving could be more dangerous than drunk driving. Because this has been such a huge problem, on January 1st ,2010  in Austin Texas there was a law put into effect stating it was illegal to text and operate a motor vehicle, So the question now is, should we take it one step further and include banning conversations and web access while operating a motor vehicle?

In my personal opinion I say absolutely make all phone use illegal while driving a motor vehicle. Better safe than sorry. I know first hand what happens when some people are talking on their phones while driving, I’ve been in thirteen car accidents, every single one of them crashed into me, and at least nine, I know for sure were talking on their phones when they did. If you don’t think that’s a good enough reason to ban it, I’ll give you the most important reason why I think they should. While I was doing my clinicals to become a paramedic we had one call to come treat a patient who had been in a car accident. When we got on scene, it was a pretty gruesome sight. The story was the man who needed medical attention was talking on his phone, speeding in the parking lot when he lost control of his truck and crashed into another person who was texting next to their car. The truck smashed the person who was texting in between the car and the truck with such force that the person actually split in half, on one side of the truck, were his legs and on the other, his torso, he died but not immediately. It’s not a matter of if you can talk or do something on the internet while you drive, but rather why take the risk that you could take somebody’s life or your own. Can you be patient enough to wait until you get out of the car to have a conversation or look something up?

On March 22nd ,1999 Brooklyn, Ohio was the first city in the United States to actually ban hand held cellular phone use while in vehicles. Since, New Jersey, New York and the District of Columbia require drivers to use a hands-free cell phone. School bus drivers are not allowed to talk on cell phones, except in emergencies, in Arizona, Arkansas, California, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Tennessee. Teen drivers are banned from talking on cell phones in the District of Columbia, Maine and New Jersey.　 Even in other countries such as Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, it is illegal to use cell phones in cars.

Could you imagine if this was world wide? It almost is,  it’s funny to think that something as small as waiting to talk to someone until your done driving can save lives. I mean what have you got to lose? You wanted to change the world, make it a better and safer place? This would be a start.

Reinventing Education

I'm reviewing James Powells An Education Crisis and let me start off by saying thanks for your opinion and I couldn't agree more.

 U.S. students recently finished 15th in reading, 19th in math, and 14th in science in the ranking of 31 countries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Seriously? Apparently education provided here in America is worse than that many countries? I agree with James that there needs to be increased education in math and science but more importantly in my opinion, reading. How will they ever learn if they don't understand ? I also really like his idea in incorporating more language classes into school schedules, and especially the basic chinese or mandarin, since they are the number one widely spoken languages in the world. This Education Reform Bill that would triple our current public education fund would be fantastic, but you know as well as I do, it won't happen. More school for kids and more taxes for everyone? Most Americans aren't really thinking about their future generations and what would benefit them. They are more concerned about what would benefit them now, people want things done and they want it done fast, especially americans. We all want to see the fruits of our labor and for something like this, unfortunately, most wouldn't see the benefits in our lifetime. Another problem is with the foreign languages, sadly, most Americans will never leave the country and know this, and therefore wouldn't see the point in endorsing something they think they or their kids will never use.Ultimately while a great idea with great intentions, it probably won't happen. Hopefully one day  America will stop procrastinating and being selfish, how else will we ever have a better tomorrow if we don't start today?

Government: The political direction and control exercised over the actions of the members, citizens, or inhabitants of communities,societies, and states; direction of the affairs of a state,community, etc.; political administration: Government is necessary to the existence of civilized society.


Some of the major issues today are:
 The country's dependence on oil form abroad.
 The aging population and the affects that this will have on the social security, job market, and health care
Balancing the governments responsibility to protect us from terrorism and citizens right to privacy 
Perpetual deficits over the past two decades that have resulted in a national debt of over $9 trillion today, which is 65% of GDP and expected to reach 350% of GDP by 2050
 The increasing income gap between the rich and the poor
 The failure of our penal system to rehabilitate criminals and the overwhelming population in prisons
 Global warming and lack of preparedness for it
 The reality that most of our national debt is owed to China, Japan and the middle east
 Inflation of the dollar compared to other currencies.

The aging population and the affects that this will have on the social security, job market, and health care

Those are just a few main problems we have today.On a daily basis, nation wide, you always have someone complaining about how things are done, how things are run, and how things should be.  I don't really think people grasp the amount of time and manpower it really takes to make a country run. I'm not saying our government is perfect, nobodies is, but complaining about it isn't going to get anything done. Imagine where we would be without any government, better to have one you may find wrong sometimes, then none at all.  Theres always going to be problems, and if you think you can do a better job than those who are offering solutions, whats stopping you?

DO ASK, DO TELL?

Leonard Pitts from the Houston Chronicle did an article on how the "don't ask, don't tell" rule of the military is on it's way out.  Apparently the Obama administration has been working on finally putting to rest the principle that all homosexual personnel had to hide their sexual orientation to serve our country. I thought this was supposed to be America: Land of the Free? So why do some have to hide who they are to serve and protect it? 

In the article he goes on to further explain the process it would take to actually put this into action and that he thinks the principle will be gone soon but we need to carefully plan before hand to prepare for the repercussions. The main thing that really caught my eye as I'm sure most other peoples, is the key evidence that he provides in his article; " It is worth noting that the 70 percent of American adults who support allowing gay service members to serve openly includes majorities among some rather unlikely demographic subsets: 53 percent of conservatives, 57 percent of regular churchgoers, 60 percent of Republicans."  He says that these numbers, "They speak to that gathering force, that growing sense that "don't ask, don't tell" is doomed. The unthinkable feels like the inevitable." This is the one flaw in his article, he doesn't provide where he got this information from, people have to take it on faith, take his word for it, I doubt he's lying but if he would have included the source it would really have bigger impact on people because of its credibility. But if it is true with numbers like these it's not hard to see what's about to come.

He goes on to say that, "Change, like babies, has this way of coming, ready or not." All and all, I ultimately think Leonard Pitts did a great job informing us while still providing his reasonable and logical opinion , and to be honest I don't think he's far off on what he thinks is going to happen.

Paladino Threatens Reporter

I read this post today written by Charles Johnson on Green Little Footballs and yes apparently the GOP candidate Paladino is back in the news for threatening a reporter.

Sunday’s Post featured a front-page story about Paladino’s wife, Cathy, and his ex-lover, Suzanne Brady. It included an exclusive interview with Cathy Paladino.

“You send another goon to my daughter’s house and I’ll take you out, buddy!” Paladino told Dicker.

When Dicker asked how he planned to do that, Paladino replied, “Watch!”

“Are you threatening me?” Dicker asked.

When the candidate’s aides jumped in to separate the men, Paladino, referring to Dicker, told them, “F- -k him.”

 The only thing Charles Johnson said was "Carl Paladino, the GOP’s psycho candidate for Govenor of New York, is in the news today for threatening a reporter." and provided the information above. It's not like don't agree with Charles Johnson, but he doesn't really go into any detail about the entire incident. He gives a few quotes of what was said afterwards but not before.There was also no information about the events leading up to the incident. Theres just not enough information about what happened to really come to a well formulated opinion, it's very one-sided .Most of us know how over zealous these reporters can be, and most the time its not in a good way. We all know the extent some reporters are willing to go to get a their story. Who knows what this reporter has been saying to Paladino or his daughter for that fact. In my personal opinion I think Paladino is just looking out for his daughter, I mean its not like he's threatening the reporter out of no where for no reason which the article makes it seem like. I'm not saying Carl Paladino is a saint, far from it in fact, but how could I really form an opinion about the incident when such little information is provided. Just put it all out there and let us decide for ourselves instead of already putting an idea into our heads.

It's a bird.....It's a plane.....It's a 100- plus mile per gallon car?

 Environmental groups lobby Obama administration to adopt 60 mpg fuel standard
 The winners of the Automotive X Prize showed it was possible to achieve 100-plus miles per gallon cars. As a result 19 environmental groups have launched a campaign urging the Obama administration to adopt a 60 mpg fuel standard that would apply to cars and light trucks by 2025. Though I sometimes think these environmentalists are aiming a little too high I don't think its out of this world to expect such a thing especially when its such a long ways away.

Gloria Bergquist, vice president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group that represents General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and 10 additional auto manufacturers, said, "We were very surprised when environmental groups called for 60 mpg because just last year we worked with the Obama administration and the State of California and environmental groups to agree on a new national standard that would reach over 35 mpg by 2016, and before we've even achieved those new heights, in fact, before the program has even taken effect, there are already calls for almost double the mileage."

Am I the only one who thinks, why is the mpg fuel standard so low right now when a car like the Toyota Prius can get 51 mpg, I mean it's not like we're really getting cars with much less gas mileage for much cheaper, I'm not saying that the prius has a cheap price tag but what if everyone started buying and mass producing cars just like it instead of picking your old fashioned gas guzzlers, wouldn't the price significantly go down? I know it's not a solution but it would be a start.