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Post by graybeard on Aug 20, 2009 8:49:44 GMT -6
NPR yesterday discussed a subclass of young people who are "gamers," spending hours a day sitting at computers. They are invariably obese and depressed, and headed for preventable diseases such as diabetes.
We should base Medicare premiums on BMI, Body Mass Index. We can also tax sugar, high fructose corn syrup, beef and other foods, proportional to their contributions to illness.
ATF could be put in charge of prosecuting cigarette smokers. An old friend has had at least three bladder cancer surgeries. The surgeion told him he has never seen bladder cancer, except in someone who has smoked.
GB
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Post by xtra on Aug 20, 2009 12:10:34 GMT -6
Lets tax old fools who don't know what there talking about. The Government gave out hundreds of millions of cigarettes to our servicemen for free in hopes that 20-50 years latter they would develop cancer and die. There was an article by Greenspan in the 80s where he point blank said that we need these 400K+ people to die each year from deaths from smoking related cancer so they forfeit their SS benefits or the SS system would be broke. so greybeard wants to tax fatties, depressed people and those who smoke ciggerettes.... what a wonderful Nazi idea greybeard, Hitler would be proud of you. How about since I don't ware glasses..... we tax people that do have a birth defect..... we tax people that do I'm not a woman....so we tax all women who might get pregnant don't have PTSD from coming back from insane wars like Viet Nam.....so lets tax all soldiers who come back from them I'm not a cop or work on roofs...so lets tax them I don't fly in airplanes, or trains or bike or skateboard, or ski, or scuba dive or parachuting, or play with guns, or walk on train tracks, or drive a motorcycle, I ware helmets to take a bath and go outside. we could tax all those people greybeard with your ideas we could tax just about every motherfucker in this country... we could even hire government thugs to go around to make sure everyone wears their helmets when biking or on a skateboards (like your in favor of) we could even follow you into the bathroom to make sure you wash your hands after you take a shit, greybeard. And if you don't we could tax you for the threat of spreading dieseases... nice one greybeard
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Post by graybeard on Aug 20, 2009 16:17:40 GMT -6
You're gonna' die of being petty, x-tra. You're such a poor loser, after posting lies among some truth about hemp.
Cancer is about the most expensive way to die. It was the tobacco companies addicting the GIs, not the govt.
I guess you're stupid enough to believe Greedspan.
It's easier to tax products than people or habits. GB
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Post by waltc on Aug 21, 2009 10:41:25 GMT -6
Its a cultural thing thing Greybeard and that what makes unhealthy life styles popular and a antipathy to physical fitness so prevalent.
First - we have Wall Street indoctrinating kids before they can walk about the virtues of soft drinks and processed foods with no nutritional value like Oscar Myer kids meal.
Secondly - we have the public schools which are another junk food dealer with their concession stands and soft drink dispensers. Worse most schools have done away with P.E. and replaced the class with a bullshit computer course of some kind(like kids don't get enough computer time). P.E. is essential for kids physical and mental development and the idiot education experts whacked it.
So much for getting kids to learn about fitness and good health practices.
P.E. or whats left of it in High School is often no more than a Soviet style screening program to find potential athletes for the school spots teams. Hardly the place where life long fitness habits will be ingrained. Most kids hated it with a passion, because by that time most knew they weren't good at sports(as opposed to exercising which is often conflated with sports by school officials).
Third - the demise of Home Economics. Guess what? If you can't cook you eat out and that means - fast(junk) food. Sure Home Ec. wasn't politically correct but it did teach the essentials. Good home cooking is always better than fast food and a lot of the so-called franchise eateries like The Outback or Olive Garden.
Fourth - some ethnic sub-groups have horrific eating habits and you can see it with their children who by the age of 18 are already bloated and pre-diabetic. Yep tacos with beans laced with a couple of tablespoons of bacon fat isn't even remotely healthy or for that matter is a Big Mac.
Fifth - most work today is cubicle work - basically most people re confined to cubes 8-10 hrs a day and barely move, which is good if we're turning Geese into veal or factory farming swine but a disaster for people. Nothing can really be done about this.
What we can do though is fix our schools(by firing all those inbred pot bellied buffoons who teach Gym and hiring real fitness trainers instead) and put a muzzle on what can be shown on children's tv channels. Then slap a 20% tax on fast food and candy.
This way we'll get a healthier younger generation.
I wouldn't even waste time on the older folks, the smarter ones will either realize they need to change their lifestyles or die a early death. The dumber ones would have to be forced at the barrel of a gun to change their habits so its better to let them eat their way to a early grave.
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Post by jeffolie on Aug 21, 2009 12:12:44 GMT -6
I have lost 70 pounds since March. I got my morbidly obese BMI of over 40 down to an obese 30 so far. I hope to have lost another 70 pounds in the next year and get my BMI down to a healthy 20 to 22. It is a struggle and a challenge but I have been able to drastically reduce my dosage of insulin and sex is much better.
Mostly I eat much more mixed vegetables with my modest amount of protein for a daily calorie count of 1050 to 1250. I eat 3 meals a day with about 4 ounces of lean protein at each meal. I cut out starches and most all fats. I even gave up my addiction to Diet Coke and now drink lots of sugar free flavored water such as Crystal Light. For between meal snacks I eat tomatoes and cuccumbers which are very low in calories because they are mostly water, but they stop my stomach from growling.
My wife has joined me in my diet without any convincing from me other than my example. She has lost 32 pounds and is much more active than me. I mostly lift only computer mouse, while she is very aggressive on our treadmill.
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Post by jeffolie on Aug 22, 2009 10:13:56 GMT -6
The medical people in my program advised giving up all carbonated and caffine containing soda. They said no soda period. They approved of low or no calorie flavored water and water mixes such as Crystal Light. Ocean Spray makes some tasty sugar-free flavors too. I got some coupons at ebay and loaded up on the Ocean Spray and Crystal Light. At the moment even the Dollar Tree Stores are selling some flavored water drink mixes for $1 of course. The flavored water drink mixes are pretty good and the medical people say that it is important to flush out the kidneys with lots of water.
I have managed to not go the The Chinese Buffet at all. But, our annual trip to the L.A. County Fair is coming up on Sept.5th as a family event. I plan on bring flavored water drink mixes and food including my well known cuccumbers and tomatoes; but, there will be plenty of temptations especially the Indian Fry Bread.
The medical people discovered that I have the ulcer causing bacteria, H Pylori; and, they put me on a regimen of medicines to kill it off. So all this medical attention has had an unexpected side benefit aside from the obvious benefits that come with the weight loss.
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Post by xtra on Sept 3, 2009 12:24:24 GMT -6
The medical people in my program advised giving up all carbonated and caffine containing soda. They said no soda period. With some soda having 17 teaspoons of sugar per serving and local ads for 6 12 packs for 12 bucks and double coupons too, well you know what happens.
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Post by graybeard on Sept 9, 2009 5:07:21 GMT -6
Obama Says New Tax on Sugary Drinks Worth ‘Exploring’ (Update3)
By Nicholas Johnston, Bloomberg
Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he is willing to consider taxing soda and other sugary drinks as Congress debates overhauling the U.S. health-care system.
“I actually think it’s an idea that we should be exploring,” Obama said in an interview with Men’s Health magazine that goes on sale next week. “There’s no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda.”
Lawmakers drafting legislation to revamp the U.S. health- care system have considered new taxes on sugar and sweetened soda to help pay the cost, estimated at as much as $1 trillion over the next decade.
Obama said that while the proposal faces opposition from some legislators, higher taxes that reduce soda consumption would be helpful in holding down health-care costs.
“Every study that’s been done about obesity shows that there is a high correlation between soda consumption and obesity,” Obama said in the magazine interview. “Obviously it’s not the only factor, but it is a major factor.”
Trade association lobbyists working for companies including Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc., Cargill Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland Co. have worked to kill the proposal, which has been debated by the Senate Finance Committee.
Lobbying Groups
The American Beverage Association, a Washington lobbying group for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, Purchase, New York-based PepsiCo and other non-alcoholic beverage makers, plans to continue to fight efforts to levy soda taxes, spokesman Kevin Keane said.
“A vast majority of Americans have heartburn when the government uses the tax code to tell them what to consume,” Keane said. “We’re going to remain vigilant.”
The Corn Refiners Association, a Washington lobbying group for companies including Minneapolis-based Cargill and Decatur, Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The five-member S&P 500 Soft Drinks Index rose 1.1 percent today. The index is up 12.3 percent since the beginning of the year.
Obama said he understands fears that some would have about “Big Brother telling them what to eat or drink.” Still, he said, any steps that reduce soda consumption would have “a big impact on people’s health in this country.”
Government moves discouraging soft-drink use would hit companies already suffering from sliding sales and prices. Soft- drink sales volume fell 3 percent in 2008, dropping for the fourth straight year, according to Beverage Digest, an industry newsletter.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a 3-cent tax on 12-ounce cans of soda would raise $50 billion over a decade. --------
If a 3 cent tax raises $5 Billion a year, how about a 30 cent tax? All sugar should be taxed heavily. It has no value except to increase food consumption.
GB
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Post by xtra on Sept 9, 2009 20:57:36 GMT -6
We should base Medicare premiums on BMI, Body Mass Index. We can also tax sugar, high fructose corn syrup, beef and other foods, proportional to their contributions to illness. GB Yes and Boo Hoo governments can outlaw bikes cuzz kids can get hurt, I know your in favor of this one greybeard. and yes its over in the UK, but just as fashionable for kiddies here with the pro-nannyers, (that is people with the thought process such as yourself) this law will be here sooner than we know it. Children face cycling bans over schools' safety concerns New academic year sees children discouraged or banned from cycling short distance to schools Bike blog : the Bikeability test for children at Queens Mead Primary School, Braunstone Significant numbers of children face active official discouragement and even bans against cycling to and from school, cycle campaigners have warned as a new academic year gets under way. As state pupils in most of the UK returned for the new term over the past week – those in Scotland went back earlier – most travelled to school in cars, on buses or on foot. Just a tiny minority did so on a bicycle, despite rising levels of obesity and inactivity. Many would actively like to ride but are prevented from doing so by school policies which range from warnings about safety to effective bans through a refusal to allow bikes to be kept on school grounds, campaigners say. The issue appears to be most acute in primary schools, some of which refuse outright to allow pupils to travel by bike even though most generally live within a radius of a mile or so. Sam O'Shea, now 11, has become a reluctant local cause celebre in Portsmouth, Hampshire, after his school refused to let him ride, even though he was a keen weekend cyclist who had passed the government's new cycling proficiency test, known as Bikeability. His mother, Angela, spent months arguing that Sam's one-mile journey to St Paul's primary school, nearly all on cycle paths, was safe, a view supported by an official risk assessment. Even after she successfully petitioned the council to convert the narrow road outside the school to one way traffic the headteacher and governors refused to budge. "Whatever objections they came up with we provided a solution, but then they'd move the goalposts again. It soon became clear that they just weren't interested," she said. "The best they could offer was that I would drive behind him and take the bike home when he arrived, and then come back with the bike in the afternoon. It was crazy." In response to such cases the CTC has produced a Right to Ride to School leaflet for the start of the new academic year, noting that schools cannot issue outright cycling bans and advising parents how to lobby. "In some schools it can just be a waste of time," said one senior official involved in government efforts to promote cycling, speaking anonymously. "They start off sounding interested, but then you meet the headteacher and he says, 'Well, my niece was knocked off her bike and it's clearly too dangerous. I'm not having my pupils cycling.'" Other schools openly state that cycling is discouraged due to safety, said the CTC's Rolfe, while others provide nowhere secure for bikes to be stored. "A lot of bike sheds have disappeared over the year. It's difficult to pin down statistics but that seems to be the case." The paradox is that this battle is taking place while the Westminster is spending tens of millions of pounds a year sending so-called cycling champions into schools to encourage the practice, while helping to fund Bikeability courses. The bike advisers are now working in more than 400 English schools through a scheme run by Cycling England, a body funded by the Department for Transport. "It's not a quick fix. The hope is that it becomes a virtuous spiral – as more and more people cycle, more children will be encouraged to take it up," said Phillip Darnton, the chairman of Cycling England. At present, he said, well under 1% of primary school pupils ride to work with about 2% doing so in secondary schools, figures Darnton concedes is "pathetic". His organisation has warned the government that without official intervention there could be a "lost generation" who never experience cycling: "If you look at parents who are, say, aged 22 to 35, many of them haven't really ridden bikes. If their child has a bike they don't know how to mend a puncture, or adjust the brakes, they don't know the right height for a saddle. They can't teach their children."
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Post by graybeard on Sept 9, 2009 22:06:16 GMT -6
Just an observation: per mile, the bicycle is the most dangerous mode of transportation. Wonder why that isn't mentioned in the one-sided article?
Too bad about your self destructive smoking, Xtra.
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Post by waltc on Sept 10, 2009 0:19:28 GMT -6
I used to ride my bicycle to school(5th and 6th grade), gave it up in Junior High because of the motorists(walked the 2 miles instead). By the time I was in high school(early 80's), I hardly saw anyone ride their bicycle to school unless they lived within a 1/2 mile or so.
It was damn dangerous and the kids knew it, even back then.
Today you don't see any leaving school after the final bell.
Personally I wouldn't encourage kids to get a bicycle unless it was meant for off-road only - like the BMX bikes.
The other problem is theft(which wasn't a problem 20 years ago). Bikes are impossible to secure unless you post a guard at the bike rack. You can break any lock with a bottle of liquid nitrogen and even if you're caught by police, its a joke.
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Post by xtra on Sept 10, 2009 9:20:11 GMT -6
Just an observation: per mile, the bicycle is the most dangerous mode of transportation. BOO!!! greybeards scared of his own shadow I remember when a young girl about 8 feel off a bike going to school. I person called 911 and drove away. They sent out the fucking army, the police, the ambulance, the fire capt. the hook and ladder truck, the pump truck the works. then the little girl got back on her bike and continued to ride to school. all that tax money for greybeards little monster in the closet mindset.
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