Monday, February 20, 2012

It's Not About Health . . .

This story was the talk of conservative media last week:
Turkey sandwich replaced with chicken nuggets at North Carolina school  
A grandmother claims a state agent took away a homemade turkey sandwich, saying it wasn’t nutritious and didn’t meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines.. . . 
She said a few weeks ago that a state agent inspected her granddaughter’s lunch and forced her to eat chicken nuggets from the school’s cafeteria.

The woman said the lunch consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich on white bread, potato chips, a banana and apple juice. The student also brought home a bill for the cost of the school lunch she had to eat instead.
After cries of government "overreaching" took hold,  it was downplayed in main-stream press as a "teacher's mistake."

But this clearly was no "mistake" when a second  incident from the same school was reported, along with a memorandum from the school principal to pre-K parents explaining what would happen if a home-made lunch was brought to school and did not meet USDA standards.

The school lunch story was followed by this one: Mars to Downsize Candy Bars
This move is part of an agreement Mars signed with Michelle Obama's Partnership for a Healthier America.
What? The government wants to take away king-sized Snickers?

Then there was the political issue over who could be made to pay for contraceptives which are already readily available. 

Forcing people to pay for contraceptives in violation of their  religious beliefs, preventing them from buying king-sized candy bars, and replacing their home-made turkey sandwiches with mass-produced chicken nuggets ...

These things are NOT about health.

6 comments:

Austinwalker said...

They provided the girl with many more ingredients:

White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning (autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono- and diglycerides, extractives of rosemary).

Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, whey, corn starch.

Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent

Anonymous said...

They are about tyranny!

Realist said...

You know what's not about health? - requiring women to get a trans-vaginal ultrasound prior to a legal abortion. But hey, sorry about your Snickers.

D Naegele said...

Point well taken Realist. A female legislator from Virginia submitted a bill that would have required men to have a digital prostate exam and other testing done prior to obtaining a prescription for Viagra. I thought that was a rather poignant way to make the point. The bill didn't pass by the way. Kind of off the current subject, but for the record, I don't have a vagina, but neither do I believe that those of us without one should legislate what you do with yours.

Anonymous said...

Strike, one quick question. Now that the city has already spent their 5 million and the school board is owed 5 million, so this means that come the end of March the state check for 10 million is already gone plus a large amount of interest. Where does that leave the city? It would seem there would be another reason to bond as soon as they get the state check. You always dig up the right info so I thought you might have a real answer for this.

Anonymous said...

The city has three basic sources of revenue, state and federal aid, taxes and debt financing. Behind all these sources stands the taxpayer. The city has a systemic financial problem similar to that of the nation; the difference being that Utica cannot print money. There are only two answers, cut cost and increase revenue. Further bonding postpones the inevitable and increases the debt due to interest costs. One could argue that the low interest rates of today warrant more borrowing as the county did to avoid the 2% tax cap. But, again, that just kicks the problem down the road. The real answers are reducing labor costs while creating more revenue through measures such as non profit service fees and a commuter tax. The Utica property taxpayer cannot handle a dramatic tax increase. We will see if the new mayor rises to the challange.