It's that time again. Four years ago, I was excited about voting for Obama. This time around, I'm slightly less excited, but slightly more sure of his chances since let's face it, the alternatives are terrible. My boyfriend hates that attitude—he says the lesser of two evils is still evil—but I wouldn't call Obama evil. My boyfriend describes him as ineffectual, but it's hard to be effectual with Republicans blocking you every step of the way. I think Obama tries, and with four more years, he could do some good. I think the Tea Party nuts will calm down and/or go away—they aren't taken very seriously anyway—and the worst of the opposition will follow. Besides, with a slogan like "Bin Laden killed under Obama's regime," he can hardly go wrong.
The journal Health Affairs recently published a study projecting the effects of a penny-per-ounce tax on soft drinks and other sugary beverages. The study suggested that the tax could prevent about 240,000 cases of diabetes, 8,000 strokes, and 26,000 premature deaths per year. That sounds optimistic, but there's no denying that the consumption of sugary beverages is linked to obesity and related health problems. Opponents of the tax there is always the possibility that people will spend money on junk food instead of sodas, but not if that stuff is taxed as well. One way or another, people who are hell bent on eating crap and ignoring nutrition are going to do it, but at least with an economic incentive, people are more likely to eat healthier stuff.
NPR said "The American Beverage Association has called the proposed tax unfair and discriminatory." That's hardly newsworthy; I don't know why that's surprising. Of course the association which profits off the sale of unhealthy drinks would criticize the taxation of said beverages. It's not an unfair and discriminatory tax at all; that unhealthy crap deserves to have the shit taxed out of it. That is all.
I would like to open with a continuation of my rant on the soda tax.
People, you are fucking idiots.
Don't believe me?
You goddam fucking retard. What the hell? Who here passed second grade? I don't know about y'all, but by the time I was seven, I understood that sugary stuff was bad for you and water and fruits were good for you. Adults don't just make this shit up to get you to eat your vegtables due to a sadistic streak. Even if we didn't all learn about the four food groups and the food pyramid in elementary school, I think common sense should teach you about nutrition. Because, obviously, people who drink water instead of soda are always really fat. *head desk*
I had a science teacher in high school who decided to go on a diet. He used to drink a lot of cokes, and he cut them out of his diet completely. He did almost nothing else to change his lifestyle, but he lost a huge amount of weight. He'd remind the skinny-obsessed girls in the class that even their "diet" drinks were still pretty bad for them, but to no avail. Of course, the year before, our biology teacher had told us the same thing, and it didn't work then either. Even in health class where we learned that condoms don't work and will give you AIDS (thank you Texas Education Agency) or in PE where we learned that you can walk off a sprained ankle, we learned that junk food is just that: Junk.
I remember when I was in middle school and high school, the other girls would make fun of me for always eating "rabbit food" since I always had baby carrots or spinach leaves in my lunch. Then, almost in the same breath, these same girls would whine that they wished they could be skinny like I was, all the while chowing down on unmentionable cafeteria food, chips, candy bars, and cokes. I might have offered them some obvious advice had they been less bitchy. As it was, I remained happily slim all through school and never developed an eating disorder. Even today, I often notice that I'm one of the few people at my table at lunch eating anything green. People, you don't get skinny by eating platefuls of fried crap. It's bad for you. It makes you feel bad, and you should clue in to that: Eating healthier stuff leaves you feeling good. Listen to your body. Read your ingredients lists. I've always been somewhat pedantic about ingredients lists and refusing to eat processed foods, but I'm even more pedantic about it since I started dating the Silver Fox, who is fanatical about it. I'd like to roll my eyes at him, but I know he's right.
My point is that people can't feed themselves properly. The Yahoo question I posted above is a perfect example. People who don't know that soda is bad for them deserve to be taxed into the ground.
Anyway. Onto other political news. Yesterday, the Silver Fox and his roommate were talking politics and trying to decide when Texas last had a good politician. The roommate suggested (to our shared horror) Ron Paul. The Silver Fox said "But he's kind of a fascist." "That doesn't make him a bad politician," I said. "I mean, I don't think he's a good politician, but fascism doesn't make for a bad politician. I mean, look at Hitler. He was the best. He got a whole country to go insane." I sure hope Ron Paul doesn't do the same, but I doubt very much that'll happen. Anyway, they struggled to come up with any names. I went home and thought about it and asked my dad, and he mentioned Lyndon Baines Johnson and Ralph Yarborough. Ah, Ralph Yarborough. We could do with more guys like that. He was so involved with the good of his country, not just himself. Medicaid, Medicare, civil rights, voting rights, just to name a few. I dropped his name to the Silver Fox, who cried "I always forget that guy! He was the honest guy who—" "No wonder you forgot him," I said. Surprising and sad, really, since so much stuff in this city bears his name.
. . . It's not surprising at all, really, that people tend not to remember an honest politician, though you'd think the novelty would be memorable. As a roadie from out of teh country remarked the other day, politics in this country have nothing to do with real politics. It's not about governing and doing good for the people; it's about self service and party service. It's disheartening and disgusting. It got me thinking. You should always vote for the person who will do the most good, not just because you're in the same party. Granted, I'm likely to believe that somebody who agrees with me will do the most good, but I for one don't want to let party lines stand in my way. Not my fault if the Republicans are all douchebags. Ahem.
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
That is all.
