Conservative's are going to love this: A Federal Effort to Push Junk Food Out of Schools

Looks like the Obama administration is looking to ban sugary beverages and candy from public schools. They would also require more nutritious options. This is going to be interesting...via the NYT:

The legislation would reauthorize the government’s school breakfast and lunch programs. It aims to transform the eating habits of many of the nation’s children and teenagers, but some school officials say it will further crimp already strained budgets.
In addition to banning sugary treats, the new rules would require many schools to offer more nutritious options, which could be expensive. The administration has proposed spending $1 billion more each year on the $18 billion meals program, but the increase may not be enough to cover the extra costs.

I kind of agree with the critics here. First of all, my child's health is my respnsibility not President Obama's.

Secondly, instead of focusing legislation, time, energy, and money on a program like this why don't they use the same time, energy, and money to create better resources for parents, fund educational projects that help teach kids about health and fitness, encourage better physical fitness programs. The goal should be to incite a better educated public instead of simply restricting the availability of bad things...eventually, people are going to have to make a decision about good and bad.

Helping children avoid a problem (like extremely unhealthy snacks) is not better then teaching them how to deal with the problematic choice when confronted with it - just like the old saying says, "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime"

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How Rich People Smoke Pot

Sure, why not:

The Volcano Vaporizer has become a coveted status symbol for posh pot smokers, who say it draws out the drug's aroma like "the bouquet of a wine," and their personal trainers insist on it.

...Indeed, the Vaporizer wouldn’t look out of place in the pages of the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. With its sleek, brushed-aluminum chassis and digital temperature gauge, it could be mistaken for a device that steams milk. And, perhaps not incidentally, the $700 Volcano is growing in popularity with the cappuccino crowd—highly educated strivers who demand nothing but the best. “If you’re buying this, you are either an aficionado, or you are well-read in the best ways to deliver cannabis to your body as science currently tells us,” says Pierre. “Otherwise you’d have to have a lot of vanity to drop this much money.”

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Women Taking Over the Workforce

Women Taking Over the Workforce: "NY Times details that women, for the first time in recorded history, outnumber men in the workforce (on a non-seasonally adjusted basis):

For the first time in recorded history, women outnumber men on the nation’s payrolls.

This benchmark is bittersweet, as it comes largely at men’s expense. Because men have been losing their jobs faster than women, the downturn has at times been referred to as a “man-cession.”

Women’s new majority in the nation’s workplaces comes decades after women first began trading in their aprons for pantsuits in droves, and it reinforces expectations that women will continue on the path to pay parity.

Source: BLS

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The Philosophy of Bill Murray - "It just doesn't matter!"

This is awesome:

....The existential nihilism of Meatballs: The idea that life is meaningless—and that free will is thus an illusion, given the utter senselessness of making any choices at all—has plagued philosophers ever since man first set useless pen to pointless paper. In centuries past, some writers have taken this to the extreme, arguing for suicide as the only solution, but others take a more existentialist tack, arguing that embracing that fundamental meaninglessness is an act of liberation. Take Arthur Schopenhauer, who (despite the negative, dismissive connotations of his advocating “pessimism”) argued that looking at life optimistically required intellectual dishonesty, and coming to terms with meaninglessness was the first step toward pursuing the basic human compassion that is our only true purpose. Those ideas form the basis of one of Murray’s most stirring, endlessly-adaptable-to-our-times monologues, a postmodern philosophical treatise delivered to North Star campers fearing another Olympiad trouncing by the rich kids at the Mohawk.

The whole post is interesting throughout...they also touch on Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Scrooged & Rushmore, and Quickchange.

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TV Viewership and Educational Attainment

Hunch Blog asks "Does watching lots of TV zap brain cells, or is it just that more educated people watch less TV? We’re not sure about the cause and effect relationship, but according to Hunch data the latter statement definitely seems true." Econompic has a chart and a possible answer about the correlation:

Interesting, but while Hunch is not sure why the relationship is inversely correlated, I think this chart makes it pretty easy to guess the reason (i.e. a HECK of a lot more time on their hands on average).

Source: Hunch

For the record, I am definitely one of the 37% listed with a Master Degree that watches at least 2 hours a day (though I probably watch less than 15 minutes each day while not multi-tasking).

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Check yourself before you wreck yourself...

Cafe Hayek wants econ bloggers to check their sources...me too:

I’m not one either, but…"Mark Thoma quotes Bruce Bartlett who quotes a poll that shows Republicans are crazy. They think that Obama should be impeached, ACORN stole the 2008 election and other implausible or ugly 'partisan' views. According to the poll, 24% of Republicans think OBama wants the terrorists to win. Another 33% aren’t sure if he does or not. Frightening.

Bartlett looks at the poll and says he’s glad he’s not a Republican. Thoma concludes:

No comment — this speaks for itself. But it is clear that this group is never going to participate in or even support a bi-partisan effort to solve our problems. A few of the moderates might listen politely, but the base has spoken and the Party of No is not going away.

Could be. But it’s a Daily Kos poll. Do you think maybe, just maybe, they wanted to find out that Republicans are partisan crazies"

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Rainbow Pancakes

Rainbow Pancakes! via inspireddays

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