MetaChat - *sigh* attempt to legislate common sense goes awry, news @ 11

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24 September 2007

*sigh* attempt to legislate common sense goes awry, news @ 11 →[More:]

Behold, the Cupcake as Emotional and Moral Battleground (NYT).

is it just me? Oh, don't get me wrong, I am indeed aware that the media in this country is a bunch of pandering ho-bagz that enjoy nothing better than pitching molotov cocktails into the burgeoning conflagrations of Outrage Du Jour... but can anyone please tell me why we as a society feel the continuing need to over-legislate what should be simple common sense? Have we become such a society of intellectual and moral kindergartners that we must be handheld and spoon-fed through practically every decision?

you'll have to forgive me, I've been reading Salman Rushdie again...

post by: lonefrontranger at: 16:32 | 8 comments

On one hand, we're outlawing cupcakes, and on the other, we're eliminating recess.

I blame two childhood obesity on 3 factors: adult obesity, lack of unstructured physical exercise (i.e. "playing outside"), and fast food diets. An occasional cupcake is not going to cause a kid to get fat; a child should not have to worry about "empty calories."

posted by muddgirl 24 September | 16:36

On the other hand:

The Texas Legislature agreed, in spirit, when it passed the “Safe Cupcake Amendment,” in 2005, in response to new federal child nutrition guidelines and lobbying from parents outraged by the schoolroom siege on cupcakes.

I sometimes really hate this state.

posted by muddgirl 24 September | 16:38

I had an ex-coworker ask me to stop bringing donuts to the workplace because "people are trying to diet" (referring to herself and maybe two others in the department). I don't think you can expect kids to have self-control when their parents can't even watch what they eat.

posted by desjardins 24 September | 16:51

I don't get it.... my kids have perhaps the worst diet on the planet, yet one of them is 6'-5", 160, and the other is 6'-3", 140.

(Of course, they still have their Doohickie genes which will mandate they will need to track their calorie intake later in life to stay skinny, but still...)

posted by Doohickie 24 September | 17:41

I had an ex-coworker ask me to stop bringing donuts to the workplace

That's when you should've brought in these badboys for lunch.

posted by CKmtl 24 September | 18:06

I don't my mom ever sent me to school with a cupcake. Sometimes I forget how deprived I was as a child.

posted by Citizen Premier 24 September | 18:20

When I rant about how Political Correctness is fucking up the world, this is the sort of thing that I am talking about. What kind of moron thinks that legislating what kids eat is going to have any impact whatsoever on anything but the legislators inflated sense of worth? If people are going to feed their kids enough crap and not encourage them to exercise, they will get fat. The same people that do this are not going to give a rat's arse about what legislators say or do.

posted by dg 24 September | 18:25

I just hope these kids are soothing their cupcake jones with a rich, smooth, full-flavored Marlboro.

posted by BitterOldPunk 24 September | 23:55

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