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Last updated on August 5th, 2017 at 08:09 am
Business Week’s David Kiley:
Look around any public school today, and you can see the effects of junk food on kids. It’s an issue that’s easier to see than even global warming.
Global warming can be seen now? Does it look anything like this?
(Note: above link is to last Saturday’s column, which previously was wiped from the web in some kind of tube mishap.)
I kind of agree about the junk food, but especially agree about limiting government’s powers to enforce a change. I see too many chubby, inactive kids, but it’s not Fast Food’s fault, or Big Business’s fault, or Government’s fault. It’s the fault of parents who don’t pay enough attention to what their kids are eating (or not eating) and doing (or not doing).
As for Global Warming, I saw it just the other day, cadging drink money on the corner and generally stinking up the neighborhood.
Global warming is a very divisive topic. On the one side, many people seem to think it’s real; on the other side, many people seem to think that there is insufficient evidence to support the theory. I believe Tim’s comic is an amusing synopsis of the latter position. I would certainly like to see more comics by Tim, on this and other subjects.
Yes, in an ardent effort to not steal a thread , I must agree with paco’s statement. Global warming is a very divise topic. The only difference I would make is to say it’s a very very divise topic.
(wronwright wonders how many comments have to be posted before someone says some smart ass comment and then it devolves into fun bantering again)
Posted by wronwright on 2007 06 25 at 12:23 PM • permalink
“IIII, WANT CANDII!!!!!” (with apologies to Bow Wow Wow).
Man, Tim, your job is full of perky – er, perks……
And I second paco’s call for more comic parodies of leftist bullcrappiness.
Posted by Tex Lovera on 2007 06 25 at 12:25 PM • permalink
Just to play this with a straight bat, there’s nary a chubby kid at my young fella’s school. Trim to lithe, every one. Yet every couple of months, the menu is pared of the yummier, popular items (burgers, etc) in favour of boring wholemeal and grated vegetable -type crap that the kids simply don’t want.
And this at the behest of some harpy on the P&C committee reacting to the latest media beat-up and responding to a crisis that simply isn’t there. (And yeah, I see the analogy). If there are overweight kids to be found, it’s more likely to be due to bad diet at home, and lack of encouragement to be sporty, or at least active. Which is again more likely to be a home influence, rather than a school one.
OK. Here is a….Holy Christ, is it ever.
paco, I’m not sure I can go that far. I will say that there are two sides to this issue. One side says there is great danger to the planet, and to the inhabitants thereof. The other side expresses doubts as to the soundness of the science supporting the first side. They will counsel more research and offer practical and economically sound solutions.
So, perhaps you are correct. It would seem to be very, very, very, very divise with respect to the topic.
Posted by wronwright on 2007 06 25 at 01:03 PM • permalink
#14: My goodness, El Cid. That is a very healthy-looking young person. I assume she doesn’t eat junk food. Would that also be your opinion? On the other hand, just going by his picture, I would say that David Kiley has not met with similar success in avoiding junk food. Or is this, really, a thread about junk food? I think Mr. Blair may have hijacked his own post, but that would be his right, since it’s his blog. I will just note that the phenomenon of overweight children can, like global warming, be very, very, very divisive.
To show you the potential impact of public schools on our children with respect to nutritional issues, permit me to cite this fascinating table. This is a link to the aforementioned table. I think we can all agree that it is important for the schools to be careful in selecting nutritious, well-balanced meals. Because, as David Kiley points out, you can actually see the effects of a poor diet, whereas you cannot necessarily see global warming – if it exists at all, about which there is much disagreement.
- There is an underlying issue, even more… even more… um, separating than the issue of global warming, and that is the issue of the spelling of divisive/divise. It has come to my attention that some people, while claiming to be in agreement with everyone else, are secretly spelling divisively with a new, divisive spelling, namely divise instead of divisive.
These traitors are difficult, almost impossible to detect by someone not trained in such matters. One must actually go through everything they write or say and examine every word. Now, I’m not saying that applies to anyone here on this thread. But I am saying that perhaps we should run some checks, just to be sure.
It was a pretty day. Sheila said, “Good morning, Paco.” I said, “Good morning, Sheila.” Then I went into my office.
As soon as I sat down, the telephone rang. “Hello, this is Detective Paco. How may I help you?”
The voice on the other end of the telephone said, “I have a big problem, Detective Paco. Someone is trying to kill me.”
I said, “Are they trying to do it slowly, by feeding you fatty foods that cause you to gain excessive weight, thus endangering your pulmonary system?”
“No”, the caller said.
I said, “Well, are they putting your life in danger by emitting excessive amounts of pollutants, notably CO2?”
“No”, the person said. “They have tried on a couple of occasions to gun me down outside of my office.”
“I’m sorry”, I said. “That’s not the issue here, today. Your situation is off-topic, I’m afraid. Why don’t you pray that they don’t kill you, for now, and maybe I can help you next week?”
“Thank you, Detective Paco. I will try to . . *BLAM* . . . *click* . . . hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm”
Hee hee! Detective Paco is back.
Ahem… I mean, I agree with all and sundry on the objectiveness of the objectivity, and the divisiveness of alternate spellings, which may or may not be satire, as it impacts the invisibility of global warming and last, but not least, the prevalence, or lack thereof, of fat kids in school.
#24 Rebecca: I agree. By the way, the following statistics provide an interesting perspective on the preferences of Australian youth, including the consumption of junk food. This is the link for the aforementioned statistics on Australian youth preferences, including the consumption of junk food . There are, unfortunately, no indications of Australian youth’s preferences concerning global warming, so I am only dealing with half of the thread’s subject matter. I’m sure others can fill in the gaps on that issue.
Good news, folks, Goebbels Wormening has now been solved. Turns out it really is the worms.
Scientist Implicates Worms in Global Warming
Jim Frederickson, the research director at the Composting Association has called for data on worms and composting to be re-examined after a German study found that worms produce greenhouse gases 290 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Worms are being used commercially to compost organic material and is in preference to putting it into the landfill. The German government wants 45% of all waste to be composted by 2015.
“Everybody… thinks they can do no harm but they contribute to global warming. People are looking into alternative waste treatments but we have to make sure that we are not jumping from the frying pan into the fire,” said Frederickson.
Let that be a lesson to all you hippies who compost. You’re the cause of AGW.
- Global warming is a divisive topic.
Global warming is a very very divisive topic
There are two sides to everything.Blah, blah, blah!
Enough of this namby pamby stuff.Wake me when we get to totally divisive!
It’s Monday and I require some thermonukular divisive if you please! I want to hear bells peel! I want to see fur fly! Let conflict reign!There. I feel better now.
Ok, hinky on-topic mode now “off”. Although this is sort of on-topic: Al Gore has received a challenge to put his money where his piehole is.
I kinda’ like this one too…
El Cid Says:
June 25th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Moron
Imbecile
Idiot
alphiePeople, you have just seen the range of cognitive science and reasoning.
There is a notable lack of lard-arses at my kids’ school also – which makes me wonder if this doofus actually has visited a school recently.
Though perhaps there are some geographical factors involved here – a walk down the main street of Tamworth brings to mind what it might be like to be the victim in an elephant stampede.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 06 25 at 06:01 PM • permalink
Tim Tam, you should make Blairman a regular feature along with your stories. (Poss. a monthly feature in the paper, half page filler down the bottom, as I think the symmetry will look good on the paper.)
How about having the next story cartoon revolve around you reporting a story on the Live Earth concert? We the Blair bloggers, could be the token rock groupies (make sure you see our names… lol) and you could report on the actual carbon that has been used at this special event. Please! Please! Please! 🙂
Re Media Watch and the item about John and Janette featuring in Play School.
Here’s an item from The Oz in 2006, with the money quote:
But ABC staff, their union and Labor questioned how the rules could be enforced for drama, comedy and children’s shows.“This is outrageous. It’s just another attack upon the ABC and its independence,” said Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Stephen Jones. “It’s also a little bit demoralising.
“Does it mean that comedians can no longer take pot shots at the Government? Is there some political content in Play School? We are getting to the stage where we are looking for political content and bias in children’s programs.”
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 06 25 at 08:08 AM • permalink
Margo check out this weeks media watch: Play School.null
Did anyone view this last night?
Hey 1.6 – Looks like Tim’s already written you into the cartoon.
No mention of us on MW unfortunately – “Fingers” Palmer is probably trying to find a rock to hide under, but I’d still like to know why it appears that he lied to the Daily Telegraph.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 06 25 at 07:15 PM • permalink
#12 and #36 – same with our school. I live opposite a school, which is not the school that our kids go to, so I see two sets of school kids everytime I do the school run.
There is the odd tub o’lard, but they are very few and far between. I too have been wondering where this “epidemic” is hiding. I’ve been in a few shopping centres recently, and the kids there didn’t look like gel sacks of chicken fat.
It must be geographic, and if the writings of Theodore Dalrymple are anything to go by, it is concentrated in lower class areas that are full of bogans.
The upper-middle class (via the SMH), which is not in any way affected by this problem, has a good panic attack, and the bogans continue on as normal without giving two hoots.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 06 25 at 07:31 PM • permalink
#39: Did somebody mention Media Watch? Here’s an issue they could be investigating, rather than plucking comments out of context off of Tim Blair’s web site.
Via the must-read Hot Air. Bookmark it!
/Gets up on cranks soapbox/notices odd stains and what looks like dried spittle stuck to it/
My 2 bobs worth on the increase in diabeties and weight gain. The body is wired to prefer sweet and fatty foods due to those items being the most effective “fuel” for the body.
For hundreds of years farmers and scientists have been breeding and selecting lines of crop that have that extra sweetness because thats what people prefer.
The average sugar content of most varieties of fruits, vegetables and other items has gone up, they taste better because they are sweeter, because they have more sugars in them.
Most fast food items are made with extra sugar or fat because people want it, it tastes better. I dont care how much you spend on advertising, I will prefer a grilled lambs tail to a tofu burger any day./off the soapbox
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 25 at 07:37 PM • permalink
Journos feel they don’t have a story unless they can say that something is increasing, and I suspect this is the case with childhood obesity. Often the only thing that is increasing is their lack of credibility.
There were always one or two salad dodgers in my school photo many moons ago – as there are in my kids’ school photos.
BTW Game here is ace.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 06 25 at 07:44 PM • permalink
So if we eat less there will be less flatulence and therefore less global warmening?
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 06 25 at 08:05 PM • permalink
“Valve, Thermionic Valve’s the name. I want to go to Little Chalfont”
“Best take the tube, mate”.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 06 25 at 08:26 PM • permalink
#38 I don’t get it 1.618. There’s nothing funny about two mum or two dad famillies – just wrongness.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 06 25 at 08:30 PM • permalink
- Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 06 25 at 08:35 PM • permalink
GLOBAL WARMING wreaks havoc in London! Has Al Gore visited there this week?
UPDATE: Obviously Prince Charles needs to do more!
ANOTHER UPDATE: But of course! “Mr Gore was in London on Wednesday to promote his Live Earth 24-hour concert next month .”
Via Don Surber, who emails: “It is so difficult to type while I laugh.”
I have that problem a lot.
No, it’s true. I saw Global Warming myself just the other day. Nice chap old Global, or Glob to his friends, with a good sense of humour. Though he is a bit stressed at the moment. Reckons there are all these rumours going around and his wife thinks he’s having a hot affair with some chick called Greenhouse. Denies it all, but apparently there’s some sort of consensus going around the neighbourhood that he’s causing all kinds of havoc. Still, I’m sure he’ll get over it
What a world we live in. Private jet owning, lay preacherman harangue us about global warming. Jabba The Hut’s stunt double lectures us about junk food.
Memo to fucktards – get your own house in order before you start redecorating mine. Far more people die of being too skinny than being too fat. The biggest cause of obesity is shithouse parents. Lets outlaw shithouse parents and slaphead journalists.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 06 25 at 11:43 PM • permalink
#53. Rob, my lounge room window faces a public school, and school just finished for the day. I watched the little tackers walking home in the rain with mum, or being collected by car. Those that exited from this side of the school, thanks to the layout of the street, went past my window.
Not a fatso between the lot of them.
Some of the parents though made Jabba the Hutt look like Elle McPherson.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 06 26 at 01:14 AM • permalink
OK, a follow up on my previous comment. Just did the school run. Spotted one little fatty goombah. He wasn’t a complete tub of lard – he just looked a bit more cherubic than he should have.
That’s not bad for a school with 600 kids.
All I can think of to explain this is that there is a “fat kids” gate somewhere that I haven’t been told about, and the fatso’s are sent home through that gate to avoid public scrutiny. I’ll have to look around for a double-wide gate at the school.
Mine of course disdains gates – he just jumps the fence.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 06 26 at 02:23 AM • permalink
- I live a small rural town and it is staggering the number of grossly over weight children, teens and women.
Young mums in the supermarket are ‘super lard asses’ with’ thunder thighs’ & Bubs to match. What is wrong with their education? that what they are doing to their kids is tantamount to child abuse.
I see them ambling throught the streets at 11 am eating as they go with buckets of chips and pies filling in their time until ?In the supermarket their trolleys full of coke, fanta etc, pre packaged Pizza, lollies and sweet biscuits,frozen chips, white bread and tinned fruit.
These lasses are seriously overweight and heading for a lifetime of illness and early demise.
Even the 17 year old checkout girls, five of them over 140Ibs at a guess.It takes so little time to prepare a tasty meal. When I was a lass we had ‘Domestic science’ cooking and sewing in our curriculum, which stood us in good stead for when we lived in flats or married.
It was womans lib who saw that end as too sextist, so we have generations of girls who have not a clue as to living a healthy lifestyle and too lazy to try. I suppose the extra weight exhausts them so they only have energy to put another chip in their mouths and that of their little ones.Fruit juices given from birth also have a lot to answer for as do soy products which are phytooestragens and responsible for little girls grow breast too young and boys to develop ‘man boobs’ along with chikens and meat products with added oestrogens all though they try to deny it
In years to come it will be banned but not until generations are destroyed.
Aside from the junk food issue, too many kids are allowed to spend their hours in front of the TV, or the computer, or playing electronic games. They don’t play outside anymore, not least because Mom won’t let them stray farther than three feet from the front door. Competitive games are… well, competitive, and that’s bad because then someone might lose. Old-fashioned cops and robbers is too violent, and the universe would crash if anybody played a new version called “the Army kicks Jihadi around the neighborhood”. As a society, we’re turning our kids into marshmallows, figuratively and literally.
“Hit the road, Warmy!” That’s classic!