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NY Bill Proposes Fat Tax On Games, DVDs, Junk Food
eldavojohn writes "GamePolitics is writing about a proposal to tax things that make your kids fat. The logic from its author: 'Almost all experts agree that the primary reasons [for the obesity epidemic] are increased consumption of larger quantities of high calorie foods, snacks and sugar sweetened beverages... and lack of physical activity as vigorous play is replaced by sedentary activities such as watching more television, movies and videos and playing video games. This bill would raise revenues from modest surcharges on the very food products and sedentary activities that are linked to the lifestyle changes involved in the explosion of childhood obesity in the last 20-30 years.' Not as explicit as Japan's fat tax but we're getting there."
From Eddie Izzard's "Dress to Kill":
You can't do that
in Church of England.
"You must have tea and cake
with the Vicar or you die!"
The Spanish lnquisition wouldn't
have worked with Church of England.
"Talk!"
"But it hurts."
"Well, loosen it up a bit, will you?"
That's what it would be, tea and cake
or death. "Tea and cake or death!
"Tea and cake or death!"
Students with beards.
"Little red cookbook!
Little red cookbook!"
Cake or death, that's easy.
Anyone can answer that.
"Cake or death?"
"Cake, please."
"Very well! Give him cake."
"Thanks very much. lt's very nice."
"You. Cake or death?"
"Cake for me, too, please."
"Very well. Give him cake, too.
"We're gonna run out of cake
at this rate.
"You. Cake or death?"
"Death, please.
No, cake, cake, sorry."
"You said death first. Death first."
"No, I meant cake."
"Oh, all right.
"You're lucky I'm Church of England.
"Cake or death?"
"Cake, please."
"We're out of cake!
"We only had three bits
and we didn't expect such a rush.
"So what do you want?"
"So my choice is 'or death'?
"I'll have the chicken, then."
"Tastes of human, sir.
"Would you like a white wine?
There we go.
"Thank you for flying
Church of England. Cake or death?"
"I asked for the vegetarian."
"There we go, Mr. Hitler.
"Like a little wine?
Thank you, you Nazi shithead."
I spend maybe an hour a day preparing my food, and I eat very healthfully - it doesn't take much time if you do it right. I'm also insanely busy - full time job, full time grad student, social life, 2 very needy dogs, semi-relationship-sort-of-thing, and side projects to keep me from getting overwhelmed with work and school. There are 2 things I credit with letting me do this without getting worn out: exercise and eating well. (You probably thought I was going to say "coke and meth" :p)
2x a week I have a "big cooking" night (it often doubles as a "have friends over and chatter with 'em while we cook" night) - I'll chop a lot of veggies, cook a lot of noodles and beans/lentils make a lot of basic stuff that I use in almost every meal.
2x a week I'll do a crock pot of a whole chicken (good for mixing with pretty much everything, or making sandwiches, etc) and it'll let me eat well for days.
The only preparing I do every day is mixing up the veggies, maybe tossing some fish onto the broiler, cooking up a side or whatever (been doing a lot of potatoes and corn on the cob lately).
Lunch I usually have leftovers, I'll kind of stagger them a little bit so I'm not having the same thing for lunch that I had for dinner the night before.
Breakfast is often a smoothie or oatmeal with fruit and stuff like that.
I make my own bread (not so much because it's cheaper or easier, but because it smells REALLY good and I can have some fun with it) but that's pretty much an automated process of mixing stuff up and letting the bread maker deal with it. I also get a monthly delivery from a community supported agriculture group in my area, and it actually works out to be a little cheaper than grocery shopping for 'em. I use Peapod for staple stuff. Maybe 1x a month I'll need to go to a grocery store, but that's mainly because I want to bake something with my friends on one of the big prep nights, and I want to get something unusual to add to whatever we make.
Making good stuff is really easy and not that time consuming if you just plan it out a little bit. For a 2 person household it should be quite easy if both of 'em are sharing the load, and it can be a great time to hang with your partner or your friends and unwind from the day.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.