Expectations, Mexico 2011

O.k, how about this, our soup kitchen received food from elementary schools on more than one occasion.

gringal wrote:
Back to what kids eat: Americans' eating habits are costing an increasing chunk of medical care. As the population ages, it will only get worse. It all starts with what kids get used to and continue to eat as adults: Greasy burgers and fries, sugary drinks, and all the snack foods (loaded with chemicals) that have a shelf life longer than our own.

The problem can be ignored or it can be seriously discussed in the public arena. It deserves discussion, IMO.
We don't yet have a comprehensive food labeling law that includes everything we eat and drink. For instance, do most of you know what chemicals are added to wines for purposes of making them taste better than they deserve to? Some things commonly known as poisons are added as flavor enhances. Labeling laws don't include liquor. Do you know that "natural flavors" on labels can include MSG, or what terms are used to disguise those nasty artery clogging fats?

I don't think the government can dictate food choices effectively, but they can do Job One: insisting that food and drink providers give us the true information about the foods and drinks we consume. Then, the choices we make for ourselves and our children are fueled by knowledge. Lobbyists don't want this, so as per usual:
FOLLOW THE MONEY. And harass your government.

Absolutely!

kiva wrote:

espíritu del lago wrote:

(I will state, unequivocally, that I've seen whole apples (a fruit) dumped by dozens of kids (or more) into the slop bin that was carried off to feed the pigs/hogs! What a waste!)

Exactly,and with the new law passed Schools will be required to provide more whole grains, lean protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as free drinking water where meals are served.

Personally, I think thats great but I see a huge potential of wasted tax dollars.

Why do people look for tax dollars being wasted on children, education, health care and the elderly first, with absolutely no mention of the dollars wasted on prosecuting two wars which will result absolutely nothing beneficial to anyone? Anyone think we have our priorities screwed up?

Way screwed up, Kiva.
Problem is, it seems to me we are either , or preaching to the choir.
What can we do other than lead by example? Lizzy

I'm no right wing nut but after what I saw with all my employees in the Virgin Islands I've come to the conclusion that if you breed 'em, you feed 'em. If I could, I'd have a dozen dogs but I can't afford it so I don't. There is no inalienable right in the States to have more children than you can afford to take care of properly.

Daily I saw kids walking to school eating their breakfasts of Cokes and junk from McDonald's or Cheese Curls, etc.

espíritu del lago wrote:It is far too common all over the world.

Lizzy, meant expectation.Can't anybody make an innocent typo w/o the language Nazi patrol busting ya.

Espiritu ~ Expections was a typo, rather a cute one, actually.... but the garbled mess that followed it? Well, there were no typos. Every word was correctly spelled. Congratulations!
But if you wish to be understood you will have to put those correctly spelled words in a sequence that will form a coherent sentence. Take a little pride in your work, man.
Lizzy

bobnliz wrote:

espíritu del lago wrote:It is far too common all over the world.

Lizzy, meant expectation.Can't anybody make an innocent typo w/o the language Nazi patrol busting ya.

Espiritu ~ Expections was a typo, rather a cute one, actually.... but the garbled mess that followed it? Well, there were no typos. Every word was correctly spelled. Congratulations!
But if you wish to be understood you will have to put those correctly spelled words in a sequence that will form a coherent sentence. Take a little pride in your work, man.
Lizzy

So tell me in a coherent fashion why you addressed me in the previous post, woman.

Must be all the esoteric handles. Now that I am among the chronologically gifted, a temporary state of confusion occasionally occurs. You guys are just too clever. Lizzy

xxx

Well Lehrer I don't know if any policies have changed just know what I saw.

xxx

Some interesting birth rate info...

Youth Today’s October cover story and its chief source, Advocates For Youth (AFY), credited the 10-fold difference between U.S. and Dutch teen birth rates to Holland’s better sex education, contraceptive services, and acceptance of teenage sexuality. Like America’s larger policy debate, AFY and the story omitted the only factor that matters--the huge differences in child poverty between the two nations.
The internationally-calculated poverty rate among Dutch youth is about 5%, one-third that of U.S. youth (17%). The Netherlands’ annual teen birth rate is 5 per 1,000 girls ages 15-19 and near-zero among younger teens.
AFY and sex-ed backers don’t need to junket Europe to find low teen pregnancy levels. In suburban Marin County, California, for example, only 5% of white teens live in poverty. Their birth rate also is 5 per 1,000 girls ages 15-19, and near-zero among younger teens. Meanwhile, in agricultural Tulare County, California, where 18% of white teens are impoverished, the white-teen birth rate is 50 per 1,000--10 times that of white Marin teens. Forty percent of Tulare’s Hispanic girls are poor; their birth rate tops 100, like Guatemala’s.
Where U.S. youth enjoy low, European poverty rates, they display low, European birth rates; conversely, Third-World poverty yields Third World fertility. ETR Associates’ detailed 2000 study of California communities found teen birth rates so powerfully tied to prior youth poverty rates that it’s hard to imagine what could be more important. Yet, when not ignoring poverty issues altogether, America’s teen-sex lobbies pretend wealthier girls get pregnant just as often but abort more. Not true. Clinic surveys find poorer teens have abortion and miscarriage rates several times higher than richer teens.
In any U.S. city, you can create a formula from the poverty rate and adult birth rate that predicts each race’s, community’s, and era’s teenage birth rate with astoundingly close precision. For 80 years, in fact, the teen birth rate has paralleled the adult birth rate with uncanny precision.

Teen births per 1,000 population

Canada 16
United Kingdom 20
Hungary 21
Bosnia and Herzegovina 23
Slovakia 24
Latvia 24
Lithuania 26
Estonia 26
New Zealand 27
Belarus 27
Russia 30
Georgia 33
Macedonia 34
Armenia 34
Romania 37
Ukraine 38
Saudi Arabia 38
Bulgaria 41
Chile 44
Brazil 45
United States 53
Indonesia 55
Mexico 64
South Africa 66
India 73
Nigeria 103
Niger 233

Spencer's birth rate listing was interesting: some conclusions are obvious; others not so. What this has to do with Spirit's comments is beyond me......but maybe I'm missing something ?

I've read that, among the very poor, having a baby as a teen is a kind of status symbol for a girl among her peers. It's about as short-sighted as getting drunk, but there it is. The culture of poverty is about "making it okay" the best one can. Considering that most poor girls don't have college, career or the "good life" to look forward to, it may be an explanation. The rewards of foresight and/or abstinence are ephemeral when the hormones kick in.

That's all I was trying to show, where Mexico ranked as well as how socioeconomic status apparently affects the numbers, even in the US. I haven't had a child in 17 years and had thousands of practice sessions but also know how to not have a kid or lessen the chances which obviously works.

Both Spirit's comments and his sense of humor tend to be a little on the obtuse side of comprehensible. Perhaps would help? Lizzy

bobnliz wrote:Both Spirit's comments and his sense of humor tend to be a little on the obtuse side of comprehensible. Perhaps would help? Lizzy

Sounds like maybe LESS might help......or ....... have ya seen that t-shirt that shows the galaxy, with earth on one side, very small and the saying: "you are here" pointing way off to the other side. Nuff said?

HAPPY NEW YEAR......TO ALL THE NUTCASES, MARGINAL FOLKS AND ANYONE CLAIMING TO BE UTTERLY SANE ON HERE.
(that last one might just be delusion)

Old saying in the Virgin Islands which may apply here. "We're here because we're not all there."

Carry Bean wrote:Old saying in the Virgin Islands which may apply here. "We're here because we're not all there."

Would that explain all the Virgins?

Excellent observation, G-gal. I had forgotten that alcohol only makes people funnier and more interesting in their own minds. Lizzy

cane wrote:

Carry Bean wrote:Old saying in the Virgin Islands which may apply here. "We're here because we're not all there."

Would that explain all the Virgins?

Trust me, no virgins there except maybe one particularly ugly iguana.

Intercasa wrote: I haven't had a child in 17 years

"If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."

Ain't that the truth!!
And if men were the ones as did the reproducing there would be no population problem, either. Lizzy

xxx

I've heard that before, Lehrer, and it's one of the saddest situations I can think of since it implies so much about a girl's life.

There's still a segment of the population that traditionally get pregnant, then get married. Never the other way around. Lizzy

Teen births per 1,000 population

Canada 16
United Kingdom 20
Hungary 21
Bosnia and Herzegovina 23
Slovakia 24
Latvia 24
Lithuania 26
Estonia 26
New Zealand 27
Belarus 27
Russia 30
Georgia 33
Macedonia 34
Armenia 34
Romania 37
Ukraine 38
Saudi Arabia 38
Bulgaria 41
Chile 44
Brazil 45
United States 53
Indonesia 55
Mexico 64
South Africa 66
India 73
Nigeria 103
Niger 233.

Does this mean our Canadian Teenagers are ... better behaved
better educated
or just uglier?

No, frigid!