Welcome Governor Schwartzanegger =)

[jmfryar]

It's not the shortened lifespan that's at issue.

It's children suffering type II diabetes, requireing hip replacements, having heart issues...

the sheer cost in health care is astronomical. Keep in mind just because you live to 70 doesn't mean you're running marathons at 69...

The cost now is a recognizable portion of some health insurance companies budgets and will only get larger as we, well, get larger. I'm not sure I like the idea of working to pay tax to pay for someone's stomach stapling, since I'm sure that it will be seen as a necessary treatment to the epidemic.

I didn't think this was a topic that I would have to defend...somehow I thought that children and obesity would have resulted in a resounding cry of "No More".

There's far more to the issue than just shortened life span. It's quality of life issues.

For instance, if a good percentage of people are on the "heavy side" it's going to cost more to fly when they're taking up more than one seat.

You laugh, but how many airlines are charging for two tickets for some people due to their weight?

And I for one have switched seats rather than sit next to someone who's pressing me against the window while I try to avoid their almost overwhelming B.O.

This is a specific example, but there are thousands as we deal with more and more of the population suffering from this epidemic.

[piqaboo]

Im not in favor of over-weight children. Life seems to be tougher for them psychologically, and is certainly more difficult physically.
I was curious about how you reached a certain conclusion. Thank you for your explanation.

[dkm32]

Originally posted by Stravinsky:
if the people across the atlantic are laughing at us - fine, then we don't need to send them anymore foreign aid - we can use our monies here (our monies are tax dollars, just in case you are confused) if you are going to make fun of us (even california), you don't need our monies - let's feed the children here - what a concept

And, then let's educate the children here - what a concept!

Other countries have free or nearly free education for their college kids (India for one). They come out of school with a good education and no loans to pay back.

If we kept our tax money here, educated our children better and gave college educations at a much lower cost, businesses wouldn't be sending jobs to foreign countries. Nor importing people to do our high tech jobs at a fraction of what they pay people here. People here wouldn't need as much just to get past the student loans.

Again, just my 2¢. (Haggis, Ever heard of cut and paste???)

[dai bread]

Originally posted by jmfryar:
And I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think you can measure success by weight...

In Polynesian society, particularly Tongan and Samoan, that's exactly how you measure success. That's why their (and our) health officials have such a problem with Polynesian obesity.

The message is gradually getting through, helped in no small way by the King of Tonga going on a diet and exercising regularly. He lost something like 80kg if I remember rightly. It's a long battle though. Traditions don't die easily.

[dai bread]

Originally posted by jmfryar:
For instance, if a good percentage of people are on the "heavy side" it's going to cost more to fly when they're taking up more than one seat.

You laugh, but how many airlines are charging for two tickets for some people due to their weight?

Jm, are you clairvoyant or something? Do you read the "NZ Herald" on line? This very topic has arisen in the last few days as airlines discuss the rising average weight of their passengers. The airlines' load calculations at present are based on 77kg per passenger. This is known to be too low, and some airlines are working on 80kg, but the new figure is likely to be 85. The implication is that at present fully-laden aircraft may be overloaded by about 3 tonnes, (depending on the size of the aircraft, obviously).

[jmfryar]

[QUOTEOther countries have free or nearly free education for their college kids (India for one). They come out of school with a good education and no loans to pay back.
[/QUOTE]

Then why are they all here going to college? Have you seen the numbers of exchange students at Universities lately?

[jmfryar]

Jm, are you clairvoyant or something? Do you read the "NZ Herald" on line?

This is not the first time someone has suggested that I am utterly in tune with NZ...

Hmmm.....

[dkm32]

Originally posted by jmfryar:
Then why are they all here going to college? Have you seen the numbers of exchange students at Universities lately?

I didn't say where they went to school. Just that their government paid for it.

In some cases, we have the best schools...medical especially. Their government pays for them to school here. ...and our degrees look better on a piece of paper than Calcuta Tech.

But, technical schools, India has pretty good ones, and their people school there. Their government pays for it.

I've worked with quite a few Indians that went through the India technical colleges. They got a good education (and degree) and their government paid for it. They come here and work for our company at lesser wages, buy nice cars, etc. Why? No Student loans to repay! They have said so themselves.

BTW: In California fees at committee colleges are now free to illegal immigrants while still costing legal kids $$$ (yours and mine...were I to have one). Thank Gray for that!

<small>[ 10-09-2003, 08:00 PM: Message edited by: dkm32 ]</small>

[lliam]

So! Who is to say that Arnie can’t do the business?
One thing is certain, if this man as not only got skeletons in the cupboard, but monsters, as one commentator remarked, then they will all be seized upon now with renewed glee. Every misdemeanour and alleged sexual indiscretion may now come back to haunt Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This hero of the Terminator movies may find that real life doesn’t always have the right ending.

His enemies and he will have made plenty in his successful campaign for the governorship; will be looking for every way possible to pull him down.
So who is Arnold Schwarzenegger?
He is a republican who campaigned for George Bush senior and who keeps a bust of Ronald Reagan in his office.
Unlike many on the American Right however, he believes in abortion and in gay rights. He also has family ties to the Democrat dynasty, having married Maria Shriver; niece of John F Kennedy.
In him, the votes of California have not a mere politician such as the outgoing Gray Davis, but a superstar, a hero, a Terminator.
A little stardust sprinkled over the humdrum life of federal politics.
Now guys, that’s just how I see it from this side of the fence, my £0.2p’s worth.

<small>[ 10-10-2003, 06:34 AM: Message edited by: lliam ]</small>

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Alright, stand by. Zwei pfennig, or so, from an actual californian.

Arnie wants an audit before he announces financial changes. He'd like to know what the actual resources and obligations really are before he holds the press conference.

This notion is apparently foreign to all the career politicians. It's the first time that an audit has been part of the planning of budget changes. The only time the CPs want CPAs is when they're planning to smear each other with more mud.

Our current budget "shortfall" is large but undefined. Arnie would like to define the thing. This seems to me a lot like the reality I usually deal with, and it seems outright subversive to the career politicians.

I'm hoping for a reduction in the state college fees (I've got this 19-year-old daughter I'm paying said fees for) but they're still a good deal, even at the present rate. I'm hoping for a reduction in the car tax but I'm not depending on it. I'm really hoping that this year's public school budget reduction gets reversed.

Yes, the schools got less money this year than they got last year. Quite a bit less. Every program took hits, and the non-core programs (music, art, athletics, etc.) took big hits. Libraries got less funding. The San Diego State University marching band is marching along on non-tax sources, at the moment. (Thank goodness for alumni!)

My taxes didn't go down. Less of my tax money is being spent where I'd like it to be spent. I'd like to know exactly where it did go, and who handled it while it was going there. Yeay, Audit!

BTW, it may be true that actors aren't trained business managers, but don't I remember Arnie doing some of his own producing? And isn't producing a movie sort of like swimming with sharks; an activity not for the careless or naive?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Crap. I musta stifled the thread.

I was hoping for mockery, or at least some creative dissent. Possibly with decorative sarcastic frills.

Since when does politics leave this bunch mute? What with all the current and defector Californians reporting in? I'm shocked. Shocked, I say.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

BTW, dai, I rather like hanging out with our local Samoan population. Except for the melanin deficiency and lack of stature, I fit in just fine.

I also think well of Tonga. They let us use a .to address for our quilt guild address. Very nice people. Lovely tourist website they have, too.

[dai bread]

I'm glad you like our Polynesian colleagues Selma.

Just as a matter of curiosity, how many of them are overweight, as distinct from being large?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

By Califoria life-insurance and style standards, they're all both extremely large and quite overweight. By Samoan standards, most California life-insurance and style industry standard setters are unhealthily anorexic.

By football player standards, they're a force to be reckoned with. Oceanside High school depends on them, as do any number of other local schools, (where else are you gonna get a 6'4" 240 lb 16-year-old-and-still-growing sprinter that has a high pain threshold?) and a large proportion of the city will never forgive the Chargers for trading Junior Seau away. Losing every game is only a fitting penalty; they may get a perfect season (perfectly rotten season) out of that piece of poor judgement.

We have a little of everything locally. The Samoans are one of our physically largest ethnic groups - they're of large average height, heavy bone structure, heavily muscled, and are almost never thin people. The smallest Samoan guy I ever knew was 5'10", weighed only 180 lbs. The women are very often around six feet tall.

The weight seems to be normal for their ethnic body type, and the ones who are physically active in strenuous sports seem exempt from the usual health effects of fatness; their blood pressure and metabolism are just fine unless they are sedentary.

[dai bread]

Good, Selma. It seems your Samoans are the same as ours. I've read some rude remarks about our Samoans, from an Englishman (Michael Palin) who didn't like us very much and said so in "Slow Boats Home". I thought he was talking through a hole in his head; now I know it.

[piqaboo]

I like your samoans and your maori too.
I feel deliciously petite in their presence.
And I finally met women who eat as much as I do.
Love NZ, at least as a tourist.

[barfle]

I'm impressed by Ahnold wanting a definition of the problem before he proposes a solution. Who woulda thunk it?

I don't see a lot of Polynesians in the DC area. Maybe I need an invite to the NZ, Samoan, or Tahitian embassies...

[piqaboo]

Its good Ahnold wants to understand the flow of $$, yet his audit wont be complete until the time his budget is due to the legislature. So, he'll still be generating a budget proposal based on incomplete information. Fortunately, he should have the complete audit in time for the budget negotiations.

Will be interesting to see if CA gets a budget approved on time this year. It would be a rare enough event to be worth celebration.

[OperaTenor]

"I liked Governor Schwarzenegger's inauguration speech, but I thought it was more powerful in the original German." - Mort Sahl

[The Great Carouser]

Thurmond's daughter, who lives in California, waited 78 years before making the sexual allegations about her father. And today Arnold Schwartzenegger said "Why can't I meet a woman like that?". - Jay Leno