Perfect People
Perfect People - © Kent Fletcher
December 10, 2006
Ever since the news came out of New York City and Mayor Bloomberg's decision to rid the city of trans fats, the notion of nanny states has come to the forefront of lots of folks. Especially the "Perfect People", for purposes here, a.k.a. PPs.
You know who these PPs are, heck, you may be one of them. PPs are the folks who have been there, done that (BTDT) in any number of things. In a small way, I suppose I am one of them, in that I used to eat fried chicken more often than not, salivating in the grease. I used to drink colas all the time, too, with peanuts dropped in the necks of the bottles. I used to gorge my belly with food, whatever the food was. I used to drink anything but gin. But as I have aged, I've found my "tastes" have flattened, my attitudes toward some things in life have changed, and I have no need for these destructive little nuances of typical everyday life.
Oh, this is not to say I don't eat fried chicken anymore, I do, but on real rare occasions. I've learned to eat the meat, not the skin and all the grease contained in that skin. I did make an error in judgement last week by eating the skin. My gut rolled over about a half hour later. On the colas though, I haven't conscientiously had a cola since the late 70s or early 80s. Too sweet. I'm also allergic to the cola, something about one ingredient, arginine I think. About the same time I realized I was allergic to cola, I also found out I was allergic to nuts of any kind and chocolate which also have arginine. So I stayed off all of it until a few years ago. I had a strong urge for some chocolate ice cream. Ate some, nothing happened. Ate some more, still nothing happened. Same for nuts. But I don't overdo it on either, as my body will react in strange ways, and it's just easier to parcel the urges out, or take smaller amounts.
During his high school years, my nephew worked at McDonald's at home. After the stories he told me of patties falling on dirt-laden, unmopped, filthy floors, being picked up and tossed on the grill, well, that pretty much turned me against fast-food, any of it, from Captain D's on to McDonald's on to KFC and Church's Fried Chicken. Besides, the food is fattening, and that is one thing that just bamboozles me to no end, to see a fat family in a fast-food joint, gorging themselves on fattening food. And that's where the food nannies, PPs, and governments should NOT be concerned - on the personal practices of the folks who buy the food - but on the cleanliness of a given food-oriented place.
Another matter that keeps coming to my frontal lobes, whether searching for it or not, is smoking. It seems whenever the notion of trans fats comes up, or some other item for human ingesting comes up, the PPs chime in about the ills of smoking, yet another human consumption for decades, no, make that centuries. When the Surgeon General made sure warnings were put on cigarette packs way back in 1965, I remember my father clipping the first one he saw and putting it under glass. To smoke is a personal choice, and it should remain that way, even if smoking exacerbates the cause(s) of one's death. After all, none of us is going to get out of this life alive, are we?
So, in the end it boils down to what the Perfect People think is good for all mankind, whether here in these United States, or any other country in the world. I would say that nine times out of ten, these same Perfect People were at one time imperfect, in that they were smokers, boozers, unhelmeted motorcycle riders, fattening food addicts, cola addicts, nut addicts, sex addicts. The PPs think that by their having BTDT lives and having beaten their old wily ways, they can dictate to the rest of society who are still addicted to some foul way of life, such as skiing, snowboarding, water skiing, hotrodding, drugging, you name it, they've got the best answers. NOT!
As I mentioned above, government, and PPs to an extent, should stay out of peoples' lives, peoples' bedrooms, peoples' eating habits. Warnings and admonitions are fine, but the last I heard or read, we all live in a free society, a democracy, where we, individually, alone are ultimately responsible for our actions, or inactions. And when those actions run detrimental to the overall well-being of society, only then should the government be responsible for the solution, be it incarceration, fines, or the ultimate, death.
December 10, 2006
Ever since the news came out of New York City and Mayor Bloomberg's decision to rid the city of trans fats, the notion of nanny states has come to the forefront of lots of folks. Especially the "Perfect People", for purposes here, a.k.a. PPs.
You know who these PPs are, heck, you may be one of them. PPs are the folks who have been there, done that (BTDT) in any number of things. In a small way, I suppose I am one of them, in that I used to eat fried chicken more often than not, salivating in the grease. I used to drink colas all the time, too, with peanuts dropped in the necks of the bottles. I used to gorge my belly with food, whatever the food was. I used to drink anything but gin. But as I have aged, I've found my "tastes" have flattened, my attitudes toward some things in life have changed, and I have no need for these destructive little nuances of typical everyday life.
Oh, this is not to say I don't eat fried chicken anymore, I do, but on real rare occasions. I've learned to eat the meat, not the skin and all the grease contained in that skin. I did make an error in judgement last week by eating the skin. My gut rolled over about a half hour later. On the colas though, I haven't conscientiously had a cola since the late 70s or early 80s. Too sweet. I'm also allergic to the cola, something about one ingredient, arginine I think. About the same time I realized I was allergic to cola, I also found out I was allergic to nuts of any kind and chocolate which also have arginine. So I stayed off all of it until a few years ago. I had a strong urge for some chocolate ice cream. Ate some, nothing happened. Ate some more, still nothing happened. Same for nuts. But I don't overdo it on either, as my body will react in strange ways, and it's just easier to parcel the urges out, or take smaller amounts.
During his high school years, my nephew worked at McDonald's at home. After the stories he told me of patties falling on dirt-laden, unmopped, filthy floors, being picked up and tossed on the grill, well, that pretty much turned me against fast-food, any of it, from Captain D's on to McDonald's on to KFC and Church's Fried Chicken. Besides, the food is fattening, and that is one thing that just bamboozles me to no end, to see a fat family in a fast-food joint, gorging themselves on fattening food. And that's where the food nannies, PPs, and governments should NOT be concerned - on the personal practices of the folks who buy the food - but on the cleanliness of a given food-oriented place.
Another matter that keeps coming to my frontal lobes, whether searching for it or not, is smoking. It seems whenever the notion of trans fats comes up, or some other item for human ingesting comes up, the PPs chime in about the ills of smoking, yet another human consumption for decades, no, make that centuries. When the Surgeon General made sure warnings were put on cigarette packs way back in 1965, I remember my father clipping the first one he saw and putting it under glass. To smoke is a personal choice, and it should remain that way, even if smoking exacerbates the cause(s) of one's death. After all, none of us is going to get out of this life alive, are we?
So, in the end it boils down to what the Perfect People think is good for all mankind, whether here in these United States, or any other country in the world. I would say that nine times out of ten, these same Perfect People were at one time imperfect, in that they were smokers, boozers, unhelmeted motorcycle riders, fattening food addicts, cola addicts, nut addicts, sex addicts. The PPs think that by their having BTDT lives and having beaten their old wily ways, they can dictate to the rest of society who are still addicted to some foul way of life, such as skiing, snowboarding, water skiing, hotrodding, drugging, you name it, they've got the best answers. NOT!
As I mentioned above, government, and PPs to an extent, should stay out of peoples' lives, peoples' bedrooms, peoples' eating habits. Warnings and admonitions are fine, but the last I heard or read, we all live in a free society, a democracy, where we, individually, alone are ultimately responsible for our actions, or inactions. And when those actions run detrimental to the overall well-being of society, only then should the government be responsible for the solution, be it incarceration, fines, or the ultimate, death.
posted by Fletch @ 10:52 AM
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