What's a vegetable anyway?

Good news America, children are finally eating their vegetables! The bad news however approximately 40% of these vegetables in a kid’s diet are French Fries. School cafeterias are teaching their students that French Fries are a suitable vegetable. With each passing school lunch day, adolescents are getting fatter and fatter. Instead of providing nutritious options in the cafeteria for the growing youth, school districts sign into lucrative contracts with soda and chip companies in return of selling these snacks on campus. School board members must not know the definition of nutrition and only see dollar signs blinking in the distance. Take an Alka Seltzer to settle your stomachs, it gets worse.

But it tastes good so what is the difference?

The choices available to a child at school should not be diabetes with a side order of obesity, but rather sensible meals filled with more nutrition and less fat. According to the National School Lunch Program the average elementary school lunch has an average 738 calories. And that’s before the child grabs a Snickers from the vending machine, pushing the caloric intake past half the average daily calories. Even though taking your lunch in a brown bag/ lunch bag seems less glamorous than eating a school lunch, it is actually better for you and contains less fat; averaging 20.8 grams of fat for the sack lunch versus 31.1 grams of fat in the cafeteria lunch. The difference is a little less than 11 grams of fat, but over a week that’s almost 88 grams of fat! Calculate the amount of fat over an entire school year, the beginnings of obesity for a child.

Apparently school board leaders aren’t feeding their kids the food from school cafeterias.

It takes a combination effort of school officials, governmental funding and parents to take a stand. A child can’t speak for themselves because they are too busy stuffing their face with nutrition less lunch food, and washing it down with an ice cold sugary soda.

As for parents on the go who use fast food restaurants as a provider of meals can now be substituted by one touch microwavable meals, which are a little better for the body. A recent article on knbc.com titled “Microwave Food Can Beat Drive-Throughs” compared eating three meals a day on the go from fast food restaurants and compared it with eating readily prepared meals that are microwaveable from the grocery store. Both food options were convenient, quick and easy. In recent years the fat content of these microwaveable meals has decreased along with the lowering of milligrams of cholesterol and the amount of salt. With the decrease of fat grams has led packaged food makers actually paying attention to herbs and spices; who would have thought to put such things in food?

Our school cafeterias can do better. Simply teaching our kids the fundamentals of healthy eating is not enough; it must be put into action in the cafeterias. We teach our children the food pyramid and the necessity of fruits and vegetables, yet counter act these teachings with greasy pepperoni pizza and deep fried corn dogs being served during lunch time. With the recent development of healthier quick microwavable meals, these can be substituted for the high calorie cafeteria meals. These foods may be a little bit more expensive than the junk filled food currently being served but what is more important spending a little more money on nutritious meals or a tray of obesity?

So it's up to parents, school board leaders, cafeteria workers and government officials to fight for a well balanced meals in our schools. Let's trade those Doritos for some fabulous carrot sticks. Our children may not thank us in the beginning, but they will definitley thank us in the future.

You Won't Believe This...

We all want what we can't have. We have blonde hair we want brown hair and so on. In the case of Lisa Montgomery seen in this CNN.com article a woman went crazy with jealousy and did the unthinkable. I didn't actually believe the headline when I read it on CNN.com, "Woman convicted in case of baby cut from mother's womb". Of course I decided to read the article but I couldn't believe what I was reading.

On December 16th, 2004 Lisa Montgomery a dog breeder, 39 from a northwest Missouri town named Skidmore drove to 23 year old pregnant woman Bobbie Jo Stinnett's house went in with a knife, rope and umbilical chord clamp and used these tools in order to cut the unborn baby from it's mother's womb. This article did not state how many months pregnant Bobbie Jo was, but far enough along that the baby could survive outside the womb. After strangling and killing Stinnett, Montgomery cut the baby from the womb. Montgomery fled the house with the baby and left the pregnant woman for dead. She told investigators that as she drove away from the home she was "shaking and holding the baby and the cord at the same time".

In the trial for this case, Montgomery's defense lawyers believe that she was suffering from delusions when she killed the expectant mother. However the jury found Montgomery guilty and she was convicted of kidnapping resulting in death. The jurors deliberated for only four hours before making the decision and rejected the insanity defense presented by the defense lawyers. Not only did the prosecutors have a undeniable moral case on their hands, there was also substantial evidence that highlighted Montgomery's sane tactics to strangle and take the baby from the womb. Montgomery had spent months researching Cesarean sections online before carrying out her gruesome plan.

Montgomery, the mother of 4 had a tubal litigation in 1990 after the birth of her fourth child which prevented her from ever getting pregnant. Even though she had this procedure, Montgomery claimed she was pregnant several times, delusional? I think so.

I find it absolutely appalling that someone would carry out such a hateful crime. I hate to compare legal cases but this is just as disturbing if not more than the Lacey Peterson case a few years ago. Or even the case where the woman drowned her five children in a bath tub. Insane or not, I believe people who do crimes such as these should be put away for the rest of their lives. People who act like this are inhumane and lack any sense or morality. This crime highlights how twisted and psychotic some people are in this world.

Even though Bobbie Jo did not make it, her baby survived and is doing well. I hope Bobbie Jo's family finds some closure from the guilty verdict. Hopefully Montgomery will get the death penalty.

I will update as soon as the sentencing occurs.

Come on son, let me get you a rifle!

My psychology teacher for the class titled "Learning and Memory" said a very important and interesting statement when it comes to human behavior, "If you want to get attention, you're going to have to act crazy". School shootings have become more frequent and calling the people responsible for this shootings crazy is an understatement. Yesterday, Wednesday October 10th, a 14 year old named Asa Coon brought a gun to his school in Ohio and shot three students before killing himself. Not even 24 hours have gone by and another 14 year old student was arrested in Pennsylvania for planning a "Columbine like" school rampage, found in this article from CNN.

When police searched his home they found a 9mm rifle with a laser scope, air guns and even grenades. In addition to finding the weapons the boy had a hand painted Nazi flag and a video containing information about the Columbine shootings in 1999. What is even more shocking is that the boy's mother had purchased a rifle for her son from a gun show several weeks ago. In this case not only do I believe that the child should be prosecuted but also the parent for purchasing the weapon.

Where are the parents? Why would any sane parent buy their child a rifle? What is it about a school setting that would make a teenager want to bring a gun to school and shoot classmates? I believe it is a sense of power and the shock value. It seems that each school shooting that is carried out is worse than the ones proceeding it. District Attorney Bruce Castor said "It is my judgment that this individual considered that something to be glorified and was doing so". What twisted soul finds glory in plotting to hurt or kill other people?

More and more of these school shootings are occuring each year. When will parents or guardians get the hint to lock and hide weapons from their children? The 14 year old looked to the internet in order to learn how to use and make a grenade.
Government officials need to crack down on internet sites that display information on how to make bombs and grenades from household items. It seems that any young child with access to the internet could find these sites and make a grenade themselves.

So how many more school shootings or attempt at school shooting will it take for parents to get a clue and look for warning signs if their child is acting a little out of sorts?

Do Not Trespass

Separation of church and state is not black and white issue, but rather a large grey area that is continuously open for debate. For as long as the United States has been an independent nation from Britain, religion and politics has been a touchy issue. Politicians and clergy members’ alike try to distance the two as much as possible in order to further complicate certain issues. A trespass over these furry boundaries leads to additional problems. Even though church members and politicians pride themselves on this separation, there is definitely an overlap, how could there not be? One might not assume that religion and politics are similar but ironically there are many similarities between the two. Stated in this CNN.com article religion is such a dominate force in the United States, nearly 250 million are Christians. Many argue that the 2004 election was determined by Catholic voters who voted to reelect George W. Bush instead of Senator John Kerry. I had always learned about the separation of church and state through middle and high school, but when I read Stephen Mack’s entry titled “Wicked Paradox: The Cleric as Public Intellectual” it made me think even deeper on this trespassing over the boundaries, the overlap and how these fundamental ideas shape our nation and culture. It is important to understand the similarities to help one be aware of how they make decisions, specifically political ones, how they relate back to one’s conscience, which stems even farther back to religion.

Political and religious convictions are subjected to your influences, and therefore not innate. These influences include one’s parents or guardians, home life and most importantly one’s environment. These convictions are abstract and but hold a strong value. What is important to note about religion and politics is that one chooses to be a part of this group, it is not forced. Religion and politics involve several groups and broken down into subgroups. These groups are clumped by people who share similar values. Some of these groups that can be categorized for religion such as Christians, Jews, Muslim and Buddhists and politicians may be clumped into say Republicans, Democrats, Liberals and Independents. Even if one person has strong convictions, this one person is only one of many of that group, either political or religious. In addition, both politics and religious affiliations involve taking part, either physically, spiritually, and mentally or a combination. This notion is highlighted in Mack’s work

“Both religion and democracy draw the individual into a larger cosmic or social
order—then define obligations that go along with one’s place in that
order. Both in other words offer a vision of personal identity that is
derived from beliefs about how we should relate to everything around
us”

When thinking about the politics, rules and laws that is encompassed in our society, it’s important to think who put these laws into action. Laws which make up American society are formed and drafted by politicians. These laws reflect politicians’ moral convictions, and whether they believe something to be right or wrong, which involves their personal identity. Laws are reflected on ethics, and these ethics relate back to some moral issues that stem from religion. However, when one is involved in some type of religious institution this religion promotes one’s moral ideas through everyday life. This moral promotion ties decision making, moral development and religion together. Therefore a voters’ moral obligation will come into play when it comes to voting.

What is interesting is that some of the most heated debates facing our nation today involve a mixture of politics and religion. This article underscores important movements such as gay rights and abortion that are more complex than politicians taking one side or another. These topics in some way or another relate directly back to some type of religious authority whether it is the Bible or another religious code. The issue with abortion for example questions whether women should have the right to terminate a pregnancy. Different religions either promote or disagree with such ethical and moral issues and are interpreted by its followers. In addition the issue of gay marriage is facing the legal system today, a moral debate that is prominent in most religions. Once again politicians would vote on this issue in accordance with their moral convictions and what they interpret right from wrong. Both of these issues not only have a political affiliation when it comes to making the laws, but also have some religious affiliation due to people’s conscience. This conscience comes into play when making the decision which involves past experiences and one’s environment.

Religion and politics are ideas that make up an individual. When someone is making a decision upon who to vote for do you think that the person shields their moral convictions in order to make a decision? I think not. Policy makers, government officials and even our President are composed of a political side and a religious side, the extent of the religious side is only understood by that individual. It is impossible to make decisions with only half of your judgment, and not use your moral region that is reflected through the church. Just like you can’t measure how religious someone is, you can’t measure how much of a politician someone is. Just as everyone else is unique this carries over into political and church beliefs. Since our nation is a democracy which is run by the people, there has to be some cross over between politics and church. Individuals are comfortable with themselves which involves their religious and political views yet the idea of mixing church and state gets most people nervous. People get the most offended when one attacks their political stance and their religious issues and this will never change. As long as politics and religion exist, therefore forever, there will always be some type of trespassing over each others territory. Rather than trying to completely separate church and state, our politicians and religious community should learn to accept their similarities and acknowledge their boundaries.