Sorry Sarge

Recruit cat iz not ready for military service.

Huston we have a problem. It's being reported that 27% of high school kids are obese and unable to serve in the military because of it. And now the military wants changes to school lunch programs. All I can say is the politicians created most of this problem and Madison Ave helped. I've discussed this before but I'll repeat the history for any new comers.
Back during the "great depression" kids were malnourished for obvious reasons. Back then people were rejected from the military because they were underweight. So FDR came up with school lunches as part of national security. A good and honorable idea in my opinion. And as I recall in the 50s and 60s an adequate lunch was provided at a very cheap price. I think it was 50 cents in the 60s. But more importantly back then we had gym class three times a week. And there was no distractions like the internet or video games to waste away the hours. We changed clothes and shoes and took to the streets to play baseball, football, tag, or army. We rode bikes everywhere. In short even a cheap lunch was easily burned off by dinner time.
But something odd started happening sometime in the 70s. All of a sudden phys ed was no longer a requirement. Dirt play fields were being paved over for parking lots or sold to developers. Video games were making their way into homes. And then there was the drugs. Why bother to go out and get sweaty when you can have just as much fun firing up a doobie and listening to your favorite acid rock music. And we all know what that leads to... the munchies. Consuming the most bizzare combinations of culinary delights packed with calories America has ballooned to mamouth proportions one spoonful at a time. But there were a few other factors that didn't help either. Sodas which are nothing more than flavored sugar water had gone from a meger 8oz. bottle to 12 then 16 then 24ozs. Big Gulp hell, you can drown in the thing! I remember as a kid being allowed to have 1/2 of a 12oz bottle and no cheating. Schools at that time only offered milk or juice no pop. But some how the pop and candy companies made their way into schools. I don't know of a school without one now. I also don't seem to recall any fried foods way back when. And as always I'm sure it was about the money. Tight budgets made it tempting to take the cash, after all the company was going to pay for the new scoreboard.
So what do you have right now? You have inactive kids and many other out of work parents consuming about 500 calories beyond what's needed getting fatter by the day. And here's the real kicker. With many of the out of work people being tied to construction it's going to be hard to get started again. A lot of them are in their 50s now. The last class I took looked like an AARP meeting. I felt like the old man being on medication until I found out half the class was on medication as well. The problem now is that there are too many of us to all be supervisors. So what to do? We'll either drop dead of a heart attack upon getting back to work or fade away. But the kids have a chance I think if some rules are set down like you can't be a couch potato until you have done a work out or played ball. And no eating at the computer you'll get crumbs in the keyboard!

Our obese society