Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Fox News Against The Holiday Bunny?

Kids have forever loved the Easter Bunny, but lately with everybody changing things to become more acceptable to all people in this country - after all this country is supposed to be the melting pot, right?

The female reporter on the Fox and Friends show mentioned Passover and Easter happening this week and that if you mention one you should mention the other because those are the only two groups who she seems to care about. She said that anybody who thinks otherwise must believe in nothing and if you believe in nothing that you should be ignored anyways. Well Mrs. Fox News, have you ever heard of any other religions than Christianity, Catholicism, or Judaism? Did you know that there are lots of different religions in this country and around the world? Why should any of the people who believe in these different religions be left out of an "academic" egg hunt just because they don't celebrate Easter? There are even some religions that don't celebrate holidays like most religions do and like to keep things more modest, but should the kids have to sit the egg hunt out just because they don't go to the same church that you do? I think this is outrageous for them to report on this story this way, this is America where government and religion are separate, so people should be free to worship however they want to and be able to teach their kids the same way without them being ridiculed in school. They have already changed the name of Easter Break - the week in March that most schools let kids out of school - to Spring Break, so why not change the name of the school sponsored celebrations to allow more kids to participate? I think that this is a great change and that it should happen all over the country in order to allow more people to participate in class without feeling left out or otherwise feeling left out or any other way different.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

New York Soda Ban Shot Down

New York's Mayor Bloomberg had a proposed ban on soda and other sugary drinks in cups or bottles over 16 ounces. He said that this is just a step in the right direction for the people of New York City to become slightly healthier. However many people saw it differently - if you want a large soda you should be able to buy it or whatever else you want to eat or drink. After all, we live in America, why should the government be able to tell us what to put into our bodies or what we are allowed to buy. We are in the United States of America where we have the Bill of Rights. While it doesn't necesarily state that we can eat or drink whatever we want those rights should be implied. I totally agree that the government should not govern the amount of soda that we are allowed to purchase in a single container. After all if people want to drink more soda they will just buy a couple bottles at once. This will just lead to more waste of plastic in the landfills as people want to buy the same amount of soda and will buy multiple bottles or cups at once.



Well a judge has shut down the soda ban and in a defensive act Mayor Bloomberg said he will appeal the decision. So only time will tell if this ultimately will go into effect in the future or not. However I think that this will meet the same decision the next time it goes into court as I think it is unconstitutional to tell people what to put in their bodies. But I don't think that the government should be able to tell us that we can't have foods cooked with trans fat, and we know that there is a law that prohibits that. And don't even get me started on drugs and alcohol. The government doesn't allow many drugs and restricts access without a prescription to many others. And many states and municipalities have laws on alcohol sales and usage. I don't believe that they should be able to tell adults what they are allowed to buy and consume. But they do. And they do it often when you include these items along with food and non alcoholic drinks.


So we shall see in the future how it works out. And if the soda ban goes through in New York City, it may take effect in the whole of New York state and then other states and cities and perhaps the entire country and maybe other countries will have similar laws. I sure hope not, but stranger things have happened. Only time will tell.


McDonalds New Breakfast Item: Eggwhite Delight

McDonald's has been working on a bunch of new menu items lately, and as breakfast sales make up a large portion of their business each day it, it makes sense that they would focus on making new and varied items for breakfast. They have recently added new items such as oatmeal and other health conscious items to the breakfast menu so egg white sandwiches make perfect sense. Other national restaurant chains such as Subway have already began to sell egg white sandwiches and McDonald's is now following suit. The new Egg White Delight Egg McMuffin is not yet available nationwide - that will happen April 22 - but the website TheDailyMeal.com has covered the soft launch at one of the early test markets. You can see what they have to say about it at this link: http://www.thedailymeal.com/mcdonald-s-rolling-out-egg-white-delight-mcmuffin-nationwide-april-22. Although the new sandwich is not entirely new, it is simply an egg mcmuffin without the egg yolks on a whole grain muffin, I believe it will be a good addition to the menu that many people will be willing to try. The muffin weighs in at 250 calories, compared with the 300 calories that the regular egg mcmuffin contains.





I have yet to try the new sandwich - I just now heard of it and it is not available in my market - but next time I go to eat breakfast at McDonald's after April 22nd I think I might give it a try. That is if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg for a tiny little sandwich that seems unappetizing. But I do like egg white items such as egg white omelettes and egg white Subway items. My favorite thing for breakfast at Subway is an egg white sandwich with pepper jack cheese, green bell peppers and jalapenos. Although I don't think the new McDonald's item will be as spicy as my Subway favorite, I do believe it will be good and semi-healthy (as healthy as a McDonald's item can be) and I want to give it a try. When or if I do I will give an update and let you know how I liked and what I think about it and other new items at McDonalds.



Not only are they focusing on new breakfast items, they are adding new items to the entire menu. A few weeks ago they had a sale on another new menu item called fish mcbites that I thought was actually pretty good, despite my usual aversion to seafood. Other items coming in the future are three different types of tortilla wraps: chicken and bacon, chicken and ranch, and sweet chile chicken, as well as blueberry pomegranate smoothies. And as previously mentioned they also have new breakfast items like oatmeal with fruit in it and other varied and health consious items that appeal to more than the typical fast food eater. I think this is a very good thing that McDonald's is doing and a step in the right direction for all fast food chains. I have seen other fast food chains that are doing similar things in adding items that appeal to customers that want healthier items in a fast food setting so that they can eat quickly, cheaply, and easily without all the fat and calories that typically come with a trip to the fast food drive through. I hope this leads to a lot more options when it comes to good food fast and not just fast food. I am pretty sick of all the fast food chains being all the same. If I want a burger I have about 20 different choices between a few different chains within a few minutes of my house. But if I want something besides a burger or even a taco or burrito I am pretty much stuck. We will see how this works out, if people like it and continue to buy it, or if they buy it once and don't like it and go back to their trusty old egg mcmuffin. I for one hope people order enough to keep it around and that it doesn't go the way of the McDonald's pizza or other past items that were only around for a short period of time.

Monday, March 11, 2013

How Far We've Come: YouTube's First Video

Any one who uses the internet probably has heard about the video sharing site YouTube. Nowadays YouTube is among the top sites on the internet and gets millions of views daily. In fact it is the third most popular site on the internet behind Facebook and Google. There are so many users with so many videos that there is an estimated 60 hours of video uploaded to the site every single minute. The site was purchased by Google for $1.65 Billion and the current valuation is even higher today. But when YouTube was started in 2005 by three former PayPal employees there was not anywhere near the amount of content there is now. In fact the very first video ever uploaded to YouTube is a video entitled "Me at the zoo". The video has been viewed over 10 million times and has over 70,000 comments. Check out Me at the zoo below: