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I'd love to hear about the whys and hows of corporate sponsorship of OPB and NPR radio shows, after hearing that Monsanto and Con Agra are now sponsors of Money Talk.  Because frankly, that put me off enough to make sure I find something else to do during that time.  It's not so bad that I'll cancel my own membership, but considering how controversial Monsanto is, it was pretty close.

posted 4 years ago
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If the gas tax structure is going to be changed, base it on the weight of the vehicle, which directly impacts the infrastructure. Don't penalize me for choosing to buy a car with better mileage. Create a matrix of fees for registration based on the miles driven per year and the vehicle weight. THAT would be fair.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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First, my obesity credentials: In August 2005, I weighed 235 pounds. I'm only 5'4" and had been obese for at least 10 years (I'm currently in my late 30s). Over a two-year period, I dieted and exercised my way down to my goal weight of 140 pounds, in the healthy BMI category.

It was brutal. It seemed to take forever. I hit a six-month plateau that almost made me give up. But eventually, I did get there. Now, just over a year later, I weigh 115 pounds. I lost more than half my body weight and have maintained this weight for six months.

I read these posts and think, "Yeah, I used to lie to myself a lot, too." Because that's what most of you are doing. You don't really only eat 1400 calories a day. You don't really exercise as much as you say/think you do. Until you are ready to be honest with yourself, you won't make the changes that you should make. I thought I was pretty healthy, "fat and fit." But no, I was just fat.

Start weighing your food and writing it down meticulously. Every single M&M. Write down how many minutes you spent walking and how far. Calculate it out. There are plenty of websites out there that will help you do this. But most of all, weigh and measure your food. Portion sizes are where most people fudge the figuring. That little scoop of pasta is probably more than the 1 cup you thought.

Stop blaming your genes. My whole family is fat too, because we all eat a lot. If genetics were really the cause of obesity, then obesity rates wouldn't have doubled in the last couple of decades. Genetic evolution isn't that fast. There weren't as many fat people in the 1950s, nor were they AS fat. It also wouldn't be so much more common in the U.S. than virtually everywhere else.

You don't have to starve or give up everything good in order to change. I ate cookies over Christmas, my big weakness. I just didn't keep snacking on them. I took out my portion, then put the rest away. No grazing unless it's on something that grew out of the ground or in a tree, in a fairly natural state. But if you must have a cookie, denying it entirely will make you cave in and eat a box of 'em. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Skip the butter sauce. Use lemon juice, garlic, and pepper on veggies. I work with a woman who complains she can't lose weight, but she basically eats meat, cheese and chocolate all day.

Eat only once your stomach actually growls, and no seconds. Serve out your portions and you're done until your stomach growls again. And don't confuse heartburn with stomach growling. I mean eat when and only when you are hungry. So what if dinner is supposed to be at 5? If you aren't hungry, visit with your family while they eat, and wait for hunger to kick in.

Don't do a formal diet. No Atkins, South Beach, grapefruit, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, etc. No magic pill will make you smaller. Any diet plan will work for a while, but it's not a lifestyle change. Stop drinking soda. And stop pretending you're healthy just because you feel good right now. The problem is that you are abusing your body by carrying around that weight. Eventually you will feel like crap. And you CAN do this. I didn't think I could either, but I did. By myself. No cheering section. And I feel a million times healthier.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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I think unschooling parents make one hugely inaccurate assumption -- that kids who are traditionally schooled are somehow automatically suffering and stifled. My 15-year-old daughter does well in school but still has that innate curiosity and imagination. We encourage her to pursue her interests and support her in her endeavors. After she befriended a local "autodidact," I asked her how she felt about unschooling. She wasn't interested. Yes, some kids actually like school.

But without some traditional education, these kids grow up disadvantaged. I know a couple of kids here in Corvallis who are unschooled who basically do art projects for most of the day. The oldest child now works as a dishwasher in the family restaurant, and that's the future I see for a lot of these kids.

By the way, this seems to be a privilege of the "hippies with means" subset around here. Two-parent families where one parent can not only afford to stay home, but can afford to spend hundreds on whatever community classes the kids are interested in at the time. As a single mom, I couldn't attempt this without basically leaving my kids home to watch TV every day... which is also what some of these kids are doing, as their parents try to explain how Nintendo fosters math and coordination skills. I think unschooling is a product of one or both parents hating school when they were young, and projecting that on the kids.

You can still raise wonderful, inquisitive children in a public, private or homeschool setting. Unschooling is going to hold your kids back eventually. And frankly, parents of unschoolers have no issues taking their kids to formally educated doctors, nurses, etc. or using attorneys and accountants. Not everyone can sell homemade earrings at the Saturday market for a living.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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I think people need to understand that building on slopes or cliffs, in forests, or on flood plains (even 100-year flood plains) is simply not an intelligent thing to do. If your need to be close to nature is so strong that you would both despoil the environment and put yourself at greater risk for a natural event that may wreck your property, then you need to be willing to pay the exorbitant insurance costs and expect that government resources are better spent on those who choose to live in areas that offer better protection, i.e., closer to town, etc.

Obviously, this does not apply to cases like Vernonia, but it certainly covers those lovely houses along the Oregon coast or in old growth forest that are at risk for tsunami and fire. FEMA money should not go to anyone who clear-cuts a hillside and is then surprised when the house slides down the hill, for example.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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