"Healthy vending machines."
You can't make this stuff up, folks! That's right, Leventhal and...surprise, surprise...Councilmember Hans Riemer will be in the 3rd Floor Conference Room of the County Council Building this morning, for a big press conference to introduce a bill to replace your Big Texas Cinnamon Roll and Mrs. Freshley's Jumbo Honey Bun with bean sprouts and kale chips. The bill will apply to all vending machines on county property, and require 65% of vending machine items to be "healthy."
If you need to kill some time around 11:45 AM, get some cheap entertainment in watching to see if even one reporter asks them how in the world vending machines could literally be their top priority at a time like this. Are you kidding me?
Slightly less than two years after touting a study showing Montgomery to be the healthiest county in Maryland, and giving himself credit for the designation, Leventhal now claims in a press release that "almost one in four children in Montgomery County is not able to maintain a healthy weight. This rate outpaces the national average. More than half of all adults in County (sic) adults (sic) are not keeping a healthy weight."
So let's get this straight, folks. Mr. Leventhal and the Council made us the healthiest county in Maryland (and probably invented the Internet along the way). That past claim of credit now requires us to blame the same County Council for our sudden, supposed two year plunge in health, that Mr. Leventhal says has left us fatter than the average American. How could they have done this to us? All the more reason to throw the bums out in 2018.
Of course, maybe it was the taxpayer-funded gift cards Leventhal's "Healthy Montgomery" organization gave out to MCPS students for sugary, liquid-candy Starbucks coffees and fat-and-sodium-laden Chipotle burritos that can partly be blamed. Perhaps the historic tax increase of May 2016 forced cash-strapped residents to turn to cheap junk food for subsistence purposes. After all, we can't all afford to shop at Whole Paycheck like Hans Riemer.
Will this hearing be televised? I don't have time to stop by, but I'd like to watch this farce.
ReplyDeleteDo you need to have the concept of multi-tasking explained to you yet again, Birdbrain?
ReplyDeleteAlso, how much funding do you get from the junk food industry?
How does the claim that "one quarter of children in Montgomery County not able to maintain a healthy weight" contradict the claim that the County as a whole is healthy? The statistics for overweight and obesity are much worse elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they have a deadline to make a decision? Is another reason it needs to be done now? Was there a push from any groups to accomplish this?
ReplyDeleteAre you against healthy vending machine options in public schools?
How is this a big deal? Everyone has things that aren't the best use of their time, but are necessary.
"We can't all afford to shop at Whole Paycheck like Hans Riemer."
ReplyDeleteDyer, your resentment has reached a level that is insane.
If you are concerned about frivolous spending on food and drink, sugar water at up to $2 a bottle should be the very first thing you cut.
In high school in NY TWENTY SEVEN YEARS AGO we had only healthy options in our vending machines. The soda machines were locked up except for night time basketball and football games. Clubs could only sell candy after final dismissal when students were making their way home. TWENTY SEVEN YEARS AGO.
ReplyDeleteSo you can either have that or a McDonald's as your cafeteria operator as seen in Super Size me. I would rather have the former.
5:12: Yes, it will be televised starting at 1:30 PM today.
ReplyDelete5:24: Read the quote from the Council press release - it clearly says that rate "outpaces the national average."
5:32: It is a big Joe Biden deal when they are spending most of today on vending machines, but haven't put any unbuilt highways into the master plan so they'll be eligible for funding. Haven't reduced taxes and regulations on business. Haven't addressed our exploding gang problem. You know, the stuff they supposedly get paid $136,250 a year to take care of.
5:47: Your projection issues trip you up again, Mr. Resentful.
5:50: New York City didn't have a net loss in jobs since 2000 - maybe they can afford to spend time on vending machines.
ReplyDeleteGoing to give it to Robert here. He is qualified to speak on this topic. The guy is pretty trim and subsides on a diet of taco bell, mcdonalds and hungry man dinners. Don't know how he does it.
ReplyDeleteI guess Free market capitalism and Liberty is always out of the question for Left Wingers.
ReplyDelete6:06 - "Libertarians are like cats - completely dependent on others but fully convinced of their own independence."
DeleteDyer, if you think that adding a couple of apartment buildings in Westbard is controversial, try building your fantasy freeway through East Bethesda.
ReplyDeleteDyer is just pissed because this will limit Tarnation Bob's content
ReplyDelete6:08: The new Potomac River crossing, M-83 Highway, Rockville Freeway and Northern Parkway would be much faster and cheaper to build than the Northwest Freeway, so I don't think we're going to be worried about that anytime soon. Plus, we have to elect a council that actually understands transportation policy to build any new highway.
ReplyDelete@5:50 I think this may apply to all county buildings, not just schools. Does the county really need to control what people in the Department of Permitting Services and visitors to the Lawton Community center buy from a vending machine?
ReplyDeleteRobert, I genuinely believe that your blog, when you discuss development news and new restaurants and stores opening or closing, serves a great and useful purpose. And I continue to visit your site to read this news.
ReplyDeleteArticles like this seem to me just like you taking a piece of news and twisting it to build your skewed narrative. Maybe you and others feel this is unfair, but I'm sure a bunch of others agree.
Have you ever thought about just separating your opinion pieces from the straight reporting of the news in Bethesda in two separate blogs? You already seem to maintain at least three separate blogs that I'm aware of. You would probably greatly reduce the number of "trolls" you encounter.
I am saying this as generally a supporter of your site and your reporting.
7:31: I appreciate your readership and thoughtful comment. I would argue that the facts presented are accurate, as can be verified by clicking the various supporting links and examining the proposed law. As far as narrative, that's no different from what news sites like Slate, Huffington Post, Breitbart, or the failed BethesdaNow (R.I.P.) did/do on a daily basis. Even the local small and slightly failing magazine has a narrative it twists everything to fit. The difference is, my narrative is 100% factual, and I'm at war FOR you, my readers, not at war AGAINST my readers, like some of the other local media outlets angel-funded by the MoCo political cartel.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete7:47: That's because they're embedded with Lerner's legal team. Looks like it didn't pay off for Lerner, and not a good look for journalists, either. Hopefully they at least got a couple of steak dinners and an attaboy from Ted. They never were able to capture the public imagination the way my Dark Side series did. It even put hair on the chests of Michael Kinsley and E.J. Dionne, and shook up BuzzFeed. Cash me outside, how bout dat?
DeleteDyer @ 8:52 AM:
Delete#ArgleBargle
#HelplessHans #ThrowTheBumsOut #ThePeopleAreInTheBigCounties
DeleteWhat does Joe Biden have to do with vending machines?
ReplyDeleteYou ignored the important things I asked and focused on a rant about time?
Here they are again, do you have any answers? It would make a difference and could help to understsand. Especially parents who are pushing for this.
This is also what they are being paid to do !!!!
ReplyDeleteIf you don't agree, try and explain how this isn't also part if their job.
We're all listening.
8:48: They are absolutely not being paid to give us health or dietary advice. Whatsoever. Name one medical doctor currently serving on the Council. You can't. Would you take legal advice from a janitor? So why would you pay some very stupid politicians for health advice?
DeleteMy high school was the same as @ 5:50 - no junk food/candy vending machines at all, and soda machines only in the gym. It has nothing to do with "New York", Dyer. Way to miss the point.
ReplyDelete8:54: Great, but what does your high school have to do with the insanely warped priorities of the County Council? You actually believe vending machines are more important than economic development, having a functioning transportation network, and addressing high schools that are gang factories producing gangsters who are kidnapping and killing girls in Gaithersburg? I am in disbelief!
DeleteDyer, having never actually held a job in his life, does not understand the concept that addressing low-priority items does not automatically imply that one is neglecting high-priority items.
ReplyDelete9:24: Two problems, girlyman-child: A) I've had several jobs, and have employed people myself (unlike 8 of our 9 councilmembers), and B) we know from their legislative record (and the job and traffic congestion numbers) that they absolutely are neglecting high-priority items.
DeleteDyer, Anger is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. I hope that when Lent begins several hours from now, that you will make an attempt to deal with your serious anger that is burning away at your heart.
ReplyDelete9:53: Where's this "anger" you refer to? You're projecting yourself on others again. Racism is a deadly sin also, as demonstrated by the recent actions of the Montgomery County Planning Department, Planning Board and County Council.
DeleteWe had all kinds of Dolly Madison cakes, Hostess etc at Earle B Wood Jr. High. Real Chocolate Milk too, not that non fat nonsense.
ReplyDeleteGo back to whatever hole you crawled out of.
ReplyDelete4:34PM I will vote for the Dyer
ReplyDeleteDyer's bitter stalker/ex-BethesdaNow blogger, still bleeding from his behind, continues to troll here. Hating Robert Dyer is his life plan.
ReplyDeleteWe live in the "People's Republic of MoCo" -- you will eat healthy!
ReplyDeleteMaybe they have a deadline to make a decision?
ReplyDeleteIs there another reason it needs to be done now?
Was there a push from any groups to accomplish this? like PTA
Are you against healthy vending machine options in public schools?
"Montgomery County is the only DC-area jurisdiction to suffer a net loss in jobs since the year 2000."
ReplyDeleteFALSE, and you know it.
5:29: Look it up. Even Culpeper whipped us!
ReplyDelete