Citing stopping childhood obesity as their motivation The Greens party have introduced a bill calling for the banning of junk food ads during childrens television shows.  Read more here.

I've been a supporter of the Greens for quite a long time now and its always good to hear them in the news.  I don't think there should be any ads during childrens television but I'm sure a lot of toy manufacturers would disagree with me.  Anything that stops kids being manipulated before they have the skills to better interpret the impulse's advertisements target is good to me.

Wired magazine have a feature article this month titled Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green

There is a fair bit to digest in there and I only have had a chance skim it so far but wanted to share it. It seems to get the point and miss the point all at the same time.

Yet another front page article in today's Advertiser about city drinking.  Apparantly a 3am 'lockout' system that stops people entering licensed venues in the city will greatly reduce alcohol related crime, in the city.  A similar project in Melbourne has supopsedly reduced such crime by a staggering 20%.  The article doesn't tell us how much such crime rose in surburban areas without the lockout system though.  Similarly opposition to a non-voluntary lockout scheme in Adelaide claim it will drive many people to surburban hotels, where there is far less police presence.

I can sympathise with the police, it's surely draining to know every weekend the sort of drunken idiots you're going to have to deal with.  Comments like "Many young people....are consuming far too much alcohol for their own good and for the good of society" (emphasis added) do make you seem like a rather pompous idiot though.

My initial thoughts are being stuck in a stuffy club and knowing if I leave I can't drink for the rest of the night is going to make me drink more, not less.  All that time walking between clubs and getting bites to eat and whatever is less time spent drinking.  Also being stuck in a club with someone who for whatever reason may want to cause trouble with me, would lead to more violence as I just can't go somewhere else?

Everyone that goes to clubs are adults, at least they should be.  Why not respect their right to freedom of movement and to make their own decisions.  We are still supposedly in a free society right?  Free even to get sh*t-faced drunk as long as we don't break any crimes.  Why don't we look at why some people when drunk apparantly get violent or cause other crimes rather than simply trying to restrict everyone to a service most people still use legally and without problem.

We are supposedly in a binge drinking epidemic and The Advertiser, as they so often do when they think they have found a popular item to soapbox, are not letting us forget it.  After last weeks awful 'expose' on the 'reality' of binge drinking in Adelaide (did this really enlighten anyone? at all?) in The Sunday Mail we are again treated to more articles on the matter this week. 

Mike Rann has aparrantly described binge drinking  as a pandemic that should concern every parent.  E-V-E-R-Y P-A-R-E-N-T.  There are more pictures of trashy teens vomiting and an editorial bemoaning the cost of all these selfish drinkers on our health system.  In the context of the current doctor and emergency room crisis we also get a nurse telling us how just how wasteful all these self-abusers are.  Because you know, we don't pay our doctors enough but HOW DARE the kids waste what little resources we do allocate.  In case you where worried though, none of these people are wowsers, so feel assured these are balanced observations.  Oh yeah, the churches are telling us these kids are wasting their lives.  Don't forget to mention yet again, the burden on the taxpayers.

Seriously I don't care what statistics people may pull out of whatever.  We aren't in an binge drinking epidemic.  The trashy antics have been going on for some time actually.  I was somewhat trashy when I was younger.  I believe I have even vomited on Hindley Street.  My PARENTS where somewhat trashy when they where younger.  I will have to check up on whether they have ever had any public spewings, I don't doubt it happened though.  People 1500 years ago where somewhat trashy when they where younger.  Yes alcohol was involved.

So the Labour party gets a nice extra boost from increased tax on alcopops in the guise of curbing binge drinking, and now everyone trying to cash in this political currency, and yes, the wowsers, are jumping on the bandwagon.  Should we have more education on the harmful affects of alcohol and demonstrate responsible use?  Yes.  Should we be talking about a range of measures designed purely to limit and punish young people for doing WHAT WE ALL DID when we where younger, and having the affrontery to push their classlessness in our faces?  HELL NO. 

It never works to tell younger generations to simply learn from our experiences and not risk anything themselves.  If we fail to provide safe monitored locations like the city centre and local pubs for young people to test their limits and indulge themselves, then like everything else we prohibit we will just push it out of sight.  We get less sick people on the side of Hindley Street yes, and more Corey's trashing homes and breaking other laws.

I'm a parent, and I'm not concerned.  When my kids get older I will be answering all questions they have, giving them monitored exposure to alcohol and trying to pass on all the wisdom I have gathered.  I will then be trusting them to make their own decisions.  Should they end up in hospital for alcohol poisoning they will get a little sympathy, a bit of, 'well now you know' but certainly no gasp of suprise as I forget what its like to be young and judge my children differently than how I judged myself in those years.

For once, how about all these people that ask us to 'think about the children' actually do so, in a respectful and mature way.

In the Advertiser today there is an article on food additives in childrens food and the effects they are having.  I point this one out because healthy food is something I have been looking into recently and its pretty scary just how bad it looks like most food is.  It was hearing about excitotoxins on newsreal that got me looking up what it is, and then I watched this video.  So I'm not some food saint now but we have made some changes at home.  We bake our own muffins and cookies as snacks for the kids, read the ingredients list and use a book Kelly bought called The Chemical Maze to help work out what is ok and not.  The idea is to get the garden growing and make our own food, pretty basic common sense really.    It would be nice to be able to trust what was being legally sold in our supermarkets though.