I'm not sure if you guys have ever noticed, but I'm a wee bit opinionated . I think it's healthy to have an opinion and to go a step further it's pretty healthy to voice it as well. I say voice it, not force it on someone else. Remember that part............

I enjoy taking a break during my work day and reading through some of the news stories that circulate. I think that my main reason for reading them is so I can become annoyed or enraged by my perceived ignorance of someone else. I lie to myself and say that I read them to be "informed".

So I'm popping through the yahoo news and I come across a little item from Santa Clara County. For those of you unfamiliar, that is a county in California. Santa Clara Valley is sometimes called Silicon Valley. It's the southern tip of San Francisco area. Alright now that we have the geography down, let's get to the reason for Santa Clara County being in the news.

It seems that in unincorporated Santa Clara County the "Board of Supervisors" have voted to have toys removed from kids meals in fast food restaurants, if the meal exceeds 485 calories, gets more than 35 percent of the calories from fat, or 10% from added sweetners, or has more than 600 mg of sodium.

Well thanks to the Board for deciding my child should not get a toy if I decide to be a lazy parent that night, and head to my local fast food for a meal. I was a little bit irritated by this, but I decided that maybe I should look into it a little closer before making these rash decisions about the ignorance of a total board of supervisors. So I did some math (yep, us rednecks can count).

I compared a mighty kids happy meal with a make at home meal to see just how much more the calorie intake would be for my precious little angels . Here's what I managed to come up with

I took a 6 pc chicken mcnugget small fries and a kids size sprite. I also took a double cheeseburger small fries and a hi-c orange

Little son will eat this:

6 pc nugget 250 calories 15 grams fat
small fries 230 calories 11 grams fat
small sprite 110 calories 0 grams fat
ketchup (4) 40 calories 0 grams fat
(can't forget my little ones ketchup)
It gave me a total of 630 calories 26 grams fat

The middle son will eat this:

double cheeseburger 460 calories 23 grams fat
small fries 230 calories 11 grams fat
small hi-c orange 160 calories 0 grams fat
no ketchup
(he's weird that way)

total count 850 calories 34 grams fat

Yikes...I decided to compare that to a nice italian meal I like to make at home...Lasagna with garlic bread and mixed veggies

Lasagna... 377 calories 14 grams fat
garlic bread (2) 372 calories 10 grams fat
mixed veggies 67 calories (.3)0 grams fat
vitamin D milk (12oz) 225 calories 8 grams fat

Let's check out the difference......

Survey says.............1139 calories 32 grams fat

Now granted I could have made a differnt choice for a dinner, I could have had something much healthier I suppose. The point is I didn't, because we like lasagna. We like garlic bread and my kids like mixed veggies (usually). Milk does a body good, as the commecial says, and my boys love milk (even though the little one says he's lactose intolerant). The thing is this group of morons has tried to decide that by taking the toy out of the kids meal they are going to dictate what we should feed our children. Granted fast food is not healthy, but last time I checked I didn't ask them to decide my menu for me. So if I don't go to the fast food restaurant and instead stay home and cook this meal is that better for my child? Probably. Is it going to hurt my kids to have fast food once in a while? Is it going to hurt them to get the little batman, or avatar toy in their might kids meal? Probably not, but evidently what I as a parent think doesn't matter too much anymore. We have a new way of dealing with things nowadays, and I for one don't like it.

I decided that The Santa Clara Board of Supervisors are most deserving of my Get A Life! Award. It's all new and improved and they should be happy to receive such a prestigious award. One last thought for you supervisors...How about if you worry about making sure roads are free of potholes, not too much dope is being slung around the neighborhoods, and not too many gang bangers are shooting up the neighborhoods. Maybe you could do that and let us parents raise our kids.

Thanks...