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Friday, January 28, 2022

Sarah Palin Brings Cookies – The Sequel

Streeeeetch….. streeetch your minds back, Mudflatters.  It’s February of 2009, and Sarah Palin wings her way to the remote village of Russian Mission to address the problems of the food/fuel crisis that was causing rural residents to have to choose between heating their homes and feeding their families.  Palin’s solution?  No, not a state of emergency, silly.  That would be a government public sector-type solution.  The private sector provided her with evangelical preacher Franklin Graham, a cushy private jet, some boxes of food with a sprinkling of religious literature, and a plate of Sarah’s homemade cookies.  Really.  She brought cookies.  Cookies that she baked herself.

Perhaps she was going for the personal touch. Perhaps she was trying to solve the problems of the world with some home baked goodness.  Perhaps it was a Marie Antoinette “Let them eat cake” moment.  And perhaps we will never know.

At least we got that awesome graphic from flyinureye to commemorate the moment.

But now it’s November of 2010, and Palin is at it again.  Once more, cookies will be brought to the scene of a disaster, defending the most vulnerable among us from the gubmint.  It seems… (and I know you’ll all be shocked to hear this)… that public schools in Pennsylvania are trying to tell our children what they can and cannot eat.  They actually have the nerve to be thinking about implementing nutrition programs that promote things like… “nutrition.”

Pennsylvania’s proposed school nutrition guidelines would limit the number of sweets in classroom parties and encourage parents to serve more healthy snacks. The proposal, which will be voted on this spring, would also slash the number of birthday and holiday parties allowed in classrooms.

How. Dare. They.

Do you realize that this latest government conspiracy is actually trying to tell you that you can’t allow your children to get jacked up on refined sugar and then sit with 35 other jacked up kids in a classroom with a teacher that’s supposed to pound some sense into their little glucose-addled noggins?

And the long arm of the public school system has the ex-half governor so incensed that she tweeted the following:

Hmm…may bring cookies to my PA school speech tmrw to make a pt ‘PA mulls ban on cake/cookies/candy@ school parties’

And that wasn’t enough.  In her incessant plodding march on the journey to become a caricature of herself, she followed it up with this one:

2 PA school speech; I’ll intro kids 2 beauty of laissez-faire via serving them cookies amidst school cookie ban debate; Nanny state run amok!

Well, if Palin were the nanny, we know exactly what we could expect when we got home.  She’d be doing exactly what the parents had said not to do, and our little cherubs would be jumping up and down on the couch with ice cream cones, surrounded by candy wrappers.  Who do we think we are, anyway – telling kids what to do? They might think they have to pay attention to rules when they get older.

In the meantime, she’s going to bring cookies just to be defiant.  Perhaps a Palin plan is coming, and we can expect soda machines with Jolt and Redbull.  Or one of those Super-Perk coffee dispensers?  I mean, hey.  What else are you going to use to wash down the Pixie Sticks and cotton candy?

I mean if we’re going to celebrate the “beauty of laissez faire,” why not just go for it? After all, laissez-faire parenting has certainly proven to be effective in the Palin household.

Comments

comments

Comments
216 Responses to “Sarah Palin Brings Cookies – The Sequel”
  1. Auni Uskoski says:

    This is such a perfect example of how Sarah thinks. She is like a mean high school girl with her “I’m bringing cookies”. Can you imagine her as president????? If some country didn’t agree with her on an issue, I imagine the retaliation would be massive. No cookies, but how bout’ we just get even in bigger ways? That lil’ gal would have us in wars all over the globe.

  2. dreamgirl says:

    Hey Palin– How’s that “Laissez Faire” abstinence thingy working out fer ya?

  3. wasilla joe says:

    So Palin is now appearing at elementary schools, what’s next grocery store and car dealership openings? Don’t forget her bendy straws.

  4. wasilla joe says:

    How about Palin staying home and teaching her kids not to have premarital underage sex? That’s one way of keeping off the extra weight.

  5. bb says:

    To bad parents of diabetic kids don’t speak up and tell the meddlesome Palin, go home, myob!

  6. Can it be? Do my eyes deceive me? Do you people actually want to restrict Coke and Pepsi’s right to earn tons of money by denying them access to public schools? Doesn’t soda have the right to be swilled in public places? Oh the irony and the agony. Let the Robert’s Court decide this vital issue(in favor of Corp. America). Where do parents get off thinking they control their children’s health? I am beside myself in disbelief. Other than that, a big Hello to all MudPups out there from the South of Minnesota(Northwest Iowa) where corn is King and King(R-Cong,) is a dingbat.

  7. Crazymotherof3 says:

    I found this very interesting, especially since my daughters elementary school here in Anchorage only allows health snacks. We parents are given a handout every year at registration tellings cookies, cupcakes and cakes are not allowed due to potential allergies and to promote healthful eating habits. Parents of Kindergarten through 2nd graders are asked to contribute snack to the class regularly and I was frowned at for bringing Gogurts once.

  8. aussiegal77 says:

    Hmmmm……..read the Politico article:

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44936.html

    “The State Board of Education is disputing the original report from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that it would ban sweets from classroom parties. The newspaper has retracted that report.”

  9. aussiegal77 says:

    Since I’m a christian and I strive to live by God’s direction and Palin claims to be the same – I will comment on this with that in mind.

    The Bible says to honour our parents and to pray for our leaders (which would reasonably include teachers if you were a kid) – whom God has put into the positions of authority and leadership in our lives. Not to mention the elders, teachers and deacons in our churches.

    Now – why would Palin think it was godly or Christ-centered or biblically sound to encourage kids to defy their teachers? So she could make a political point?

    What about the parents who agree with this proposed initiative? Why is Palin giving the example to the kids to defy their own parents? Just to make a political point?

    Is this really good counsel or good witness to kids? When the President told the kids to study hard and strive to do well in school – he was berated for indoctrination but when Palin openly tells the kids to defy their parents & teachers, it’s patriotism?

    Palin gave the speech at a Christian school. This healthy eating initiative is being proposed at PUBLIC schools. Run by taxpayer funding. That is – run by the government in essence. So what does it even have to do with a private Christian school? Why was it relevant for her speech at the private school? Other than to stir the pot and lob grenades?

    If Sarah Palin cannot give a speech without starting fires for no godly reason – she should reconsider giving the speech at all. The Bible exhorts believers to BUILD UP. Not tear down. To encourage and edify – not to cause divisions for the sake of it.

    If Palin truly was concerned with civil rights – why wasn’t she outraged about Joe Miller handcuffing an American citizen at a public event at a public school? Even if she has a tense relationship with the media, arresting someone for not legal reason is violating civil rights.

    Palin could have handled this any number of ways. Speak to the relevant people about the initiative, understand it and ask more questions. Maybe even propose alternative solutions to the problem of obesity. Or…….act like a baby, be defiant and show up to pick a fight.

    • aussiegal77 says:

      Plus – what if the teachers in the CHRISTIAN private school happen to agree with this initiative too? And decide to adopt it at their school as well? Would Palin be ok with that? If she is ok with the private school adopting the initiative – can we assume that she’s ok with healthy eating at private schools but for kids who cannot afford to go to a private school…..what? Too bad, so sad, obesity for you?

      If she is not ok with it – what then? Telling the kids at the christian school to defy their teachers and parents too?

      The more you dig into it – the clearer it becomes that Palin’s decisions on this issue were reactionary and without much discernment.

  10. I See Villages From My House says:

    Former Muldoon area Rep. Bob Roses told me candidly that he and his wife used to be over at Todd and Sarah’s in the Governor’s mansion every week, baking cookies. Until he first spoke out against one of her initiatives on the House floor. She never spoke to them again.

    Sarah took up the sale of Juneau girl scout cookies for some reason or another.

    She didn’t send aid or implement an emergency response to the Lower Yukon fuel crisis, but she brought cookies on a lear jet. What the hell is it with Sarah Palin and cookies?

    http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/174545/june-19-2008/cookie-monster

    Thanks AKM, I’ve never forgotten the audacity of our WGE regarding anything Rural, Western or Native Alaskan. . .those insensitive cookies as a Palin solution. . .it boggles the mind.

  11. Mona says:

    When I was a teacher in Texas, Governor Perry (a Palin favorite) forced a similar edict on the entire state through his Secretary of Agriculture. No candy has been given to kids by teachers since around 2003 — not so much as an M&M. One teacher inadvertently gave out candy canes and was busted that first year. I hear they’ve since relented a bit on class parties since there was such a fuss from parents. But teachers? Texas is a very paternalistic place — you just hunker down and do as you
    are told. I don’t know that Perry — a rather bland fellow — cared much one way or the other, but his Secretary did and that’s how they got it around the legislature. Can you see Palin taking on Perry over this? Just depends who it is, I guess, because I think she’d be praising him if she knew about it.

  12. Terpsichore says:

    Apparently she said in her school speech something like “Who do you want telling your kids what to eat? The government or the parents?”

    Unfortunately she doesn’t think things through. Sure, a parent should have the right to have control (and should, as much as possible over what their kids consume (obviously as the get older modifying how that is done and what it entails changes) and every parent who cares about their kids’ health would do so.

    But she said ‘government’, when the issue is not government per se, it what parents’ are bringing to kids’ parties. Sarah doesn’t ‘get it’ that some parents limit or even prohibit their children from eating certain foods, for a variety of good reasons. It it plain wrong to bring only one or two food options and one or two drink options and think one size is going to fit all. School’s come up with these policies to try to provide a balance. It sounded to me like the PA school plan is about as fair as you can get, but Sarah still has to go all ‘ain’t civil disobedience great kids? Rules are stupid. Eat all the Twinkies you want! That’s what would be on my school meal plan if a was President, except that Rand Paul will sponsor and I will sign the “No School Food’ bill. Think what we’ll save!!!”

    She’d be the first to yell at someone giving Trig a cookie if she didn’t want him to have it. But I think therein lies the problem: 1) she hasn’t taken the time to understand the proven effects on learning and on kids and school environments when they have too much sugar; 2) she thinks everybody thinks like her and believes that anyone who tries to limit kids’ eating sweets is just overreacting or trying to be overcontrolling; 3) she doesn’t really care about her kids’ nutrition; 4) she had to get a dig into the First Lady’s chosen program, out of sheer spite.

    As someone said earlier, the Hell reserved for this action is Sarah being expected to handle, much less teach, a roomful of 3rd graders just back from a party with food/drink consisting of nothing but cupcakes, cookies, brownies, sodas (diet or otherwise) and sweetened iced tea.

  13. Marnie says:

    Why are there birthday parties and parents bringing party food to school?
    Is there any education going on at all any more?

    Why are politicians being allowed public schools to spew their talking points anyway? is there equal time for other political points of view?

    Why is any parent allowing Typhoid Sarah around their children? Teh stupid is communicable, just look at how it has infected Sarah’s employees, family, and the whole Eee 4 Peeers and the wholeTee Pee party.

    • tigerwine says:

      SP was speaking at a Christian private school. That’s why it’s doubly puzzling. She who hates the elite is now saying how “priviledged” those kids are not having to attend a public school. I thought she was ll for the common man.

    • Baker's Dozen says:

      I wouldn’t ban all parties. They are actually an opportunity to practice social skills of inclusion, hosting, welcoming, and taking thanks graciously. Believe me, many kids need these as much as any other skill. What they don’t need is to be handed some equivalent of a 5 lb bag of C&H.

  14. JJ says:

    According to an item I saw on Politico, the paper [right wing] that printed the info about the proposed “cookie” legislation has already retracted the story. Scarah Flailin’ — much ado about nothing as per usual.

  15. Simple Mind says:

    Ummmmm….one little problem – there is no proposed rule to ban sweets. The newspaper that made that claim has retracted it as false. http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_708457.html

  16. tigerwine says:

    I just saw a clip of SP giving the cookie speech in PA. This hits a new low (or high) in devisiveness for her. Telling the kids she brought lots of cookies for them and how lucky they are to be in a private school, not a public one where the government tells you what to eat. Gawd. that woman is unbelievable.

    • Terpsichore says:

      Ooooh! She did not!

      Oh, I guess she did.

      Wow.

      I truly think my mother would have had a fit if someone who said something like that was brought into our school to speak to us (‘course, we were in evil public school, but never mind).

      The ignorance of that statement is just, as you say, unbelievable. Plus the fact that she is still essentially making a ‘campaign’ speech and use the speaking platform to take stabs at our elected government officials (by way of the code word ‘government’) to an audience of schoolchildren is flabergasting.

      She didn’t even have the decency to come up with a speech the kids might actually enjoy hearing? What does she think? They’re going to vote for her? They’re going to run home and tell money and daddy that because the pretty lady gave them cookies and said they should be able to eat cookies if they want to and that those mean old public schools never let you eat what you want that mommy and daddy will turn around and vote for her?

      Sheesh!

  17. Pufflina says:

    Now I know why Bristol looks so heavy! I hear DWTS is changing it’s name to “Hoofin with the Heifer!” I’m from PA but living and working in DC. Funny they didn’t tell to go home and take care of her own kids. You raise yours and we’ll raise ours!

    • Hope says:

      Ouch. I don’t have room to speak because I disagree with her mom and am vocal about it. However, I dislike the “fat” comments about this young woman. I think it is really hard to be a young woman anyhow and think the insults about her looks are destructive. I am sure she does not read the mean things that are said about her. However, I think it is flat out wrong. I think she is lovely!!!

      • Laurie says:

        I agree that this kind of criticism of this young girl is not appropriate. I also believe that Sarah Palin says such inflammatory, false, mean, and intentionally hurtful things that she is the cause of and therefore responsible for much of the ill will coming her way. Just like during the campaign, if she wants to play nasty and rough and go for blood, she should keep her young family away from the public arena. I think she puts her kids in public while she spews her hate and division knowing full well that when her kids are mentioned it helps her claim of being a
        victim of the LSM.

  18. Ann Strongheart says:

    Sitting here shaking my head and utterly speechless. Don’t have time to read everyone elses comments. But OMG can someone just slap her please!!!

  19. leenie17 says:

    While I support the school’s rule that the frequency and menu of birthday parties be limited, I must disagree with some of the posters here who say that all parties should be eliminated from school. As someone who works in a city elementary school, I have two reasons to object to that suggestion.

    The first is that some of our students come from very poor families (more than 80% are on free or reduced price lunch) and the school celebration is often the only party the children get. For some of our kids, the teachers even provide a snack because the parent either can’t afford to send in any kind of treat OR simply ignores the fact that the child has a birthday (much like they ignore the fact that the child wears the same dirty clothing every day for a week!).

    The second reason is that, although our older students are falling behind other countries in academic achievement, our younger students are experiencing more and more pressure. Testing has become the focus of a good part of the year, and expectations are much higher than in years past. When I was in kindergarten, you were doing well if you knew your letters, some of your numbers and your colors when you reached first grade. Now, kindergarteners are expected to be writing several sentence paragraphs by the time the year is over. Recess is a thing of the past, and many schools are eliminating subjects like music, art and PE. An occasional birthday celebration is NOT a bad thing for these kids (and for the teachers as well!).

  20. NEO says:

    i thought sarah was all about states rights.
    sarah dear, you don’t live in pennsylvania.

  21. Rob says:

    Sarah Palin loves to create controversery, this gets
    brings about attention, she seems to love the attention, her stupid remarks and speeches are a prime example she loves to antaganize people.

    Bristol is such a lost person, she is and has been brain washed that what ever she does its ok, there are tons of money to made, so just endure and keep doing stupid events in your life.

    DWTS has lost the real meaning of Dancing, Its been Rigged and we all know Sarah Palin has no care about being fair or honest. The people who are voting for her being dishonest, This is not what I call voting, we are all allowed a vote for the number of people left each week, but we have the jamming of votes by those who are so tunnel visioned in their voting, they think they are doing Bristol a favor, no its misleadng and DISHONEST, tHE OTHER DANCERS ARE BEING MADE A JOKE. Bristol and Sarah Palin are fakes,

    ITS THE MONEY YOU ARE FEEDING THEM.

    Her , Sarah latest on eating has become another example of how Palin thinks, she has no solutions, but gives us the clear single vision of her mind set.

    Its really small and has no clue to what she is doing. I would never vote for a person who Mind is slowing going into the cesspool .

    Bristol and Sarah need to go home sit on their cement slab and and decide what honesty really is about.

    NEVER FOLLOW SARAH PALIN EXAMPLE OR BELIEVE IN WHAT SHE IS THROWING OUT, ITS SLOP.

    • prisonernumbersix says:

      An old folk remedy says “feed a fever, starve a cold.” While Sarah promotes this attention fever, she is undoubtedly cold. If we could starve her (figuratively), the attention fever would be broken and cold Sarah would finally go away.

  22. SouthPaw says:

    What Sarah really means is more cookies = more obese kids = more diabetic kids/adults = more obscene profits for the drug companies and more Mr. Scooter’s (fully paid for by Medicaid & Medicare btw) for people too fat to walk. Without a doubt the drug companies were major donors to the GOP as well as the fast food conglomerates.

  23. Lainey says:

    I’m beginning to think she goes out of her way to STAY a “joke”!

  24. Lee323 says:

    Good one, Irishgirl. She was before it before she was against it…..as usual. Lying hypocrite.

    Palin’s real motive in this despicable meddling is poking Michelle Obama in the eye for her excellent program to raise awareness of childhood obesity.

    Hell, if McCain and Palin had been defeated by LBJ, Mrs. Palin would now be viciously attacking Lady Bird for her roadside wildflower project to beautify America…….”We don’t need no stinkin’ wild flowers when we have good American trash in them roadsides. I’m gonna go tell kids at my next school speech that the nanny gubmint doesn’t think our roadsides are exceptional just the way they are, and then I’ll hand out some of my used CrunchWrap Supreme wrappers for the kids to throw out the car windows themselves.”

  25. Irishgirl says:

    Funny, Palin had this to say at the Alaska 2009 State of the State Address Jan 22, 2009.

    “We have alarming levels of heart disease, diabetes, childhood obesity–and all of these maladies are on the rise. Now, I won’t stand here and lecture–for very long–but health care reform on an individual basis is often just this simple: we could save a lot of money, and a lot of grief, by making smarter choices.

    It starts by ending destructive habits, and beginning healthy habits in eating and exercise. In my case, it’s hard to slack when you have the ever-present example of an Iron Dogger nearby. But many of us could use a little more time in our great outdoors–and when you live in the Great Land, there’s no excuse.

    Protecting good health is largely a matter of personal responsibility, but government policy can help. Our new Alaska Health Care Commission will recommend changes that affect the well-being of Alaskans far into the future.”

    http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Sarah_Palin_Health_Care.htm

    • zyggy says:

      those words are biting her in the butt right now. Thank you Irish for posting that.

    • Yes, there were those moments of clarity – what happened to those, I would like to know?? Her interview with Charlie Rose, given during her first year or so in the governor’s office is actually coherent and lacking the shrill accent we hear today.

    • bubbles says:

      oh good one Irish!! go girl.

    • Hope says:

      This is an awesome example of a flip flop. Watch it and wait for if she runs for President. This i.e. is brillant. Great stuff now being floated around to get the super social conservative crowd involved but once she flips again and seems normal, they will see a little bit more of the same old stuff of politics. She has built her base by playing “rogue” (man they are going to be ticked when they find out there are no nuts in this m & m ) but when it comes down to it she will have to be more reserved to appeal to a larger voting crowd. Good i.e. why she shouldn’t run. Could this hurt her brand? The only reason that I would like to see her run is to give the Repubs a run for their money. Those good old boys need some competition. I have said it before, don’t underestimate anyone. Great reason to be involved and pay attention to the politics of the day. Watching the media yearn for an interview is sad.

  26. chloe says:

    Re: Bubbles @ 56: oops that should have been “feeling better”, not felling. Sorry for the typo.

  27. honestyingov says:

    I’m thinking Sarah’s idea of babysitting her ‘Iconic image’ is to hand him an ” all day Sucker “..

    before she runs out to make a screetch… to the OTHER ” All Day Suckers “. just saying.

  28. bubbles says:

    enjoying all the great comments.
    Michelle Obama first lady of all these United States is a class act.
    Sarah Palin is no lady and she wouldn’t know ‘class’ if it walked up and slapped her.

    • chloe says:

      Bubbles @ 56:
      I agree that Ms Palin is no lady, but “class” wouldn’t walk up and slap anyone. “Class” would walk up and say “oh, you poor thing! I do hope you’re felling much better soon”.

  29. vj says:

    Health considerations aside, the last thing a school needs is the legal responsibility for pumping children full of unhealthy substances. Sarah is right – it’s the parents’ job to pump their kids full of garbage.

    But this latest outburst is all about Michelle Obama. Did you know she’s not white?

  30. beau geste says:

    It’s nothing about government dictating to parents. It’s nothing about the right one has to feed a kid according to personal taste. Doesn’t that just sound silly?
    It’s about school. Consistency from one classroom to the next, one school to the other, one side of the country to the other, schools in different states, and the opposite side of town.
    It’s about managing a group. The group’s best interest prevails over matters of individual desire. The group is the classroom, the school, the school district, all the schools in the U.S.
    It’s the government dictating to the school how it will feed your kid; not how you will feed your kid.

    It’s very much like separation of church and state. If you leave it open without establishing guidelines, then it becomes an arbitrary decision in the control of an individual to decide on any given day. So which individual gets to decide for all of us? The principal? The classroom teacher? The school board president? The most popular classroom mommy that the teacher likes the best? The PTA president?

    It’s nothing new. I’ve been an involved parent for 30 years – every classroom my kids were in, sports teams, Lego League, ski program, public and private. Every activity came with a snack assignment and guidelines. Every family eats something different. Every family has a child with a medical issue. Every family has a child with a behavioral issue that may or may not include food as part of the treatment. It used to be common sense and decided by each classroom.
    But we know that “common sense” is objective; some parents STILL insist on sending party invitations to be delivered at school that don’t include everyone.
    The hard part for me was letting it be up to each classroom teacher to decide. One kid’s teacher let them have cupcakes once a week; the other kid’s classroom had nothing because li’l Johnny over there was diabetic and it wasn’t fair for him to watch all the other kids have a treat while he was expected to be disciplined and avoid it.
    Bad enough I have to deal with some 23 year-old who has never before met my kid and has none of her own, tell me what math my kid is capable of, but I also have to let this creature driving a sports car and swilling soda, decide that Cheetos are not acceptable because they have dangerous chemicals that make them orange and please no sausage items because she’s vegetarian and it’s offensive.
    Now I have a grandchild in a classroom that allows unlimited gum, all day, every day. Wow. That’s a first for me.
    I’m all about consistency. Set a standard – we’ll all follow it. Easy.

    It’s been regulated by the government for more than 10 years. Every school in the country, public or private has some kind of policy. Count on it. It’s there. It’s in PTA resolutions, your student handbook, school district policy, and state education standards.

    There’s a Wellness Policy implementation regulation. Each school MUST have formal Wellness Policies by 2008. What those policies are, is up to each school district. Each of us can be involved in the shaping of those policies. This is what goes on in the school board and PTA meetings.
    This is an educational standard imposed by state education departments and the federal government. What the Wellness Policies address is a matter for each school to decide, in collaboration with its parents and staff, at the local level, specifically defined by that particular group.
    There are some very conventional issues – obesity, physical fitness, exercise, nutrition, behavioral health, bullying, etc.
    It’s not about cookies. It’s about Wellness.

  31. cmt says:

    http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/11/sarah-palin-quiz.html

    has a great caricature of sarah. For some reason I can’t paste the picture here though.

  32. AlaskaNorske says:

    Parents don’t guide their children anymore. I see it everyday in the friends and peers of my own kids. At the middle school level all of these kids have cell phones (with internet access) and have very little supervision – if any. The go where the want, do what they want, hang out with who they want, when they want to. Most parents couldn’t tell you if their child had done their homework or even been at school that day.
    While I agree that we need to teach kids that eating right is important, we need to get parents to start parenting and not just dropping their kids on the school’s doorstep and expecting them to teach our kids everything. The relationship between parents and schools should be 50-50.
    If you don’t like what going on at your kids school, change it, get involved in your kids school.
    Get involved in your kids life.
    Do something.

    • dreamgirl says:

      I think the relationship should be 90-10, parents to teacher. It is the parent’s responsibility to teach and train their children. Yes the teacher teaches but that is nearly impossible if the children have no respect for authority figures because the parents are raising their kids as their equals. The kids then see themselves as equal or above the teacher and her/his authority.

      Today teachers are expected to teach and “raise” these poor children who have no set boundries of what is right or wrong, were never taught by their parents what is and what is not acceptable behavior. They have no idea of “respect your elders” and why.

      I agree with your post. Parents better get a grip or they and their children will learn some pretty harsh realities down the road.

  33. Ed Zactly says:

    Summary: Palin = Projection

  34. Moose Pucky says:

    That $arah sure has a knack for making a splash. This will probably go over really well in the heartland right now. How dare Michelle grow a vegetable garden!! How dare we make our schools more healthy!! Cookies, anyone? Arghhh.

  35. Rai says:

    And this… this is the level of irrelevancy that Palin has sunk to.

  36. Desa Jacobsson says:

    McQuittyPants isn’t the Cookie Monster……she’s a monster with cookies. The queen of crumbs. Therefore too then again also.

  37. far from fenway fan says:

    WAIT!! This is merely a continuation of the Murkowski – Palin feud. Didn’t Lisa introduce legislation a while back to ban junk food in school vending machines? As a result, don’t machines in ASD schools NOT dispense sodas during school hours?

  38. Baker's Dozen says:

    I taught in an elementary school where most of my fifth graders were fat. They didn’t want to play hard at recess and were fidgety in the classroom. We were in a financially tenuous area of town. People had a hard time feeding families.
    Then, the fund raiser came to town. He had those kids all whipped up and ready to sell–
    cookie dough.
    Frozen name brand cookie dough from a famous mall store chain.
    They sold scads of containers of cookie dough at 14 bucks a pop to these families.
    I don’t care that schools are underfunded. You don’t balance the budget by encouraging obese people on tight budgets to eat more cookies and teach the kids that selling this stuff is somehow a good thing. (The school lunches were the cr#ppiest I’ve seen, as well.)
    Then, there were the parities. Every kid had to have a birthday party at school every year. Time for teaching lost and for eating garbage gained. And the school wanted them–high self esteem and all that. I think there was a bunch of teachers that didn’t want to confront the parents and also wanted time off from teaching.
    Now I love cookies. I bake them, have them with milk, give them as presents. But I also eat lots of non-sugar items as well. Balance is the key. That school didn’t teach balance.
    Kids are in school 180 days a year, generally. That’s less than half the days in the year. Teachers need that time to teach, not stuff the kids with junk.

    • lilybart says:

      Yes! And how can parents control their kids diets if they are constantly getting total crap at school?

      And the kid can have a birthday party at home with all the crap the parents can afford.

      This is like school prayer. Pray at home or anywhere else.
      Eat sugar at home. No one is stopping you.

      And PA is not a nanny state.

  39. I live in Pittsburgh, and I am so incensed that Palin is going to march in and draw stupid attention to herself, when, in my humble opinion, all she is doing is sticking her sugar coated tongue out at the First Lady, and Michelle Obama’s work toward helping children have a more healthy nutritional lifestyle. It goes hand in hand with helping lower income people who cannot afford better food – notice how cheap sugar food and Top Ramen costs pennies?

    I need to make a lawn sign telling Palin to get the hell out of my state, and never come back. It’s bad enough that all of the old white bigots got out of their chairs at the last minute and voted for Toomey – hello hydrofracking!

    So, my beautiful adopted state will have water that catches fire, and a bunch of pre diabetic, sugared out kids not paying attention when they turn on the tap and flames come out.

    Swell. Just swell.

  40. NMJ says:

    Really, though…how serious are those schools about nutrition, anyway? After all, they’ve invited Palin to speak. At a school. At their school. They’ll probably welcome her cookies. And learn a whole bunch of stuff. I mean, if she wasn’t real smart she wouldn’t be famous, right? Isn’t that why they invited her?

  41. Lower48 says:

    `Anything to stay in the headlines, right $arah?

    Remember when Uncle Ronnie Reagan said that catsup qualified as a vegetable? But that was OK – right?

    Wasn’t THAT also government interference in our family / children’s lives?

    The once-a-month birthday parties? That was the norm when my youngest was in grade school in SoCal in the early 2000’s… because some weeks, there could be two – or more – birthday parties! How about some classroom instruction time, folks?

    We also HAD to bring STORE BOUGHT COOKIES if we were to bring any cookies. No home made were allowed, because home kitchen cleanliness was in the eye of the beholder…

    Never mind any egg, peanut, wheat, chocolate or milk / lactose allergies – all forewarned on commercial packaging. Check any cookie packaging nowadays – “produced using machines that also process tree nuts… milk… chocolate… wheat…” etc.

  42. Eva Destruction says:

    Sarah blatantly uses her own children for political gain. Now she’s using someone else’s children for political gain, and we are not surprised. We should have seen this coming when she brought cookies to rural Alaska, where soda pop rules and tooth decay and diabetes are rampant. Ironic that, as governor, she shut down the annual “come in and have cookies with the governor!” Christmas reception at the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau, with a long line of expectant folks — and children — still waiting to come in and enjoy the holiday tradition. She just told the nice folks, and their children, to go away, and shut the door. Cookie time was over.

  43. Winski says:

    Here’s the message Swag-Hag… NOBODY cares what you say.. Especially anyone in Pennsylvania..

    You just don’t seem to get it do ya Dumbo…. YOU are not relevant…

    Here’s a tweet back to you “F*** YOU”…short and to the point..

  44. Progressive in VA says:

    If Sarah Palin were a big statue given to us by France, in one hand she’d be holding a blackberry tweeting:
    “Give me ur aggrvtd, ur zlus, ur armd. Th rtchd rfudiatd of ur elte hord. Snd ths, th cluls, adl-brnd 2 me, I lft my arms 2 th Nrthrn Lites!”

    and in the other hand — an M4 hoisted overhead. Or maybe a plate of cookies.

  45. Memphis, NY says:

    Maybe she would like to take toys to San Fransisco
    San Fran bans toys in some fast-food kids meals

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_KIDS_MEAL_CRACKDOWN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

  46. Memphis, NY says:

    I just received my Sarah Doesn’t Speak For Me bumper sticker It may be the first bumper sticker I ever put on my car
    get yours here
    http://sarahdoesntspeakforme.com/

    • Desa Jacobsson says:

      Memphis, NY, I got my sticker already! Good for Emily’s List! I was tempted to wear it on my forhead before I headed off to some fancy doings.

  47. Simple Mind says:

    Ummmm….are we seriously discussing Sarah Palin’s advice on parenting skills?

  48. Erin says:

    As an educator here in Anchorage, I can tell you we already have a rule about serving sweets in the classroom. Parents are not allowed to bring in full-sized cupcakes, but mini ones are okay. Something about the percentage of fat can’t be more than 30% or something similar. I think it’s a great idea and has really cut down on the crud that kids are eating in school. Now if we could get those school lunches to be healthy, we’d have something.

  49. n djinn says:

    Leaving it mostly to well thought paragraphs all I have to say is: THEY DO IT IN ANCHORAGE TOO SARAH you lazy; fair of a parent! Jeeze she reminds me of my ex-wife (who would think it was a complement)

  50. AK Raven says:

    I support good nutrition guidlines. Anchorage school district tries to keep cupcakes and sweets from birthday celebrations too. That’s fine- except if you look at what ASD serves up for their meals. Breakfast often has chocloate muffins, Cinnamon buns in white sugar syrup, sugared cereals, waffle sticks with syrup to dunk them in, pancakes with syrup— it makes my stomach sick to see this stuff early in the morning.
    Then there’s lunch with frozen fruit syrup treats, fruit pies that have a sugary coating, waffle sticks with syrup, etc. They respond to complaints with “these options are all part of a healthy week-long plan” Gross.
    They need to walk the walk they talk.

  51. 0whole1 says:

    There was someone else who forcefed children cookies….who was it….tip of my tongue….

    Oh, yeah. Right.

    Well, that makes sense.

  52. Laurie says:

    I was waiting at the Kroger deli a few months ago when I noticed a bakery lady nearby preparing some cupcakes for sale. She was taking the unfrosted cake part out of huge boxes packed with many boxes of 12 cupcakes. Apparently, even though the supermarket has a bakery they don’t bake everything there. I’m not sure if the packaging even indicates that it is prepared elsewhere. I remember being shocked at the amount of packaging being thrown away. The bakery lady then lined the cupcakes up on the counter and frosted them with “frosting” out of big white plastic buckets. I can’t remember what holiday/season they were suppose to celelebrate but, she used at least two neon color frostings. Even from where I was standing I could see the long list of black lettering on the side of the buckets. Whatever was in those buckets I bet it had little of we would call food in it.

    I think it is very likely that this type of treat that is being brought to school for birthdays and other celebrations. Who wants their kids eating this kind of chemical crap?

    • lilybart says:

      I now bake with only whole grains (King Arthur white whole wheat flour, mesquite, graham flours) and natural sugars in varying degrees of processing, so now my baking is pretty much a net positive!

  53. OzMud says:

    The bigger picture for me here is not that Sarah began tweeting loudly about something she knew absolutely nothing about (wht else is new) – it’s what the heck is she doing poking her nose into another states school system in the first place?

    Sarah is the FIRST one to jump in and tell someone from the lower 48 that if they haven’t lived in Alaska they have no business telling Alaskans how to run their state. Why does this never work the other way around?

    Why aren’t Pennsylanians just telling her to butt out?

    And of course the irony of all her gubmintB2big tweets is that this is the same woman who would have the GOVERNMENTforce a woman to carry a fetus to term against her will, even if she’d been raped. So it’s ok for the Feds to tell you what to grow inside your body, it’s just not ok for them to help you work out how to feed it.

  54. Molly says:

    How DARE the schools take away parents’ rights to oversweeten their children!

    Do you think, Sarah, that maybe the parents could, you know, give those poor deprived children some cookies once they get home? Maybe they could pray at the same time, to make up for all that time at school when they are banned from public prayer.

    “Bless us oh Lord, and these thy cookies which we are about to receive…”

  55. Jen says:

    I too do not remember obese children when I was young (but of course, this was in the ’60s!) although occasionally there were a couple “chunky” kids. It really was a rarity. I wonder if it was uncommon because fewer of us spent time in front of TVs and computers as kids. I was always taken aback when my kids would visit friends and then come home and request chips and pop for snacks as if it was the norm. I still do not believe any parent would be happy their child is obese and am convinced some people honestly do not understand the underpinnings of a healthy diet. So thank goodness the school district is addressing this. Would anyone really object to a discussion of healthy eating habits in a health class? If there is no objection to that would it not be insane then to offer a plethora of unhealthy food in snack machines in the cafeteria? When our school district was approached by PTAs in district schools opposing the availability of unhealthy sugar-laden food in these machines it removed them from the schools. Nobody was offended by this except the people who owned and operated the machines.

    • lilybart says:

      I thought I was fat as a child and I wasn’t, now that I look back at photos. And no, I don’t remember any fat kids and an obese adult was an oddity.

  56. faithful pup says:

    oops cut/paste forgot too check if it was the right url- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/09AR2010110904666.html and if this hand typed doesn’t work either just skip the whole thing and read the WAPO review. I am soooo pc illiterate. Love the last 3 numbers in the url.

  57. Zyxomma says:

    I grew up in the sixties (born in the fifties). I remember every overweight child with whom I went to school? Why? There was only one every year, with the exception of the one year there was one overweight girl and one overweight boy.

    My friend in NJ, who taught school from 1967 until this past summer, told me fully a third of his students were overweight or obese by the time he left.

    In NYC, 43% of the schoolchildren are overweight or obese, according to the newspaper. The last thing these kids need is parties more than once a month.

    That woman is an idiot. (Welcome back to broadcast, Keith.)

  58. faithful pup says:

    The reviews on another Scara enterprise are coming in. Washington Post https://themudflats.net/2010/11/10/sarah-palin-brings-cookies-the-sequel/#comments The first paragraph? Priceless..

  59. Lacy Lady says:

    Diabetes is a condition that no person whats their children to deal with. My brother was a diabetic —-together with a heart problem. ( I might add that he was very thin) The two conditions work against each other. He died at an early age. I see nothing wrong with having more healty food in school lunches. Also learning to eat right. I see so many children that are obese. They can hardly walk, let along run.
    While I was in the hospital a few years ago, I was sat in a HUGE wheel chair. The nurse explained that they have so many patients that are very large. Also that they need special equipment to handle very large people. I never saw obese children in school while growning up. It was very un-common. So Sarah can say what she wants—but better take a second look at what is around her.

  60. Hope says:

    (We have breaking news) irritated when writing.

  61. Hope says:

    I lost the entire cookie spill when she started talking about Quantitive Easing? Why didn’t she enlight us on the concept. This is my beef with media. We having breaking news to hear her talking about taking cookies to a school for kids. However, they can’t call her on explaining the concept of Quantitive Easing and why the Fed will buy $600 billion in long-term govt bonds.

    Please do tell, explain this to me, because I really don’t understand this subject. What are the ramifications of this, why does the Fed need to do this, and why does Germany, China etc. object? We get tid bits of information and it gets overshadowed by cookies and bumper stickers. This is just silly. Are we going to start electing Presidents because they make for good advertising dollars? We are in big trouble here people.

    • Valley_Independent says:

      They don’t call her on it because they know she doesn’t have a clue what the term means, and they don’t want all the unpleasantness that comes with pointing out her lack of intellect on camera, ala Gibson and Couric.

      This does not excuse the media for not asking those kinds of questions. They are wrong for not having the courage and journalistic integrity to do so.

      • Hope2 says:

        Absolutely. I just wish they would. Read that she is still on the subject. I could care less if it were a man saying the same thing, show me the money and expand on your theory. If a person is going to act like an expert, they need to stand up and speak to the media.

        She is fearful of the lame stream media but does not mind the free advertisement. Media might be lame in that sense, I guess. Sometimes, I just think the media is part of the problem. They are the messenger but they refuse to add, “that she refuses to comment.” So they are basically giving her more political power versus attempting to understand what she is trying to convey. I have a difficult time trying to comprehend her points. I think the woman has charisma but lacks substance. My college education has failed me evidently.
        No Obles. Je ne comprends pas. Ich verstehe nicht!!!

    • Sarafina says:

      I would bet every penny I have or EVER will make that $arah has no idea what QE is.

      Quantitative Easing involves the Fed printing a lot more money. This makes the dollar cheaper, which means our export products are cheaper, so other countries will buy our stuff. However, our export market is no where near our domestic market (which buys stuff from China), so it may not be any benefit.

      A suggestion: read Steve Benen’s Political Animal at http://www.washingtonmonthly.com. He covers multiple subjects, and if you email him, he’ll provide answers to specific questions.

      • Hope says:

        Great information. Just watched a conservative that was ousted for his idea during Reagan admin. He has arguements against taxes, bail outs, and QE. Interesting to get all sides of the topic.

  62. DonnaInMichigan says:

    I don’t allow my children to eat what the public school provides for what they consider “lunch”. Pizza, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, tacos..and there isn’t a salad choice. I have a diabetic daughter, and she can’t eat what they provide. Most of their lunch time is spent in line, and by the time they get to eat they have to chug it down, or dump half of it. I pack my children healthy foods in their lunches, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get a treat now and then, just not a healthy diet of it.

    Sarah couldn’t even govern her own state, she should keep her nose out of other states.

  63. dee says:

    After reading the article about the “private” school she’s fundraising for, I must say that Bucks County is not a bastion of middle class America. Talk about elite!! I thought she only spoke to real Americans in the real America. Bucks County is a really upscale county! Horse farms, mansions, lots of private schools. Also the home of New Hope, the original artisan beatnik community. I thought she disapproved of all that stuff.

    • LibertyLover says:

      She only talks to “real Americans” when she needs to throw a little red meat out to stir up the anger of the proles. Then she can retreat to the company of the rich and powerful who can afford her speaking fee.

    • Dagian says:

      10 years ago, Bucks County was very middle class. 40 years ago, it was very rural. A friend of mine has a road named after her family surname–the family has been there over one hundred years. She and her sons still farm, she’s been a substitute teacher for decades. I think her sons are planning to continue to farm after her death. She’s a sharp woman and they’ve been planning how to keep it a family farm.

      New Bolton is nearby–that’s also why it’s a HUGE draw for the equestrian community. It’s where Barbaro was taken after he shattered his leg in the Preakness.

      They’re out there. Even in very wealthy communities there are pockets of people with lower incomes, some with VERY low incomes. If you look for them, you will find them.

      No matter how much, or how little, money the family earns–they’re still real Americans.

    • laprofesora says:

      Real Americans=anyone who gives her $$$$$

  64. g says:

    I’ll intro kids 2 beauty of laissez-faire

    She should go all the way. Intro kids 2 the beauty of laissez-faire by bringing some asbestos dust into the classroom, painting the walls with lead paint, and serving uninspected meat in the cafeteria.

  65. g says:

    In the meantime, she’s going to bring cookies just to be defiant.

    Well, that’s what it’s all about for her, isn’t it? She’s finally reduced it down to this. Whatever a government or quasi-government agency decides to do she’s against it.

    This is a weird one for her to be jumping on, actually. The school is trying to protect parents’ rights to decide what their kids are going to eat – preventing OTHER PARENTS from serving children things their parents don’t want them to eat. So her reaction is to tempt other people’s kids to eat cookies?

    The President speaks on TV to school children to encourage them to study hard and stay in school? She’s against it. Parents should be able to opt out, she and the right wing say.

    Schools give kids information about sex and homosexuality? She’s against it. Parents should control what their kids learn about sex and homosexuality.

    Schools tell parents to NOT give kids sugary sweets while at school? Flip flopping Sarah says she should be able to feed your kids whatever she wants and the school can’t stop her.

  66. Alaska Pi says:

    This has nothing to do with anything except whatzername’s canny ability to tap into the unexamined, uninspected fears so many folks have about “the state”, “the government “, etc.
    Her tweet MO is to stick a knife into an argument and call it done.
    If you read the article this post references and the comments following it, it is obvious she continues to do well in bypassing the real arguments and evoking emotional responses which make any argument difficult.
    Here she skips right on past any dealing with anything which speaks to how this measure got on PA’s ballot and assumes, as she always does, that some dark shadowy creature in the halls of bureacracy has dreamed up yet another way to steal the rights-of-parents in favor of the state.
    She assumes the state does not belong to the people it represents and thus frames the argument in that no-man’s-land of machine v human.
    Our state and federal governments do feel out of reach but to allow this flip doodle to frame it the way she does breaks the threads of connection we do have and sets up a merely adversarial method of dealing with self-governance.
    May she choke on the powdered sugar coating of her toxic confections that we may pour a dose of reality down her throat to revive her…

    I know… never gonna happen…
    everyone has to have dreams though

  67. prisonernumbersix says:

    What is Sarah Palin doing in my State? I thought we were smarter than that!

    • Bucsfan says:

      I’m sorry. Aren’t you the folks who just elected Pat “Club for Growth” Toomey as your senator. The Club believes in “free trade and economic libertarianism”. That type of thinking hasn’t worked out very well for Pennsylvania or a lot of other states that went Republican like Ohio. He would be the last guy I would vote for if I was worried about bringing jobs to the state.

      • prisonernumbersix says:

        You have a point there. Toomey over Sestak plus a very questionable governor doesn’t say much for the majority of Pennsylvanians, does it?

  68. Dagian says:

    “Well, if Palin were the nanny, we know exactly what we could expect when we got home. She’d be doing exactly what the parents had said not to do, and our little cherubs would be jumping up and down on the couch with ice cream cones, surrounded by candy wrappers. Who do we think we are, anyway – telling kids what to do? They might think they have to pay attention to rules when they get older.

    Instead, we got Palin the Parent. See where that got her kids. Shipped off to Michigan under a cloud. Pregnant in high school. Wrecking empty houses with her drunk buddies. Invading privacy. Hassling educators–on t.v.

    So. Classy.

    I bet she’ll bring peanut butter cookies too–just to “prove” that peanut allergies are simply made-up and not life-threatening. Wanna bet she’ll insist on giving one to a child with a medical alert bracelet?

    I developed a deadly peanut allergy earlier this year–40+. It’s rare, but it’s scary as hell and has earned me a label-reading fetish second to NO ONE. At least Thing 1 knows what a serious allergic reaction looks like, and how to administer an epi-pen. That was terrifying–and disgusting. Face and hands swelling. Eyes bright red. Gasping/choking as my throat tried to swell shut. High-speed evacuation of the entire alimentary canal. Eww.

  69. Ripley in CT says:

    Ok, first, does anyone here actually think that Palin knows what “laissez faire” means, never mind spell it? Methinks not.

    The cookie meme is just another one of her impudent moves to draw attention to herself by using another’s plight to her benefit. She’s a shameless dimwit.

    And besides, she never has to worry about what HER kids eat at school, does she? I am quite certain that Ol’ Piper hasn’t seen the inside of a school since first grade.

    • tigerwine says:

      Hah! I had to go look it up. Now if I only knew how to pronounce it!

      • Dagian says:

        lez-A-fair (the e is soft, the A is hard)

        • tigerwine says:

          Thank you! Guess I’ll go throwing this word around and see what response I get today!
          I feel so educated and elite, also, too, dontcha know?

    • LibertyLover says:

      Laissez-faire indeed. I too wondered if Palin really knows what that means?

      Wasn’t she telling Piper not to eat the cake batter in her latest reality show? And Piper turned right around and ate the batter?

      Can you imagine her as President? ticking off one country or another because she won’t abide by the treaties that we hold with other countries?

  70. Polly says:

    Channeling Dr. Yvonne S. Butler – principal in GA, who implemented a sugar-free school, that has been modeled in over a dozen schools. Test scores went up, visits to school nurse went down, and behavioral “problems” went down in less than six months. Nutrition plays an important part in the welfare of our kids, and our society.

    http://www.healthykidssmartkids.com/

  71. Deb says:

    If Palin was the nanny, things would go much further than candy wrappers. Let’s try teens having unprotected sex under her watchful eye, partying like it is1999, vandalism, and snorting a little oxy to stop their pain.

    • Dagian says:

      That’s Palin the Parent.

      Based on her record of success as a parent, she’s not qualified to be a nanny. I bet she wouldn’t even pass the CPR test. She’d screech about how the gubmint was restricting her rights to do it her way and would proceed to “kill” her “patient”. Repeatedly.

      Besides, if it’s fill-in-the-blank questions, she’s gonna bomb it. She can barely handle little bubbles.

    • Man_from_Unk says:

      This comment sums it all up in a sucker with a stick!

  72. Progressive in VA says:

    Arrested development.

  73. angela says:

    Hum…… that will give her and Huckabee something to fight over. He put the brakes on so much sweets in the schools here in Arkansas.

    • tigerwine says:

      Angela – did he get any guff about it?

      • Bucsfan says:

        I don’t think so. But then, he himself was obese, around three bills, and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He lost over a hundred pounds, so I think it was near and dear to his heart to do something to prevent kids from getting to where he was.

  74. London Bridges says:

    I flipped over the cap from the Magic Hat beer (Hex) I drank when I got home last night and here were the words of wisdom contained therein!

    ” A case of Vanity may lead to insanity.”

  75. Diane says:

    Childhood obesity and diabetes is rising at an incredible rate in this country.
    Think of it this way. If your child is in a class of 20- 25 and every parent sends in sweets for the child’s birthday, your child is attending 20 extra parties a year and you as a parent have no control over it.

    As a parent of a DS child, Sarah will need to be mindful of nutrition and be watchful of Trig and his weight.

  76. Val says:

    Anything for attention.

  77. ks sunflower says:

    If Sarah had simply read about the proposed guidelines, she could have avoided this dust-up. If only people who are so afraid that the government will tell them what they can and cannot feed their children, would read the entire story or stop and think the situation through, there wouldn’t be people taking up Sarah’s siren call. Have we really come to this – a situation where we jump whenever someone such as Sarah Palin says to?

    I think Sarah is not just reacting to her misinterpretation of facts or her paranoid (yes, paranoid) fear of authority figures, but also to Michelle Obama’s mission of curbing childhood obesity. My goodness, heaven forbid, that our President’s spouse might actually be doing something worthwhile. Sarah is so jealous of President Obama and Michelle that she will try to steal the spotlight whenever she can by any means she can.

    Michelle Obama is right: childhood obesity is a clear and present danger to the health of our children and to the health of our country. By simply encouraging schools to cut back on how much sugary treats are being introduced into the school day and by suggesting healthy treats, that school district is doing a huge favor to those children.

    BTW, the guidelines that set Sarah off are not draconian. They do not outlaw birthday or holiday parties. They simply limit the number of birthday parties per month, the number of holiday parties per school year, and require that the parties that are allowed are only allowed after the kids have had a good lunch. Honestly, these are simply common sense requirements.

    As to allergies, if you know anyone who has food allergies knows how serious they can be. When we were all kids, medical science didn’t always make connections between food and physical problems. We are lucky to have made advances that protect the ones we love through simple diet adjustments.

    Sometimes I think the parties are not so much for the kids as for the mothers (or fathers) who want to show off or prove they are caring parents. Caring parents and responsible adults put the needs of their children and other children first. In this instance, childhood obesity and allergies are the focus.

    Teachers usually welcome these guidelines because they see firsthand the effects of too much sugar and reactions to foods that trigger allergic reactions. They can spend more time teaching, less time trying to corral hyped-up kids, and cleaning up after those who get sick. On party days, few elementary aged kids can concentrate on anything else but the party. Responsible adults will not react as Sarah has. Responsible parents will consider the welfare of the children rather than rant about government intrusion. This is not about the parents right to provide sugary treats; it is about the health of the children.

    Sarah just comes across as the defiant little airhead she is at heart. She’s stamping her foot, sticking her tongue out and pimping sugar to kids who don’t need it so she can grab headlines and show the powers that be that “heck, no. You can’t tell me what to do.” How very sad. I wish she would spend even half the time she spends on stuff like this actually parenting her children.

    Did you see the clip from her new show where one kid is shoving another kid’s face into a birthday cake? Well, that pretty much sums up how Sarah is coming is acting now – “want a good time? Well, here, get your fill of sugar – wham.” Silly, sad, Sarah. Bad girl.

    • lilybart says:

      But she would force prayer into the schools, you betcha.

    • Dagian says:

      “Michelle Obama is right: childhood obesity is a clear and present danger to the health of our children and to the health of our country.

      Damn right. Fat is NOT static. It’s a dynamic system and there is a domino effect–and it’s not good.

      Obesity is also making it still more difficult to recruit for the armed forces. Too many young people who are too overweight to make it through basic training.

      You would think that the Marmoset would know that, at least. *eye roll*

    • g says:

      More to the point here, Palin is coming down on the side of allowing other people to feed my kids things that I don’t want them to eat.

      Feed your kids sugary crap when they’re out of school. God knows they’ll eat as much as you want them to. Don’t feed my kids your sugary crap when my kids are in school.

    • Chaim says:

      Well said, kssunflower, but it won’t fit a Tweet or a soundbite. Come to think about that word, “soundbite” — might there be a connection between junk food and junk communication? I’m not thinking about the possibility of reduced attention span from excessive sugar intake, but metaphorically — the demand for instant gratification. “I want my rage/superiority “rush” (Rush?) RIGHT NOW! To hell with asking questions, gathering facts and thinking about consequences!”

      To play this out a little further, there is a well-known link between craving food, obesity and emotional insecurity. Sweets and fats have calories that can be (and are) stored as fat, to be consumed when food is scarce. When children subliminally fear they will not be cared for, this basic biological instinct kicks in. I think there is a deeper pathology here, and the problem is not just the availability of junk food, but the craving for it.

    • Valley_Independent says:

      Thank you for bringing up Michelle Obama and her efforts to fight childhood obesity. It is always dangerous to assign motives to other people, but I would not be the least surprised if Sarah’s cookie tantrum isn’t related in some way to the publicity the First Lady has received on this issue.

      Note also, that this is another example of an Obama attempting to do something positive about a challenge faced by the nation, and Palin griping about those trying to fix it while either doing nothing, or making it worse. Sarah, stuff a sock in it. You are continuing to embarrass your fellow Alaskans.

  78. AuntieRuth says:

    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20101110_Palin_hails_role_of_faith_in_speech_at_Bucks_school.html?i=2&jCount=3#comments

    A link to this morning’s article about the talk.

    Check out all of the photos. Once again she’s wearing a skirt so short that she has to clamp her knees together when sitting down.

  79. goose whalebone palin says:

    Let them eat grass…as apposed to Let them eat moose…or cookies. And that’s sayin’ somethin’.

    http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200209/23_steilm_1862-m/part2.shtml

  80. AuntieRuth says:

    Note that she was visiting a PRIVATE Christian School that is not subject to the guidelines.

    Also, it isn’t about telling parents what to feed their own kids. It is empowering schools to control what the entire herd of parents feeds the entire class of kids.

    I would ban parties in school altogether. Teachers have more important work to do than serve cupcakes.

  81. flying pig ranch says:

    I am going off limit with this. Sarah’s own little rising star until recently wasn’t losing weight on DWTS and there has been speculation that involved her diet and some other involved “footwork.” She is looking better this week, happier and not so SPANXed up. Perhaps Sarah sent her a nutritionist or a handler to get her out of McDonalds and the donut shops along with flying friends and family down to LA to support her little NorthStar in training.

    The judges scores and the popular vote on this show very well could reflect the way that someone like Sarah could actually be elected President. No talent for the task but that ability to shimmy, shimmy, shake, shake, shake and and get out the fringe voters in mass.

    No thanks on the cookies, Sarah.

  82. va_soccer_mom says:

    As fishingmamma mentioned, many kids do have allergies these days…here are a few examples from my sons’ elementary school classes: allergies to cottonseed oil, strawberries, wheat, eggs, dairy, tree nuts and, of course, peanuts. Our schools have already banned treats in class for the most part (there are a couple of times each year when there may be a special occasion). I’m thankful their time in school is spent on education and not class parties…I can always make them cookies at home!

  83. Irishgirl says:

    This policy has been in place in Ireland for years. We are discouraged from sending the kids to school with junk food in their lunch boxes. The schools even go so far as to give the parents ideas for healthy sandwiches and snacks……OH NO!!! Socialist Ireland!

    Palin needs to watch DWTS to see how her policy of laissez-faire has worked out and why all the blogs are speculating about her daughter’s weight gain. And I am being kind here.

    Sarah, why don’t you just shut up because everytime you open your mouth you prove beyond any doubt that you are an unfit mother.

    • Sarafina says:

      In fact, will any Palin daughter graduate with their class?

    • dahlia97 says:

      I’m wondering how much of dancing with the stars was her decision and how much of it was pressure from her mother. And how much she is being pressured to stay there….from what I’ve seen, her protestations that she is really enjoying herself seems forced.

    • daisydem says:

      Well dearie … after having just being there, then back home, then hearing all the talk about making sure our President serves only one term …. I am thinking of maybe moving to Socialistic Ireland! Move over lassie and pour me a Guinness!

  84. Elle says:

    Her solution to every nutritional crisis, whether it be starving families or obese children – let them eat cookies! Is she trying to channel Marie Antoinette? We all know how that turned out.

  85. dee says:

    Also, too since Piper rarely seems to go to school, the grizzled momma probably has no idea what treats are served in Alaskan elementary schools.
    I live in PA and her “views” on what we should do in our schools is none of her freaking business!

    • fishingmamma says:

      Can you imagine the outrage she would bring to facebook if anyone dared to tell her how to feed one of her kids?

      Actually, the school district is not telling parents they cannot feed their children junk food. They are requesting that parents do not feed junk food to ALL of the children. As in, “if you are bringing snacks to share with the class, please bring healthy ones” Sounds reasonable. Aslo, with so many kids, food allergies are a problem.

      Sarah should mind her own business.

      • Gramiam says:

        Sarah better pray there are no peanut products in the cookies she brings and that no child who eats one is allergic! Now there is a lawsuit waiting to happen, and the swag Hag has money now!

    • tigerwine says:

      You go, girl!! As a teacher, you realize all this, and so should parents. I for one, appreciate that the government cares enough about children to implement the idea of wholesome foods. We never had cokes offered to us in school. That was for after school, which we had to buy with our own money. We did have a dessert, but along with a healthy meal. I do remember we could buy extra a frozen Eskimo pie type ice cream.

      I also applaud the idea of only one b’day celebration a month. What a nightmare if 6 or 7 kids all had birthdays in the same month, and each mother insisted on having the party on her child’s day?

      I remember after WW 2 that the gov’t provided orange juice (don’t know why) and the school provided graham crackers for a mid-morning snack. I never heard parents objecting to government interference about that!

      And, Dee, you are so right – it’s none of her business! Is there any subject on which this woman doesn’t have an opinion? And have to post it on twitter or facebook?

    • Sarafina says:

      Speaking of Piper and Willow, I really hate teen pregnancy, but with their older sister as role model, is any one wagering on whether any Palin daughter will leave high school without a baby?

      I don’t find ‘abstinence only’ contraception spectacularly effective.

  86. dee says:

    Actually, this is not a new idea. I have been retired for 6 years and when I left my school in 2005, we had already sent home a note to parents urging them to send healthy snacks for birthday treats to school. I always supplied orange slices, grapes, veggies and yogurt dips for parties and the kids scarfed them up. Kids will eat those things if they are given to them. They like candy and cookies, so do I, but they don’t need bags of chips and sodas and cake and cookies and candy to celebrate their birthdays. Give them a book of their choosing, a day when they are the leader of everything and are surrounded by classmates who celebrate their day and they are happy.

    • NEO says:

      Growing bodies and brains need healthy food. Childhood obesity, diabetes and hypertension are on the rise.
      For a lot of kids, the only meal or healthy meal they get a day may be a school lunch.
      I think most parents would agree with Dee about healthy snacks and treats. If parents want to fill their kids up with sugar and processed fast foods, they can do it at home. Setting a good example at school is a good idea.

      • Valley_Independent says:

        Well said.

        I can think of an obese child right now whose parent is certainly not teaching him healthy eating habits at home. He is a little socially awkward anyway, and his weight makes it even harder for him to participate in activities and make friends with kids his own age. The last thing he needs is to get the impression that everyone eats that way all the time. I’m all for the school sending him a consistently different message.

        • historygoddess says:

          We have more and more parents giving fun pencils or pencil tops as birthday treats. Others have brought similar small items. One mom in my daughter’s class gave each kid a piece of cardstock and brought a bunch of art things like glitter, yarn, stamps, etc. Each kid got to make a card about their happiest birthday. Kids loved it. On the back in little letters they wrote the girl’s name (Name’s Birthday) and the date- kind of like the publisher’s mark.

          My daughter still has it 25 year’s later.

      • Dagian says:

        Obesity can be viewed as a form of malnourishment in certain aspects.

        Bad nutrition isn’t just starving people with an insufficiency of total calories after all.

    • dahlia97 says:

      Good ideas dee!

  87. Bev says:

    On one hand I am all for the healthy route, but on the other hand I am against the government telling me how and what to feed my children.

    Remember the tale of the camel’s nose…soon we could be told what we can buy or not buy and eat in our own homes.

    I m not paranoid, just cautious.

    • Nan (aka roswellborn) says:

      As far as I can see, no one is telling a parent what to feed their own kids, but merely trying not to be the place where the little darlings get empty calories with no real food value.

      I want my kids (now grandkids) to get an education of substance, not fluff. And pretty much the same with the food they’re given at the school.

      Oh no… I just realized I’m starting to sound like my mother!

      • prisonernumbersix says:

        I know there may be exceptions, but overall that doesn’t sound like a bad thing!

      • Hope says:

        I think the greater issue is obesity. Some children only eat at school (as in only meals). Others learn about food choices while at school. What would you rather eat, a cookie or a salad?

        The problem is not moderation of cookies it is eating nothing but cookies. Place a soda pop and candy bar in front of kid and what do you think they will have for lunch? (Most kids) This is not a matter of kids getting cookies. Or the big fat government telling you what to eat. We can’t smoke everywhere ect. How is this any different? An individual can have a cookie party when they get home with milk. Now if we talk about toys in meals, why can’t they charge extra for the toy and call it good?

        I was irritated watching “Parker and Spitzer” last night. They were rating the cookie monster as the second best political speaker (Clinton, Palin, then the President). Placing the President as number 3. Give me a break Spitzer. They fell over the idea of her brillance when talking about American exceptionalism. Their guest admittingly said she introduced her to the concept. She should release more than that on the subject.

        How about her ideas on solving the budget? That would be exceptional to me. I don’t underestimate the woman but some of the praise is just getting over the top. Maybe the other Republicans running for President should be happy that they have an open forum over at another station. They are going to need it. She will be cata poled to the top. Where is the media coverage of the upcoming Congress? I think Rachel Maddow is working on this…

        • AC says:

          Numerous issues here. Obesity is one, the other is education. Kids fall asleep or go hyperactive, or both, if they eat the wrong things. It’s simple, just like Palin.

          • libby says:

            There are numerous issues here…the big, glaring issue is that the schools are a place for our children to go to be educated. Parties for birthdays, etc, take up valuable instruction time. With schools cutting hours and whole days from the school year, we need every minute of classroom instruction that we can get. Celebrate the birthday at home…with all the sugar you want/don’t want.

        • Hope says:

          Just for those who “know” me on Mudflats, this Hope is not me. I guess it doesn’t matter, but just for those who care, this particular “Hope” is not me. Since I mainly just read these days, I guess it doesn’t make any difference. Just wanted to let you know if anybody cares. This will be my last note on this.

          hope.

          • Moose Pucky says:

            Ah, there’s burgundy quilt “Hope” and there is tan quilt “Hope”. One of you can change your name if you want, or the rest of us will just have to pay more attention.
            Thanks for pointing that out.

          • Hope says:

            @Moose Pucky(see next note below) Thank you so much for noticing and for commenting. I was starting to think I had disappeared altogether. I really appreciate your responding. OT, but kind of important to me.

            HOPE (beige)

          • Hope2 says:

            Sorry Hope, I will add a 2.

          • MonaLisa (inCT) says:

            ‘Beige’ is so… blah. I dub thee ‘Golden Hope’!

            [I admit, I don’t necessarily notice the colors of the quilt (except for Irishgirl’s green!), so I’m very happy that you clarified for us! There was another Mona here once upon a time, hence the ‘(inCT)’, but now I’ll know it’s ‘you’, promise!]

    • lilybart says:

      The govt is not telling you what to feed your kids, but rather, YOU have NO CONTROL over what your kids eat if they get lots of crap at school.

      One sweet treat per party…what is wrong with that?

      • A fan from CA says:

        Absolutely nothing to me. If parents want the kids gorging on sweets they can do it in the privacy of their home. Meanwhile at the public school we all pay for I’d like the kids offered nutritious foods. One party a month is fine with treats.

        What seems the most ridicilous about this is that it only applies to the government run school. Why do Baggers not want the government to make any rules in the schools that we the people have given them to run?

    • terryl says:

      Bev,

      During the 6 hrs that they are AT SCHOOL, your kids are restricted from eating fatty foods loaded with sugar, contributing to childhood obesity, not to touch on food allergies and medical conditions. The structure ENCOURAGES a healthy approach to eating. If you want to stuff your kids face with cookies and brownies when they come home from school, that is your right. Do you think your kids can manage the six hours low cal. nourishment? If not, I think you have bigger things to worry about than government takeovers.

    • TrueBlueGirl says:

      While I normally land on your side of such issues, this one was different for me. When I send my kids to school, I am entrusting my child into the custody, care, and control of an institution of which I have reasonable expectations: do no harm. If I feed my children nutritious foods and limit empty calories (at best) and harmful sugar/fat/salt intake (closer to the facts) then I do not want them given access to those very things in their classroom, where their learning should be the highest priority. 8 years ago, here in TEXAS for heaven’s sake, our elementary school had a group of teachers who showed real leadership – encountering sharp resistance from colleagues! more than parents – in this regard. At the time I was unsure about the idea of “depriving” kids of traditional treats. Then I started volunteering in the classroom, and saw firsthand the difference it could make. More important, my child learned important lessons – and did NOT learn harmful ones – and this supported what I was attempting to do in our home. Today he is a healthy, normal weight, active teenager who consistently chooses healthy food for himself. I am grateful that he is less likely to face the catastrophic chronic results of a diet with sugar at the center of it!

    • dahlia97 says:

      I’m cautious about giving up rights to a govt, also.

      Hmmmm….the school isn’t deciding what can be brought from home in school lunches? Only what can be served by the school or in the classroom?

      As a former school teacher and a parent, I can see the need to limit the amount of sweets served in the classroom. If the classroom is to represent a growth of knowledge that a child can trust, how can the ‘schools’ teach good nutrition on the one hand, and on the other, send the message that it’s okay to eat sugar. I think the schools need to show some integrity (and not only in the curriculum).

      The kids can invite their school friends to the home for the sugar party, lol.

      And maybe that’s one of S.P’s problems… why she has to be out there…go…go…go…and why her speaking and writing is often incoherent…too much sugar in the home!
      😉

      • Bev says:

        Just my point though….first in school, then in lunches you bring (because if your child is allowed a cookie in his lunch) what do you think the school will say about the impact it will have on the other kids?

        It happened here in Ohio when my daughter was in school 15 years ago, and I am sorry but obesity can happen even with healthy foods.

        In Ohio no smoking in public places and some areas you can not even smoke on your deck…there’s that darn camel.

        • Dagian says:

          It can be made even simpler still. No sodas, ice cream, or snacks of any kind to be sold on school grounds (so much for all those financial kick-backs that the county schools get through negotiations with vendors [if the county sells Coke–then no Pepsi is available, etc.]). No swapping lunches (that’s become standard). No class birthday parties.

        • Leota2 says:

          I live in Ohio too. I speak to children in Ohio classrooms. I have never in my life seen as
          many obese children as I have in my home state. Obesity can happen–but usually doesn’t if a child is eating a healthy modified diet and getting exercise. I don’t fear a cookie in a lunch box–I fear the soda machines and constant parties and sweet gook, salty snacks and empty calories. Then the teachers have to deal with the over sugared children as their teeth rot and the calories add up. There are some schools in Ohio that no longer have recess. So those empty calories just sit there.

          Our children are in school only one-third of the day—-I don’t think it’s too much to have them eat healthy there, especially since school is the only place some kids get a meal.
          I wouldn’t fear “the government telling us what to feed our children” they do it everyday
          keeping transfat, and other poisons out of our food. Kids are home enough to let their parents stuff them with crap if that is their wish. I guess I don’t want my tax dollars going to encourage third graders to be so heavy they are out of breath as they try to get out of their seats.

        • OhioNana says:

          I am extremely happy that we have no smoking laws here in Ohio. I am hoping that it will reduce the number of people who smoke. Today I buried a close friend who died at 61 from lung issues brought on by a two pack a day habit. That said, I don’t think that these two issues are really related.

          When my kids were in preschool (they are 30-41 now) they were not allowed to bring snacks that were sugary…and I thought that was a good thing then. There are lots of snacks a person can take that aren’t full of sugar. I think it is more an issue for the adults than it is the kids.

          With all the serious issues Sarah has in her own home, how dare she butt her nose (however darned cute it might be) into anyone else’s business like this.

          She is an idiot!

          • I was never so happy as I was the day smoking in public places and work places was banned in Washington state. I’ve never been a smoker, but my parents and my husband were. I lived with second-hand smoke for over 40 years. It always made me miserable to be around it. And I have a friend who died from lung cancer – the diagnosis was second-hand smoke (from her husband). Her daughters watched their mother suffer for years before she died when they were 18 and 12.

          • MonaLisa (inCT) says:

            When my state recently proposed enacting an additional tax on tobacco (bringing our total state excise tax to $3) I got a call from R.J. Reynolds trying to get me outraged about it.

            I told the young woman on the line, in a very calm, matter-of-fact voice, “I’m 45 years old, and I’ve been smoking a pack a day ever since I was 16. I’m also on an extremely fixed income for the foreseeable future, and you know what? I support this tax. It’ll force me to stop killing myself, one drag at a time.”

            The poor girl was literally speechless. I waited, but once it became obvious that there wasn’t a page in her script that covered, ‘Good- I don’t want to die anyway’, I thanked her for calling and hung up.

            I’m down to half-a-pack per day now. 🙂

          • Man_from_Unk says:

            ‘cute nose?’ – it’s growing longer and longer as her public persona gets bigger and bigger

    • Wallflower says:

      I believe these programs are mostly meant to teach nutrition, reduce the amount of corporate-sponsored high-sugar snacks in schools (like soft drink machines) and *encourage* parents to provide healthier snacks. Interesting that the “gubmint” can’t tell us what to feed our children, but multinational corporations can and do.

    • Elizabeth says:

      They aren’t even saying no cookies. They are proposing that there be only one sweet treat and the rest healthy. Anyone who has had to teach kids the day after Halloween, or any other time when the kids have ODed on sugar would agree to this.

    • Bucsfan says:

      I agree with some of the other responders that the schools aren’t telling you what you can or can’t feed your kids. Give them an IV of Fruity Pebbles if you want. But the school district can set guidelines for what is or isn’t allowed in school, be it a dress code (no tank tops or daisy dukes) or having a medication permission slip, or guns, etc, etc. Now if they start telling you what to pack in your kids lunch then I have a problem. But isn’t it funny that to protest a regulation being considered for public schools, she is showing her defiance by taking cookies to a PRIVATE school. OOOH. Really taking a chance there. And if you want to show the kids a real example of laissez faire, having the government stay out of the way (like not enforcing regulations) take them down to the gulf coast or better yet take them next door to West Virginia to talk to the families of the almost thirty miners who died there because the owner was allowed to do what he wanted.

    • daisydem says:

      I don’t think anyone will be told that they can’t pack their children a lunch (if carrying your own lunch is acceptable at that school) and put as much sugar or prepared foods, or heck, straight candy in them as you want. Go for it. But the schools who are partially funded by states or government monies and as a part of the educational process wish to teach children better eating habits, better food choices, and overall healthy practices are to be applauded for (and they are not cutting sweets out if I understand correctly, but limiting them and limiting special occasions at which sweets are customarily served). So, go, buy lots of cookies, gummy bears, candy bars and start stuffing those lunch bags in defiance of the old “gubmint”. Personally I would rather they look out for my children’s well being than to have Sarah Palin say to my children, or grandchildren (should I ever have any) “anything goes.” Because that is obviously what she tells her own!

      When I was in elementary school, part of our science included “health.” We actually had a textbook on health. The food diagram was in there, things like proper dental brushing, etc. I don’t remember anyone ever raising a fuss that we were having issues about our personal health forced down our throats. I can’t remember any mother or father storming down to our school and demanding that her/his child not be told that he should drink 8 glasses of water a day, or wash his hands after going to the bathroom, or eat more fruits and vegetables.

      Sarah Palin is a nincompoop (quoting and giving credit to Peggy Noonan) and I hate her. For the longest time (and I am so tired) she has needed to sit down and shut up. She is not a governor. She is not an expert on anything. And I hate her.

      Time for a pierce of leftover Halloween candy to soothe my nerves. Gubmint or no.

    • Moon says:

      I understand what you are saying, but I have a different view. As a former teacher, I had kids in my class that were on sugar free, gluten free, egg free, peanut free, lactose free….you get the picture. It was a nightmare making sure that each child only ate what they were supposed to eat. It was impossible to know what was in home baked treats. In addition to teaching, I was also put in the position as food police – telling kids they were not allowed to eat something while all their peers were indulging. I spent my own money on a variety of alternate treats so no one would feel left out. I was thankful when the school district decided that sweets and treats heavy in transfat were no longer allowed. I know Sarah doesn’t send her own children to school, so probably doesn’t realize that childhood obesity is epidemic. When I was a child, I remember one child at my elementary school who was obese. Now, it’s a normal sight. On another note, any day when we had birthday treats or a party, at least half the day was lost. That meant no instruction or learning was going on. I bet Sarah has never tried to keep 30 sugared up kids under control. It makes a difficult job even more so. PA wants to limit Birthday parties to one a month..that seems more than fair.

      • Dagian says:

        Emphasizing that schools are for education? How un-Palinesque of you.

        I see “former teacher”–what are you up to these days? Did you retire?

        • Moon says:

          No, after teaching for years, I decided to change careers a few years ago. My heart wasn’t in teaching any more, and when that happens, a teacher needs to move on. I’m now happy being a farmer 🙂

      • I taught second grade for six years a long time ago. The in-class parties were fun and for some kids that really was their birthday party. The holiday parties were fun as well. The problem wasn’t so much the sweets – we did it at the end of the day (ended up being the parents’ or babysitter’s problem), but it took time out of the day when we should have been reading or doing math or science or social studies. And for some who couldn’t participate in any of it because of their religion, it singled them out when they had to leave the room and spend the party time in the library alone with the librarian. That was never fair.

        For the kids who can’t eat the snacks from home, it’s not just about the sugar. If a child has a peanut allergy, it can be deadly. For some, even the smell of it is more than they can take. Really, when schools allow homebaked treats, they are opening a door to something far more dangerous.

        I do have to say, though, that when I became a parent I always volunteered to be a room mother and loved going in to the classrooms. But we did sometimes have special food restrictions. Rather than making the teacher be the food police, we only brought things that could be eaten by all the kids. (The religion restriction was still a problem, however.)

    • Parents can still pack whatever lunch, healthy or unhealthy, they want for their child. But the school is not going to offer garbage for lunch. Personally, I never liked it that my kids could get a slice of pizza for lunch or that there was pop and candy in the vending machines. I liked it a lot better when they offered bottled water and had fresh apples available – and my girls, who ate their fair share of junk food at home along with healthy food, liked the healthy snacks at school.

      The job of a school is to educate our children. Teaching them about healthy eating in a country that has a growing problem (no pun intended) with diabetes and overweight children, teens and adults seems to be to be a very good idea.

      And as far as Palin goes, what a great example to set for children. There’s a rule that is in your best interest? Don’t like it? Well, find an adult who will break the rule for you and then it’s OK. Makes me wonder if she broke similar rules about providing alcohol to minors – I wouldn’t put it past her.

      • CO almost native says:

        I, for one, want my public education tax dollars to go toward healthy eating- and the education of students to the advantages of good nutrition and exercise. “Let Then Eat Cake” Palin may not realize the huge societal and economic costs associated with obesity– and the drain on our health insurance dollars due to poor health. Laissez faire my ass… I’d like to kick her ass.

        I guess Palin would rather have school kids and their parents be couch potatoes, eating junk food and watching her no-so-reality show about the “real” Alaska. *grumble*

    • 10cats4me says:

      So, if the gov doesn’t regulate things about food and drugs, are your okay with DDT or Malathion, or agent orange on your food and elsewhere? If we didn’t have the regs, those wonderful companies would be feeding us anthing to get their profits. I know, I’ve seen it. Worked in a lab. It’s amazing what the excuses are.

      There has to be a balance. I’m all for keeping the excess sugar out of schools.

    • They are not telling anyone what to feed them at home, they are decreasing the amount of sugar consumed at school and in school lunches. I have eaten plenty of school lunches, even as an adult, in fact I am eating one right NOW. Believe, they need all the help they can get. Considering that some kids eat only the dessert decreasing the sugar is an excellent idea.

      And if I didn’t want my kids eating sugar – where is the justice for me! ha! I object to Sarah Palin forcing my children to eat sugar!

    • Linda says:

      What possible business is it of Sarah’s (or any of the rest of us who DO NOT LIVE in Pennsylvania) what the PENNSYLVANIA legislature is proposing? At most, she should be concerned about what the ALASKA legislature is proposing and/or what the school board in Wasilla, where Piper goes to school, is proposing. Sarah has made an issue out of a non-issue for most of us. Nanny state, indeed. Who is it that wants the government to tell every woman in the country whether and when she can choose to carry a pregnancy to term? She is a moron on so many levels that it makes me gag!

    • historygoddess says:

      While I understand your cautiousness, there is another important issue here that isn’t directly being addressed.

      As teachers/schools, we don’t know how food at home is being prepared. We used to have parents bring treats, but there are lots of weird germs out there. Besides allergens that could be added (we had a mom a couple of years ago not think that peanut oil counted as peanuts), we can’t guarantee safe food preparation practices. Sad, but true. Treats now have to be packaged, or fruit/vegetables brought in whole and a parent volunteer washes and cuts food at the school.

      I would be more upset if the school was giving my kids food that wasn’t prepared under absolutely safe conditions. THAT is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

      Just another piece of the puzzle that proves again we aren’t living in Leave it to Beaver land. 🙂

  88. Gramiam says:

    I’m going into a diabetic coma! Sarah, I’d like to smack that smirk right off your kisser, girl!

    • leu2500 says:

      Why is it that in ANY poll, about 1/3rd of the respondents vote for the most stupid option (watching Sarah’s show, voting for Joe Miller, beleiving the moon landing was faked, etc).

      • lilybart says:

        Obvious. One third of Americans are willfully stupid if not genetically so. Always have been it seems. The % that can still stand to look at George Bush’s face.

      • Progressive in VA says:

        Maybe it’s from eating too much sugar.

        • InJuneau says:

          😆

        • Blue Eyes says:

          Sarah annoys me to no end. I would love to get a big group of kids together, feed them lots of junk food, and then have Sarah handle them for a few hours. I wonder how she would do? Not to mention, this so called reality show is a joke. If it’s supposed to be about Alaska, where is the stuff about Alaska? If I wanted to watch Sarah I would turn on FOX news. Anybody who ever watches reality shows knows they aren’t really real. They are edited a lot to go toward whatever storyline the producers want for ratings.

          • leenie17 says:

            Make sure you put your dastardly plan into action during a full moon!

            As a teacher who works in an elementary school, I can tell you firsthand that the full moon makes kids even bouncier than usual. Add that to a sugar high from lots of sweet snacks held together with chemicals and artificial coloring, and, within 15 minutes, they’d have Miss Quittypants twitching in a fetal position under a table, begging for rescue! And make sure they’re five year olds who haven’t gone to the bathroom since first thing in the morning!

            (Our district has a history of contracting with terrible food services. The last company used to give the kids breakfast about twice a month consisting of sweetened fruit drink, a muffin of dubious origin and a BLUE frosted PopTart with sprinkles. There was absolutely nothing in that PopTart that came from nature, and I could always tell when the kids had that breakfast because they were bouncing off the walls allllll day!)

  89. GoI3ig says:

    One read, and I think I’m diabetic.

    • GoI3ig says:

      Interesting poll today on KTVA.com asking how many people planned to tune in to $arah’s new TLC show. The early tally had 67% voting heck no!

      • lilybart says:

        The show will be blogged and the best clips posted. so none of us has to watch.

        That is the beauty of the internet!

      • InJuneau says:

        Now it’s up to 74%!

      • Valley_Independent says:

        As of now, it’s 74% “No way.” Thanks for bringing this opportunity to voice an opinion to our attention.

        • snowlady says:

          75.98% as of 2:42. Thanks for letting us know about this. I wish there had been a stronger response than No Way! but I guess KTVA has to be polite.

      • I URGE EVERYONE READING THIS BLOG TO BOYCOTT

        SARAH’S TLC SHOW. TAKE TIME AND TELL YOUR NEIGHBORS

        TO DO THE SAME. I BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF PEOPLE.

        ENOUGH OF THE $ARAH BRAND! SHE LOVES THE MONEY TRAIN,

        AND THE PUBLIC KEEPS IT FLOWING. DERAIL $ARAH!