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Ted Cruz

7 (6.5%)

Rick Santorum

16 (14.8%)

Michelle Bachmann

13 (12%)

Chris Christie

23 (21.3%)

Rand Paul

49 (45.4%)

Total Members Voted: 107

[Chaoswizkid]

Can Dutch people vote for who gets to be the Texan senator? If not, I think we should be allowed to.

They get to vote for who gets the Ohio office. They also get to vote on who they decide to be snobs to, but I'm pretty sure it just ends up as a unanimous vote for "Everyone but the Dutch" year after year.

Seriously. Snooty Dutch population in Ohio.

On topic: any news on why the woman tried to get to the White House? Some of you have mentioned her being "foolish", which makes me think someone might have heard of her motivations. Maybe that was just a statement about her ramming the capitol building with a car, though. Still, anyone heard anything that isn't just speculation?

[SalmonGod]

I love America. Even the poor are fat, though being jolly is not mandatory.

Obesity and malnutrition are far from mutually exclusive...

[misko27]

On topic: any news on why the woman tried to get to the White House? Some of you have mentioned her being "foolish", which makes me think someone might have heard of her motivations. Maybe that was just a statement about her ramming the capitol building with a car, though. Still, anyone heard anything that isn't just speculation?

Maybe that was just a statement about her ramming the capitol building with a car, though.

...ramming the capitol building...

SON, TO RAMMING SPEED! I SHALL STRIKE ITS ENGINES, CAUSING IT TO EXPLODE! TODAY, TYRANTS SHALL FALL, ESPECIALLY YOU, DARTH BOEHNER.

Sorry, couldn't help it. She rammed a white house check-point.

Video of Car chase.

I love America. Even the poor are fat, though being jolly is not mandatory.

Obesity and malnutrition are far from mutually exclusive...

Oh yeah this. As someone who knows painfully well what it is like to, how should I put this, be meal-insecure, and who has had problems with weight, I can tell you this is pretty much the opposite of reality. Food that can be afforded, easily, cheaply, tends to be very fattening. Massively so. A night out is McDonalds. A slice of pizza can be had for a dollar, hell you can find the change on the street. Instant Ramen is high in sodium, and fairly unhealthy, and yet obscenely cheap. When you have nothing in your cabinets, food is what you can prepare without anything else required, which is often Mircowavables. Not having any food makes buying food more expensive actually, since you can only afford to buy things for now. There was this one summer, where a friend of the family more comfortably placed gave us Organic Chicken patties. They lasted the whole summer, and I was a decent weight for a while.

In poor countries, the rich are fat and the poor are skinny. In rich countries the poor are fat and the rich are skinny. Hell, I'm lucky I'm so tall that being somewhat overweight is easily passed off.

[Chaoswizkid]

I think it's actually more likely that poor people are fatter. 2-liters of soda are cheaper than little bottles of water, chips and other snacks are cheaper than healthier alternatives. Unhealthy food is so plentiful, accessible and, above all, dirt cheap. Healthy foods are almost specialty items and carry a similar price. I do see a slight change in the trend, but that's still the case (from my observations, anyway).

I've imagined the possibility of instituting a tax on unhealthy foods, something like an additional $0.05 to every purchase, which would be used to offset the cost of cutting prices for healthier alternatives (the cost cut would be proportional to the gain from the tax, so the tax would begin and end at the store). The slight bit of money applied to a vast number of purchases could decently offset the cost of the far fewer number of healthy foods. That's not well-thought-out at all or anything, but I figure something like it might help.

...ramming the capitol building...

SON, TO RAMMING SPEED! I SHALL STRIKE ITS ENGINES, CAUSING IT TO EXPLODE! TODAY, TYRANTS SHALL FALL, ESPECIALLY YOU, DARTH BOEHNER.

Sorry, couldn't help it. She rammed a white house check-point.

Haha, yeah, that's my bad. Also, I intended that to mean "she attempted to ram the capitol building", not that she did, but I got that wrong anyway.

[mainiac]

Plus it's hard to eat right if you don't have the ability to drive to the grocery store and buy decent food on a regular basis.

[Lord Shonus]

That's the biggie. For a huge number of inner-city folk, they have a carry-out or gas station as their closest "Grocery Store". Even if they have reliable bus or train service, carrying any real amount of groveries on a bus is an unpleasant experience.

[smirk]

On topic: any news on why the woman tried to get to the White House? Some of you have mentioned her being "foolish", which makes me think someone might have heard of her motivations. Maybe that was just a statement about her ramming the capitol building with a car, though. Still, anyone heard anything that isn't just speculation?

Consensus is, she's dead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/us/gunfire-reported-outside-the-capitol.html?hp

NYT's story sounds like it was all some sort of horrible mistake. At the least, nothing pre-planned. Solo person trying to ram the white house in an Infiniti, with a child in the back seat? This all could very well end up far more tragic than sinister.

[SalmonGod]

The nearest grocery store is at least 10 minute's drive away for the majority of people.  Everything is so spread out in America.

[Aqizzar]

In slightly happier news, The news is reporting that Boehner has now publicly stated that he will not allow the nation to default. I am leery of trusting any politician, but in this case, that worm is squirming on his hook what good. He may well be trying to be honest.

Note that back in March, Boehner said he wouldn't allow the government to be shut down in a legislative logjam over Obamacare either.  Well, in his usual weasly way of saying, "I don't want this happen but..."

All things considered, John Boehner is not really in charge of his own speakership at this point.

[wierd]

Misko:

I know all too well.  I grew up as a impoverished child. Our house didn't even have proper insulation in the walls, and the wall heater spewed carbon monoxide.  We made just a few dollars a week too much to qualify for food stamps, and as a consequence, we *literally* lived off mom's garden. As in, it is what we ate, and that's pretty much it.  All the money went for bills and other necessities like clothes and school supplies. We didn't have a telephone, because we couldn't afford it, and didn't use air conditioning.

To this day, I cannot stand fish of any sort, nor spaghetti.  Every year in the summer, we would save up money by collecting aluminium cans and turning them in for aluminum recycling, and use it to take several days to go fishing. We were specifically fishing for trash fish, because there isn't a catch limit. We caught the slimy nasty things, filleted them out and packed them in ice, then froze them in the deepfreeze.

We lived on thoe things, and the home made canned goods mom would make from her produce all winter, then would repeat the process.

Fortunes turned around when our ghettoblaster house caught fire from an electrical fire, and insurance paid off big time.

But I REMEMBER being dirt ass poor.

Poverty is real in the USA. It doesn't need to be, but it is.

[misko27]

Essentially yes, although for example, we get some money from Food Stamps, which disregards tax.

The nearest grocery store is at least 10 minute's drive away for the majority of people.  Everything is so spread out in America.

I live next door to a store, but since I happen to be lucky enough to live in a rich neighborhood (it;s not all bad of course, there is a doorman, and washing machines. My Family used to be rich, or at least well-off), food there is exceedingly expensive, and the less expensive stuff is both unhealthy and still more expensive then average.If we want to fill the fridge, we head up to Harlem. I feel your pain wierd.

Anyway, Update:

• The Woman has been confirmed dead. From what is uncertain, since although she was shot, she also crashed a lot. No other details on the Suspect were released as of this time.
• This appears to have been deliberate. This was a extended pursuit; where she avoided many obstacles, rammed several police cars, and attempted to breakthrough the security perimeter at multiple points, according to the Metropolitan Police chief Cathy Lanier. Pretty nasty wreckage the suspect left behind, If I may say so, one cop was trapped in the twisted metal remains of a police car.
• The child also in the Suspect's Black Sedan has been identified as 1 year old.
• 2 security officers were injured, one a Capitol Policeman, one a member of the Secret Service.

Photos. The one you are immediately brought to refers to the wreckage I mentioned earlier.

In slightly happier news, The news is reporting that Boehner has now publicly stated that he will not allow the nation to default. I am leery of trusting any politician, but in this case, that worm is squirming on his hook what good. He may well be trying to be honest.

Note that back in March, Boehner said he wouldn't allow the government to be shut down in a legislative logjam over Obamacare either.  Well, in his usual weasly way of saying, "I don't want this happen but..."

All things considered, John Boehner is not really in charge of his own speakership at this point.

This is true, but several months have passed since then, so he might have though people would forget. No one will have forgetten 2 weeks later.

[Mrhappyface]

Ah poop, I'm getting a furlough because I work for the fed. I guess even emergency services are not exempt from their silliness.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are actually the fattest country in the world. America needs to step it up! 

[Owlbread]

No there isn't, the Governor of California is Jerry Brown.

That is a shock, I did not know. That explains why I've seen a lot more of the Austrian Oak in movie roles lately then.

[SalmonGod]

Misko:

I know all too well.  I grew up as a impoverished child. Our house didn't even have proper insulation in the walls, and the wall heater spewed carbon monoxide.  We made just a few dollars a week too much to qualify for food stamps, and as a consequence, we *literally* lived off mom's garden. As in, it is what we ate, and that's pretty much it.  All the money went for bills and other necessities like clothes and school supplies. We didn't have a telephone, because we couldn't afford it, and didn't use air conditioning.

To this day, I cannot stand fish of any sort, nor spaghetti.  Every year in the summer, we would save up money by collecting aluminium cans and turning them in for aluminum recycling, and use it to take several days to go fishing. We were specifically fishing for trash fish, because there isn't a catch limit. We caught the slimy nasty things, filleted them out and packed them in ice, then froze them in the deepfreeze.

We lived on thoe things, and the home made canned goods mom would make from her produce all winter, then would repeat the process.

Fortunes turned around when our ghettoblaster house caught fire from an electrical fire, and insurance paid off big time.

But I REMEMBER being dirt ass poor.

Poverty is real in the USA. It doesn't need to be, but it is.

My parents both came from uneducated farming families.  Both moved out and went straight to college out of high school with zero support, where they met each other.  Had me not too long after.  Dad quit his job to focus hardcore on school.  Mom dropped school to raise me and work.  We all lived off a single McDonalds income until I was like 2 or 3.  I don't remember it, but my parents sometimes skipped eating for a day so that I could eat ramen and macaroni.  They were often late on bills and feared the electricity turning off in the winter (in Wisconsin).  They lived in a tiny hut, barely larger than a studio apartment with paper thin walls and dirt floors (not tall tails - I've seen the place).

Then my dad finished his Masters and was soon contacted by an employer.  They had him move several times until we settled down when I was 8.  For the next 7 years, we lived in a 140 year old house in the country.  Well off enough that food wasn't an issue, but not enough to afford a nice place or tons of stuff.  The place was heated with a woodstove located centrally on the first floor.  My bedroom was on the 2nd floor, with a huge hole in the wall next to my bed that let in a pretty large draft.

My dad was very successful at his job.  Worked his way up.  They saved like mad.  In my mid-teens, we moved into a very nice, large house in a nice suburb.  Successfully graduated to upper-middle class.  My sister who is 10 years younger than me is a spoiled rotten nightmare princess who remembers nothing of being poor.

My parents and others their age like to remind me what they went through when I try to talk about the circumstances of my generation, but there are some major differences.....  That McDonalds job doesn't pay nearly as much.  That tiny hut costs more.  The electric company isn't so forgiving.  Tuition costs several times more.  It's illegal for parents to raise a child in such a small place.  Employers don't go out of their way to offer recent graduates jobs.

[Alastar]

Just what kind of food budget are we talking about where eating well is supposedly difficult? Most I've talked to (in Germany) who made the claim spent more on soft drinks, crisps and eating out than I spent on all food&drink.
I used to think price structure in the US was more biased towards junk food, but checking out the websites of a few US stores eating well seems affordable (with more incentives - by the looks of it, the heavily processed stuff is even nastier than over here).

Why soft drinks if the tap water is at all potable?
Why any McDonalds meal at all? For that price, you can have something outright fancy.
Why chips?

Junk food ends up expensive if it isn't filling and encourages overeating... at which time it ceases to be about price.