Washington is Broken.

[The Desperado]

While channel surfing this morning, I came across the most horrifying thing I have ever seen.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/07/richard_simmons_gets_congress.html

Richard Simmons, testifying before Congress.

Thats it, we're screwed, heading for Canada.

[Brasel]

I'm behind ole Dick Simmons 100%. I strongly believe that PE should be mandatory up through high school. It was for me growing up, and I believe it did me some good.

[The_Amaster]

...some schools don't require PE? Mine does. You have to take three PE classes over the course of four years.

Mind you I don't mind. I like it, it's a chance to run and move during an otherwise drab school day.

[Breaker]

most states do require physical education up through highschool. aren't there more important problems to be campaigning than this? what a waste of time.

[Aegix Drakan]

...some schools don't require PE? Mine does. You have to take three PE classes over the course of four years.

Mind you I don't mind. I like it, it's a chance to run and move during an otherwise drab school day.

QFT. PE was mandatory for my whole school experience.

And the higgh school Gym locker rooms aside (I have repressed all memories of that place >_<) it was pretty good...expect for 2 things. 1) I hated basketball, and we did that a lot... And 2) I went to high school with a bunch of testosterone-happy gorrilas. ...Now, try putting them in a gym class... Result? ANARCHY.

Seriously, this one time, we were doing basketball, and I had the ball. Suddenly, out of the blue I get TACKLED, driven to the floor, and slide for a bit, in major pain. Yes, I got tackled in BASKETBALL. ...I snapped, and later shouldered the guy who did it to me to get his ball. He started yelling that Basketball was no-contact, and that it was illegal, and I told him: "What? After you tackled me to the floor before and no-one agreed it was a foul, I thought we were playing Tackle basketball!"

...and that, is just one of the retarded stories I can tell you about that place.

[Yoshiman]

I like how the angle at which his picture was taken makes it look like Simmons has a halo.

But on topic, I thought PE was required to graduate high school up until now. I do support his reasoning for expanding PE, since a lot of kids only run around when school tells them to.

I never really had a problem with PE except for basketball (I downright suck at basketball) and weightroom. Dodgeball, street hockey, and even tag football were alright with me. But then you had the people who either skipped, asked for a pass to the nurse, or hid behind the bleachers.

[Breaker]

this is not going to prevent people from becoming obese. people have to WANT to change and commit to a daily physical routine of excercise and eating right. unfortunately, most don't. no matter how much legislation and headline whores like Richard Simmons will change that.

[Russ]

Wow. This is just ridiculous. What is this country coming to that Richard Simmons must testify before the Congress.

[Gloomietta]

i honestly skipped class cause the still gave me credit, passed with an A-, but i went like 4 times........ its not that i didn't like exercise it was easy to skip i was passing plus we were only required to take it once in middle school and once in high school....

[Dechipher]

Why shouldn't Richard Simmons talk to Congress? What he does is he gets people to move and gets kids into Physical Education.
But, for some reason, it's a bad idea that he should push the idea onto our legislative establishment? Last I checked, America is getting fatter. And it's not just cause our food is bad for us, it's because we use our huge fucking trucks to drive down the block to get a carton of milk, and sit around on our fat asses watching other fatasses on TV lose weight. But because a flaming homosexual wants to be the one to push Physical Education in schools, the country is going downhill.
I know you're joking, but this shouldn't even have merit as a joke. The man is doing a legitimate service to the next generation by pushing PE.

Now the part about everyone in Congress doing the routine afterwards, that's pretty fucking campy.

[Brasel]

this is not going to prevent people from becoming obese. people have to WANT to change and commit to a daily physical routine of excercise and eating right. unfortunately, most don't. no matter how much legislation and headline whores like Richard Simmons will change that.

You're right, people won't change unless they want to, but kids, who are far more impressionable, might pick something up in PE during grade school and middle school they enjoy. A lot of those games and things you do early on in PE class in grade school are the same kinds of games you play when you're out with your friends running around the neighborhood. Honestly, his view could be taken like the issue with people who don't vote. You can say that your vote doesn't count much since you are only one person, or you can say that every little bit helps and you might be the one to make the difference. Richard Simmons could take the easy way and say that his ideas have a good chance of not really helping the larger issue (no pun intended), but instead, he decided to be one person to try and make a difference in the world he sees.

[Trevelyan_06]

Doesn't hurt to have Simmons talk to congress. Maybe they'll start including programs to get kids in PE which in turn may motivate a few kids to be more active. However, like Breaker said, that doesn't automatically mean that people are going to start losing weight. You have to want to do that before anything will change.

I'm just hoping that congress responds to this by making more funding for PE available and not passing some type of law. As bad as the obesity issue in this country is, nothing is going to get fixed by passing laws on it. This country needs to get away from legislating morality.