The Socially Aware

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed both the quality and quantity of food you are receiving at restaurants have decreased with the economy?  In many cases, we are paying more for less food.  I’m not an idiot; I know food is more expensive for the restaurants to purchase in this economy, and that expense is passed on to us.  I’m willing to pay a few extra bucks, as long as I am getting a quality product.

Lately, though, I have noticed that my Edamame bowl is less full, my sandwiches are stacked lower, and some of my favorite salads are now made with iceberg lettuce instead of seasonal greens. Should the customer be cheated because the restaurant is struggling? Below is a list of restaurants where the quality/quantity of their food has/have noticeably changed.  Please feel free to add your own experiences.

UsrNme1

Carl’s Jr. – The large fry is now the same size as the small fry.

Claim Jumper – The potato cakes appetizer is now a quantity of two instead of three; the veggie burger comes without all the toppings, unless a customer complains and sends it back; and the ice cream that accompanies the desserts is no bigger in diameter than a half-dollar coin.

Hana Sushi – Now serving half the edamame in the same size bowl.

Quiznos – Less toppings and poor quality of lettuce used on their salads.

According to the guy in front of me in line at Home Depot, Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona is an expert at spotting Mexicans.  Arpaio’s office, which serves the Phoenix Metro area is being sued for racial profiling. It seems that this follows a long list of accusations against the Sheriff and the department from the local Latino community. While many feel that the Sheriff’s efforts are deeply rooted in racism, others claim that the deputies are simply not trained to properly deal with minority suspects.

Arpaio has been known to form posses, who make random traffic stops, raid work sites and neighborhoods with dense Latino populations, arresting anyone who can’t prove they are legal citizens of the United States. No sheriff in the country has taken the job of immigration enforcement so seriously, and because of his diligence, he is also the most protested sheriff in the country.  The voters backed the sheriff and part-time reality star with a landslide re-election, but the dense Hispanic community is enraged.  So I ask you: do racial profiling laws make it difficult to fight illegal immigration?

UsrNme1

News on the recent law suit:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/02/23/20100223mcso-racial-profiling-suits.html

So I asked two African American gentlemen what their favorite events are in the Winter Olympics.  After they stopped laughing, I received a lecture on African American people and winter sports that went far beyond cold weather. I want to know what the general public thinks about the subject. Why are the winter sports racially unbalanced?

UsrNme1