Pork Fat Rules

Remember hearing that from Emeril as he would be cooking up some gastronomic delight that was bound to get your heart rate and cholesterol levels soaring?

Food. Good, tasty food. If you're not careful it can make you fat. Or worse, obese. Whose responsibility is it to prevent that from happening to you and your kids? The government? Or you?

I appreciate the fact that childhood obesity is becoming a problem. As first lady and a mother I suppose having it as a cause is a worthwhile undertaking for Michelle Obama. To use her kids as examples of the horrors of microwaved meals, or worse, seems a stretch when you look at them.

Even more of a stretch is Mrs. Obama's suggestion that childhood obesity is a threat to national security! “A recent study put the health care cost of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion a year," Mrs. Obama said. "This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security, as obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.”

Do statements like that really have any impact other than sounding totally ridiculous? She goes on to say that we already know what the problem is and how to fix it. If that's true why does the government have to get involved?

Over the next decade she wants to spend $10 billion to overhaul the Childhood Nutrition Act! $10 billion! For what? One reason is funding food for 31 million school children. Thirty one million?

I've a few thoughts. How about getting Mr. Obama to loosen the bank regulations he has imposed on banks so they can loan money to small businesses. Then they can start hiring again. Then parents will have the money to buy groceries for their families. The better the salary the better the food. The fattening food is the most inexpensive and when you're unemployed that's what you end up eating.

Then too, there is something called parental responsibility. Letting kids eat nothing but fast food is not something the government needs to tell you is unhealthy. If parents can't figure that out without government programs maybe they shouldn't have kids in the first place!

As for obesity disqualifying people for military service, I wonder how many are actually turned away because of their weight. If we're short of troops I'd guess it's because a lot of young people would rather not get killed in a war. With two going on their odds aren't the greatest.

Then again, looking at the 10 billion figure, we'd probably get it from the Chinese. Maybe we should eat more like they do. You rarely see an obese Oriental and their cuisine is a healthy one.

To me this is indeed another form of pork. Rather than a Congressman getting it for a pet project in his state or district, it's the administration putting it into a pet project of Mrs. Obamas.

If parents weren't so stressed by their financial worries maybe they'd spend more time getting their kids away from their PlayStation's and television and back outdoors.

Government programs are iffy at best. Take the requirement for restaurants to put nutritional information on their menus for every item. If I want a Big Mac with it's 540 calories, 26 grams of fat and 75 milligrams of cholesterol, seeing the count on the menu isn't going to stop me. Nor many others I would think.

The cost to the restaurants to implement this program is huge. Unless the government chipped in to offset the cost of this mandate.

Right. Like I'll skip the fries.