Feeding the Nanny-State

On Wednesday Michelle Obama unveiled the new Federal school-lunch regulations, as part of her anti-obesity campaign.  I don't remember seeing a culinary section in the US Constitution.  Under current leadership, the Federal government appears to have an enormous appetite for our freedoms?

The First Lady said during her speech:

Because, as parents, we all know that if left to their own devices, many of our kids would eat candy for breakfast, they'd follow it up with a few French fries for lunch and cookies and chips for snacks, and then they'd come home for a big chocolate sundae for dinner, right?  (Laughter.)  And we know that it is our responsibility, as adults, to make sure they don't do that.  So it's our responsibility to make sure that they get basic nutrition that they need to stay healthy.

That's right -- kids need and have their parents to watch over them -- but of course that's just not good enough for the nanny-state.  

Mrs. Obama goes on:

And that's why so many of us try so very hard to prepare decent meals at home, and to limit how much junk food they get at home, and to ensure that they have a reasonably balanced diet.   And when we're putting forth this kind of effort at home -- and many of us are, and it's difficult to do every single day -- it's always a challenge, particularly with tough economic times and not enough time in the day -- but when we're putting forth these efforts, when we're doing what we're supposed to do at home, the last thing we want is to have all these hard efforts, all this hard work undone in the school cafeteria.

Suddenly the Left is all worried about parental efforts being undone at school?  Not quite. It's the parents' responsibility, not the federal government's, to make sure their kids eat well at their homes, their friend's houses, their grandparent's houses and at their schools.  If enough parents aren't happy with what's on the menu (which they can read) they'll either complain to the school (a local issue) in order to force changes, or hit the school in the pocketbook by packing their kids lunches on their own.  That is unless their kids go to one Chicago school where even that is no longer allowed because parents aren't to be trusted with making their own kids lunches.  Forget about metal detectors, this school is more worried about having 'food detectors' to make sure no one is packin'-lunch.

Mrs. Obama says the kids don't mind the "change" that she believes in:

And again and again, schools are finding that when they actually offer these healthier options, kids aren't just willing to try them, they actually like them.  That's the thing, that's the surprising thing.

But as Michelle Malkin points out, Los Angeles schools have found that the only thing getting healthier is the amount of garbage from tossed food, and the union payrolls.

President Obama has been working hard and doing his part to curtail the problem of childhood obesity in the United States as well.  It happens to be one of the side effects of his destruction of the economy.

Scott blogs at www.politiseeds.com