You're too stupid to figure it out yourself

First Nanny Michelle Obama apparently isn't finished lecturing Americans about what to eat and even how to shop for their vittles: 

"Tips from the mother-of-two and healthy living fanatic include to 'steer clear of the cookie, snack and soda aisle'... 'And if you stay at the outer aisles you try to avoid going in and getting the processed, packaged foods.'" 

You don't say?   

The most disturbing part is that this "fanatic" would unilaterally ban burgers and fries if she all of a sudden had the power, simply because she personally disapproves of such fare.

Maybe you should work on the President before you presume to harangue the rest of us, ma'am.  He, true to his hypocritical nature, is definitely not paying attention to one word of your incessant nutritional nagging.

From the Department of Glaringly Obvious Headlines

"Michelle Obama:  'I can't stop eating French fries.  But eat your vegetables.'"

Do as I say, not as I do.  Limousine liberalism in a nutshell.

English-style Nanny-statism is rapidly "spreading" to other European nations

Marmite, the extremely healthy British spread made from brewer's yeast, is now banned in Denmark "under legislation forbidding the sale of food products with added vitamins as threat to public health." 

The nutritious food in question had been outlawed in 2004 along with other apparently toxic health hazards such as Rice Krispies and Ovaltine but had somehow slipped under the radar until quite recently, when the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration noticed that it was still being offered for sale at a small English-themed shop in Copenhagen and demanded an immediate halt to its availability.

"'I don't eat it myself, I don't like it but Marmite was one of our best selling products. Not a day goes by without someone coming in and asking for it,' said Marianne Ørum, the shop owner. 

'All the English people here are shaking their heads in disbelief and say that it is insane. I agree but it is the law. It's becoming impossible to run a business in this country. We are not allowed to do anything anymore. It is the way Denmark is going.'"

Those Brits sure don't have much room to complain, seeing as how their own home nation is so consistently ahead of all other countries when it comes to such nonsensical bans.  One wonders when England itself will finally get around to removing its homegrown product from sale because of such spurious "health and safety" considerations.

Let them eat ribs

First Hypocrite Lady Michelle Antoinette Obama continues to set the pace for the healthy-eating initiative she continually shoves down the throats (pun intended) of the peasantry by chowing down on braised ancho-chile short ribs while on the latest of her many vacations, this time in Vail, Colorado.

Total nutritional damage, according to Food.com - 1576 calories and 142 grams of fat, more than twice the recommended daily percentage of the artery-clogging substance in that one dish alone.

The lady does love her meat, we'll give her that.

We personally don't care what Mrs. Obama decides to cram into her face or how often she does it.  She presumes to lecture the rest of us about our own swinish eating habits, however, so that makes her diet fair game for criticism.

Need another napkin, ma'am?

Do as I say, not as I nosh

Dear Leader and his burger-loving wife have made "healthy eating" one of their top priorities of his administration, going so far as to push laws (and unfortunately managing to shepherd at least one through Congress) designed to ban from schools anything the all-powerful government considers to be junk food - including prohibiting serving such foods as pizza and fries in government-funded school lunches, forbidding students from bringing in a cake to celebrate their birthday with classmates and banning bake sales during school hours to raise money for extracurricular events.

Contrast this sort of unwanted paternalism with the White House menu from their lavish Super Bowl party this evening:

"The rest of the menu for the 100 or so guests at the White House bash is tailgate-friendly even if served inside the Executive Mansion: bratwurst, kielbasa, cheeseburgers, deep-dish pizza and Buffalo wings with sides of German potato salad, twice-baked potatoes and assorted chips and dips."

We're not seeing a lot of items from that famous White House garden being featured, that's for sure.

Line up for your gruel and vegetable sticks, peasants.  Don't worry about what your betters are scarfing.

Begging the Nanny State for permission to serve their customers

The British government is graciously changing one of the many ridiculous rules controlling the subjects over there, and to that end will now begin "allowing" pubs to sell beer in quantities other than strictly pints and half-pints:

"At the moment, pubs and restaurants are limited to selling alcoholic drinks in certain measures, but the government wants to introduce a new range in response to changing trade practices and consumer tastes."

Instead of just letting the marketplace decide, which is what it would have done long ago if not for the Crown's irritating meddling.  Why is it that government's business if a customer wants to buy, and a bar wishes to sell, beer in schooners (2/3 of a pint, the amount being considered), or martini glasses, or even eyedroppers for that matter?

"'We have listened to consumers and businesses. They have called for fixed quantities to be kept but with greater flexibility. That is what this change will deliver,' Science minister David Willetts said in a statement.

'We are freeing businesses so they can innovate and create new products to meet the demands of their customers.'"

Imagine that.  A bureaucracy getting out of the way and allowing a free and open marketplace, instead of artificially hamstringing such endeavors.  There may be hope for those Limeys yet.

And how does being a "Science Minister" qualify one to make decisions about selling booze, anyway?

A must read

Victor Davis Hanson takes a multi-week field trip to observe firsthand the wreckage of his once-great home state of California, and the journey leaves him with several insightful (and poignant) observations.  Here's just one of them:

"Fresno’s California State University campus is embroiled in controversy over the student body president’s announcing that he is an illegal alien, with all the requisite protests in favor of the DREAM Act. I won’t comment on the legislation per se, but again only note the anomaly. I taught at CSUF for 21 years. I think it fair to say that the predominant theme of the Chicano and Latin American Studies program’s sizable curriculum was a fuzzy American culpability. By that I mean that students in those classes heard of the sins of America more often than its attractions. In my home town, Mexican flag decals on car windows are far more common than their American counterparts.

I note this because hundreds of students here illegally are now terrified of being deported to Mexico. I can understand that, given the chaos in Mexico and their own long residency in the United States. But here is what still confuses me: If one were to consider the classes that deal with Mexico at the university, or the visible displays of national chauvinism, then one might conclude that Mexico is a far more attractive and moral place than the United States.

So there is a surreal nature to these protests: something like, “Please do not send me back to the culture I nostalgically praise; please let me stay in the culture that I ignore or deprecate.” I think the DREAM Act protestors might have been far more successful in winning public opinion had they stopped blaming the U.S. for suggesting that they might have to leave at some point, and instead explained why, in fact, they want to stay. What it is about America that makes a youth of 21 go on a hunger strike or demonstrate to be allowed to remain in this country rather than return to the place of his birth? "

If you read nothing else this week at least check out Hanson's entire piece.

The old saying goes something like "As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation".  If that maxim is indeed true then we as a country are in big trouble indeed.

Off topic but interesting, at least to me

Michael Moore, the millionaire leftist filmmaker who purports to be a "man of the people" (he dresses like a slobby bum despite being able to afford much better clothes and signs his missives "Flint, Michigan" even though he hasn't lived there in years but instead resides in a lavish apartment in Manhattan) has checked himself into a fancy $4,500 dollar-a-week fat camp in Florida.

Call us, Mr. Moore.  We can recommend a fantastic local personal trainer who will work that flab off you in a hurry for a mere fraction of that outrageous price, unaffordable for most people.  You will both save money as well as help out one of the peasants you supposedly care so much about.

Now they want to control how you parent

First Lady Michelle Obama thinks all you helpless parents out there just aren't up to the job of properly feeding your kids without the benevolent government stepping in to help:



"We can't just leave it up to the parents"

What arrogance.  These two simply have to insert themselves into every single aspect of the peasants' lives, don't they? 

Perhaps Ms. Obama should take care of her own, ahem, wide caboose as well as Dear Leader's smoking habit before she presumes to lecture the rest of us about our health habits.

Upcoming: Spice control

Apparently many of the precious little snowflakes out there have begun smoking and/or eating large amounts of nutmeg in order to get high.  Accordingly, we're on the lookout for upcoming emergency legislation to outlaw common baking ingredients to "protect the children" from their own stupid selves.

We know one thing - if these brats ruin our enjoyment of pumpkin pie we're going to be royally ticked off.

(Thanks to dear friend Pei-Pei Heikkinen for the link)

Even a broken clock is right twice a day

We have to give credit where it's due and congratulate usually-loony left Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco for vetoing the stupid ban on Happy Meal toys recently passed by that town's Board of Supervisors:

"'There are times when a city can go too far. There's a time when we even cross the line,' Newsom said.

'Doing these types of toy bans is inappropriate, I don't think particularly effective, and I just think goes way too far in inserting government to try to be the decision-maker in someone's life as opposed to parents,' the mayor said."

Newsom's veto may still be overridden, but at least we now know there's a limit to the nonsense he's willing to publicly support.  We had our doubts for awhile there.

Off topic but interesting, at least to me

A handy tip - when vacationing in Scotland don't cook and serve your family mushrooms that look exactly like penises:

That's what the guy who wrote The Horse Whisperer did and now he, his wife and his brother-in-law all need kidney transplants.

Stay away from wild mushrooms unless you know exactly what you're doing, and maybe not even then.  It's just not worth poisoning yourself and your loved ones.

Watch and learn

Here's your probable next Supreme Court Justice, making a complete fool of herself by being patently unable to answer the simplest of questions about the Interstate Commerce Clause, in this example as it applies to making Americans eat whatever the Imperial Federal Government tells them to:



"It would be wrong for courts to strike down laws that they think are senseless just because they're senseless."

That wasn't the question, ma'am.  Nice try, though.

The next Enemy of the State - sodium chloride

The benevolent martinets over at President Obama's Food and Drug Administration have come to the conclusion that the American peasant is just too stupid to be able to read a food label and/or decide how they may wish to prepare food to their liking.

To combat this terrible turn of events, the Nanny-staters have taken it upon themselves to begin "a push to gradually cut the amount of salt Americans consume".

What would our Founders have to say about this continual micro-regulation of Americans who until quite recently were free to make choices for themselves, even if those selections happened to be bad ones? Let's hear directly from one of them:

"There is no position which depends on clearer principles than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny this would be to affirm that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid."

- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 78 

If only such leaders were alive today to put a stop to this utter nonsense.



(Thanks to online correspondent Doug Fiedor for the reference)