Image Problem

The L.A. Times Opinion section asks, "is America ready for a president who, frankly, doesn't look healthy?" They're referring to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who must really scare the MSM/liberal establishment because they're already starting up an "unhealthy" narrative against him even though he's not a candidate and, officially at least, denies that he's going to run in 2012.


The idea that excess cellulite would make you unfit for high office is a symptom of our Hollywoodized culture, in which style and substance have become indistinguishable in many people's minds. And who says that anyone really looks up to the President as an example of how they should eat and take care of themselves?


If Herman Cain was not seen as such a long shot in the presidential race, I'm sure the media would be making more of his selling of fattening foods as former CEO of Godfather's Pizza.

9/1 Update: The Wall Street Journal has an editorial on "Our Obsession with 'Looking Presidential'" that proves that many great leaders didn't 'look the part,' at least by today's standards.  

Hot Dog Alert

First they came for the trans fats. Then they came for the french fries. Now, the food police are coming after hot dogs. Read the rest at LauraIngraham.com ...

 

War on Fries: McDonald's Reduces Fries in Happy Meals

L.A. Times: "Under pressure from health and children's advocacy groups, McDonald's Corp. is making changes to its famed Happy Meals."


"The fast food chain will add a serving of fruit or vegetable to all of the meals, which are aimed at children, and shrink the portion of French fries."

Hey, we thought fries counted as a vegetable?

Is That A Real "Food Desert" Or A Mirage?

What’s a “food desert”? It’s not a barren place without vegetation; that would be an actual buzzards-and-cactus desert. It’s an ominous term for an urban area so deep, deep in the heart of the inner city that it’s devoid of convenient sources of healthy food. Only greasy-spoon joints, fast-food chains, and quickie-marts can be found in these wastelands. Or at least that’s how First Lady Michelle Obama makes it sound. The fact that Walmart and other chain stores are joining in her efforts to help the food deserts bloom indicates that there’s something to this; these companies must think that there are markets to tap in these areas (and let's remember that there have been cases where Walmart has been blocked from building stores in urban areas).

But wait, you might be thinking, aren’t farmers’ markets all the rage in many big urban areas? Are there really no fruit stands or community gardens downtown? Ah, but you see, “the USDA bureaucracy defines ‘access to fresh food’ as access to a large supermarket with more than $2 million in annual sales,” writes Manhattan Institute senior fellow Dr. David Gratzer in the Washington Examiner. Shockingly, according to Gratzer, this government-declared crisis is rather overblown.


To the extent that food deserts really are a problem, the contention that government needs to make healthy food convenient for you is debatable, to say the least. Personal health is either a priority or not, whether it is convenient or not. Presumably other measures need to taken for those of us who live in food non-deserts yet are still overweight. It could be argued that car-owning suburbanites are victims of their easy access to drive-thrus. Just don’t argue that personal responsibility has anything to do with these matters: that would be very upsetting to the big-government types who are working so hard to organize your life for you.


7/22 Update: It turns out the First Lady misstated the number of Americans living in food deserts by about, oh, 10 million in her speech Wednesday. The official USDA estimate is 13.5 million.

Bureaucracies Getting Fatter

As I've mentioned before, childhood obesity is often used as the reason why government should step in and regulate food choices. Of course, this makes little sense, since a healthy lunch is not going to do much for kids who pick up unhealthy habits at home. As Iain Murray writes in Stealing You Blind, (excerpted and adapted here for National Review), "The real beneficiaries of such programs are not the children, who don’t want them, but the bureaucrats who are employed to check the schools’ progress, tabulate and file results, produce 'performance indicators,' issue reports, and, most important, demand more funding."


Of course, it's good to strive for a healthy lifestyle and it's only right to be concerned about the well-being of kids. But that makes us more susceptible to accepting government meddling in those areas of life. Parents have to step up at some point and stop letting bureaucrats and busybodies intrude on their turf.

Swanson Meals

The Emmy nominations were announced today and one of the most noted snubs was Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson on NBC's Parks and Recreation. Could it be that the character, beloved as he is by the show's viewers, is just too politically and dietarily incorrect for the Emmys? He's a steak, bacon, and eggs-loving, government-hating, old-school, man's man who certainly isn't going to let the state regulate his plate.

I remember that I almost gave up on Parks after the first three episodes, and the Swanson character was one of the main things that kept me watching, which I'm glad I did because the second season was miles better than the first. And, of course, the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness is a cultural contribution that will surely outlast us all.