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Michelle Obama has new warning on obesity

theangryamerican

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Michelle Obama has new warning on obesity - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

...childhood obesity isn’t just a public health threat, it’s not just an economic threat, it’s a national security threat as well.

"National Security" Is there anything that the government will not try to use that buzz phrase to take control of? At least they're coming out and flat out declaring that they don't trust parents to make the right choices for their children.
 
First, we don't have an obesity epidemic, we have a sedentary lifestyle and a high carbohydrate diet epidemic.

Second, its is pretty self evident that parents all over the country are failing to make the right choices for their children when it comes to these problems.

Third, Americans have become complacent to the point that we feel we are entitled to living an unhealthy lifestyle.
 
You forgot to add the part that explains why she said that. Namely that military leaders say that 1 in 4 young people are unfit to serve their country because they're too fat. In that context, using national security as another reason to try and curb childhood obesity makes perfect sense.
 
You forgot to add the part that explains why she said that. Namely that military leaders say that 1 in 4 young people are unfit to serve their country because they're too fat. In that context, using national security as another reason to try and curb childhood obesity makes perfect sense.

Only in a draft.
 
I think that this might be something to think about.

Some of you say on here, if people choose to be fat slobs, they have the freedom to keep pounding down those db chzburgers...

And you're absolutely right, they do, if people want to be the size of a bus, you have my blessing.

But i think everyone should be able to admit the following, it doesn't work. And regardless of whether you have the freedom to commit a certain action, doesn't mean you should, our lifestyles and our diets simply are not conducive to a healthy, and strong society, at least in general, many people do take care of themselves.

So at the end of the day, when you know that something is in essence destroying society, you have 2 choices, keep doing it, or eventually let it destroy you. There is no advantage for a country to have the obesity rates you do, no positive spin you can put on it.
 
You forgot to add the part that explains why she said that. Namely that military leaders say that 1 in 4 young people are unfit to serve their country because they're too fat. In that context, using national security as another reason to try and curb childhood obesity makes perfect sense.


Of course I didn't elaborate on her logic, because it's a ridiculous strawman argument. The US doesn't need even 25% of it population to maintain it's current numbers. Currently, less than 1% of the population is serving in the military. Obviously, there's not a shortage in actual manpower, and it doesn't justify by any means telling me what I have to feed my children.

US Army active component: 539,675
US Army Reserve component: 557,375
Total Army: 1,097,050

USMC Active: 203,000
USMC Reserve: 40,000
USMC Total: 243,000

US Navy: 332,000

USAF active: 327,452
USAF reserve: 115,300
Air National Guard: 106,700
USAF Total:549,452

Total military: 2,221,502

USCG: 49.973

Total military w/ USCG: 2,271,475

------------------

Population of the *United States 310,906,000 as of December 14, 2010
 
If they want to help fight obesity then they should find a way to change the menus schools and implement more physical education at public. As for the government trying to mandate what parents feed their kids its none of the government's damn business. In the US it is the citizens who own the government and it is the government who are servants of the tax payers, not the other way around.
 
My wife and I were talking about this the other day.

My girls make straight A's and play high-level club soccer and basketball. They're also both pretty like their mama. Because of athletics and other things they are involved in, they know a ton of kids and their families.

Then I look around and see these fat, lazy, complaining, underachieving, socially inept, unpolished kids everywhere I go. They waddle along behind their ginormous parents, eating french fries with their eyes glued to their Nintendo DS screen. And usually they're waddling behind their mom, because dad checked out a long time ago. I'd estimate this is 50 percent of the kids out there.

I can't help but think....it's going to be so easy for my girls to dominate these kids for the next 80 years. Even at a young age, my kids are already more sophisticated than these kids will be when they're 30.

This is what institutional dependency wroughts.

I agree with Michelle Obama on the problem, but government breeds this mentality, and government can't undo it. Here comes another few billion down the toilet.
 
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I think that this might be something to think about.

Some of you say on here, if people choose to be fat slobs, they have the freedom to keep pounding down those db chzburgers...

And you're absolutely right, they do, if people want to be the size of a bus, you have my blessing.

But i think everyone should be able to admit the following, it doesn't work. And regardless of whether you have the freedom to commit a certain action, doesn't mean you should, our lifestyles and our diets simply are not conducive to a healthy, and strong society, at least in general, many people do take care of themselves.

So at the end of the day, when you know that something is in essence destroying society, you have 2 choices, keep doing it, or eventually let it destroy you. There is no advantage for a country to have the obesity rates you do, no positive spin you can put on it.

I think you make a very good point. Our eating habits have become less about good healthy eating and more about convenience...time management. And the way the commercial markets have manipulated food comsumption, IMO, is via the concept of time management..."How can I get a healthy breakfast or lunch quickly at a reasonable cost?" McDonald's anyone?

"You are what you eat...you get what you pay for."

Captialism is the economic engine that runs this country. Greed fuels capitalism. To maintain a high level of greed we must manage our time wisely and that means providing more and more avenues of convenience in the marketplace. One sure way to do that is via the food chain.

Now, before anyone reads me the riot act, I'm not against capitalism. If I could parlay an event in my life, i.e., 15-minutes of fame, into a multi-million dollar venture I'd do it in a heartbeat! Or if I were blessed to have the drive, determination, wisdom or the good fortune to create wealth for myself, I'd do it. But God hasn't blessed me in that way. So, I don't begrudge anyone who has come into wealth. Not one bit! But...

I am saying that at one time in our nation's history we took great pride in being farmers even planting our own private gardens and we were a healthier nation. But the need for doing things bigger and faster has turned us into a junk food nation where "time and convenience" to a large degree has supplanted good health and healthy eating for the sake of expedience.

The First Lady makes a very interesting argument though it may not have been articulated well. And even if she did manage to say all the right things, most Americans on both sides wouldn't take her serious. Why? Because most people - even those who consider themselves Constitutionalist and defend defense spending - don't understand how our military works under Goldwater-Nicoles, the federal Act that changed the readiness standing of our active and reserve forces in a post-Vietnam era.

The reserves don't just support the active duty forces; in many ways they become the additional combat forces to our military units, those additional boots on the ground. However, what many of us forget is that these reserve units come directly from our private sector. And if our private sector is overweight and out of shape this does affect the readiness of our military when reserve forces are called up. The other side of this issue is the shift in the recruiting process. While it's true that many of our servicemen and women do volunteer for active and reserve duty, post-Vietnam our military moved away from taking anybody (i.e., the judge gave the juvenile dilinguent a choice - join the military or do jail time; guess how many choose jail time back then?) to recruiting troops from more affluient areas, i.e., our high schools and colleges, with the idea that doing so would produce better soldiers. To a degree, they were right. However, in pulling from such a narrowly diverse field of "applicants" - because we have to remember what this nation is also pushing upon our kids -- get your education, go to college and make something of yourself - we've unwittingly reduced the number of recruits our military can actively screen. It's a catch-22 really...

Keep the draft and take anybody in time of war OR allow people the freedom to decide for themselves if serving their country either on active duty or as a reservist is in their best interest. I guess what I'm trying to say is from a certain point of view we are creating a generation of individuals who may be alittle less prepared physically to defend our country and if we don't start taking the health of our nation alittle more seriously we may end up with a military that has fewer healthy patriots to choose from. I'll even go out on a limb and say this:

I think Hitler for all his evil had a good point when he essentially decreed, "A healthy nation is a nation ready to come to her defense." However, I say unequivocally he implemented that concept in the wrong way.
 
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Of course I didn't elaborate on her logic, because it's a ridiculous strawman argument. The US doesn't need even 25% of it population to maintain it's current numbers. Currently, less than 1% of the population is serving in the military. Obviously, there's not a shortage in actual manpower, and it doesn't justify by any means telling me what I have to feed my children.

US Army active component: 539,675
US Army Reserve component: 557,375
Total Army: 1,097,050

USMC Active: 203,000
USMC Reserve: 40,000
USMC Total: 243,000

US Navy: 332,000

USAF active: 327,452
USAF reserve: 115,300
Air National Guard: 106,700
USAF Total:549,452

Total military: 2,221,502

USCG: 49.973

Total military w/ USCG: 2,271,475

------------------

Population of the *United States 310,906,000 as of December 14, 2010

Then your argument is with the military leaders who seem to disagree with you and not her. :coffeepap
 
Bottom line:

If you're a kid, all you have to do is get off your lazy ass and go play outside, and you can pretty much eat what you want. Your metabolism will skyrocket.

I swear, kids aren't kids anymore. They're 40-year-old couch potatoes with acne and a Justin Bieber t-shirts.
 
Bottom line:

If you're a kid, all you have to do is get off your lazy ass and go play outside, and you can pretty much eat what you want. Your metabolism will skyrocket.

I swear, kids aren't kids anymore. They're 40-year-old couch potatoes with acne and a Justin Bieber t-shirts.

God bless video games.
 
As for the government trying to mandate what parents feed their kids its none of the government's damn business.
Is the govt actually mandating what we feed our kids?
 
Why don't you try reading before posting?

Fat kids can't joint the military.

Why don't you try researching, before posting?

Fat kids can join the military.

What I love, is how Libs suddenly become national security hawks, when it supports their agenda.
 
Is the govt actually mandating what we feed our kids?

Not yet. But, most of those kinds of mandates always start out with, "it's for the public good", or, "in the interest of national security".
 
Not yet. But, most of those kinds of mandates always start out with, "it's for the public good", or, "in the interest of national security".

OBUMMER GONNA FORCE FEED MY KIDS!!!

Oh right-wingers. The things you manage to convince yourselves of...
 
My wife and I were talking about this the other day.

My girls make straight A's and play high-level club soccer and basketball. They're also both pretty like their mama. Because of athletics and other things they are involved in, they know a ton of kids and their families.

Then I look around and see these fat, lazy, complaining, underachieving, socially inept, unpolished kids everywhere I go. They waddle along behind their ginormous parents, eating french fries with their eyes glued to their Nintendo DS screen. And usually they're waddling behind their mom, because dad checked out a long time ago. I'd estimate this is 50 percent of the kids out there.

I can't help but think....it's going to be so easy for my girls to dominate these kids for the next 80 years. Even at a young age, my kids are already more sophisticated than these kids will be when they're 30.

This is what institutional dependency wroughts.

I agree with Michelle Obama on the problem, but government breeds this mentality, and government can't undo it. Here comes another few billion down the toilet.

Totally agree! I see fat people everywhere. Me I don't care personally what people do. In fact, I have no right to force people to do what is constitutionally their right. I Do however have a right to solicit my government to bud out, or bud in? I choose neither. I want government the hell away from anything that we have the right to do. Even if it means being stupid or fat. Just increases the odds that my kids are going to do just fine when the competition for enlightenment is falling fast. :)

Tim-
 
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