From "Leave Fat Kids Alone/The 'war on childhood obesity' has only caused shame," an op-ed by Aubrey Gordon in The New York Times
This is the most negative thing about Michelle Obama I have ever seen in The New York Times. Not that the op-ed ever says the name Michelle Obama. I was going to check to see if the comments over there bring up Michelle Obama, but there are no comments on this piece. Perhaps that's to protect Michelle Obama, but probably also to protect the author of the op-ed from any of shaming, the op-ed being staunchly anti-shame.
Here's the Wikipedia article on "Let's Move." It begins: "Let's Move! was a public health campaign in the United States, led by Michelle Obama, wife of then-President Barack Obama."
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I assume the NYT commenters burst into flame if one of them disparages the Light Worker's wife.
Wasn't the big problem the one size fits all rationing of school lunch? The leftie nutritionists that were in the young socialists club in high school didn't account for the calorie requirements of varsity sports...
Has there been any First Lady initiative that wasn’t ineffectual claptrap?
You're not going to get rid of childhood obesity when mom and dad are obese as well. You're not going to get rid of it when children are kept locked in classrooms all day and forced to take drugs to make them compliant. You're not going to get rid of obesity when it's no longer possible in many places for kids to play outside without a parent monitoring them all the time without the risk of social services or the police being called.
We've created a society of lab rats, locked in cages with no outlet for their energy, starved of emotional and mental stimulation, who respond to boredom through cheap dopamine hits of greasy food, digital entertainment, and a hookup culture.
Has there been any First Lady initiative that wasn’t ineffectual claptrap?
Didn't Laura Bush stick with reading, which is pretty inoffensive, as far as these things go?
I remember the Kennedy Physical Fitness Program, we were all tested with a run, or in my case a walk, because it was possible to beat the time with a fast walk. IIRC, it was an 11 minute mile. Kennedy promoting physical fitness is bizarre in retrospect, but Kennedy family fitness was the mythology of the times. It's funny how the Democrats have kept reaching for the Kennedy glamour and ended up with Biden and Kamala.
Not to sound like an old fart, but I used to either walk or ride my bike 1.3 miles to school every day when I was in Grammer school. Now kids walk to the corner to get a bus. Thats the ones that don't get picked up in front of their house.
Fortunately, my walk was not uphill both ways.
It's the food, not the exercise. Modern crap food acts on the lizard brain to put the body in a constant state of obese starvation. That's right, I heared it on Joe Rogan. The obese actually are constantly fighting brain chemical demons. Nearly all of the weight loss advise is bogus, but they try it all and fail over and over. The angst of the double bind. They are literally at war with their brain stem.
Skinny is the new Black.
Has there been any First Lady initiative that wasn’t ineffectual claptrap?
Michelle Obama’s musty old claptrap is overdue for a purge.
I'm going to miss watching fake Melania throw up in her mouth after Don exceeded the contracted number of creepy smooches.
If your children need to be told "Let's move!," you have failed as a parent. I cannot imagine a child who's primarily inclination is to sit all day long.
D.A.R.E to Just Say No.
My observational evidence establishes quite clearly that the obesity epidemic is not confined to children. Nutrition science is a particularly well established failure of our government. Over the past 50 years the best advice one could follow often was the opposite of that recommended by the government.
As for Michelle, her intentions were just so darn good and pure, we shouldn't shame her for her failure.
stevew said...
Nutrition science is a particularly well established failure of our government. Over the past 50 years the best advice one could follow often was the opposite of that recommended by the government.
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And the Leftists would have sneered: "You are anti-science. The science is settled."
Yes indeed Wilbur. That is in effect one of the messages of the "Let's Move" campaign.
When I was a young teen, the Nixon administration had a program to promote Youth Physical Fitness. As a part of that program, you could keep a diary of your physical activity, and if it met a certain frequency/time criteria, you could send in your diary to some government office, and they would print out a formal certificate of achievement and send it to you. I did this - judo was my thing at the time - and had a Nixon-signed (reproduction, of course) certificate on my wall during that time.
The list is getting so very long.
You cannot suggest to overweight people that they should put the chips down, get up, and do some moving around.
You cannot suggest to homeless people to find work, get permanent shelter, get your life back. Instead we allow them to shit on our streets, take up home in our parks and neighborhoods, and do everything we can to adjust our own lives downward so as not to upset the homeless.
You cannot suggest to addicts to stop, find help, get your life back. Instead we offer them needles, a place to shoot up, and care for when they vomit up in their own lungs.
You cannot suggest to men to be men, for their masculinity is toxic.
You cannot suggest to anyone that there are only two genders and anything beyond that is simply insane.
You cannot suggest to people that it's good to listen to an opposing view on things because it makes you think, makes you check your own premises, and makes you consider other views. No, if you do suggest listening to other views, you are a Nazi/Fascist.
You cannot call riots, riots. They have to be referred to as peaceful protests.
You cannot question BLM's motives, or your are racist. Even though they state themselves that they are a Marxist organization.
You cannot suggest that Antifa is actually Fa, or you are Fa.
This is going swimmingly.
Bee Best.
Sometimes shortened to "Be Best."
There's a difference between chubby and obese. There's more obese today? My family
is pretty skinny. One sister was fat as a child and I think she suffered emotionally.
A cousin was fat. Why were they fat? They ate the same as everybody else. I was always pretty thin then when I was 29 I went from 168 to 182 pretty quick. Childhood friend sees me and exclaims I'm fat. The prick. And my diet didn't change or anything. Screw the NYT lady. She's got the usual suspect campaigns to pursue. Low cost shelf stable foods forced upon poverty stricken children? Sheesh. I'm campaigning against the damn machines in the grocery stores that check your weight and blood pressure. I think their definition of obese is obscene and needs to be rereckoned.
I am not ready for the day we are supposed to once again worship the first family and all they do. Melania Trump stayed out of the limelight, and I hope Jill Biden does too. I don't care about you, Jill.
As for Michelle's "Let's Move!' campaign, she started starving kids at school and telling them to exercise, and in very little time we ended up with fat models on SI and in tv ads and no more body shaming.
Between that and the patient dumping scheme at UC hospitals, Michelle Obama's body of work is all a big dud.
Willie Dixon wrote -
"Some folk built like this, some folk built like that
But the way I'm built, you shouldn't call me fat
Because I'm built for comfort, I ain't built for speed
But I got everything all the good girls need"
If the NYT's was truthful, they would ask why she is so miserable and why she has so much hate in her heart after becoming First Lady twice by white people voting for her, which has made her rich beyond her wildest dreams, and hooked her up to some very rich, black entertainers that she probably would never have met if she wasn't first lady. Why is she STILL miserable?? An angry black woman who owns a few mansions and can travel anywhere she wants in the world and be treated like a Queen...and she is hateful and angry. I don't get it. Go away and leave the rest of us alone.
"Let's move"
I say, "Just say, no."
"Be best", instead.
rehajm: Wasn't the big problem the one size fits all rationing of school lunch?
This, one size fits all thinking, is the problem with letting a centralized Government take control. People who have no experience outside of their own narrow lives and think everyone is just like them.
In school lunches where some students require more calories due to activity levels.
AND... in Covid restrictions that are meant for densely packed urban cesspools...I mean NYC...and then applying the same to the hinterlands and small towns.
One size does not fit all. It is just dictatorial and not a solution to anything.
Eat like Michelle tells you to and you can look like an NFL linebacker, too.
...led by Michelle Obama, wife of then-President Barack Obama."
That's phrased a bit oddly, isn't it?
The onset of puberty is earlier in obese girls and is delayed in obese boys. This is a problem. But instead of an honest discussion we get "the racial biopolitics of obesity." Apparently, the Blacks and Mexicans are fat because the country hasn't rejected white supremacist ideology, bigotry in policing and segregation. And the Whites are fat because they are less likely to suffer from "food insecurity" (heck, the Whites are the cause of food insecurity for 3/4 of the world population).
Has there been any First Lady initiative that wasn’t ineffectual claptrap?
I think Lady Bird Johnson's Keep America Beautiful campaign made an impact.
President Johnson launched the War on Poverty. We're still fighting it. And losing.
President Nixon launched the War on Cancer. We're still fighting it. And losing.
President Obama launched the War on Childhood Obesity. We're still fighting it. And losing.
President Trump didn't launch any wars. Seems like a feature to me.
Amercia; where the poorest of the poor are the fattest of the fat.
What a country!
Sorry, there's no excuse for fat kids. Its the one time of life, you shouldn't be fat.
BTW, there are an astounding amount of fat kids running around. I grew up in the 70's and i cant' remember more than 1 or 2 fat kids in my class. The ratio seems MUCH Higher today. There are some real porkers going to elementary school. Its probably a combination of video games, the internet, and the wide availability of junk food.
Bob said...President Johnson launched the War on Poverty. We're still fighting it. And losing.
President Nixon launched the War on Cancer. We're still fighting it. And losing.
President Obama launched the War on Childhood Obesity. We're still fighting it. And losing.
President Trump didn't launch any wars. Seems like a feature to me.
That's why they had to get rid of him. He doesn't play the game the way it is supposed to be played.
One shouldn't overlook the value of shame. It can be a powerful personal motivator.
Unfortunately, we've moved into an era in which personal responsibility is an artifact of a previous, now discredited, civilization.
"It wasn’t a campaign against foods with little nutritional value, or against the unchecked poverty that called for such low-cost, shelf-stable foods."
Yeah, "unchecked poverty" is why people get fat.
Make cigarettes popular and put the lead back in gasoline. Problem solved.
I'd say let's move has had some successes. Trump is playing golf instead of just watching Masters on the teevee.
Re-define obesity. Problem solved.
Trump is playing golf instead of just watching Masters on the teevee.
And here, I was told he was despondent wandering the White House communing with dead presidents, sort of like Hillary with Eleanor.
"...why is she so miserable..."
Aha! She's Generation Jones. After recently learning about this designation I am smitten. IT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING. We of GJ resent the world and all of history. We were cheated!11!!
The schadenfreude of Big Mike taking a hit in the NYT is extra delicious when you're GJ.
Re-define obesity. Problem solved.
And recode correlated risk. They did something similar with HIV/AIDS and socially liberal trans/homosexual males, and produced hundreds of thousands excess deaths in that population.
Lady Bird Johnson's Keep America Beautiful campaign made an impact.
Bluebonnets by the highways in Texas.
Oh and Ladybird Fences to hide junk yards.
If she really wanted to be brave and help she should have brought back fatty fatty two by four. Which worked for generations. .
If avoiding or correcting obesity can no longer be spoken of in public as desirable for physical reasons then perhaps it could be sold as mental health.
For there seems to be a veritable epidemic of depression, everywhere but especially among young women and teen girls.
And there's pretty good evidence that exercise, but especially outdoor exercise, is a whole lot more effective than SSRIs and other anti-depression drugs.
Not many are old enough to remember that President Eisenhower started a campaign for student exercise as early as 1953. I remember because I wound up getting an appendectomy as a result of doing too many sit ups. In 1956, President Eisenhower established the President's Council on Youth Fitness. By that time I was no longer in high school to know how they handled that. I do know the doctor who did my surgery was president of the school board and they let up on the exercises in 1953
>>Not to sound like an old fart, but I used to either walk or ride my bike 1.3 miles to school every day when I was in Grammer school
It was probably a hair under half a mile each way, but my entire time in grammar school on the South Side of Chicago I walked it four times a day: to school in the morning, to home and back for lunch, then home at the end of the school day. Don't have any clear memory of first grade but, by second grade (starting at not quite age 7), I was doing it on my own, often with a couple of friends of more or less the same age. Pretty much the same distance a year earlier for kindergarten, but I was probably more likely accompanied by an older sibling at that point.
Beyond that, a lot of our off-school, day-time activities during the temperate period of the year (particularly during the summer) consisted of riding bikes all over the place, with no supervision, plus stuff like on-street (16 inch!) softball and football and street games that often involved running from one side of the street to the other without being caught. We also used to walk one to two miles to movie theaters. By about sixth grade, I was regularly riding my bike about four miles or so back and forth to a mall at 95th and Western in Evergreen Park, primarily to go to the Kroch's and Brentano's bookstore to feed my sci-fi/fantasy appetite (first read Lord of the Rings, I think, in 1967 or 1968).
--gpm
P.S. Should I say that's where my avatar comes from? About second or third grade, in my Catholic school uniform.
--gpm
Also forgot the roller skating on the street.
--gpm
Did Michelle Obama really "lead" Let's Move, or was she just the figurehead? Maybe she should have been the "good cop" and just told kids to exercise and run around, instead of trying to change school menus. Let the "bad cops" do that. But I guess she had such positive coverage from the Establishment media that nobody had to think it through.
President Nixon launched the War on Cancer. We're still fighting it. And losing.
I was not aware of this. I thought that cancer treatments were improving radically with far better outcomes. Not universally but very widely.
Let's Move was the only half-decent idea to come out of the Obama White House. The Obamas are cult figures, and it was a harmless gesture to push kids to be less sedentary, if depressing that everything else Obama was doing was making it less safe for children in crappy neighborhoods to go outside and play.
Unfortunately, like Just Say No to Drugs, all the program really did was shove a bunch of grant money into the pockets of the ususal "non-profit" scammers who pretended to start community gardens and "food desert" co-ops. Mostly it paid for earnest elite college student to intern-play-act feeding green stuff to poor minorities.
So it was sort of a self-esteem program, only not for the fat poor kids.
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