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Archive for 2015
May 11, 2015
SUPER SIZED: A new USDA study finds 40% of food stamp recipients are obese. Another 28% are overweight. The same basic data holds for children as well as adults. Republican efforts to block food stamps from being used to buy junk food have all failed. A 2007 USDA report concluded that trying to restrict food stamp recipients to “healthy” food choices would not work, for various lame-to-semi-lame reasons.
A list of eligible food stamp purchases can be found here.
So how can American taxpayers stop the train wreck of obesity for this population? Obamacare has tons of grant money to improve “wellness” in poor communities. None of it has worked. Why not government subsidized gym memberships, too, because #incomeinequality!
I’d rather pay for gym membership than Ho-Hos, it’s true. But given that we cannot seem to stop subsidizing bad food choices, it would be great to offset those bad choices with increased exercise. But how? Clearly, the answer isn’t a gym membership subsidy. In Canada, they have had a Children’s Fitness Tax Credit (CFTC) since 2007, to promote physical activity and reduce obesity. A recent study concluded, “The estimated costs of the tax-based programs in Canada are substantial; therefore, it is important to consider whether those public funds are better spent on other strategies that could instead provide direct public funding to improve recreational facilities and active transportation networks or to enhance physical activity programs in schools.”
Ya think? Tax credits, subsidizing gym membership and other government “solutions” will never work. The only thing that government should spend any money on is P.E./sports in school, and some parks to provide space for sporting venues. You need to get kids to like exercise, which requires making it part of their daily habit and providing lots of school sports to play. Sadly, kids don’t really have P.E. in schools anymore— yet another failure of modern education. There is an important mind-body connection, and when the latter is out-of-shape, the former will be as well.
One of the reasons P.E. has been jettisoned is because No Child Left Behind–what I think is better labeled as No Child Gets Ahead–mandates so much time for test preparation that schools have had to cut back on “non-instructional” items such as P.E. NCLB has been a dismal failure. It was instituted by Republicans during the George W. Bush Administration, but it’s obsessive emphasis on standardized testing has meant that teachers teach only to “the test,” and have time for nothing more. Under NCLB, poorly performing students don’t “get ahead,” and gifted students are “left behind.”
It would be great to repeal NCLB entirely, as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has recently supported. Republicans need to admit failure here as well. But until we can muster the courage to do so, I say we at least bring back one hour of P.E. per day, and make them actually exercise!
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: “I deal through the Clinton Foundation. That gets me in touch with the Haitian officials.”
Related: Report: Clinton Foundation CEO tried to strong-arm influential charity watchdog.
Plus: Michael Walsh: NYT to HRC: Your Family’s Fair Game. They really want her out and Elizabeth Warren in. Hillary’s obvious next more: Destroy Warren so there’s no alternative. No matter how unhappy the NYT — or the left-media establishment generally — is with Hillary, they’ll back her to the hilt if the only alternative is a Republican.
AND NOW, FOR THE BLOGOSPHERE’S BIGGEST REVEAL: Legendary Shoeblogger Reveals Secret Identity.
IF ONLY ENVIRONMENTALISTS HADN’T DELAYED THINGS, THIS CARBON-FRIENDLY NUCLEAR PLANT COULD HAVE BEEN ONLINE MUCH SOONER: TVA nuke plant, launched in 1979, nears completion in 2015. “When it’s finished, it will provide enough electricity to power about 650,000 homes in the Tennessee Valley. The cost of running a nuclear plant is relatively steady, and it does not produce greenhouse gases and other air pollutants.”
Think of all the coal that was burned unnecessarily because of wrongheaded opposition to nuclear power. When will the Greens apologize for the damage they’ve done to the planet?
HEH: Carly Fiorina buys HillaryClinton.net. She’s also bought SethMeyers.org and ChuckTodd.org, after both men lambasted Fiorina for failing to register CarlyFiorina.org. They all redirect to CarlyforPresident.com. I like her. She fights.
IN THE MAIL: From Walter Williams, American Contempt for Liberty.
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PJTV: Boyhood Under Attack: Why Boys Can’t Just Be Boys Anymore. With the Insta-Wife, Bill Whittle, Stephen Green, Stephen Kruiser, and Scott Ott. Part of PJTV’s special “War On Men” series.
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 732.
RICHARD DREYFUSS: Election Coming: Nobody Knows Anything. Yes, that Richard Dreyfuss.
TRUE: Pollsters Are Worse Than Ever.
If you weren’t following the British election returns last night, you missed an amazing show. Virtually everyone went into the race expecting that the ruling Conservative Party would lose seats, and the biggest question was whether the Scottish National Party would cost Labour enough seats to make it impossible for any one party to form a government.
Well, we can all relax about the constitutional crisis. Astoundingly, the Conservatives actually gained seats, and now have enough to form a government without their former coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats. (And lucky for them, because the Lib Dems were absolutely crushed, dropping from 57 seats to eight.) Labour’s shellacking in Scotland was utter, worse than even the direst predictions. The party, which has dominated Scotland for decades, held 41 of 56 seats going into the election. When the returns were in, they held … one, the same number as the Conservatives do.
I won’t opine on What It All Means. But let’s talk about the surprise factor: The polls were wrong. And as Nate Silver points out, this seems to be a troubling trend, not just in Britain, but around the world. The polls on the Scottish independence referendum were way off. So were the ones that missed the Republican sweep in the 2014 midterms. Israel’s pre-election and exit polls both missed Likud’s solid victory.
Well, the media narrative is “if you’re on the right, you’re evil.” So when strangers call you on the phone and say “are you on the left or the right?” people may choose to lie.
The funniest take was one I saw on Facebook: “Nate Silver is regressing to the mean.”
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Moroccan F-16 Goes MIA Ahead of Yemen Ceasefire.
ANNALS OF “SMART DIPLOMACY:” “Six years ago, Obama goes to Cairo. Proclaims a new era. Today, Arab leaders won’t come to Camp David.”
FIGHT THE POWER: Columbia marching band tradition disses ‘sexual respect’ program. With students at both Oberlin and Columbia mocking the bluenoses, maybe there’s hope after all.
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OBERLIN CHOIR SINGS THE TRUTH: I love these kids. I laughed. I cried. The Oberlin College Choir has a song about “the real world,” in response to the “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” idiocy of Oberlin feminist snowflakes who became verklempt over Christina Hoff Sommers’ recent lecture there.
If one of these young people applies to your business for a summer job, hire them.
SAUDIS SNUB OBAMA: Saudi King Salman has pulled out of an Arab summit hosted by King President Obama on Thursday. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayif will attend instead. Obama had planned one-on-one time with King Salman, so his pullout suggests tension with the Obama Administration. Bahrainian King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa also pulled out on Sunday.
The invited nations are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. According to the White House announcement of the summit issued on April 17, “The gathering will be an opportunity for the leaders to discuss ways to enhance their partnership and deepen security cooperation.” A key item on the agenda was discussion of the nuclear deal with Iran.
Guess the Saudis don’t want to waste their time discussing a nuclear deal they know will ineluctably lead to a nuclear Iran, and they have already signaled an intent to developing their own nuclear arsenal in response. Way to go, Obama: We are now facing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. I’m sure that will work out just fine.
WITH JUXTAPOSITIONS LIKE THIS, I almost wonder if Matt Drudge is moonlighting as a bookstore clerk in Washington, DC.
Thanks to reader Elliott Davis for the pic.
I PREFER THE RUSS MEYER VERSION: Dianne Feinstein: Islamic State’s Message is Kill, Kill, Kill.
The U.S. should not underestimate the appeal of the Islamic State on social media, argued the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.: “I think [the Islamic State’s message] is ‘kill, kill, kill.'”
“It’s a force that we really haven’t seen before, and we have to begin to cope more seriously with it, and that includes social media.”
Islamic State leaders use social media to foster sympathy and support around the world, encouraging Westerners to carry out attacks.
“It is putting that lone wolf [attacker] in a position that they have never been in before: ‘You do it, we’ll take credit for it,'” she said.
Congress should ask for more funding so that law enforcement can effectively combat them, she said.
“This is a matter of prime defense of the homeland, and it would come first,” said Feinstein.
The challenge of monitoring the Islamic State’s social media activity is “hugely difficult,” said Michael Leiter, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Well, you’d have more of a leg-up on it if you hadn’t wasted years monitoring the Tea Party instead.
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