04.20.10
Awkward Military Minds Stumped by Army of Fat Kids
Today’s first item is bizarre, an example of how a box of well-meaning rocks, to which physical fitness means everything, think only narrowly and in a peculiar manner.
That the American diet in 2010 stinks is beyond question. Decades on it has resulted in obesity as a growth industry. And its consequences with regards to the general health of the population have been staggering.
A report today from the Associated Press concerns a group of retired military men who view “school lunches” as a national security threat because they make kids too fat to fight.
It’s what happens when you have no outside advisors, no person to read what you’ve come up with and give you a good slap upside the head, saying: “And just when did you discover obesity is a bad thing?”
“So you’ve decided to label school lunches a natsec threat. What about all the other ways in which people get their foods and the nature of such nourishment choices, huh?”
Paid any attention to Michelle Obama recently, fellows? She’s not just concerned about national security.
Anyway, AP reads like this:
School lunches have been called many things, but a group of retired military officers is giving them a new label: national security threat.
That’s not a reference to the mystery meat served up in the cafeteria line either. The retired officers are saying that school lunches have helped make the nation’s young people so fat that fewer of them can meet the military’s physical fitness standards, and recruitment is in jeopardy.
A new report being released Tuesday says more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. Now, the officers are advocating for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation’s school lunches healthier.
The officers’ group, Mission: Readiness, was appearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
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“When over a quarter of young adults are too fat to fight, we need to take notice,” [one military man] said. He noted that national security in the year 2030 is “absolutely dependent” on reversing child obesity rates.
Today, the group is urging Congress to eliminate junk food and high-calorie beverages from schools, put more money into the school lunch program and develop new strategies that help children develop healthier habits.
Good luck with stopping kids and everyone else from drinking corn syrup sweetened soda pop, armed forces dudes.
There are many problems facing the United States. Obesity, not just in children, but in the entire population, is certainly one that looms … large.
A lesser problem, but one that is still vexing in a way very unique to Americans, is to view too many problems in terms of their impact as a threat to national security.
That is, to think of them in such a narrow-focus way that proposed solutions only serve your profession’s goals. That’s just damn selfish.
It’s not just ALL ABOUT YOU.
What was that famous picture of the future from the cute sci-fi movie?
Oh yeah, this … Well, there’s always robots. Isn’t the US military big on them?
