Super Nanny: First Lady of Junk Science Michelle Obama
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. — C.S. Lewis
America is finally catching on. For nearly two years, I’ve chronicled food profiteer-turned-food cop Michelle Obama’s obese and obscene power grab masquerading as a public health crusade. She quickly leveraged her hubby’s U.S. Senate victory to snag a lucrative seat on the corporate Board of Directors of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. despite having zero experience in the industry, publicly begrudged other Americans’ choices in how they earn their money — and then parlayed her East Wing power to push Obamacare, threaten food advertisers’ speech and serve the SEIU’s legislative agenda (full story on this in Culture of Corruption), and brow-beat restaurants over portion sizes. Mrs. O even played the childhood obesity card to try and win the Chicago crony-lympics bid.
My column today dissects how the Obama corruptocrats are misusing science to mask their grand social engineering aims. To mark the one-year anniversary of her “Let’s Move!” drive, Mrs. O is harnessing every major health bureaucracy in the federal government along with the FDA, USDA, FTC and FCC to expand the East Wing’s reach into the personal health choices of American families. Most disturbing this week: Bending the IRS code to confer preferential tax treatment on breast-pumping working mothers over stay-at-home nursing moms who don’t use pumps and other moms who for whatever reason have freely opted not to breast-feed their babies. Like me, economist mom Diane Lim Rogers breast-fed her kids, but sees the slippery-slope peril in politicizing the process for deciding what constitutes a deductible medical expense:
I happen to agree with breast-feeding advocates that breast feeding is a good practice…I happen to have breast fed all of my own (four) babies (not all at once of course), and I am one of those working moms who needed a good breast pump to use when I returned to work and decided it was worth paying a lot of money for this good “investment.”…But a breast pump is not a health-related expense, as it’s not necessary in order to treat a medical condition or ailment. It’s a work-related expense that happens to promote or be consistent with a healthy activity. For the vast majority of women without severe obstacles to breast feeding the natural way (direct from the source!), breast pumps are not necessary in order to breast feed one’s baby unless and until mom goes back to the office and can’t have baby with her.
…If breast pumps were to be given tax-preferred treatment as a health-care expense just because it’s a piece of equipment that makes it easier to engage in a healthy activity, I’d say it would be hard to draw the line. That would be equivalent to not just allowing the cost of (health-enhancing) yoga classes to be deductible as a health-related expense from taxable income, but allowing the cost of one’s yoga mat, props, and maybe even cute yoga clothes to receive tax exemption, too.
The other other Michele — GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann, who spoke out yesterday on the Laura Ingraham show, agrees with me about Big Mother’s Big Bosom campaign, as does fellow right-thinking mom Sarah Palin: It’s all about control, baby. Always is.
Oh, and watch out, world: The First Lady Food Cop is going global.
***
The First Lady of Junk Science
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011
While her husband may have paid lip service to ending the abuse of science for “politics or ideology,” first lady Michelle Obama gave herself a super-sized waiver. Two of her showcase social engineering campaigns — tax preferences for breast-pumping working mothers and expanded nutrition labels — are based on distorting or dismissing the prevailing public health literature.
Just as the White House costumed Obamacare activists in white lab coats, the fashionable Mrs. O has cloaked her meddling anti-obesity crusade in medical fakery.
Over the past year, the first lady has marshaled a taxpayer-subsidized army of government lawyers, bureaucrats and consultants against the “national security threat” of childhood obesity. She has transformed the East Wing of the White House into Big Nanny’s new Central Command headquarters. The biggest threats to Mrs. Obama’s 70-point plan for national fitness: parental authority and sound science.
As part of her “Let’s Move!” anniversary celebration this week, Mrs. Obama rolled out a new breastfeeding initiative because “kids who are breastfed longer have a lower tendency to be obese.” She made her assertion to an invitation-only group of handpicked reporters who were barred from asking questions about her scientific conclusions. It’s not healthy to challenge Super Nanny, you see.
After the Internal Revenue Service carefully studied and rejected an advocacy push to treat nursing equipment as a tax-deductible medical expense last fall, the tax agency suddenly reversed itself in time for the first lady’s new public relations tour. The surgeon general has also issued a “Call to Action” to pressure private businesses to adopt more nursing-friendly environments to combat childhood obesity, all while denying that government is intruding on personal decisions. “No mother should be made to feel guilty if she cannot or chooses not to breastfeed,” Surgeon General Regina Benjamin asserted, while laying an unmistakable guilt trip on moms and moms-to-be.
So, what do studies on breastfeeding and babies’ weight actually say? Rebecca Goldin, Ph.D., research director of George Mason University’s Statistical Assessment Service, points out that the literature is inconclusive or demonstrates that the health advantages of bosom over bottle are short-lived:
“Indeed, there is little evidence that using formula causes obesity. There is a correlation between formula use and obesity among babies and children … though this correlation is not consistent in all studies. Some of these studies show a relationship in only some demographics and not others. Others show that the disadvantage of bottle-feeding and/or formula mostly goes away by the time a child is about 4 years old.
“The result is that we cannot discover whether breastfeeding is correlated with obesity because infant formula or bottle feeding leads to subsequent overeating or disposition to being overweight, or whether those parents who breastfeed are also more likely to offer their children green beans instead of French fries. Despite weak evidence, there is a lingering conviction that formula causes obesity among pediatricians and the press; if anything, the study about infants should make us reflect more carefully on this conclusion.”
Alas, such nuance from Mrs. Obama and her unquestioning media water-carriers is scarcer than tofu at Taco Bell.
Don’t get me wrong. As a proud mom who breastfed both of her babies, I’ve been and will always be a vocal defender of women who have devoted the time, dedication and selflessness it takes. But there are myriad individual reasons beyond Mrs. O’s expansive goal of battling the collective scourge of childhood obesity — intimate bonding and health benefits for the mom, not just the baby, for example — that lead women to nurse.
And we don’t need Big Brother or Big Mother to lead the Charge of the Big Bosom to persuade us of the personal benefits. Many private hospitals and companies have already adopted nursing-friendly environments. If it’s as good for their bottom lines as it is for babies’ bottoms, they don’t need a government mandate to do the right thing.
But as I’ve noted many times over the past year, Mrs. O’s real interest isn’t in nurturing nursing moms or slimming down kids’ waistlines. It’s in boosting government and public union payrolls, along with beefing up FCC and FTC regulators’ duties.
Take another East Wing pet project: leaning on private businesses to print expanded front-package nutrition labels warning consumers about salt, fat and sugar. The first lady’s anti-fat brigade assumes as an article of faith that her top-down designer food labels will encourage healthier eating habits. It’s a “no-brainer,” Mrs. Obama insists.
However, the latest study on this very subject — funded by no less than the left-wing Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — confirms other recent research contradicting the East Wing push. A team led by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School’s Eric Finkelstein, published in the peer-reviewed American Journal for Preventive Medicine, found that mandatory menu-labeling in Seattle restaurants did not affect consumers’ calorie consumption.
“Given the results of prior studies, we had expected the results to be small,” the researchers reported, “but we were surprised that we could not detect even the slightest hint of changes in purchasing behavior as a result of the legislation.”
Will the first lady and her food cops be chastened by the science that undermines their spin? Fat chance.
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I heard she’s also trying to persuade restaurants to serve smaller portions. Well how about she mind her own dang business? The only reason I can afford to go out to a restaurant is because I either box up half of the meal to take home and enjoy for my next meal, or I an a friend split the plate and the bill. I can manage my own portion control, MO! Stay the heck out of my leisure choices!
I read somewhere MichelleO engages in colonic “cleansing”. Rest assured these won’t be the last pumps she proposes as health expenses. But please, please do not call it the Big Mother’s Big Ass campaign when it inevitably happens…
A “duh” for most of yus, yet for the left – another unexpected result! Reality clashes with their pipedreams -agian…
Its good to get the gov’t out of our menu’s, but its not good to brush aside personal health concerns. This country is getting fatter, lazier, and stupider every year.
Shake down lies. These people are disgusting, worse than the Purple Gang or Al Capone.
thutmose18. That is because the communists/democrats discourage individual achievement, pander to the lowest common denominator.
When all boats rise and fall, all boats sink to the lowest level.
Dear Mrs. Obama,
I have a great idea for raising healthy kids, stop killing them in the womb. BTW I breast fed my four children, because it was my, wait for it,…choice.
Sincerely, Flmom.
First Lady of Junk Science — As big of a liar as hubby, Are they in a contest to see who can tell the most lies?
Thank you, flmom. More lies from the democrats: “It is healthy to murder infants. It is healthy to raise children without a husband. The government will by your nanny.”
This is all about control and power.
Like the C.S. Lewis quote says,”…but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
They are saving us from ourselves.
None of my 3 kids is obese. In fact they are quite slim. The twins were formula fed from day 2 and can barely keep 28″ waist pants up.
Shelly Antoinette wants all the good food for herself.
thutmose18 said:
Point the finger at the Socialist Democrats then – Kids cannot play at school for fear they may get hurt and then schools brought to court. Stupid –Hell thats a given, this is the only country in the world that ranks first in children feeling good about themselves.
“Let’s Move!” Blackie O will get her wish in January 2013.
How on earth did humankind ever survive without the infinite wisdom of the obamas? we are sooooo lucky to have them showing the path to take. If the gov followed the Constitution and people like bho and mo would shut up, the country would not be broke.
MO in a nutshell.
Gladys Kravitz: You think I ought to take over some of my chicken soup?
Abner Kravitz: No.
Gladys Kravitz: Why not?
Abner Kravitz: There’s a city ordinance against poisoning people.
Well, they certainly picked the right spokesperson for that.
LOL I love the picture they chose, that woman just looks mean and mad all the time. Since she can’t enjoy a burger without gaining ten pounds I guess she figures no one else should be able to.
When Michelle Antoinette’s rear end is smaller than mine, then I might care what she says….
MO thinks more nutritional labeling is going to help reduce obesity? Everything sold in grocery stores comes with as much or more info than anybody needs if they care to read it. What she means is this is information needs to be dumbed down so even the Dem base can understand it. When people continue making the “wrong” choices I can imagine MO will demand nutrition counselors be made available in every supermarket and restaurant to help parent make the “right” choices. After all, we have to keep an eye on those predatory retailers making money of naive, good hearted shoppers. It’s for the kids you know.
Ahh!! Those EYES!!!
The Eyes Are The Window To The Soul…
I love it when the social engineers are surprised when their guinea pigs don’t behave how they projected they would. If they had a clue, they’d realize that humans are first and foremost, individuals, created to make their own choices in life, good or bad. The result of those choices is what drives behavior. They feel that limiting the myriad choices we must make in life, limits the harm that can come from ‘bad’ choices.
So, is this going to be for kids up to age 26, too?
Leftists only believe in “choice” when you do what they want you to do. When you make a bad “choice”, they will try to outlaw that “choice”.
Freedom has no meaning to leftists.
Can breast pumps work to siphon gas from our neighbor’s car’s gas tanks?
Only if they’re made of plastic and non spark producing parts. Anything else would allow the person to become a great candiate for a “Darwin Award”
GSP
Next thing you know MO will be telling us that formula prices will necessarily skyrocket, just to ‘guide’ reluctant breast feeders to participate. It’s all for our own good.
I’m glad she is pushing the merits of breastfeeding. HOWEVER, why are the only tax credits for ‘working outside the home’ moms? I have breastfed all of my children and stayed home with them. I have to carefully pinch every single penny in order to do so. How about a tax break for my child care expenses (me!)and the fact that I haven’t had to get a breast pump for work? Guess I need to form a union to get her help…. NOT
,
?
Because staying home and raising your own kids isn’t the right choice….
Won’t breast pump tax breaks be biased so that a man can’t get that tax break? Men would want to start buying and using brea.. Uh oh, don’t go there……
great quote, Michelle; I’ve used it several times in the past. Thanks for including it.
Too late! Hey this feels pretty good!
The last time I saw eyes like that were on a Ray Harryhausen animation model of Cerberus! (the three headed guard dog of Hades)
Didn’t I read something yesterday about Mayor “we have to outlaw salt to save the people” Bloomers puts salt on everything he eats?
I would like to know if Michelle O breast fed her kids or if she was too busy working?
All part of the “do as I say not as I do” elitist crowd.
With me it’s always
AHHHH! Those teefus!
And let’s not forget all the “low salt” soups that taste terrible and that nobody buys that she browbeat the companies into offering.
Wonder what they got in return? Tax write offs for low sodium?
I am also one who likes to share a single meal with my husband or friend. It is usually a perfect size for both of us…especially breakfasts. Who is the first lady to dictate to private businesses how big the portion sizes should be? This is so intrusive, I can’t believe anyone would condone it!! And, Lady, keep your grubby nose out of our very very personal decisions about what to do with our breasts!! This is unbelievable.
I keep trying to picture any other presidents in the past, or thier wives who say and do what these two are getting away with. There aren’t any. They have taken on a role of king and queen. Well, we fought for and won the right to NOT HAVE TO ANSWER TO A MONARCHY.
She suffers from ugly wife disease. She gets depressed every time she looks in that mirror and thinks about the interns around her husband and she takes it out on us.
Big Mother’s Big Ass campaign?
Ok AlohaGuy I shall not say it.
But this nonsense from the hectors who yell “hands off my body” when it comes to abortion?
Pass the salt.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.”
Look at that stupid out of context quote Malkin put up regarding FOTUS’s healthy Habit Campaign – yep, Malkin is nuts, people have said it for a while, but now I see what they mean.
They’re both lawyers. Pronounced “liars”.
Seriously. With that ever expanding rear end of hers, how can this HIPPO-crite keep a straight face when doling out dietary advice?
What good is a breast pump without spark-producing parts?
Well domestic breast pumping will be halted for six months. We’ll be ever more dependent on foreign bosoms.
“Pump baby, Pump!”
Something stupid, again…
Neither you, nor the Communist-in-chief, love this country. The people who love this country DO NOT want it “fundamentally transformed”. Only those who think our Constitution is “fundamentally flawed” want it changed into something else.
Martin: Aren’t you ashamed now? Aren’t you? Spiders now, is it? Flies ain’t good enough!
Renfield: Flies? Flies? Poor puny things! Who wants to eat flies?
Martin: You do, you loony!
Renfield: Not when I can get nice fat spiders!
Martin: All right, have it your own way.
I can’t wait to see the Joe Kennedy ads on how Hugo Chavez’s bodacious tata’s can help supplement the poor!
Ilovemycountry said:
Where is a Trunk Monkey when you need one????
I read where in most any poll taken 20-25 % of the pop. of America considers themselves to be hard left…good lord that is a lot of babies being dropped on their heads.
Now that’s something the 1st Lady Lard A$$ should really look into….that’s child abuse.
dig,dig,dig,dig outta this basement.
Again, the left wages war on at-home moms, dads who are primary caregivers, and women who don’t want to/can’t breastfeed. It’s all about what the progressives want, not what your own choices/preferences are.
As for the food, Mrs. Obama needs to look after her own fat @$$ before worrying about mine.
For a person that has her own named fat @$$ called Nemesis, Big Mo has a lot of room to dictate whaat we should and should not eat and by the way – anyone else hear of her drive to declare wither or not a hospital is “Baby Friendly?”
Rogue Cheddar said:
Am I bad??
Okay, if that was a genuine spelling error, it was still very funny, I’m surprised it made it through.
ArizonaNeanderthal said:
But this nonsense from the hectors who yell “hands off my body” when it comes to abortion?
This program should be refered to as “T!t for Tot”.
Sorry! Couldn’t help myself!
Only if there’s a major spill, and I’ve many a story about mine, but you really don’t want to hear them, I’m sure.
Found It
“Moreover, Michelle is deeply troubled that “only 3 percent of births occur at U.S. hospitals with a ‘Baby Friendly’ designation.” To address the inequity, Mrs. Obama is teaming up with other pro-choice organizations like UNICEF to “push more hospitals” who, when not administering government-funded abortions in one room, will oversee certified pro-breastfeeding/”Baby Friendly” zones across the hall.
No, but Spacey is, the saucy little wench!
Rogue Cheddar said:
Perfect description of ILMC –
If it was anything like this, please continue, we’re all ears.
Boston Molasses Disaster
I have a hunch that ILMC is one of the few people that will actually get their exercise by running around the house looking for his mother’s purse that she has hidden from him as recommended by the First Nag.
The Fonz: [punches Richie very lightly on the chin] You’re OK, Cunningham, you’re OK.
http://www.leonardociampa.com/RedButtons.html
and Sophia Loren’s son, who said: “What, is this all for ME?!”
… never got a dinner
2 Questions:
1. What’s a “trunk monkey”?
2. who’s from Kansas?
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/15/ks-gop-rep-obrien/
Ron Paul: Do I have to remind my fellow congressmen, that anything over a mouthful is wasted?
Your mentor!
O.K.,that was darn funny!!! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!
Ilovemycountry said:
1. What’s a “trunk monkey”?
Answer: The cure for your ilk
Yo mama.
Liberals never tackl real problems. They address faux problems so they feel like real probelm solvers while never having to deal with real problems.
Kind of like discussing high speed rail when the unemployment rate has been stuck about 9% for a year…
RE: spelling
if you leave off the ‘ry’ at the end of ‘country’, it would be spoken that way.
Channeling George Carlin: “and ‘t!ts’ shouldn’t even be on the list! It sounds like a snack–I know guys, it is.”
As with all government programs, there are likely to be unintended consequences. For example, will taxpayers be funding plastic surgery for the children of Parton-like mothers to correct stretch marks on their lips?
Where do you draw the line?!
Well it wasn’t quite that bad, and that’s all you’re getting from me!
I will volunteer to be a breast pump.
1–I’m scared of mice.
and
B–who stole my retainer?
I must be tired, as I first read the above quote this way:
Of all t
yrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. My bad.She is so wanting to be significant and have a legacy…butt it is hard to follow Laura Bush (literacy) and Hillary (stand by your man). Next she will be promoting One a Day Vitamins or V-8 Juice in addition to jump roping and hula hoops with organic sweet ‘taters.
There may be a market niche here to be pursued. I can imagine massage salons offering the services of licensed Mamm-airy Technicians while mothers get back rubs. Personalized labels for the vials. Hmm.
Trust me — beef “sin-tax” is waiting in the wings.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Fine, we’ll just speculate as we usually do. The incident is probably on microfiche somewhere at the library.
Did I hear s screech noise that sounded like “What is a Trunk Monkey?”
Hint: You’re the guy yelling at the window…
Fine, as long as my taxes don’t go to fix your overbite.
I’m single, childless and male. If I buy a breast pump, do I get a tax deduction? If not, why not? Can a tax deduction be gender-specific? Isn’t this anti-male discrimination? And where’s Chuck Schumer when we need him to rail against the hypocrisy of it all?
Seems like everything Obeyhim and Obeyher do these days ticks me off.
That is all.
***
Comrade Obama (PBUH) and his ilk–and wife–need to keep cooking up “distractions” to keep us from paying more attention to their real agendas. Like converting the U.S.A. into their dream of the new United Socialistic States of Amerikka.
***
Don’t talk about the killer debt. Or the energy shortages and higher prices. Or the tax hikes. Talk about any phony problems–CO2, childhood obesity, civility, etc.
***
Like the 3 ring circus–or the magician’s tricks to keep you from looking at the proper hand.
***
Oh!–Look!–isn’t that a unicorn over there? Maybe we won’t notice the actual 18 percent unemployment rate.
***
John Bibb
***
So, if the breast pump is now a medical device, won’t the manufacturer be taxed under Obamacare?
Doesn’t that require front teeth?.
ObamaCare is void.
Somebody should tell Obamamama thst BP is killing us, says so right on this site!
Off Topic, but this is good!!
A lot of folks can’t understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.
~~~
Well, there’s a very simple answer.
~~~
Nobody bothered to check the oil. We just didn’t know we were getting low.
The reason for that is purely geographical.
~~~
Our OIL is located in:
~~~
ALASKA
~~~
California
~~~
Coastal Florida
~~~
Coastal Louisiana
~~~
Coastal Alabama
~~~~
Coastal Mississippi
~~~~
Coastal Texas
~~~
North Dakota
~~~
Wyoming
~~~
Colorado
~~~
Kansas
~~~
Oklahoma
~~~
Pennsylvania
~~~
And
~~~
Texas
Our dipsticks are located in DC.
Any Questions? NO? Didn’t think So.
Some professional athletes could purchase pumps by the case and give one to each girlfriend upon delivery, thereby gifting another deduction.
If the gov followed the Constitution, bho and mo wouldn’t be occupying the Whitehouse!!!
Amen. Is there not one honorable person in government that will stand up and declare him ineligible?
Junk in the trunk Science