Free Republic

The federal Affordable Care Act, better known as “ObamaCare,” may provide activists and government a little-known wedge to advance their obesity agendas through regulated health-care providers — specifically America’s nearly 3,000 non-profit hospitals. One organization, The STOP Obesity Alliance, recently identified this wedge as a way to have such hospitals embrace its core convictions, including one principle which questions the role of personal responsibility as a cause and a solution to obesity.Community Health Needs Assessments. Section 9007 of the Act requires non-profit hospitals, as a condition of maintaining their tax-exempt status, to conduct Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs). These documents, which...

As gratifying as it was to see the “news” media actually do its job last week when the IRS scandal broke, it was also odd that the coverage focused exclusively on abuses of power relating to various Tea Party and anti-abortion groups. A much scarier IRS story has been virtually ignored by the establishment press. On Wednesday, it was reported that a class-action lawsuit had been filed against a group of IRS agents who, according to the complaint filed by “John Doe Company” in the Southern District of California, “stole more than 60,000,000 medical records of more than 10,000,000 Americans,...

First Lady Michelle Obama has expanded her anti-obesity campaign to museums, enlisting them to offer “healthy food options,” and change their menus. Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative is now calling for museums, zoos, gardens, science and technology centers to “join the call to action,” to decrease obesity among children. The first lady is recruiting these institutions to join the “Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens” project because of their power to “influence real and sustained behavior change” on the eating habits of kids. “With their impressive reach and great potential for impact, museums and gardens can launch community efforts to create...

HHS:'Telework' Gives Gov't Employees More Time for 'Planning and Preparing Healthy Meals' May 17, 2013 By Terence P. Jeffrey (CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it wants as many as 20 percent of its workers to "telework," use an "alternative work schedule," or do both, in order to "reduce green house gas emissions," decrease "employee stress," and give these government workers more time for "planning and preparing healthy meals." So says one of the HHS "performance measures" detailed in an appendix to the department's latest strategic plan. HHS's performance measure "4.D.05" says: "Increase the percent...

Michelle Obama criticizes the worship of celebrities, sports stars By Emily Goodin - 05/17/13 02:06 PM ET Michelle Obama on Friday urged black youth to stay in school instead of dropping out to become a "baller or a rapper." The first lady, speaking to graduates at Bowie State University, a historically black college, criticized the worship of sports stars and celebrities. "Today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they’re sitting on couches for hours playing video games, watching TV," she said of black youth. "Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader,...

The United Nations Says We Should All Be Eating Insects The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a part of the United Nations, has released a report saying that we should all get ready to start eating insects. There’s a certain amount of truth in the report but not all that much: “ World population is slated to top nine billion by 2050, and seeing as how arable land is being rapidly swallowed by towns and cities, oceans are increasingly overfished, and climate change is disrupting traditional farming, a new United Nations study proposes a twist on Marie Antoinette’s dietary advice:...

New York City is going green — with ganja. Pot arrests and seizures are plummeting as low-level offenders duck jail and cops ease off dealers, who are racking up record profits, police sources say. Gov. Cuomo vowed in January to wipe out the lowest marijuana charge — fifth-degree criminal possession — for those caught lighting up in public or flashing their stash. The crime, which currently calls for an arrest if the pot is in public view or weighs more than 25 grams, accounted for 149,951 of 155,048 marijuana busts in New York City since 2010 — 99.2 percent of...

When Obamacare’s individual mandate takes effect in 2014, all Americans who file income tax returns must complete an additional IRS tax form. The new form will require disclosure of a taxpayer’s personal identifying health information in order to determine compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. As confirmed by IRS testimony to the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, “taxpayers will file their tax returns reporting their health insurance coverage, and/or making a payment”. So why will the Obama IRS require your personal identifying health information? Read more: http://atr.org/obamacare-taxpayers-must-report-personal-health-a7611#ixzz2T7AB826P Follow us: @taxreformer on Twitter

How many of you have flower or vegetable gardens at your home? I know many people are growing their own herbs to use for cooking as well as indoor and outdoor vegetable gardens. Others have flowers in pots, window boxes, hanging baskets, in flower beds and outdoor gardens.My wife and I have a number of vegetables and fruit growing outside which include apples (2 varieties), beans (purple and wax), broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cantaloupes, carrots, cherries, cucumbers (bush), grapes (5 varieties), onions (red), peas (green and snap), potatoes (3 varieties), sage, radishes, tomatoes (6 varieties), and watermelons (3 varieties). We also...

The House of Cupcakes recently revealed its Mayor Bloomberg cupcake — a gut-busting confection with a frowning Bloomberg on top. * * * Although in good fun, the health-conscious Hizzoner wasn’t too pleased. ”This is one of the dumbest things people have done, but if they can get some publicity,” Bloomberg said.

Wrigley temporarily halted production of its new Alert Energy Caffeine Gum in response to concerns expressed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the impact of caffeine on children and adolescents. The company said it had paused the production, sale and marketing of Alert to give the FDA time to develop a new regulatory framework for the addition of caffeine to food and drinks. The recently launched gum has about 40 milligrams of caffeine, as much as a half a cup of coffee, in each piece. …

NEW YORK (AP) — In a significant victory amid a push for paid sick time laws around the country, city lawmakers voted Wednesday to make businesses provide the benefit to an estimated 1 million workers who don't have it now. Saying they hoped that requiring sick leave in the nation's largest metropolis would set an example, City Council members positioned New York to become the most populous place to approve such a law during a campaign that has scored several victories but also a number of defeats. A mayoral veto is expected, but so is an override.

Public School 244 in Queens, New York has become the first public school to have an all-vegetarian menu. Sounds wonderful, right? A school is offering only healthy choices to students to instill a life-long habit of eating healthy. I am sure there will be other schools that follow. We know the statistics of obesity among our youth in this country and schools are stepping up to educate our kids and help create healthy patterns; except the only part is that they are not educating. Education is the process of giving tools to a student, imparting knowledge and letting students reason...

For a long time conservatives have warned that the heavy propaganda and regulatory hands of the Obama administration were not going to change the exercise or eating habits of 315 million Americans... Now comes early statistical proof that after reelecting Obama with fewer votes the second time and 1,567 days of his reign of government intervention and stimulation, many Americans are deciding that maybe the Obamas' plans for their lives do not fit their plans for their own lives.

“The Assembly Agriculture Committee unanimously passed Assembly Bill 38 by Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles), which is an effort to ensure every California child has access to healthy and nutritious food by creating the Office of Farm to Fork in the Department of Food & Agriculture. The new office will be tasked with promoting access to healthy, California grown foods in underserved communities by bringing public health officials, agriculture industry leaders and educators together to make sure California’s children receive nutritious meals.” See the full story by clicking on the blue headline

Where are today’s rebels?  Where is the counterculture? Ear-budded hipsters, with their sheep-like devotion to Apple products and the Obama administration, sit in on the April 20 “Day of Pot” in Denver, content and satisfied with their free birth control and legalized maryjane.  Meanwhile SWAT teams descend on Watertown, Massachusetts, trampling Fourth Amendment rights in search of a “person of interest”– while a Saudi National is quietly sent back to his homeland.These hipsters champion the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado while the war on Big Tobacco rages on.  Since 1997 the FDA inherited control over the $365.5 billion global...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8juyn7eCNU Here's a video of the cops entering the home of the parents who wished to receive a second opinion about their son's potential surgery. They removed the child because they claimed he needed the surgery immediately, yet the baby still hasn't received the surgery. Welcome to the nanny state.

Trail mix. Potato chips. And now gum. With a growing number of foods boasting added caffeine for an energy boost, the Food and Drug Administration says it's time to investigate their safety. The FDA's new look at added caffeine and its effects on children and adolescents is in response to a caffeinated gum introduced this week by Wrigley.

A statement from captured bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and corroborated by the terrorists’ carjack victim that New York City’s Times Square was the next target was met with surprising calm by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “As horrific as the Boston Marathon bombing was or that a similar attack in Times Square might’ve been, the carnage entailed cannot match that wreaked on our citizens by sugar-laden soft drinks,” Bloomberg said. “The Boston bomb claimed the lives of three innocent victims and maimed dozens more. Sugary soft drinks kill and incapacitate far more on an annual basis.” Bloomberg insisted that “we should not be...

At the Government Appliance Store year 2020: Salesman: Excuse me ma’am, you cannot buy that without a license. Customer: What? It’s just a toaster… Salesman: But it is a six slice toaster. It has high-capacity toasting capability. That is a military grade toaster. No one needs a toaster that size. Perhaps I could interest you in an egg timer instead? Customer: But my family likes toast, just like my forefathers liked toast. I need a six slice toaster. I don’t need an egg timer.

HARRY REID: We have a situation where this country has been driven by the Tea Party for the last number of years. When I was in school, I studied government and I learned about the anarchists. Now, they were different than the Tea Party because they were violent. But they were anarchists because they did not believe in government in any level and they acknowledged it. The Tea Party kind of hides that.

For the record, I tend to think that a cigarette ban for minors may be appropriate. While I oppose prohibition for adults, I think it makes sense to say that adults shouldn’t be permitted to entice children into certain unhealthy choices. Of course, if such a prohibition is put in place, it needs to be justified by banning a substance that is clearly dangerous, not just “unhealthy” by some statistic that we know doesn’t apply to all people. If the evidence qualifies tobacco as such a substance, then I can see restricting it from children.But recent news about a new...

Young New Yorkers would not be able to buy cigarettes until they were 21, up from the current 18, under a proposal advanced Monday by Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city’s health commissioner, and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker. The proposal, which would give New York the highest smoking age in the country among major cities, is the latest effort in a long campaign to limit smoking that began soon after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office, with bans on smoking in restaurants and bars, and expanding more recently to bans at parks, beaches, plazas and other public...

Fat chance serving food to Nanny Bloomberg’s brigades. The city Health Department has been trying for two years to get a restaurateur to operate a cafe in its headquarters — but it required so many nanny-state provisions that no one applied. The department’s picky food specs mandated that all entrees and sandwiches be less than 700 calories with at least 50 percent under 500, and that no more than 20 snack and dessert items be available at any time, with all less than 200 calories and containing less than 200 milligrams of sodium. Also, only juices 8 ounces and under...

President Barack Obama's drug czar toed a strict line on marijuana Wednesday, saying federal laws will prevail regardless of state-level efforts to legalize pot. Gil Kerlikowske said enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 -- which ranks marijuana as a Schedule One drug alongside heroin, LSD and ecstasy -- remains in the hands of the US Department of Justice. "No state, no executive can nullify a statute that has been passed by Congress," the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy told a National Press Club luncheon. "Let's be clear: law enforcement officers take an...

Republican Reps. Steve King of Iowa and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas continued their fight against the Agriculture Department’s recent public school meal regulation overhaul on Friday. The congressmen have argued that the new regulations imposed by the USDA, as required by the Michelle Obama-backed Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act, are overly restrictive for growing and active children, largely due to calorie caps on meals. “The voluminous menu that’s good enough for the federal bureaucrats’ cafeteria should be good enough for our children’s school lunchroom,” Huelskamp said in a statement Friday. “If USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack thinks the federal government...

THE Supreme Court has frequently handed down judgments that have shaken America to its core. Now, it has turned its attention to the raisin. A group of farmers has brought a complaint about the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, under which the government confiscates part of the annual national raisin crop. The Court is considering whether the arrangement is constitutional. But why is a country that generally celebrates red-blooded capitalism regulating the raisin trade in the first place?Since the 1940s a government agency called the Raisin Administrative Committee has confiscated a portion of the annual raisin crop: 47% in 2003 and...

The Obama budget is finally out and there are, to no surprise, a potpourri of new tax hikes proposed, many of which are aimed at the "wealthy" among us. Deep within the bowels of the colossal budget, however, lies a proposed tax that targets the poor among us and it is perhaps a precursor of other health-related taxes to come. President Obama proposes raising the tax on cigarettes from $1.01 to $1.95 per pack--a whopping 93% increase in taxes. The White House estimates that the tax would raise $78.1 billion, of which around $66 billion would be used to fund...

Eighth-graders in Wisconsin’s Union Grove school district were assigned to fill out a “Liberalism vs. Conservatism” crossword puzzle, and they learned some new and very questionable “facts.” Students learned conservatism is “the political belief of preserving traditional moral values by restricting personal freedoms … ” Conversely, they learned liberalism is “the political belief of equality and personal freedom for everyone, often changing the current system to increase government protection of civil liberties.” See the photos here. The crossword puzzle was part of a civics assignment that was forwarded to EAGnews by Tamara Varebrook, a local conservative activist whose eighth-grade daughter...

A mother at a Wisconsin public school said her daughter’s eighth grade class was assigned a worksheet with some eyebrow-raising definitions for “conservatism” and “liberalism.” Conservatism, it stated in part, believes in “preserving traditional moral values by restricting personal freedoms” while liberalism is for “equality and personal freedom for everyone.” “This is indoctrination,” Tamra Varebrook, a Republican activist in Racine, Wis., told TheBlaze on Thursday after her 13-year-old daughter showed her the crossword-style vocabulary sheet from Union Grove Elementary School earlier this week. Varebrook first talked about the assignment with the news arm of the conservative Education Action Group. Varebrook...

Democrats believe that the selling of a Coke or Pepsi is a privilege granted by government. Only government can determine what is allowed to be sold. Worse, they consider the use of soda a problem of “Behavioral Health”—surely a government determination. And they want to make violation of this new law a CRIMINAL act. “This bill would, on and after July 1, 2013, impose a tax on every distributor, as defined, for the privilege of distributing in this state bottled sweetened beverages, at a rate of $0.01 per fluid ounce and for the privilege of distributing concentrate in this state,...

The state of California is reportedly considering legislation that would force group insurance policies to provide infertility treatment for gay and lesbian couples. Two men who have sex with each other for a year and do not produce a baby would be considered “infertile” under the proposed legislation. So would two women having sex. Since biology does not allow those without a uterus to conceive or those without a penis to impregnate, every year-long gay couple in California would potentially be covered by this new provision of California law. The fact sheet supporting AB 460, the proposed legislation, states that...

In the past three decades, the number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed. The rise has come even as medical advances have allowed many more people to remain on the job, and new laws have banned workplace discrimination against the disabled. Every month, 14 million people now get a disability check from the government. The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined. Yet people relying on disability payments are often overlooked in discussions of the social safety net. The vast majority of...

That America created only 88,000 jobs in March, less than half the number anticipated, was jolting news, indicating the recovery that the White House has boasted about may not be at hand. But in that March jobs report, there was more disturbing news. While unemployment fell to 7.6 percent, the reason it fell is alarming. Half a million U.S. workers (495,000) disappeared from the labor force. They dropped out. They are no longer even looking for a job. Worse, this appears to be an inexorable trend. The participation rate of eligible workers in the United States has fallen to 63.3...

Companies aren't just singling out overweight employees. Staffers who smoke are under fire too. In small but growing numbers, employers in recent years have been refusing to hire smokers, arguing that coaxing tobacco users to quit with free cessation programs or cash incentives hasn't worked. Some medical experts back the bans, saying the end result of reducing smoking is worth it. But other health-care experts say the policy crosses an ethical line by singling out poorer and less educated groups who, federal data shows, smoke more often.

MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry: "We have never invested as much in public education as we should have, because we've always have kind of a private notion of children. Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven't had a very collective notion of 'these are our children.' So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids BELONG to whole communities. Once it's everybody's responsibility, and not just the household's, then we start making better investments." BELONG? BELONG???? BELONG...

Via Legal Insurrection, between this and Krystal Ball’s Socratic dialogue with a five-year-old about gay marriage, evidently it was indoctrination weekend at MSNBC. The novelty here isn’t the sentiment, it’s the candor. Hillary made this same point more digestible for the public by ladling on warm-fuzzy sauce about a “village� raising a child together. (Similarly, don’t think of huge government programs as budget-busting liabilities. They’re Christmas presents!) Harris-Perry had 30 seconds to give her version of the same point; when you’re operating within those time constraints, there may be no way to make the pitch in terms less creepy than...

A recent notice from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms reveals that the agency intends to acquire an online database capable of bringing up many of an individual’s personal characteristics and connections with just a few keystrokes. On March 28 the federal law enforcement organization, which is a branch of the US Department of Justice, filed a solicitation notice for a “massive online data repository system” for its Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information. The solicitation is hosted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, where vendors and developers can offer their services to the government in a competitive reverse...

IRS checking out your Facebook and Twitter to help keep you honest You have less than two weeks to file your taxes and your Facebook or Twitter accounts could end up getting you in big trouble with the IRS. They're looking for tax cheaters. The IRS has been known to check car records, employment documents and other public records. Now, your social media page is on that list too. “I think that’s a little bit ridiculous,” replied one person we talked to. Some of the people we talked to were surprised. “I think it’s still an invasion of privacy,” commented...

Granted, the actor did get into some trouble recently when he wondered aloud if gay marriage would “debase” marital law, allowing men to marry their sons to avoid estate taxes. And less recently he said, ”If a man puts his hand on a woman’s bottom, any woman worth her salt can deal with it. It’s communication.” (Perhaps that’s how it works for Jeremy Irons. I remain skeptical.) Whatever the case, his position on paternalistic do-gooders in this HuffPo Live interview, is right on.

On HuffPost Live today, actor Jeremy Irons (Reversal Of Fortune, Die Hard With A Vengeance) blasted New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg over the proposed restrictions on soda, along with the smoking ban, describing himself as a "complete libertarian" and likening Bloomberg's policies to a "nanny state." JEREMY IRONS: I'm a complete libertarian. I think it's very, very dangerous. I really mean that. I think the smoking ban is a tip of an iceberg of society -- the leaders of society telling us how to be. I think it's not their business. I think it is their business to tell...

A California billionaire is pledging to spend as much of his fortune as necessary to make climate change “the defining issue of our generation.” Tom Steyer, who made his riches as a hedge fund manager, told The Hill on Tuesday that he wants to make climate change a campaign issue for years to come and Democratic support for environmental protections as widespread as support for gay marriage and immigration reform. “The goal here is not to win. The goal here is to destroy these people. We want a smashing victory,” Steyer said of candidates he judges to be on the...

So, all of a sudden the left in America is concerned with anti-Semitism. That’s a riot. Is this the same left that constantly sides with the Muslim Brotherhood and goes out of their way to support Islam? That left? It just goes to show, when pundits on the left want to accomplish something — there is no end to the lengths they will go. I’m speaking, in this case, of gun control and the fascist mayor Michael Bloomberg’s one-man crusade for their confiscation. And don’t think for a moment that it’s not his endgame. As with everything Bloomberg involves himself...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended his “nanny state” inclinations saying that “there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom.” “Freedom should not be taken for granted,” Bloomberg asserted. “I know that in America it has been built up into some sort of iconic vision for society, but government needs to ensure that it isn’t abused. Too many people are frivolously using their freedom to engage in socially destructive behaviors. They may think that whether they smoke, eat poorly, or act in an undisciplined manner is their own affair. At the same time they expect society to...

New York City is asking appeals judges to reinstate a ban on supersized sodas and other sugary drinks, which was struck down by a Manhattan judge the day before it was to go into effect. The city had vowed an appeal and said Thursday that lawyers had filed it late Monday. In his decision on March 11, State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling said the 16-ounce limit on sodas and other sweet drinks arbitrarily applies to only some sugary beverages and some places that sell them.

The White House will host its annual Easter Egg Roll on Monday April 1 this year. More than 35,000 people will join the First Family on the South Lawn for “games, stories, and, of course, the traditional egg roll.” Also, because we apparently can’t just let kids have fun anymore, the day’s activities will include sports courts and cooking demonstrations in accordance with Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign. Nothing says “Happy Easter” like educating families on “smart ways to incorporate healthy eating and exercise choices into their daily routines.” I can just imagine the disappointment on some kid’s face when...

On the network of hysterical opinion known as MSNBC, Morning Joe guest and contributor Mike Barnicle claimed that there was a "level of anti-Semitism" aimed at New York Nanny Michael Bloomberg and his $12 million campaign to push gun control. It's not anti-Semitism. And those who think it is, as my grandmother would say, are mind-numbingly ignorant schumucks. Barnicle was part of a panel discussing Bloomberg's anti-gun rights ad campaign that included former Romney advisor Dan Senor, and MSNBC Race Baiter-In-Chief Al Sharpton. Senor stated that the mayor of a blue city should not be telling people in red states...

Perfectly illustrates liberal fascism ...

The U.S. government won't appeal a court decision blocking it from requiring tobacco companies to put large graphic health warnings on cigarette packages. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, Attorney General Eric Holder says the Food and Drug Administration will go back to the drawing board and propose new labels.

Gaines Charter Township is located in Kent County, Michigan, about 13 miles due south Grand Rapids. Covering 36 square miles, the township has 3 unincorporated communities and around 25,000 people. A considerable portion of the township is composed of farms and small cattle ranches.Vern Verduin has a 40 acre cattle ranch in Gaines Township and he’s never been any trouble to anyone until recently. Vern doesn’t like the way the country is being run. He sees the Obama administration as being what it is, a socialist government. So he decided to exercise his First Amendment rights of free speech when...