Posted on 06/26/2002 5:29:17 AM PDT by SJackson
One can give credit to George Bush for restoring dignity to the White House. Done. One can commend George Bush for responding appropriately to the Sept. 11 Islamist attack on the United States. Check. One can even give ol' George a pat on the back for his personal decision to kick alcohol and live a clean, reverent life. Patpatpat.
But one can also draw the line at eating all one's fruits and veggies just like the president says good Americans should.
Bush's four-day plug for more nutritious eating habits and improved fitness for a Better America has left me wishing for a bag Cheetos, a cooler of Bud and a pack of Marlboros. Not to be a square-dance pooper or anything, but there's such a thing as too much goodness. Anybody still wondering why "they" hate us?
The president's new fitness and health program - Healthier US - must rub the world's anti-infidels into a rare frenzy. Here we are, the richest, fattest, laziest nation on Earth, currently on the receiving end of a near-global assault, and we're obsessing about our capitalist girth. How 'speshal.'
While Osama bin Laden's propaganda machine was announcing that America's Fourth of July may be more combustible than usual, the president was touring a senior citizen spin class in Florida; pitching at a White House T-ball game; running a 3K against administration staffers, no doubt gearing up for the Tora Bora 10K; and lecturing the nation on the merits of eating nutritious foods.
Well, yeehah, I'm feeling better already. I mean, when the president can focus his attentions on the USDA pyramid and find time to jog and play ball, well, dang, the world must be a safer place than we thought. I don't know about you, Gomer, but I can hardly wipe this happy little grin off my happy little face.
At this point, I admit, my inner Tourette's is giving me a bit of trouble. But I shall prevail, just as I prevail over my inner glutton, my inner sloth, my inner junkie and, less successfully, my inner cynic. There's nothing so seductive to the rebellious spirit - that cherished American thing, remember - than an authority figure urging others to self-improve.
Maybe Bush's previous brushes with temptation are what compel him now to proselytize - a common affliction among the recently converted. One wishes him godspeed in his recovery, but meanwhile, exactly (ital)when (end ital) did the Republican Party join the Nanny State?
For the record, I am a member of the choir in this particular church. I do everything the president says he wants Americans to do - exercise daily, gave up cigarettes 20 years ago and wouldn't put Cheetos in my mouth without a gun to my head.
But here's the point. I do my nutrition/exercise bit because I want to. Because it's the way I prefer to live. Because it's a choice I make. Because, as my trainer puts it, I'm a "little bit crazy." Not because The Government says I should.
When government decides that Americans should do something, it usually isn't long before government figures a way to change "should" to "must." Ask a smoker. One day, the government determined that smoking was bad for you. In no time, government agencies conceived a plan to make smokers into social pariahs.
Can it be long before we make overweight, unfit Americans equally unattractive and morally reprehensible? There's something Savonarola-ish about the Healthier US campaign, well intended though it may be. Gluttony and sloth, after all, are among the seven deadly sins, the biblical intolerance of which, you can be certain, supercedes any tolerance mandates currently in vogue.
Bush knows that the economy is teetering and his cheerleading in every direction is heroic.
I see nothing wrong with President Bush encouraging excercize and better eating.
Since taxpayers subsidize the heathcare for 40 percent of the nation, I would hope somebody would be telling them to stop eating Cheetos and get their fat ass off the sofa and take a walk. How much more fat can we afford?
Remember a balanced diet requires something from the 4 major food groups every day.
When I first met you baby, you fed me on chicken and wine. It was steak and potatoes and lobster and babe I sure felt fine.
But now all you ever give me is seaweed and alfalfa sprouts And sunflower seeds and I got my doubts -
Babe, you left me here with the Chicken Cordon Bleus. My stomach's so empty and all I got is food for thought. And I been sittin' here thinkin' 'bout the twenty lbs. of groceries we bought.
We bought ten lbs. of brown rice and five more of beans And five pounds of Granola and you know what that means, I'm just a regular fella with the Chicken Cordon Bleus.
Now won't you play me them fat licks!
You know, I'm starved for affection and babe, I can take no more.
You know this stuff is so weird that the cockroaches moved next door.
Babe, can you see that old dog, he's out in the street He's got a big smile on his face 'cause they let him meat.
And babe I got the lemon and the Chicken Cordon Bleus!
Babe, I'm goin down to the bakery
And I'm going to find me a jelly roll
And some cannoli.
Some French pastry.
A chocolate éclair don't sound too bad.
How about some lasagna ?
You know fat is where it's at.
My shadow disappears ...
Steve Goodman
Cold pizza warm beer the breakfast of champions!
So far so good.
I would hope somebody would be telling them to stop eating Cheetos and get their fat ass off the sofa and take a walk.
I hope more people would: (1) tell the state to stop robbing me in order to pay the bills of other citizens. (2) tell the state to mind it's own damn business.
How much more fat can we afford?
How much more big government taxation and intrusiveness can we stand?
I simply suggest that we not accept the statist/collectivist premise that we are responsible for welfare of not only fellow US citizens but the whole damn planet with our "voluntary" contributions to the fedgov.
Regards
J.R.
Maybe she thinks we should all be somber and downtrodden until Osama bin Laden is captured or killed. So Bush is encouraging America to get fit. That's something to complain about?
She thinks Republicans are now Nanny State enthusiasts? Newsflash for Ms. Parker. There's a big difference between encouraging a behavior and mandating a behavior. There is a major political party that, fascist-like, seeks to mandate behavior, but it's not the Republican party.
Yeah, I know JFK was a Dem. He was in many ways more conservative than today's Dem's, but that's a different argument.
I don't see a problem with the president encouraging fitness...I'd see a problem with mandating it.
Clinton wasn't King Rat, just Perfect Exemplar Rat. By that, I mean to say, it wasn't that he wielded power, or made power, just that he was the perfect example of a rat who figured out a wonderful way to get control of the storehouse, where as Mr. Perfect Exemplar Rat, he and his horde of pale imitators have been taken residence and gotten fat.
Now here in these dry, hungry and mangy days, the people -- the humans, the dogs, the cats, the cattle -- have come a'knocking on the doors of the storehouses, and a first found the doors sealed shut, glued by a concoction of rat spit, urine, droppings and decaying material. And moreover backed a two vicious little queenie rats named Hill and Janet. Well, we busted down those storehouse doors, only to find the piles of grain ruined with droppings and such and many a sly or lazy rat hidden here and there. Further even more slyer and wily rats have created dens and warrens right off and under the storehouse and its the devil to seek them out. They have a network of storedens in that warren.
And those rats know we is tired, wane and need to eat.
But it wasn't Perfect Exemplar Rat Clinton who left America in dire straights. It was the men and women, cats, and dogs who failed to check on the storehouses in any ways reasonable. It was the cattle who so fat from the field grain didn't groan and waste for lack of of the storehouse grain, causing a general consensus to check it.
If they're not already, they should be!
Exactly. Do we really need the POTUS giving health and fitness lectures?
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