Eat Me Too

Happy Birthday - Whoever You Are!
No, this photo nothing to do with today's post, but I woke this morning thinking of cake.
And look, here it is...

Last night around 10:30 I finished writing "Eat Me".  A tale of children, the USDA, mold-encrusted applesauce (fed to the children under the watchful eye of the USDA) and mechanically-separated chicken food 'product'.  Perhaps this is why I awoke thinking of 'cake'?  Yeah, could be...  

Looking for something else 'completely different' this morning to ponder upon, I found this...

From Myrtle Beach Online, December 01, 2011: 

CHARLESTON -- Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday that America’s health is a matter of national security and that she’s optimistic the Supreme Court will uphold the nation’s health care reform law.

During a visit to the South Carolina coast, Sebelius spoke with a black nurses group [Question:  Were Caucasian, Hispanic, Oriental, or Panamanian Nurses not allowed to attend?] and then was to attend a conference on improving access to health care.

The nation’s health “really is an issue of national security,” she told the nurses group, adding that a healthy, productive work force “is an essential part of our prosperity.”

[Moos Note:  Then, by extension of Kathleen Sebelius' logic, FAT people are a threat to our National Security?  Quick, someone get Richard Simmons on the phone - I need to be 'Sweatin' to the Oldies' with the rest of those spooky-looking folks in his ads from a few years' back.  I used to be big and strong, now I'm just, pretty much, BIG.  Maybe I ought to take Bossie for a walk today once the snow turns back to rain?]
...

She said keeping people healthy means less drain on paying for health care.

“Seven out of 10 deaths are caused by chronic disease conditions and 70 cents of every health care dollar is spent treating chronic diseases,” she said. “We spend eight cents - less than a dime - keeping people healthy in the first place.” 

Sebelius also said she’s optimistic the health care reform bill will be upheld by the high court, noting appeals courts have ruled both ways.

“I am optimistic it stands on solid constitutional grounds and that we will be able to get the green light and move forward,” she said.

I do find this last statement more than a 'little bit ironic' (or 'misleading' if you prefer) that Kathleen Sebelius is under the impression that once the Feds 'get the green light' they can 'move forward'.  Knowing that ObamaCare has been 'in process' since Congress passed this debacle back in 2009 - what parts of the legislation's impact has SHE missed?  A fair question as she's been a HUGE proponent for the past bunch of years.  And wait, won't she kind of, sort of, be responsible for running the program, or is that the IRS?  I get so confused... 

But hey, that's just my opinion.  What do I know?

Next, I found a related story on the New York Times Online dated, February 13, 2012:

Dr. Jodi Sterle, an expert on human reproductive management at Iowa State University, said no easy options when it comes to human dietary needs because feeding people is complicated by their hierarchical nature. “When they are raised in large community settings, there is competition for food, water and space, and especially for food,” she said.

Researchers have tried a method called trickle feeding, in which small amounts of food are put onto plates throughout the day, but dominant personality types tend to camp out by the table and push more passive humans away.

Another method uses a microchip embedded in an ear tag to manage the subject’s diet and feed him / her in a “cafeteria,” but people sometimes find ways of overcoming that technology, too. “Basically, there’s no science that provides the perfect answer right now,” Dr. Sterle said.

Kathleen Sebelius, head of Health and Human Services, said in a statement that it supported alternative feeding efforts to contain obesity. “Legislative leadership has expressed a desire to see changes in how people are raised,” she said. “Nutritionists and dietitian's are responding and modifying their recommendations accordingly.”

 

Oops, I am sow sorry, the section above was pulled from a New York Times' article addressing McDonald's commitment to not purchase pork from suppliers who do not treat their 'pigs' humanely.

How could I have possibly confused the care and treatment of cloven-footed livestock with anything the Obama Administration is doing to make our lives 'better'?  My sincerest apologies to any swine I may have offended.

I get the impression (and this must just be ME) that Kathleen Sebelius, the HHS, and members of Congress perceive us to be a lot like your garden-variety swine. 

• They tell us what we can eat. 
• They tell us what we can drink.
• They tell us what we can smoke (and if we dare smoke, how much we'll pay for it)
• They tell us that our exhalations include 'harmful greenhouse gases'
• They tell us, in general, how we can live

The major differences between our two species?

• Pigs don't vote
• Pigs don't pay taxes
• Pigs don't drive (well, at least they don't drive 'well')
• Pigs don't believe in inter-species dating
• Pigs are almost always happy (Including the moment when the nationa buyer for McDonalds calls to place that really HUGE bacon order)
• Pigs don't 'occupy' other pigs property based upon envy or hatred towards other, more-successful, pigs

You may call me a pig.  You may call me a cow.  You may call me a low-down rotten sow...

Just don't call me now.

I'm going to work. 

Have a nice day folks.

Oh, and for the record?  I only changed eight words in the article above from the NY Times discussing the care and feeding of pigs.  Swap a few words regarding animal husbandry, apply it to humans, and anyone can be a Progressive Liberal Democrat. 

Not that there's anything wrong with THAT.