It all started with a very noble effort by the Department of Ed to get New York City's kids to slim down.  Perhaps you've heard of this, where they've kicked sodas out of the schools, and of course trans-fats are no longer served even in the McDonalds of New York City, much less the schools.  But much like the Salem witch trials, what started out as a good idea (slimming kids down, admittedly a better idea than purger the town of witches), has simply gotten out of control....

Read THIS....

Or don't.  In short, it says that the Board of Ed outlawed bake sales at schools in an effort to slim kids down.  They've left in some exceptions, but by and large, as of late late last year, PTAs could no longer fund themselves with brownies any longer.  Now they have to hold, what, auto-parts sales?  Homemade wallet sales?  Or maybe they now hold a draw and the losing family has to auction off a kidney?

Look, nobody wants a fat America.  Not even McDonalds, or so I believe, wants 300 lb. plus patrons (after all, they don't want to have to enlarge all those doors).  But fat kids in schools haven't been enlarged by the bake-sales, that venerable American tradition.  No, they've been enlarged by every OTHER meal that they eat!  The Board of Ed outlawing bake sales to slim down kids is like the feds outlawing gas-powered lawnmowers to prevent future oil-spills: granted, lawnmowers use oil, but that's NOT ADDRESSING THE REAL PROBLEM.

Baked goods shouldn't be eaten every day, right?  But neither should chips, french-fries, sodas, candy, or dozens of other dietary components of the poorest Americans (the ones that attend the public schools where they can no longer sell home-made baked goods).  At least some good comes from a bake sale.  NOTHING good comes from soda or chips- no nutrition, no nourishment, just the illusion of satiation.

But we CAN deal with the REAL problem.  All we have to do is throw out the corn subsidies, and make nourishing food the cheapest food available.  But that would have to be done by congress with the farm bill comes up in 2013, and  then it would have to be signed by the President (whoever that'll be then), so don't count on it.  Instead, we can likely look forward to more desperate, noble, pointless efforts by state and local governments to fight obesity, the ones that grab headlines, but don't shrink wastelines.

Sigh,

-Peeled Skinny, about to go on vacation, hurrah!