Obesity = Hunger?

Today on NPR, guest Bill Ayers (wait, where have I heard that name before?) argues that hunger is a major problem for the poor in the USA. Obviously, a major problem with this position is evidentiary: the biggest health problems among the poor are related to obesity, not starvation. So, applying pseudoscience that would make L. Ron Hubbard blush, Ayers asserts that the two are really the same thing.

A true Alinskyite, Ayers knows that lies that contain a kernel of truth are the best ones, and this one is exemplary. It's certainly possible to be malnourished and also obese. And obesity caused by excessive consumption of junk food has bad side effects. But these effects are secondary.

An obese person simply isn't going to die of starvation, or lack of nutrition. Take two people. One of them is given a steady diet of McDonald's chicken nuggets and Egg McMuffins. The other is given 800 daily calories of rice. Is there any doubt which is the more healthful diet? The chicken nuggets contain all sorts of bad stuff, but they contain enough nutrients to sustain life indefinitely. The first person might die of a heart attack at age 50, but the second person is unlikely to survive to adulthood.

By ignoring this primary fact, Ayers tries to create the myths necessary to underpin more government control of our economy. First, it's health care. Then, it's food production, because, as he asserted (with no evidence at all) on the show, eating a (more expensive) apple today instead of an apple pie leads to equivalent health care savings in the future. He does not connect the dots (yet), but it's easy to see where this leads (just look at the U.K.): restriction of "unhealthy" foods, subsidy of "healthy" foods, rationing of government-run health care for people who lead "unhealthy" lifestyles, etc.

Health care is one of the key commanding heights of the entire economy. If the left is allowed to control it, all sorts of other, smaller battles will be lost. It's just a matter of time.

And by the way, why is Bill Ayers still allowed in polite society? Doesn't NPR know he's an unrepentent terrorist?