As IF Times

Source: Michelle Obama says America is entering a time of hopelessness – Women in the World in Association with The New York Times – WITW

It may be odd that a discussion about hopelessness is being carried on by two of the most privileged people living not just in America, but on the planet.  When one of those people declares that ‘now we know what lack of hope is’, it’s either the height of arrogance and entitlement or the depths of delusion.  To pontificate about hopelessness given the influence that they wield means they are operating with their check engine lights on.

“We” must mean the “royal we” because if one cared to ponder which group of “we” no longer has any hope, it’s unclear which constituency that might be.  Neither of these two women will ever have to hope for their next meal or worry about their next mortgage payment, so it’s not their personal financial circumstances that concerns them.  Naturally, this also applies to their circle of friends, who must face first world problems such as which of the Hawaiian islands has the best beaches.

If they are in angst on behalf of those not so fortunate as themselves, then it’s non-sensical since the trend of poverty has been on an incline during the last 8 years of the present administration as measured by people unemployed and whom are dependent on food stamps.  This is a direct result of her husband’s policies. Do they think that for those people, hope meant anything more than a campaign slogan? If they think incoming President Trump’s vows to turn hope into change equals hopelessness, then let’s put that in their delusional column.

If they are in angst on behalf of the subset of society which are women, then this can also be classified as delusional, since the incoming administration has already appointed more qualified females to positions of influence than the outgoing one…if you don’t include singers and rappers.

If they are in angst on behalf of the subset of society which are minorities, again this also falls into the delusional column since they are represented at the highest levels of government, commerce, education, entertainment, sports and culture and have been for a generation at least.  The entire narrative of institutionalized discrimination because of sex, race or gender is a straw argument that appeals only to the disinformed.

If they are in angst on behalf of the subset of society which are self-described liberals, well there you may have something.  This is that segment of society that has foisted increasing levels of preposterous views and turned them into sanctioned public policy under the Orwellian claims of tolerance and inclusion.  If this is the reference, then Michelle Obama’s fears are valid.  And a Happy New Year it may be.

link Soda Wars: Michelle Obama tells kids to drink water | WashingtonExaminer.com.

I suppose it’s a noble thing to use your position of influence to persuade others to do good things.  Issues  and conditions that affect many people but which require financial support to ameliorate are worthwhile causes.  Jerry Lewis has been associated with the Muscular Dystrophy cause for decades and of course Pamela Anderson has been linked to PETA.  World hunger, AIDS, etc etc etc all have their champions.  When Nancy Reagan was the First Lady, she took it upon herself to fight drug use via the famous “Just Say No” campaign.

It gets increasingly harder to find worthwhile causes that haven’t been associated with celebrities.  Michelle Obama finds herself in this pickle and so initially decided to wage a war on fat, especially among kids.  The first pass was to introduce, actually mandate the creation of legumes and veggies onto school lunch menus.  Yum!  Oddly, children weren’t particularly fond of arugula and carrot sticks…go figure.

As this campaign is as successful as the humus dip at a Denny’s, a logical idea then was to make success easier to achieve.  How about the idea of drinking…water!  It would be much easier to point to statistics that will eventually show that the program was working, kids are drinking water! We do have some reservations about getting  kids to buy into this though.  Smart Alecs will say “Water? that’s the stuff they flush toilets with!”.  No doubt there will be expensive public service campaigns expounding the virtues of drinking water with accompanying instructions on how to do it properly.  Let’s see, right hand on tap, turn clockwise…do not overfill!  Pamphlets will be distributed in schools and billboards created to ensure maximum exposure.  Facebook pages will be created on which you can “like” water.  As an accompaniment, there will also be supplementary instructions on other confusing things that children may need help with.

Breathing for example: techniques for proper air ingestion.  Let’s not forget walking instructions.  There will be discussions on the necessity of alternating feet.

I hereby wish to contribute my suggestion for how to tackle the devastating issues of child obesity and water consumption simultaneously.

Let’s remove all water faucets from homes.  Let’s direct water only to large cisterns that regionally serve communities.  To get water, children must walk some arbitrary distance, let’s say 2 miles, to carry buckets of water back to the home for consumption.   In many African countries, they are way ahead of us on this.  We combine exercise with utility, sheer genius.  Have you ever seen a fat African kid? Sometimes the old ways are the best.

Next: breathing in and out. And walking tips, is it necessary to alternate feet?