Fat Teens Give Me A Good Excuse To Run A Ghostbusters Clip

Somehow, I don't find this shocking...

School lunches have been called many things, but a group of retired military officers is giving them a new label: national security threat.


That's not a reference to the mystery meat served up in the cafeteria line either. The retired officers are saying that school lunches have helped make the nation's young people so fat that fewer of them can meet the military's physical fitness standards, and recruitment is in jeopardy.


A new report being released Tuesday says more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. Now, the officers are advocating for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier.


...This isn't the first time the military has gotten involved in the debate over school lunches. During World War II, military leaders had the opposite problem, reporting that many recruits were rejected because of stunted growth and inadequate nutrition. After the war, military leaders pushed Congress to establish the national school lunch program so children would grow up healthier.


The program was established in 1946, "as a measure of national security," according to the original bill language.

I like Instapundit's line about it...

So the one meal where teenagers are fed directly by the government is a major source of obesity, but we keep being told that the solution to widespread obesity is . . . more government?

Well, yes, because more government means more power for those in government. It's kinda telling that the unintended consequence of a government program designed to stop inadequate nutrition is now viewed as helping create an obesity epidemic -- perhaps it's worth looking at this before deciding that government can "solve" other problems with big government programs.  At the end of the day, though, is it really shocking that the government purchases fattening foods when they're cheap and readily accessible in bulk as sources for kids' lunches?  If you are surprised, I'm impressed that you were able to manage to log onto the Interweb to read this.  Meanwhile, I only managed to get fat after leaving public school, so maybe I'm the exception that proves the rule.  Or maybe it was the beer.

The real reason for this problem?  I'm guessing it's too many big Twinkies.