WEBCommentary(tm) - Huckabee’s Fat Lip Yammering On About Your Gastronomic Business

Throughout his time in the public limelight, Republican Mike Huckabee has made obesity awareness one of his pet issues having lost over 100 pounds himself. However, as is typical of most fanatics having come to a realization or a cause a little later in the game than most, it is not enough for them to keep what they have learned to themselves but now they are out to impose their new way of life to such an extent that they are willing to appeal to the mechanisms of the state in order to enforce their vision of reality.

As part of an initiative to combat childhood obesity, as Governor of Arkansas, Huckabee implemented directives where each public school student in that state would have their weight cataloged by operatives of the educational system. From this assessment, a document similar to a report card would be generated and sent out at about the same time as the more traditional scholastic evaluation.

Those with their perceptions mired in what to them seemed more carefree times might respond, “What’s the big deal?” Perhaps they should stop and reflect for a moment.

As in the case of grades and such, once the state tabulates an individual’s weight,, it will become part of their permanent file and be used to track them for the rest of their lives. And don’t go around thinking the number will simply remain just another harmless statistic tossed into a file folder with no additional reference made to it.

In a FoxNews.com story posted 6/13/04 titled “Students To Be Graded On Weight”, the health coordinator is quoted as saying, “We’re going to know how many are overweight, how many are underweight, how many are normal weight.” It’s bad enough for the government to have such information in its possession, but it gets even worse when it serves as the basis for the implementation of concrete policies.

According to an article titled “Arkansas’ Battle Against Childhood Obesity Enters Its Second Year” posted on the website of the University Of Arkansas For Medical Sciences, at schools with a disproportionate number of obese students, “The incentives offered to students in some areas have changed from pizza or ice cream to yogurt parties or other more healthy food choices.”

Now what kid in their right mind is going to bust their hump for yogurt and carrot sticks? If that is all they have to look forward to, they might as well drag their feet and remain mired in mediocrity.

However, if readers still think this will be the only impact, they are still not waking up to the complete picture. For often with these kinds of government programs, using a carrot (an appropriate snack choice under the regimen of the food fascists) and stick approach, once the carrot has been dangled for a while, the stick is eventually brought out to whack those with a more independent streak. The director of the Arkansas Center For Health Improvement said, “We need schools, parents, and communities across the state to get onboard and become active in this effort that will make a profound difference in our children’s lives.”

These health officials might have say in how schools respond and even communities if once sees such social conglomerations as essentially under government control rather than as the organic dynamic relationships that develop uncoerced from the interaction of free people, but what if parents decide not to cooperate? One need only look at the last three words of the director’s statement to get a glimpse of where things are headed.

Unless he is referring to his own offspring when he says “our children’s lives” that statement is very revealing as to what this higher mid-level functionary is thinking. The state, ladies and gentlemen, according to this worldview, holds ultimate title to your progeny and you are merely a hired hand granted the privilege of overseeing them for a few years --- the number continuing to decrease as proponents of universal preschool and the like continue to make headway --- but who must ultimately raise them in accord with the will of the lord of the manor.

To those thinking they are so sophisticated in their moderation, don’t go dismissing with the flick of a wrist and the crinkling of a nose what I have to say. In this day and age, especially in certain Republican circles, you can pretty much get what you want by dressing it up in the name of national security or the war on terrorism.

That is exactly what Mike Huckabee has done. In comments before the Southern Governor’s association regarding what he perceives as an obesity epidemic, Huckabee said, “You’ve got a serious situation with a generation of kids coming up so unhealthy they won’t be able to pass the military physical. We keep talking about the war on terror --- who’s going to fight it if we don’t have enough people who are healthy enough to show up and pick up a backpack.”

Thus, it has finally been revealed why many government officials are feigning concern about the expanding waistlines of many Americans. They might initially start off claiming their efforts are for the purpose of increasing the expectancy and quality of life, but ultimately it is about nothing more than getting you healthy enough to die or toil for the glory of the Fatherland (or maybe rather “Homeland” as the aspiring totalitarians among us prefer to call it nowadays so much so that even Smallville producers are so frightened that they won’t speak the word preferring to call the agency “the Department of Domestic Security”).

Huckabee’s comments also reveal the kind of double standard being propagated by the ruling elites. According to Huckabee, the primary reason Americans must be compelled towards physical fitness is so that we might be able to fulfill our obligation of national service. However, it is quite obvious he exempts his own family from these expectations.

Normally, a person’s weight is the last thing I criticize as at about the age of 9 or 10 on a visit to the doctor’s office for an unrelated matter I was handed a diet plan with a rear-end of a hippopotamus splashed across it and even in Christian schools the vilest of taunts were often reserved for the overweight students. However, a man with a son the size of one of the Huckabee offspring (and the other two children don’t look like they have skipped many meals either) ought to be among the last to insinuate you are an unfit parent if your progeny happens to be bigger than Nicole Richie.

On the Drudge Report around 12/19/07 was featured a portrait of the Huckabee household. Standing behind his parents was a young man, it would not be an exaggeration to say, who was nearly as wide as his two parents put together.

Now, in this land of the free and the home of the brave, if the Huckabee spawn wants to be that big, that is his prerogative and most of the time, most of us should keep our mouths shut about it. However, I am not the presidential contender assailing the patriotism of those whose waistlines exceed the guidelines established by those implementing the New World Order.

But you see, it is not an obligation of those in the governing class such as the Huckabees to be ready at a moments notice to answer the call of the nation. Rather, that responsibility falls to you, ladies and gentleman, to hand over the lives of your children to sacrifice in wars the elites never intend to send their own children off into.

The Huckabee son is allowed to expand until his heart’s content or it bursts. Never will he have to face the embarrassment of being weighed in front of his classmates or his parents receive in the mail threatening letters on how this information was forwarded to government authorities Never will he face the embarrassment of having to be weighed in front of his classmates or his parents receive an intimidating letter in the mail from government authorities.

During the Christmas season, the media about had a coronary attempting to determine whether the intersecting boards of a bookshelf where a subliminal attempt to interject the cross into the campaign. Too bad they have not been as concerned about a plan that could potentially curtail basic liberties and bring yet another level of surveillance into the lives of the American people if applied at a national level.

Frederick Meekins is an independent theologian and social critic. Frederick holds a BS in Political Science/History, a MA in Apologetics/Christian Philosophy from Trinity Theological Seminary, and a PhD. in Christian Apologetics from Newburgh Theological Seminary.