Michelle Obama Manages To Make Sensible Policy Overbearingly Irritating
Irradiated by LabRat
Or at least, that seems to be the real title of this article about the military looking at expanding its mess hall options and including more vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, and lower-fat options.
Now, stripping away the political-tribe warpaint and chest-beating, this is an entirely sensible thing for the military to do. There’s a massive amount of difference in the calorie and nutrient profile needs of a 20 year old in infantry training and a 50 year old driving a desk (or for that matter a destroyer), and this isn’t *replacing* the high-octane fuel those soldiers under intense physical demand need, it’s *widening the available options*, to which the only drawback will be the expense during a time when the military is rather strapped for cash.
But oh man does the first lady manage to make it annoying.
The first lady toured a gleaming cafeteria line, then announced the program in a dining hall filled with service members whose plates were overflowing with salad greens, broccoli and whole grains.
“You all look really good, really fit,” she told the airmen. “Thank you for eating your vegetables. We need you strong.”
She encouraged healthy habits during a visit with individual airmen at their tables.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be a vegetable guy soon,” she reassured one airman.
She stressed that it’s not just about giving members of the armed services a more svelte profile: There are big national security and budget implications.
Eat your vegetables like a good little boy! You half expect her to pick up a spoon and make fighter-jet noises as it heads toward someone’s mouth. After all, we’re paying for your ass!
I like vegetables, genuinely and truly, and this makes me want to have a tub of deep-fried popcorn in butter and lard sauce with bacon bits for dinner. (In actuality it will be tri-tip roast and turnips sauteed in butter and herbs, but the preparation of dinner began before I found this article.) There’s just something about having someone come along and congratulate you for making a choice as though you were a seven year old who’d spontaneously taken her plate to the sink after dinner that grits the teeth and inspires spite.
As a side comment from the “vegetable guy yet” remark, there is also a very weird sort of gender war going on in a lot of the comments I’ve read on other articles/posts talking about this story. Apparently this is somehow emasculating, and or we have to have fruit and green leafy things because we have female soldiers now and they require salad to survive.
OK, look. Men need meat and fat and protein to build and maintain their physical base, including bone and muscle mass. Women need meat and fat and protein to build and maintain their physical base because they also possess muscles and bones, and additionally to maintain the ability to become pregnant and sustain it. Children of both genders need meat and fat and protein because they are growing. Men and women and children need fruit and vegetables because they need the vitamins and possess lower digestive tracts. There is absolutely nothing biological about food types as gender signaling, it’s a very bizarre kabuki dance that sometimes involves people getting way more or way less of what they need* and occasionally produces the specter of diminished masculinity via imposed cruciate vegetables. Real hunter-gatherers (usually) have division of labor, not division of food**.
*Ladies, if your diet involves losing basic reproductive function, IT IS BAD FOR YOU.
**There are exceptions to this, but it’s usually in societies with a deep misogynistic/patriarchal streak. Their fecundity outcomes tend to be a lot worse as a result.
February 13th, 2012 at 11:25 pm
Yup, that’s the definition of patronizing, all right…
February 14th, 2012 at 1:09 am
I was lucky to do my 20 years in the Air Force, always known for the best chow halls of any branch.
Notice they didn’t take her to an Army or Marine chow line. (Probably afraid someone would start laughing right in her face.)
February 14th, 2012 at 12:13 pm
Now, stripping away the political-tribe warpaint and chest-beating…”
Well, that’s no fun. Clashing cultures is what makes this sort of thing interesting. Ha ha, look, someone who wasn’t proud of her country until she got bodyguards and people carrying her luggage aboard her own C-32 to go swanning about the globe on the taxpayer’s dime is patronizing people who were proud of their country since they were old enough to grasp what is meant by the word “country”, who have their very lives on offer if needs be to protect it, and make real sacrifices every day of their lives.
Sorry if I’m taking this a little overboard, I should probably content myself with voting against the incumbent and leave it at that.
February 14th, 2012 at 4:06 pm
I felt exactly the same way you did. Each first lady for the past hundred years has had their little crusade, and Michelle O’bama’s is healthier living. I’m fine with that- we have a problem in this nation that is growing, and needs to be addressed from several directions. But something about her take on it can get under my skin, too. I try not to let it be my frustration with her party.
As a side note, my partner at work now asks me where we’re going to get a salad, because I, a man who kills and butchers his own meat and buys half steers to put in my freezer, have of late been addicted to salads. Looking at my waistline, I need to keep eating them.
February 14th, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Fortunately in my rather short military career, 8 years USAF, I was only task to do one of these ridiculous dog and pony shows.
After a 12 hour work day we have clear out an aircraft hanger, clean the floors of any dirt and oil, wax it, change in dress uniforms, and preform as an supportive audience for a visiting senator. We had to applauding when ordered and politely stand when not applauding. At least I did not have a speaking role, asking prewritten and command approved questions.
Oh once he left (about 15 minutes), it was realized the wax on the hanger floor had created a safety hazard so it had to be stripped before we could leave.
Before someone calls me a lair, we did not typically work 12 hour days, but we had recently failed a major inspection on a new weapons system, so we were on 12 hour shifts and pulling duty every other weekend until we could try again in about 4 months, a very long 4 months. At least under the regulations, they were not suppose to work us for longer then 12 hours due to access to “special weapons” (as a member of the Strategic Air Command I cannot confirm nor deny the presents of nuclear weapons at any air force facility) . Dog and pony shows definitely do not have such weapons or someone would have set one off by now.
February 14th, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Jim C
Ha Ha
Sounds like Langley.
February 15th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
The FLOTUS has a gift for saying OK things (“eat more veggies,” “exercise and other forms of physical of activity can be good for you”) is ways that set my teeth on edge and trigger a craving for chocolate, bar-b-que, all-you-can-eat Chinese food, and utter physical sloth. As others have said, the patronizing really grates.