Obamas: $4 billion to End National Security Threat of Fat Kids, $135 million For National Guard on the Border

Michelle Obama got her pet project through. It will cost us over $4 billion and put the president in charge of what snacks go into each school's vending machine. Unconstitutional, but when has that ever mattered to him.

Meanwhile, the funding for the paltry National Guard presence at the border $135 million, has run out. Troops will be withdrawn in February rather than July as planned.

Michelle Obama says that fat kids are a threat to national security. Obviously the Obamas think overweight children are more threatening than drug cartel assassins, threats to local law enforcement, gang infiltration of the Southwest, etc.

The Washington Examiner story is here: http://washingtonexaminer.com/world/2010/11/obama-administration-plans-pull-back-national-guard-much-border

Nice Guys Don't Always Finish Last

Bill Stewart, above all other things, is a nice guy.

The million dollar question on a lot of folks' minds today is "what does Bill Stewart think."

Oliver Luck, West Virginia University's athletic director, has apparently inked Bill Stewart's replacement starting in 2012. Dana Holgerson has crafted top notch offensive units for Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. He has agreed to be West Virginia's offensive coordinator next year and head coach in 2012. In an interesting twist, Holgerson turned down Pitt's offer to become head coach there immediately.

Stewart agreed to be head coach next year and presumably will afterwards move upstairs to a soft and lucrative job in the athletic department. Barring disaster, he will retire with the best winning percentage of any coach in West Virginia history, at leats two bowl wins and one conference championship under his belt. Pretty good for a guy with a losing record at Virginia Military Institute prior to his stint here.

It is possible that Stewart has grown weary of the abusiveness of a certain segment of the fan base who believed that their school should have looked a little harder at different options to replace Rodriguez. If he was part of this process, it would be good to hear that from him. If he was not part of the process, it shows a possibly necessary ruthlessness on the part of Luck. The team seemed to lose focus at times this year on the offensive side of the ball. The offensive line had not progressed as fast as some had hoped. Skilled players fumbled balls without even being hit. Current offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen obviously will not be invited back. However Jeff Casteel, architect of one of college football's most punishing defenses, has agreed to stay on under the new regime.

Stewart's success at West Virginia includes more than wins. He has recruited top flight talent on both sides of the ball, which should give the new OC a lot of options next year. However, the perception is that West Virginia slipped from a top fifteen program to one once again hovering on the edges of the top twenty.

If the coaching staff can work together next year, this team has a chance at accomplishing some big things. Stewart can have a farewell tour and over time, memory of his coaching tenure will be that of a Beleinlike transition period. You liked the guy, he had some nice wins, but he probably was not going to get you to the top. Holgerson can take the next year as an understudy and learn how to build and manage a program. Some coordinators make that jump pretty well, others don't.

Hopefully this is yet another success authored by Oliver Luck.

This Is Not a Joke: Michelle Obama Claims That Overweight Children Threaten National Security

There are few people in power in the federal government right now who are more absurd than Michelle Obama. The First Lady is looking very hard to make herself relevant to DC and the nation at large. Like many before her, she has latched onto a cause.

Laura Bush's passion was literacy. She wanted kids to read more books. Education and wide ranging reading expand the mind and enhance teh value of the free citizen on an individual basis.

Michelle Obama has bought into the notion that obesity is one of the greatest problems to ever strike the United States. Apparently when the vast majority of people have more than enough access to food that can sustain them, it's a bad thing. But don't worry, MO has a plan. Congress just passed a $4.5 billion spending bill to address childhood obesity. That'll cure it right?

In the speech after the bill's passage, she actually said that childhood obesity is a national security problem. Nothing that Joe Biden has said has ever approached the strangeness of this assertion. She claimed that if one in four kids were obese, then we would not have enough to recruit for the armed forces.

Let's see. Two million were in the military at its peak during the Cold War, outside of Korea and Vietnam. Probably 2.2 million or so today. We are a nation of over 300 million. That means that less than 1% of the population is in the military at any time. They can probably safely draw from the 75% of the nation, according to her numbers, that are not overweight.

She also said that the issue just cannot be left up to the parents. This is a red flag. Reducing freedom for the sake of the children is a common tactic of nanny staters. You never know precisely what their end game is, but you can bet that their "concern" does not stop with the children.

In all honesty, there are other reasons why kids might be overweight. Let's look at the elimination of recess and physical education classes. Let's look at the long bus rides taken by kids in consolidated school districts. Consolidation also reduces the opportunities to play team sports. Let's look at an antiquated time change structure that makes it dark at 4:30-5:00 PM in the winter. When are kids supposed to exercise if they so desire?