Government: Our Thigh Master

It is fitting that Obama and company use Memorial Day to help us adjust to a changing role for the American government. From a defender of our Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness we chuck that outdated concept and adhere now to a government that will protect us from beer, ice cream and hotdogs. Just when you think Obama can't meddle in our lives any more than he has already he manages to think that controlling our eating habits is of national importance! Yup - Forget the Memorial Day celebrations of your past...now we'll be barbecuing vegetables covered in soy sauce and clinking glasses of milk and water. This government even wants to control how we eat, when we eat it and what we put in our stomachs. Will there be any end to this idiocy? Will we ever get back our freedoms?

MEMORIAL DAY MAKEOVER (Congress has an eye on your holiday menu) Wall St Jr.

Hot dogs, potato chips, soda and beer are staples of the traditional Memorial Day cookout, but Washington wants to redesign the menu. Just in time for your neighborhood block party, the Obama Administration and Senate Finance Committee are signalling a change in your diet.

President Obama has named Thomas Frieden, the New York City health commissioner who championed a ban on artificial trans fats, as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Frieden's campaign forced McDonald's to change the way it cooks french fries -- you may have noticed the taste -- and he has lately called for all restaurants to use less salt. Let's hope he spends at least some of his time considering flu pandemics and bioterrorism.

In any case, when Dr. Frieden arrives in Washington, he'll find an ally in Michael Jacobson, head of the Naderite Center for Science in the Public Interest. Mr. Jacobson has made a career attacking ethnic restaurants, fast-food chains and grocery manufacturers for allegedly unhealthy fare. While he may be the last guy you'd want at your barbecue, Mr. Jacobson was recently an honored guest at Senate Finance. At a hearing to brainstorm on ways to pay for Mr. Obama's new health-care entitlement, Mr. Jacobson recommended that Congress enact a 50% reduction in the salt content of America's food supply, a tax of up to one cent per ounce on soft drinks, and a tripling of the federal excise tax on beer, to roughly 16 cents a can.

Is government to be the servant of the people, or their (thigh)master? Mr. Jacobson's view of the role of government was illuminated by his gripe that since 1991 beer has been taxed at a flat $18 per barrel. "Since then, inflation has robbed the Treasury of more than one-third the value of the taxes," he said. (Wall Street Journal-READ)