Enough, Mother

When did it become possible for politicians to pick up votes by emulating the behaviour of the overbearing mothers of children we all pitied in school? Whenever I see politicians vow to address obesity or ‘bullying” or whatever else is the fashionable cause of the day I just inwardly shudder. “Shut up and go away,” I think. Well, not quite – I had to clean up the language quite a bit to make it family friendly.

Though, even if one believes that governments ought to focus on such urgent issues as getting kids to run in circles, McGunity’s proposals and claims are astonishingly pathetic. Twenty minutes of physical exercise each day? I’d like to hear from some parents how that works out in practice. Being just eleven years removed from elementary school (and assuming that not too much has changed) I imagine that the time is mostly eaten up in the exit and re-entry into the school and, in any case, isn’t marked by anything resembling useful exercise.

Now I see that he’s promising to fight obesity by expanding high school intramural sports. That would be an effective strategy, if the people inclined to participate in expanded sports were, you know, not the kind of people who already participate in sports. The only way that they’re going to get the rest of those kids to join in is if they add Halo, Facebook, and text messaging to the list.

Of course, some wag will respond to this by linking one of my pictures on Facebook and some place and pointing out that I’m fat myself, which I will fully concede. Though, I note, I myself have lately begun to attend the gym on a substantially more regular basis – motivated by the news that Jenna Fischer and her husband have separated. Perhaps there’s something to be taken from that. Though, I admit, that’s probably a highly individualized form of motivation without any general applicability.