The recent rants of the leader of the New Black Panther Party, (“I hate white people! Every last iota of a cracker I hate….” ) couldn’t have been more amusing. That is before justifying the killing of some cracker children.

Up until that point his speech sounded like one from a common street-corner nutcase or Chris Rock working out new material for an upcoming HBO special. But it plunged to a new level of low advocating harming children rather than protecting them. To his credit at least his message wasn’t shrouded in feigned concern about childhood obesity like Michelle Obama’s recent speech to the NAACP in which she first glossed over real strides made in this country when it comes to race relations, then focused on inadequate black schools and then launched into what she views as most crucial, the issue of fat black kids. However one has to question – If she’s truly committed to protecting black children from the harmful effects of bad eating habits why she didn’t ask the NAACP to join her in taking the following steps -

• Denouncing the New Black Panther party – After all if young black kids are influenced by them and actually off a cracker baby (as ordered) it would undoubtedly result in their incarceration – where they wouldn’t be served the healthiest of foods.
• Apologizing to Mr. Gladney – Rather than condone the beating of this black tea party member as the NAACP did, Mrs. Obama and the NAACP should instead support him for engaging in independent thought, even if his views differ from theirs. After surviving slavery at the very least haven’t black people earned the right to free thinking? If not, the minds of black people are still in chains which could be a very anxiety provoking concept to black youths – and anxiety commonly leads to compulsive eating.

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First Lady, Michelle Obama, has decided to take a whack at solving the American obesity epidemic. Splendid.

She should start by looking at one of the biggest roots of the problem: liberal government and its most favorite project of the past 40 years, the welfare state.

There is a surprising, yet undeniable, correlation between skyrocketing obesity rates and race and socioeconomic status. The group most disproportionately affected by obesity is poor black women.

A survey of the available research on obesity was conducted in 2004 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Human Nutrition. Among the results:

• The U.S. obesity prevalence increased from 13 percent to 32 percent between the 1960s and 2004.
• Women 20–34 years old had the fastest increase rate of obesity and overweight.
• 80% of black women aged 40 years or over are overweight; 50% are obese.
• Less educated people have a higher prevalence of obesity than their counterparts.
• 16% of children and adolescents are overweight and 34% are at risk of becoming overweight in 2003-2004.
• White children and adolescents had the lowest prevalence of overweight and being at risk of overweight compared with their black and Mexican counterparts.

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Byron York, in today’s Examiner:

First Lady Michelle Obama visited the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington Tuesday. She devoted much of her talk to “the growing threat of obesity, particularly childhood obesity” in the United States, and she touted HHS’s recently-announced plan to spend $373 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on plans to, among other things, improve the healthfulness of foods in vending machines.

The first lady did not discuss how such work might stimulate the economy or speed economic recovery. But she had glowing praise for the stimulus’ role in fighting obesity. “Congress and the president included $1 billion for prevention and wellness programs in the Recovery Act,” she told the crowd of cheering DHS workers, “and that includes funding for initiatives that will give communities the resources they need to address the obesity epidemic in their communities. This includes $373 million announced last month that would be available for communities that put together comprehensive plans to reduce obesity –- $373 million — and that would include everything from incentivizing grocery stores to locate in underserved areas; it could include improving meals at school; to getting more healthy, affordable foods into vending machines; to creating more safe, accessible places for people to exercise and play; and a whole lot more.”

 Read the whole thing here. File this away as further evidence, if possibly needed, that the ’stimulus’ bill mostly just funded a grab-bag of long-wished-for lefty government programs.