What is the function of government? Whatever the government wants it to be.
One day last year, Selectman Tracy Watson received a school letter about her son Cameron. It wasn’t about his grades or his behavior. It was to inform her and her husband that Cameron was classified as “obese.”
“Honestly, I laughed,” Watson said. The letter — part of a state initiative to monitor children’s Body Mass Index — explained BMI standards and encouraged her and her husband to contact their pediatrician…
Body Mass Index is a number used to indicate body fat, and the number is determined by a child’s weight and height.
Watson’s laughter was from surprise. Cameron plays sports and participates in martial arts. He’s a member of the North Andover Booster Club wrestling team and the Doughboy Wrestling Club, and he’s also a football player. How could he be “obese,” and why was his school sending a letter home saying he was?
Because somebody you’ve never met, and never will, said so. Your kid isn’t a person; he’s a series of numbers on a chart. If those numbers don’t meet the required guidelines, steps must be taken for the good of the collective. Why are you resisting? Why do you hate your own child?
Now those meddling Republicans are trying to stop the government from saving you fat stupid pigs from yourselves. NYDN:
Being a chubby kid in Massachusetts may no longer merit a note home from school, if a group of lawmakers has its way…
Now [a] group of state representatives has proposed a reversal of the state’s “BMI Initiative,” adopted in 2009, by amending the law to state that “No language … shall authorize the Department of Public Health to collect data on height, weight, or calculate a student’s Body Mass Index.”
That’s ridiculous. How is the government supposed to protect the children without knowing every detail of their lives?
The effectiveness of a law doesn’t matter, as long as the intentions behind it are good. So what if there are unintended consequences? The consequences are unintended. Duh!
Welcome to the future, America. Just wait until Obamacare kicks in. Just wait until your private medical information is used for whatever purposes they want. Just wait until all the privacy scolds between 2001-2009 start telling you to shut up and do as you’re told.
Orwell was an amateur.
P.S. BMI is just about the dumbest measure of health imaginable. Body composition is more important than weight. But that doesn’t help bureaucrats tell you how to live your life, so they don’t care.
