Posted on 07/14/2014 5:12:15 PM PDT by Kaslin
And the worst part is: It's not the first time.
I told you on the radio Friday that the National Institutes for Health had spent nearly $500,000 on a study to see if getting mothers to dance with their daughters could help reduce obesity. I even offered to help the federal government out by recording a promo – for only 500 bucks, mind you! – saying, “Put down that pork chop and no one gets hurt! Back away from the banana pudding!”
That’s how you cure obesity!
But there is more to the story. This particular study, conducted with the aforementioned federal grant to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, was aimed at African-American girls with the theory that those in the lower-income, urban setting might be more likely to retreat from physical activity, so maybe they would do more of it if their parents were involved.
Thus the idea of teaching mothers and daughters to engage in “Afro-Centric” dance together.
Hey, why not? It’s only a half a million dollars, right?
Wait. Here’s a reason why not. The federal government has tried this before, and they already know it doesn’t work! Fox News reports:
The government has spent $11,158,004 on similar projects examining dancing as an obesity prevention method for minority groups since 1999.
Dr. Tom Robinson, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University, has led two multi-million dollar studies focused on African-American and Latina girls and the “innovative” way to get them to lose weight by dancing.
The first study was conducted between 1999 and 2006, at a total cost of $6,802,779.
For two years the project followed over 200 low-income African-American 8- to 10-year-old girls and their families who participated in after-school hip-hop, African, and step dance classes. Robinson conducted “in-home surveys” of the families, and measured their “height, weight, skinfold thicknesses, [and] waist and hip circumferences.”
The results of the study were not promising with regard to obesity.
“A culturally tailored after-school dance and screen time reduction intervention for low-income, preadolescent African American girls did not significantly reduce BMI gain compared with health education but did produce potentially clinically important reductions in lipid levels, hyperinsulinemia, and depressive symptoms,” results posted in the National Library of Medicine read.
So on the basis of $11 million the government has already spent, we already know that government programs to encourage young girls to dance do not reduce obesity. I could have told them that and saved them the $11 million, but whatever. Now we know. No reason to spend any more money on studies like this.
Except that we did go ahead and spend more money on a study like this. And we will probably do it again.
Now some of you will point out, and fairly enough, that this was not solely a Democrat boondoogle, as the original study was initiated during the Clinton Administration and proceeded through more than half the Bush Administration. It’s true. President Obama did not sit in the Oval Office and think up this idea (nor, I’m sure, did President Clinton or President Bush). But that is not the point. The point is that government has a maddening tendency to throw away money on nonsense like this. Professional bureaucrats are constantly looking for new excuses to fund the latest study or concept to try to solve your problems, because they are convinced you can’t solve them yourself.
And the reason this matters in a political sense is that the political class is convinced big government can come up with solutions to every problem that ever existed, provided the rich pay enough taxes and we continue to elect the party of big government to keep these big ideas rolling right along.
I’d just like to remind you that the government in which these people invest so much confidence is the one that spends millions to find out if you can cure obesity by getting girls to dance. And then, after finding out you cannot, spends more money on another study seeking the exact same information.
I think I’ll just stick with my original strategy: Put down the pork chop, and no one gets hurt!
What a sorry bunch of losers.
Feds spend $500,000 to study whether mother-daughter dancing can cure obesity
Dancing sure can prevent obesity if mom and daughter spend their breakfasts, lunch and dinners dancing instead of stuffing their fat faces with chips and soda pop.
Its just a way of funneling money to favored groups - they fact they “dance” or do anything else is secondary.
Whoever authorized the funds being spent for this study should be fired or voted out of office!
That’s nothing. We sent $17 billion to Pakistan and in return they hid and defended Bin Laden.
That’s nothing. We sent $17 billion to Pakistan and in return they hid and defended Bin Laden.
From the picture above, I would say skittles and grape soda.
here’s a earth shattering idea...
STOP STUFFING FOOD IN YOUR MOUTH!
it is 100% impossible to gain weight if you stop over eating.
and it doesn’t cost a cent to eat less!
facepalm on so, so many levels.
In other news, a son who has to take his mother to dances is a significant indicator of the son’s obesity.
You can get all kinds of mother-daughter action on the Web for far less than $500k.
And while misguided federal Democrats and RINOs will argue that since the Constitution doesn't say that they cannot do something then they can do it, the Supreme Court has clarified the foolishness of that kind of thinking as follows. The Court has made it clear that powers not expressly delegated to the feds via the Constitution are prohibited to the feds.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
But Nancy Pelosi says the cupboard is bare and that there is no place else to cut. Brilliant woman that!
I am asking for $1 million to study college females who pole dance and its effect on test scores.
Who knows, it might even be a stepping stone to running for high office later on.
Herman Cain BUMP!
Regular listener to his radio program. This guy has his stuff together. Has lots of good ideas.
Is this even true.
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