Most observers of the political scene see that democrat/Marxist/socialist require a cause so that they can:

• Enlarge the size and scope of government;
• Increase revenue to support an expanded governmental infrastructure;
• Insure that government employees are unionized to satisfy the democrats major source of campaign funds and voter support;
• Insure that the government spends money on infrastructure in politically-sensitive districts;
• Expand federal programs in education so liberalism can be taught at an early age; withholding federal funds to coerce state actions if required;
• Expand federal programs in energy, not to provide energy independence, primarily to exert political control over the production, storage, transmission and use of energy; and secondarily to insure rising costs to curtail the mobility of American citizens;
• Expand federal regulatory agencies and increase the power they exert over financial institutions and the corporations they serve;
• Expand federal regulations over the healthcare delivery system which cedes life-or-death power over every individual to a highly-politicized government entity that is, like all other government entities, subject to manipulation by corrupt politicians and their special interests; and
• Implement a ruling class of elites to insure that the unexceptional units we call citizens do not outstrip the planet’s resources; even though such resources appear to be diverse, self-regulating and infinitely renewable.

In the infamous words of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel …

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

Crisis is the key word …

Financial crisis: Due to historic levels of political corruption and the politicization of regulatory agencies, financial institutions were able to play fast-and-loose with formerly-prudent and sound banking, legal and accounting regulations and nearly crash the financial system. A crisis to be sure. And the government jumped on the bandwagon to help their politically-connected friends weather the storm and rebuild their assets. With little or no concern for the American consumer who saw up to fifty percent of their wealth evaporate. Deals were struck with the Federal Reserve to keep financial institution borrowing rates near zero and using near-worthless “paper” to collateralize these government loans. Institutions now could make outsize profits offering credit at up to 20.9% or more with credit card products. And simply leaving the money in the system would yield an attractive 5%. All the while the American consumer earned little or nothing – not even the rate of inflation – on their savings, investments and pensions. This also allowed the government to impose far greater regulations on non-financial American corporations that had little or nothing to do with financial crisis.

Energy crisis: Who can forget those dramatic shots of undersea rovers attempting to repair a gushing oil pipeline a mile beneath the ocean? Not only did the government respond by shutting down a significant portion of our energy production, they also insured that no new facilities would be built in the near and immediate future. Another environmental crisis used to bash big oil and big coal – the primary two drivers of our energy system.

Global warming crisis: Those that control the production, storage, transmission and usage of energy control the economy of our nation. Whether for good or evil, allowing an government to set policies which may cripple a nation should be intolerable. It matters little that there is no scientific evidence which can prove than man could, if he wished, affect the climate on a global scale. And it would be thousands of years until we saw any measurable results. Long enough for the country to be conquered by its enemies.

Health crisis: If the government can control the delivery of healthcare, they can control the population. Making population control choices that would be so abhorrent to the average individual as to make the Nazi regime look almost benign. Every person would owe his loyalty to the current regime that controlled healthcare and literally controlled who would live or die. With, of course, the exception of the wealthy, well-connected or outlaws in society. 

And as part of the health crisis, what better way to enlarge government control than to attack obesity. Claiming that we need to take control over individuals lives to save them from themselves and to reduce the costs of healthcare to society. Which is a patent lie.

First, the government has done little or nothing to curb significant waste, fraud and abuse in the system although they have promised controls for decades. Second, the government continues to tout the dangers of alcohol and tobacco although they believe they can reduce the societal impact of these substances by taxing them heavily. Hypocritical to say the least. Third, the government has spent billions on the war on recreational drugs although the government profits greatly from this position. Increases in unionized law enforcement, unionized prison management and the defense lawyers who earn significant sums of money to provide prepackaged “justice” to their clients. And fourth, have you noticed that little or nothing is said about domestic HIV/AIDs resulting primarily from actions within the gay community or the number of previous controlled diseases blooming with the entrance of medically-compromised illegal aliens.

So why should we believe the government when they say there is an “obesity crisis?”

 Lack of exercise kills roughly as many as smoking, study says …

People across the world are falling so far short on exercise that the problem has become a global pandemic, causing nearly a tenth of deaths worldwide and killing roughly as many people as smoking, researchers warned this week as an alarming series of studies was published in the Lancet.

These are numbers that are almost impossible to calculate, especially from the very limited sample sizes used by many medical researchers. Not to mention the propensity of the United Nations’ health organizations to manufacture or overstate the statistics to allow for fundraising, appropriations, media attention and the enlargement of their own infrastructure.  Yes, we agree that there are health benefits for being fit. But we view with a great deal of suspicion, government-sponsored studies whose solution always include the manipulation of public policies for the benefit of – surprise -- the government.

An example: match all death records with weight records and draw the conclusion that overweight people die disproportionately. The scientific issue is that we are looking for relationships between cause and effect and not simple correlation. To illustrate, I can safely say that all of those who died were water drinkers. High correlation (100%) with implausible causality.

Eight out of 10 youngsters age 13 to 15 don't get enough exercise, according to one of the Lancet studies released Tuesday, and nearly a third of adults fall short. The problem is even worse for girls and women, who are less active than boys and men, researchers found. The results are fatal. Lack of exercise is tied to worldwide killers such as heart disease, diabetes and breast and colon cancer. If just a quarter of inactive adults got enough exercise, more than 1.3 million deaths could be prevented worldwide annually, researchers said. Half an hour of brisk walking five times a week would do the trick.

But extremely fit people also have heart disease, diabetes and various cancers. It is a matter of what other significant factors influence the outcome. From other medical studies, we have seen studies which suggests that genetic background may trump environmental causes. We have seen studies promoting certain diets, drinking wine, living in certain areas or even taking fish oil. The bottom line is that researchers do not have definitive information – or researchers, themselves, would be outliving their control cohorts. 

Bottom line …

Before you allow politicians to implement public policies, you must make sure that the crisis is real, the research is solid and the prescriptions are workable and cost-effective. And if self-benefiting public policies are to be implemented, you must make sure that no special interest will benefit disproportionally without providing creditable results. Look at the billions poured into “green” energy which has made politically-connected people rich while costing the average American much more in energy costs as they fund grants, subsidies and mandate the usage of “green energy.” All the while ignoring nuclear energy because of political issues.

If you are worried about your health, you will need to take charge yourself. With Obamacare, costs will only rise – exponentially and following the rise of systemic corruption in the healthcare system.

-- steve