FDA sets melamine standard for baby formula

As someone who has needed to use infant formula, I find acceptance of any level of melamine or any other non-edible, healthy substance to be horrifying. Melamine can be found in packaging materials and in cleaning solutions used in the manufacturing process. That is how it gets in the formula.

Today, I’m thankful for the hard-won ability to give my baby the all-natural, homemade, God-intended and nutritious mother’s milk.

Fast Food TV Ads Linked to Child Obesity, Study Finds

As much as I despise the commercials on TV, and in fact, despise TV viewing in general for its mind-numbing entertainment (I rarely watch, but I do allow my children to watch in limited doses), I know it is ridiculous to think that the ads on TV make a kid fat.

In fact, TV ads do not even make children go out and buy fast food. Really! There may be rare exceptions of 6 year olds with ready cash who live within a bike ride of the nearest drive-through, but I suspect that 99.9% of chicken nuggets are consumed by children whose parents drove to the restaurant and bought it.

Do TV ads make children whine for a flame-broiled burger? Oh, yes. Do TV ads make golden arches more identifiable to the average 2 year old than any other store, restaurant or brand? Definitely. But do TV ads have hidden calories? No, sorry.

“The causes of childhood obesity are complicated…”

No, they are not. And neither are the causes of adulthood obesity. Eat too much, exercise too little, gain weight. Happens to me every Christmas. If not for the New Year’s reality check, or the welcome austerity of Lent, I too might end up obese by the following Christmas.

Banning TV ads will not make kids skinny. Teaching parents how to cook? That’s an idea we can sink our teeth into.

This story is a good example about how breaking the 10th Commandment leads to some pretty deplorable behavior.

I’m not at all in favor of illegal immigration. I sympathize with taxpayers in states that have a serious problem with illegal immigrants using public funds to school their children or get emergency health care or other services. But I don’t think that somebody’s illegal entry into the country means that legal citizens can seize his property or damage his property or fail to uphold financial agreements.

Nicole Griffin sought to buy a house from her mother’s neighbor, Lorenzo Jimenez. When she couldn’t get an interest rate locked in, she moved in and agreed to pay rent until the loan was worked out. She failed to pay rent, and paperwork issues on the part of Jimenez then delayed closing. When Jimenez tried to evict her, she got nasty. She told the media, the law, the neighborhood all about his residency status and even marched down to his work and tattled to his boss. Jimenez was fired.

“I don’t feel bad for anything that happens to the Jimenez family at this point,” Griffin said recently, “because no one feels bad that all I tried to do was buy a house, and I ended up living back with my mother.”

Read the whining between the lines: “I’m a legal resident. He is not. I don’t own a house. He does. No fair!”

It’s as though she believes the toddler property laws apply to her (but nobody else): if I have it, it’s mine. If I once had it, it’s mine. If I want it, it’s mine.

Sorry, good things come to those who scrimp and save. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that you have the right to own property you didn’t pay for.

Again, I’m not defending the man’s illegal residency. I think illegal immigrants should be deported. I also think our immigration laws are unjust (translation: I think it is too difficult for people from Mexico and southward to get permission to live/work here), but that doesn’t mean that I think we should excuse those who come here without proper permission.

But I am a firm supporter of property rights, and the rights go to the person who paid for the land. He has his American-born daughter’s name on the deed, and her ownership is not in doubt. You can’t take it away from her (or her family) just because you want it.