Author: Redactor

Obesity is a problem. Doctors warn about the ill effects of carrying too much flab. The Washington Post is running a front-page series about overweight children.

Good. Knowledge is power, even when it comes to diet and exercise.

But by the second paragraph of the May 19 story we’re told of an additional problem. It is, and I quote, “inadequate direction and dollars at the federal level.”

My first thought? We’ve finally found it! The one thing the federal government isn’t spending too much money on.

European governments spend more dough than ours hectoring people on health. Britain has restricted food ads aimed at kids. But, frankly, I don’t find European nannyism very appealing. I bet one can lose weight without losing freedom. Or a whole lot of money.

My second thought? Losing weight shouldn’t cost us, well, anything. I know for me, when the pounds start to pile up, no one charges me a nickel to leave the house for an evening jog. Running is absolutely free.

Maybe our federal government should stick to its own outrageous fat problem. Our weight problems pale in comparison to all the bloated, wasteful globs of fatty pork thrown around by politicians.

Why not start the government diet by saving the taxpayers the costly, preachy public education campaign? Besides, what American would even listen to the over-stuffed federal government commanding, “trim down”?

Doctor, trim thyself.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev no longer reigns as king of Nepal. On May 28, the Nepalese Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy. The members of the assembly told Gyanendra to clear out of his Katmandu palace before mid-June.

Consider it the world’s most definitive eviction notice.

A small nation on the opposite side of the world — does it matter to America? Maybe not. But it is worth noting the passing of another monarchy.

After all, our country began in revolt against a king. But we had it easy, in a way; the king was distant. All we had to evict were his soldiers.

But don’t get the idea that Nepal got through it without bloodshed.

First, as I speak this, the monarchy’s end has just been declared. The king isn’t out on his now-civilian keester yet. He could still try something.

Second, he himself came to power in such a manner as to suggest royally red hands. (A common color for kingly hands.) The previous ruler and his whole family were slaughtered. A whole heckuva lot of people in Nepal suspect Gyandendra himself as the conspirator behind the murders.

Third is the Maoist factor. In the April elections, Maoists led the polls but failed to gain a majority.

For the good of the Nepalese, let’s hope the ex-king packs up in peace, and the Maoists pack away their dangerous ideology. Or are themselves soon sent packing.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Subway, America’s leading fast-food sandwich franchise, is sponsoring a contest for kids. It’s an essay contest entitled “Every Sandwich Tells a Story.”

This contest itself is something of a story.

First, the contest explanation and rules contain multiple typos.

Second, homeschooling families are prohibited from entering.

What’s going on here? Subway’s official explanation is that the first prize award of athletic equipment can only go to a school. This is a bit lame, since the equipment could easily go to a local park frequented by the winning homeschooling family . . . or any number of homeschooling associations.

What could the folks at Subway really be thinking? I wouldn’t be surprised if the team in control of the contest have spouses in one of the teachers’ unions . . . teachers’ unions are notoriously opposed to home schooling. Go figure.

There’s been a lot of speculation. Some folk say that Subway just couldn’t bear to see another homeschooler win. My thought is that any contest with that many typos in the promotional material is badly in need of an education.

Many homeschooling families — and their sympathetic friends — have started a boycott. And I have to say, much as I like Subway, I’ll be steering the family car to Quiznos or a local deli the next time my family agrees to go out for sandwiches.

Subway has, perhaps inadvertently, taken on a hot-button political topic, and come out on the wrong side.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Last summer, ice in the Arctic reached new levels of . . . non-existence. That is, the extent of polar ice receded.

And some of you got alarmed.

But some other folks got excited by a new Northwest Passage.

Quark Expeditions charges many thousands of dollars to tour the Arctic on the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov. Alas, a May tour from the Bering Sea across the north of Canada turned out to be no picnic. The mammoth ship got stalled. In ice.

Lots of ice.

They were stalled for seven days.

A polar bear entertained the passengers early on, but tensions rose as the days of going nowhere piled up. According to the fascinating story in Canada’s Globe and Mail, the hoped-for Northwest Passage is still very “unpredictable.”

It’s barely passage at all, after this last winter, which was brutally cold . . . nearly everywhere. Yes, new records of coldness helped re-establish northern ice.

The winter thumbed its nose at global warming, a sort of global nanny nanny boo-boo.

What can I say? Seasons go in cycles. The same seems to go for the climate in general. Hedge your bets for “unstoppable global warming,” folks. And if you are on Quark’s planned June 28 departure for a north-of-Siberia cruise this summer, hoping to view, up close, the New Siberian Islands and other, uh, hot spots of the Arctic, keep your cool.

Nature might, too.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

The very ground beneath our feet can betray us. When that happens, good people rally together. This happened recently in China.

Amidst the wreckage, death, and misery resulting from the recent earthquake, we now witness  astonishing outpourings of aid.

I do not refer to the usual worldwide relief efforts. I refer to something far more momentous: Charity from the Chinese themselves.

The Chinese people have not been known for such activity in the past. Tragedies happen there with a sort of dull regularity. And the quiet indifference of the masses of Chinese people has been the typical response.

Not this time.

The Chinese have rallied as never before, supplying physical aid in terms of action, transportation, food and medicine, and spiritual aid in countless other ways.

The level of charity may be new for China, but it is not unprecedented.

The precedent?

America.

What is common in our country is not exactly common in the world. Oh, it does happen; Europeans, for instance, give too. But an amazing amount of Europe’s giving is “government giving.” In America, it is our people who give. Out of compassion, and privately, not just from our taxes.

What has happened in China to make the difference? Newfound wealth. Significant tastes of freedom.

It’s not magic. It may be simple economics.

But simplicity aside, it’s inspiring, and gives us renewed hope for China.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

When politicians push hard for something, ramp up your skepticism level. Democrat? Republican? Doesn’t matter much.

The recent farm bill passed and went to the president, who vetoed it. So it went back to Congress, which over-rode the veto of this $300 billion bill, 316-108 in the House, 82-13 in the Senate.

So ask yourself, why do Democrats support these subsidies?

Democrats claim to be “for the little guy,” for equality. Trouble is, the federal government’s farm subsidies basically shovel money up the income ladder, not down it.

On average, farmers are better off than the people who pay the subsidies. Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation explains that most subsidies go overwhelmingly “to large commercial farms, which report an average income of $200,000 and a net worth of nearly $2 million.”

We pay $25 billion to these rich farmers. And add another $12 billion in higher food prices, which are the last thing we need now, with Congress’s idiotic ethanol subsidies already pushing prices up.

So why would any Democrat support continuing such absurdity?

Because Democrats like siphoning off our money through government and using it to buy friends and stay in power. That’s all they really believe in. Equality? Hah!

Why would Republicans support it?

Same reason.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Jared Gray is an 18-year-old high school student who works as a janitor for Southern Utah University. One day he found a bag of cash lying in the parking lot, obviously one of the school’s deposit bags.

The bag was labeled with the amount: $108,000.

Jared didn’t hesitate to return the cash, saying he was raised to be honest. To express their gratitude, SUU officials will give him a scholarship if he attends the university.

Most people would applaud Jared’s honesty. Sadly, though, not everyone. A number of people, posting to the CBS News website, called the young man a “loser” or “stupid” for not keeping the dough.

Apparently, they assume it’s reasonable to steal whenever one is unlikely to get caught. If so, wouldn’t it also be reasonable actively to pursue such opportunities — in short, to become a career criminal?

That makes we who work “suckers.”

If you’re going to live a moral life, it’s common sense to live it on principle. This means you don’t become an entirely different person, a crook, when it’s allegedly “easy” to do so. Easy, that is, for a person of poor character.

Starting life as a crook would have blighted Jared’s whole life. Instead, now he’ll always be able to recall his easy good deed with pride; and, happily, people who know him will be able to trust him . . . stuff that’s more valuable than money itself.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

When I was a lad, most people insisted that government was the only institution that could provide a whole, vast array of services, including water and sewage.

Times have changed. Governments all over the world are loosening up their allegedly “natural” monopolies, allowing private companies to go to work.

In Alabama, a number of private developers now see an advantage in going into the sewer business. Rates of government-run sewage systems are so high that developers can make money by setting aside acres to treat the sewage of their own developments. And save customers money, to boot.

An article in Alabama’s Birmingham News begins like this: “Homebuyers at a new Ross Bridge neighborhood in Hoover could enjoy lower, more stable sewer rates than their neighbors on Jefferson County sewer if a privately run sewer plant is approved at the site, builders and regulators say.”

The article quotes a local director of environmental protection saying that it just makes more sense to treat sewage closer to the homes. Centralized sewage is cumbersome and too expensive. “In ten years,” he said, “this will be the primary way domestic wastewater is handled in the country.”

So, when the subject of sewage comes up, don’t sputter. You know what to say: Give the efficiency of the market a chance. Don’t get soaked by government monopoly, natural or otherwise. After all, there’s no use flushing your money down the . . . drain.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Politicians often do everything they can to get out from under term limits — in Knox County, Tennessee, to the extreme. The politicians there simply ignored the limits, and went on with business as usual.

Then came a lawsuit. It went to the State Supreme Court, where the justices ruled, in effect, that of course the term limits law passed by the voters applies.

So, in January, the County Council held a meeting to replace its illegal members. That is when they showed their true colors.

Dan Barry, writing in the New York Times, charmingly describes the event: “Before an audience of hundreds, the commission staged a political version of a bedroom farce, with its members calling repeated recesses, retreating to a back room, shouting at one another and even swearing in one appointee during a break.”

The upshot? The old council filled 12 new spots, with likely suspects, including

• the son of one outgoing commissioner
• the wife of another
• the father of a sitting commissioner
• the sheriff’s top aide.

As Barry put it, “a catfish could have been appointed if properly connected.”

But this spectacle spurred a huge number of people who usually stay away from politics to get involved. A lot of new faces ran in the February primary, and persist for the coming August general election.

Yup: Term limits to the rescue.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.