The Coalition of the Swilling

Wow. Insanity has taken hold of our nation. Everything has to be a political plot now, even sensible advice is now considered oppression. Simply unbelievable.

I guess the four food groups are a conservative Rovian plot, too.

Sadly, some of this is antics of the Right coming home to roost after all the Clinton hating of the 90s.

That's true to some extent, Crusader. But they have taken it to new extremes, and applied it to everything.

This is, dare I say, empirical evidence of "reaping the whirlwind." Forty years of placing all reliance on political solutions and government programs has left large swaths of the public unable to see anything in any other way than political - including love, marriage, pregnancy, and child rearing.

I don't have time to read the actual report itself, but if it's as described, it's a pretty offensive idea even to non-moonbats. Telling everybody to do something because a small minority may have problems is nanny-statism at its finest.

Recommending folic acid to women who plan, even if it's off in the future, to become pregnant is one thing.

Recommending folic acid to women who do not plan to become pregnant, and take responsibility to ensure they don't, is quite another, and quite offensive.

Recommending folic acid to women who do not plan to become pregnant, but are stupid or foolish or irresponsible, is simply a waste of time.

Still, it's hardly a crypto-fascist fundie plot.

Like Ken, I'm ticked off by the Nanny-Statism. While 50% of pregnancies may be accidental, the chance of any given woman between 13 and 55 being unknowingly pregnant at any given moment is much, much, much lower.

The folic acid is one thing, but a logical extension of this is: Since you could be pregnant and not know it, you should always abstain from alcohol, tobacco, roller coasters, etc, etc.

And I suspect that a significant fraction of that 50% fall into that third category (stupid or foolish or irresponsible) on whom even good advice is wasted.

Well, I have read the report, and I fail to see anything that I would call "offensive," other than the fact that our tax money was spent on it, as it effectively says "live a healthy lifestyle." Well la-dee-fluffy-da, thanks Uncle Sam. I think part of the reaction is due to this story in the Washington Post:

Forever Pregnant
Guidelines: Treat Nearly All Women as Pre-Pregnant

By January W. Payne
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 16, 2006; Page HE01

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control.

(I think Bill wrote that last paragraph. What kind of a stupid-assed name is "January Payne", anyway? Were her(?) parents afraid they would forget her birthday?)

I don't see anything in the report itself that is new information; this is regurgitated Nanny Statism.

Here is the phrase from the report where the WaPo got their headline:

Recommendation 1. Individual Responsibility Across the Lifespan. Each woman, man, and couple should be encouraged to have a reproductive life plan.
The target population for preconception health promotion is women, from menarche to menopause, who are capable of having children, even if they do not intend to conceive.

Which, while close, does not seem as extreme to me as the way WaPo phrased it. There's nothing here that has not been in any government health report in the last 30 years, I would imagine.

This is not at all offensive except for the title of that Post article.

It's a fact that a huge percent of pregnancies are unplanned, and it's a fact that most women who become pregnant want their babies to be healthy. Putting two and two together, it is entirely reasonable to recommend taking folic acid, if it does really help prevent birth defects.

No one is requiring anything.

The government also tells me to buckle my seat belt. I didn't see anyone complain about that until they made it the law.

Advice is free, no one has to take it.

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take...

Can that be any more offensive than the sex education 'theocracy' that promotes handing out condoms to all young women regardless of their beliefs, commitment to abstinence, or virginity on the odd chance of a sexual encounter.

Sex educators in schools would have teenaged women equipped with condoms in case the overzealous and/or drunk male has plans to ply her with alcohol and make some moves. For that matter, will the sex industry be willing to hand out little packets of folic acid supplements with the condoms??

After all, it is just in case something happens.

Maybe they could add folic acid to the lubricant?

Or maybe we could require breweries to add it to beer...

Sorry, Mike. Advice is free, but the message to most women is "You should take it because some other people are irresponsible". I find that offensive.

As one commenter somewhere put it, it's not much of a stretch to see someone start tracking folic acid sales (apparently, New York tracks sales of materials for diabetics - I don't know if that meant meds or testing supplies).

After that, it's not much of a stretch to see it becoming mandatory. They did it with seatbelts, as you mentioned. The difference, of course, is that seatbelt laws only apply to those actually in a car, not to those who might someday be in one.

Gosh, I don't know Ken, I know I'm young and naive and all, but I think you've got a couple of good stretches in there. I'm not denying there is a lot of Nanny State wishful thinking in the report, nor that there already exists a lot of such stuff already, but any 'offense' I might feel is directed at the Congress wich has allowed regulatory agencies to circumvent the Constitution and create laws, not at the proposals of a medical panel.

The diabetic-item tracking is probably due to the syringes involved, I would imagine; I remember the looks we got 20 years ago when we went through custooms in Argentina with a couple of hundred syringes in our luggage...

I think people are too sensitive. If you're a responsible person, and don't think you need their advice, then don't take it.

The real problem is that the government is financing this advice. The government has no business being involved in the medical industry. The more government is involved, the more people get in arguments.

But I have to say, this is the silliest thing yet that I've seen anyone get upset about.

When it comes to the nanny state, no stretch is too big to be concerned about. It was a stretch to think that requiring warnings on cigarettes would lead to suing tobacco companies. It was a stretch to think that suing tobacco companies would lead to suing McDonalds.

So yeah, I'm still offended, though not for the same reasons as the feminutjobs.

Well for God's sakes! Let's not let the government tell us anything for fear of offending someone. From now on they shouldn't warn people about anything ("we can't tell you what that huge fireball in space is coming directly towards the Earth -- heading straight towards downtown Spokane in fact -- because it might offend someone to suggest that they are in danger and should alter their routine to get out of the way of the meteo-- we mean object that we can't talk about") lest someone's shorts get in a twist as the little bubble he or she lives in is impinged by the realization that there are other people in the world.

Women need to man up and not act like hysterical fools everytime the (cue theme to Psycho) goverment releases health advice, and it looks like some men need to unclench their testicles and admit that the dread shadow of Nanny Government (cue theme to The Omen) did not in fact just pass.

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