Socialism fail: Heavily subsidized Venezuelan food often ends up in Columbia...

What happens when you heavily subsidize food and make it almost free? People buy it and sell it in a nearby country for a profit. So, Socialism is actually promoting Capitalism? 

Attention Venezuelan shoppers: Please proceed to the supermarket checkout for fingerprinting.
That could be a reality if a plan announced earlier this week by the country's president, Nicolas Maduro, goes into effect.
The purpose? Combating shortages caused by rampant smuggling of subsidized food in Venezuela across the border into neighboring Colombia. Maduro says the system would stop people from buying too much of a single item.
According to the BBC, up to 40 percent of subsidized goods from Venezuela are smuggled into Colombia.
"The amount of staples smuggled to Colombia would be enough to load the shelves of our supermarkets," Gen. Efrain Velasco Lugo, a military spokesman, told El Universal newspaper.

Chart of the Day: Food Inflation

Via The Federalist:

First Lady Michelle Obama on feeding school kids more filling lunches: "This is unacceptable,"

Maybe Michelle should lose a few pounds before she worries about the size of someone else's children.

Via Breitbart:

First Lady Michelle Obama sent a strong message to Republicans in Congress who want to allow local school districts to opt out of the federal regulations on school lunches."This is unacceptable," she said during a roundtable discussion of the issue. “It's unacceptable to me not just as First Lady but also as a mother."The strict rules, passed in 2010, limit the amount of fat, calories, sugar, and sodium served in school meals.

Obama limits High Schoolers to 800 calorie lunches; serves president of France 2,500 calories...

Shameful...

Via Washington Times:

The fattening state dinner being served at the White House Tuesday night for the president of France might prompt first lady Michelle Obama to tell guests afterward, “Let’s Move.”
They’ll need to burn off a few of the estimated 2,500 calories they’ve just consumed.
Rep. Rodney Davis, Illinois Republican and a critic of the administration’s school-lunch requirements, called the high-calorie State Dinner menu “the height of hypocrisy.”
“Even if you’re estimating a small cut of steak, this is a menu where you’re talking 2,500 calories, which is almost three times as much as what the first lady and the USDA allow our school kids to eat in the school lunch program,” Mr. Davis said.

USDA kills school lunch control program

This program was pushed by food Nazi Michelle Obama. It didn't work. You can't make school children eat what you want. They just started bringing their lunches.

Via NPR:

Why? Because in some cases, schools had to limit healthy foods — such as sandwiches served on whole-grain bread or salads topped with grilled chicken — due to restrictions the U.S. Department of Agriculture set on the amount of grains and protein that could be served at meal-time. …
The USDA temporarily lifted the restrictions following many complaints. And, now, according to a new announced this week, the change will be made permanent.
The School Nutrition Association, a group made up of school food directors, is applauding the decision. The group says the overly restrictive limits on grains and protein worked against them.
For instance, some schools could not offer daily sandwich selections because the two slices of bread exceeded weekly grain limits. And in some cases, salads topped with low-fat cheese or other sources of lean protein exceeded protein limits.

Scary: 101 million Americans dependent on government for food assistance...

101 million Americans now feeding at the government trough...

(CNSNews.com) – The number of Americans receiving subsidized food assistance from the federal government has risen to 101 million, representing roughly a third of the U.S. population.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that a total of 101,000,000 people currently participate in at least one of the 15 food programs offered by the agency, at a cost of $114 billion in fiscal year 2012.
That means the number of Americans receiving food assistance has surpassed the number of private sector workers in the U.S.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 97,180,000 full-time private sector workers in 2012.
The population of the U.S. is 316.2 million people, meaning nearly a third of Americans receive food aid from the government.
Of the 101 million receiving food benefits, a record 47 million Americans participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. The USDA describes SNAP as the “largest program in the domestic hunger safety net.”

Marines sure are missing their hot meals in Afghanistan...

Well, I am sure Obama is still eating good...

Via NBC:

Marines at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan will lose a key daily meal starting Saturday, causing some to forgo a hot breakfast and others to work six-plus hours without refueling on cooked food, according to Marines at the base and Marine Corps officials.

The midnight ration service — known there as “midrats” — supplies breakfast to Marines on midnight-to-noon shifts and dinner to Marines who are ending noon-to-midnight work periods. It’s described as one of the few times the Marines at Leatherneck can be together in one place.

The base, which is located in Afghanistan’s southwestern Helmand Province, flanked by Iran and Pakistan, also will remove its 24-hour sandwich bar. It plans to replace the dishes long offered at midnight with pre-packaged MREs, said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Cliff Gilmore, who has been deployed in Afghanistan since February.

The moves, though unpopular with many Marines on the ground and their families back home, are emblematic of the massive drawdown of American troops in Afghanistan and the dismantling of U.S. military facilities. More than 30,000 U.S. service members will leave Afghanistan in coming months as the U.S. prepares to hand responsibility for security to Afghan forces in 2014.

Feds put the food back into school lunches...

 Michelle Obama hardest hit...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Agriculture Department is responding to criticism over new school lunch rules by allowing more grains and meat in kids' meals.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told members of Congress in a letter Friday that the department will do away with daily and weekly limits of meats and grains. Several lawmakers wrote the department after the new rules went into effect in September saying kids aren't getting enough to eat.

School administrators also complained, saying set maximums on grains and meats are too limiting as they try to plan daily meals.

"This flexibility is being provided to allow more time for the development of products that fit within the new standards while granting schools additional weekly menu planning options to help ensure that children receive a wholesome, nutritious meal every day of the week," Vilsack said in a letter to Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.

Hope North Korea likes the taste of rocket exhaust

The U.S. threatens to cut off food aid to North Korea if they go ahead with the planned ballistic missile test rocket launch. Rumors are the will soon conduct another nuclear test. Lets review; launch a rocket that can hit the U.S. and follow it up with a nuclear test. I will give you one guess what message they are trying to send.

Via ABC News:

The White House bluntly warned North Korea on Tuesday that going ahead with a long-range rocket launch would mean an end to planned American food aid to the secretive and starvation-plagued country.

"It's impossible to imagine that we would be able to follow through (and) provide the nutritional assistance that we had planned on providing, given what would be a flagrant violation of North Korea's basic international obligations," Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters aboard Air Force One.

North Korea says its rocket launch, expected between Thursday and Monday, aims to put a satellite called Kwangmyongsong-3 (Shining Star) in orbit as it marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the regime's founder, Kim Il Sung. But the United States and other countries have denounced the move as an attempt to test, or show off, the country's ballistic missile capabilities.

Don't anyone tell the food Nazi

President Obama made an unscheduled campaign stop for Chinese takeout...

SAN FRANCISCO — President Obama made an unscheduled stop for Chinese takeout between campaign fundraisers today, causing something of a commotion in Chinatown here.

With some time to spare between events, his motorcade wound its way to Great Eastern restaurant, where surprised diners jumped up from their tables and shrieked “Obama! Obama!” according to a pool report.

The president spent a few minutes working the room, greeting people and taking pictures. “How are you? Good to see you!” he said repeatedly, the pool report said.

He also spent time shaking hands outside, before leaving with two large bags of food. An aide said Obama got some dim sum.

Moonbattery Alert: Food From Poop (Video)

I have suddenly lost my appetite.



Next time I visit Japan, I am going to be very careful what is served for dinner.