And thus does Western civilization crumble at an even more horrifyingly rapid rate

So Michelle Obama, at a stop on her book tour, let loose with a crude epithet:

Former First Lady Michelle Obama caused a stir during her arena book tour on Saturday when she said that marriage inequality can’t be solved by women ‘leaning in’ because ‘that s*** doesn’t work all the time.’

Obama made the comment during her appearance Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where a large crowd of thousands came to see her promotional appearance for her memoir, Becoming.

The former First Lady was commenting about whether women can experience equality in both their marriage and the workplace - ‘that whole “so you can have it all”’, as she referred to it.

‘Nope, not at the same time,’ Obama said.

Okay, in the degraded times in which we live, maybe a plausible case could be made that a fleeting moment of "keepin' it real" is par for the course. But what's with this reaction to it?

Michelle Obama’s use of the four-letter word ‘s***’ sent the crowd into a frenzy at Barclays Center, according to social media.

‘THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN BARCLAYS JUST LOST OUR COLLECTIVE S***’ tweeted Jeanna Kadlec.

A Twitter user named Megan tweeted: ‘Despite waiting in the rain for an hour to get into the Barclays Center, I was just in the same room as Michelle Obama and she accidentally said “s***” and it was amazing and my life has been forever changed.’

Erin Strecker tweeted: ‘At Barclays tonight, Michelle Obama said: “It’s not enough to Lean In because that s*** doesn’t always work!” Tattoo it on my body!’

Kevin Flynn tweeted: ‘Tonight at the Barclays Center Michelle Obama accidentally said “s***” in front of thousands of people and it ruled.’ 

This kind of militant relishing of vulgarity is horrifying. It must be opposed, or it becomes acceptable and mainstream.

We just witnessed the passing of George Bush, and, earlier this year, his wife Barbara. Can you imagine her using that word at a book-tour appearance?

This is just the latest clear evidence that our civilization is way past its peak.

Then again, Mrs. Food Desert's husband, the Most Equal Comrade, made the orchestration of decline the hallmark of his presidency.

Sunday roundup

One for the maybe-her-ideology-is-affecting-her-ability-to-judge-character file:

Four years ago, Michelle Obama praised Weinstein at a White House event.

“I want to start by thanking Harvey Weinstein for organizing this amazing day,” she said at the beginning of her remarks. “Harvey. This is possible because of Harvey. He is a wonderful human being, a good friend and just a powerhouse. And the fact that he and his team took the time to make this happen for all of you should say something not about me or about this place, but about you. Everybody — we are here because of you.”

Good on ya Mike: Vice President Pence left today's Colts game when players took a knee for the national anthem.

The poor babies:

So-called “Diversity Educators” are suffering from burnout due to the “emotional weight” of their jobs, according to a recent academic journal article published this week in the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice.

The study, written by University of North Carolina-Charlotte professor Ryan Miller and six colleagues from the University of North Texas, interviewed seven interviewed diversity educators from a “predominantly white research institution” who claim that they suffer from “compassion fatigue,” “burnout,” and “racial battle fatigue” in their efforts to combat microaggressions on campus.

According to Miller, the burnout is caused by the diversity educators’ “consistent exposure to various microaggressions” from students who don’t see things their way. He notes that these microaggressions have been conceptualized by some scholars “as forms of assault and torture.”

The article, which was highlighted Friday by Campus Reform, describes the burnout as a “gradual wearing down of individuals entrenched in the work of helping others as diversity educators.”

“Team members described the emotional toll of facilitating diversity education, which sometimes led to fatigue, burnout, and disengagement,” Miller states. He adds that they “found it difficult to separate their identities and experiences from the topics at hand in a facilitation.”

The diversity educators struggle with feeling underqualified for their jobs and suffer from a desire to “prove their legitimacy to others,” according to Miller, who proposed paying them higher salaries and giving them more recognition for their efforts.

“We recommend that senior institutional leaders publicly and symbolically recognize the work of diversity educators,” Miller states. He claims that their work should be prioritized by institutions, and their efforts rewarded accordingly due to the emotionally taxing nature of their work.

One for the signs-of-light-in-the-darkness file:

President Donald Trump announced new reforms that would broaden conscience exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, expanding protections beyond small and closely held businesses to publicly traded companies and other employers as well as extending protections not only to those with religious objections but to those with moral objections that are not specifically religious in nature. This is an excellent development: The overbearing contraception mandate was an assault not only on religious liberty but on the legal standing of private conscience itself. (The mandate included types of contraception that, as even the Obama administration’s FDA acknowledged, might instead operate post-conception to prevent implantation and thus kill the early embryo.)

Guess national healing ain't their thing: The Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement announces a nationwide campaign of defacing Christopher Columbus statues tomorrow.

A comprehensive yet succinct explanation of the Catalonia situation at Hay Derecho.

At Return to Order, John Horvat examines the process by which music became removed from daily life. On the surface, it seems like an odd claim to make, given how ubiquitous music is, but read his take and see if it doesn't make sense.

Some thoughts from a great mind on Mrs. Food Desert's house-built-by-slaves remark

You probably have heard about the remark she let loose with during her commencement address at City College of New York last Friday, the one about waking up every morning in a house built by slaves.

The best observations on that remark I've seen come from John F. Di Leo, a frequent contributor to Illinois Review and a Facebook friend of mine.  Here's what he had to say on his FB page:

JFD's Top 5 responses to Michelle Obama', in reply to her latest offensive statement: that "I wake up in a house built by slaves"....

5: You should consider yourself lucky that you wake up at all.

4: All over the country, people DON'T wake up in a house... because of foreclosures that resulted from BHO's rotten economy.

3: You didn't HAVE to move to Washington to live there just because your commie husband was elected. You could've stayed in Chicago, in a house NOT built by slaves, and practiced law... if you hadn't had your law license pulled for corruption, that is.

2: When the White House was built, there was slavery in almost every country on earth. Today, slavery is only still around in the countries you and your husband support... often practiced by the very people you hang out with.

And the number one response to Michelle Obama, in reply to her whining that "I wake up in a house built by slaves," is:

1) I believe I speak for the entire country when I say: We wish you didn't live there either.

Bingo.

Memo to Mrs. Food Desert: Go away and quit poisoning Western civilization

I've really had it with Mrs. FD.  She gets fawned over in the glitzy mags because of her status, but she is nothing but a blatant race-hustler a la Sharpton, Marc Lamont Hill et al.

When, as first lady, you're invited to give a speech at the dedication of a new pavilion at a major art museum, you're supposed to say a few kind words about the museum board, the architectural team, any committees of volunteers that were involved, and then maybe offer a few words about the role of art in civic life.

You're not supposed to wallow in the most vulgar kind of identity politics.

The First Lady then mentioned one of the themes that one of the museum’s exhibits has, which is, “How can we truly, fully witness the melting pot of cultures and sensibilities and struggles that make America unlike any other country on earth?”

“This is a bold, very hard question,” Ms. Obama said.

She continued that it was difficult for her and people who “look like” her to visit cultural centers because minorities are intimidated by them.

The First Lady explained, “There are so many kids in this country who look at places like museums and concert halls and other cultural centers and they think to themselves, well, that’s not a place for me, for someone who looks like me, for someone who comes from my neighborhood.”

She continued, “In fact, I guarantee you that right now, there are kids living less than a mile from here who would never in a million years dream that they would be welcome in this museum. And growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I was one of those kids myself. So I know that feeling of not belonging in a place like this.”After referencing that the President and she have opened the White House to “young people,” Ms. Obama continued, “And with this inaugural exhibition, the Whitney is really sending the same message to young people and to people of every background across this country. You’re telling them that their story is part of the American story, and that they deserve to be seen.

“And you’re sending that message not just with the art you display, but with the educational programming you run here. You’re reaching out to kids from all backgrounds, exposing them to the arts, showing them that they have something to contribute.” 

Look, lady, anybody with the 20 bucks to get into the museum will be admitted.  There was no reason to go there.

And then she used the commencement address at Tuskeegee University to really lay it on thick:

" . . .  over the years, folks have used plenty of interesting words to describe me. One said I exhibited ‘a little bit of uppity-ism,'” Obama said. “Another noted that I was one of my husband’s ‘cronies of color.’ Cable news once charmingly referred to me as ‘Obama’s Baby Mama.'”

Then she really got into the self-absorption and the parsing of the media's supposed parsing of her gestures, statements and general way of carrying herself:

“As potentially the first African-American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations; conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others. Was I too loud, or too angry, or too emasculating? Or was I too soft, too much of a mom, not enough of a career woman?” Obama said, according to The Hill.
Obama said she and her husband, the president of the United States and arguably the most powerful man in the world, have faced “frustrating” racism, which is “a heavy burden to carry.”

“We’ve both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives,” she griped. 

This crap is really wearing thin, coming from a woman who has her taste in vacations:

In January, the president and first lady Michelle Obama traveled at taxpayer expense to beautiful, exotic India. The trip included a romantic visit to the Taj Mahal, perhaps the world’s most famous architectural testament of love — a gleaming, white marble mausoleum constructed under the orders of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. (RELATED: Obama To Show Michelle Taj Mahal)Back in March 2014, the whole Obama clan faced the prospect of cutting a mini-vacation in sunny Key Largo, Fla. short because of Russia’s meddling in Ukraine. It was sad, too, because the first family wanted some rest and relaxation away from the cold, snowy doldrums of Washington, D.C. (RELATED: OH NO! Obama May Have To Cut Third Vacation THIS YEAR Short Because Of Ukraine)That same month, Michelle Obama and the first daughters Malia and Sasha jetted off to China for over a week of much-needed sightseeing. (RELATED: Globetrotting Michelle Obama Announces Luxurious Vacation To China)

As of July 2014, the Obama family had already spent a whopping $44,351,777.12 in taxpayer funds on vacations. That dollar amount is obviously substantially higher now. (RELATED: The Obamas Have Spent Over $44 Million In Taxpayer Cash On Travel) 

She's been at this since her senior thesis at Princeton - nobody's idea of a fly-by-night junior college - when, rather than take on some lofty rumination on the sweep of civilization, she chose to whine about her identity as a black on campus for the previous four years.

January 2017 can't come soon enough.

Did you even know the term "food justice" existed?

Yet another innocuous word in our language gets "justice" tacked onto it and takes on  an entirely different significance.

And then Mrs. Food Desert brings on board to the failed attempt to revolutionize school lunches the champion of this new concept:

First Lady Michelle Obama named the new Executive Director of Let’s Move on Thursday, Debra Eschmeyer, a self-described “food justice” activist who believes that all aspects of food production and consumption should be “shared fairly.”

Eschmeyer, who grew up on a dairy farm in Ohio and is now an organic vegetable farmer, previously campaigned for “school lunch reform” and has been involved in anti-obesity and school gardening initiatives.

Eschmeyer was asked in an interview in May 2011 what her definition of “food justice” is.

“I was an editor of ‘Food Justice’ (the new book by Robert Gottlieb and Anupama Joshi) so I spent several years thinking about the definition,” she said. “Food justice seeks to ensure that the benefits and risks of where, what, and how food is grown, produced, transported, distributed, accessed, and eaten are shared fairly.”

“It represents a transformation of the current food system, including but not limited to eliminating disparities and inequities,” Eschmeyer added.

Food Justice, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), argues that the food system needs to be “transformed” because of too many fast food restaurants and “food deserts.”

“In today’s food system, farm workers face difficult and hazardous conditions, low-income neighborhoods lack supermarkets but abound in fast-food restaurants and liquor stores, food products emphasize convenience rather than wholesomeness, and the international reach of American fast-food franchises has been a major contributor to an epidemic of ‘globesity,’” a description of the book states. “To combat these inequities and excesses, a movement for food justice has emerged in recent years seeking to transform the food system from seed to table.”

How much more immediate can the threat to our liberty get than our mouths?

People magazine invites the Most Equal Comrade and Mrs. Food Desert to indulge in a little race-baiting

It didn't take much prodding from the checkout line staple for the First Tyrants to turn on the spigot:

In a new interview set to be published in People magazine on Friday, Barack and Michelle Obama discuss a number of race-based topics, including the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, as well as their own experiences with what Obama calls small racial “irritations.”

“There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn’t hand them their car keys,” President Obama told People, in a 30-minute interview conducted Dec. 10.

There will be some commentary from black conservatives about this, I'm sure.

Then there's Food Desert's traumatizing experience at Target:

“I tell this story — I mean, even as the first lady — during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf,” Obama said. “Because she didn’t see me as the first lady, she saw me as someone who could help her. Those kinds of things happen in life. So it isn’t anything new.”

"Vulgar" doesn't do these people justice.

Michelle Obama's vulgar, incendiary, America-hating exercise in lack of decorum

Mrs. MEC speaks to the League of United Latin American Citizens, and goes through her husband's litany of talking points about the relative roles of the executive and legislative branches - "won't wait for Congress to act" and all that Constitution-disdaining dog vomit - and, of course, throws in that utterly meaningless cliche "broken system" to deflect from good old law enforcement.

Then she decides to go all Howard Zinn on her audience:

Shortly after, Mrs. Obama began to list the civil rights offenses that plagued the Hispanic community at America’s hands in recent decades.

“Back then,” she said, referring to 1929 and the start of the LULAC, “Latinos were being brutalized and killed by police and lynched by the KKK. ‘No Mexicans Allowed’ signs hung outside of restaurants and storefronts. Latinos often couldn’t own property, or serve on a jury. And if you walked into a public building, you’d often see not two water fountains, but three — one white, one black and one brown.”

Some documentation if you would, please?  Just how frequent were these supposed instances?  "Latinos couldn't own property?"  Talk about a blanket statement.

This woman understands the role of a first lady about as well as I understand integral calculus.

Let's start here, toots: It doesn't involve injecting demographic poison into the national debate over the immutability of the nation's borders.

A question for the Most Equal Comrade's wife on a Saturday morning

Today, you gave the weekly radio address your husband usually gives, because you wanted to talk about the Nigerian schoolgirls.  Why no mention of jihad or Islam?

Totalitarianism doesn't even taste good

High school kids across the nation, particularly athletes, are giving a big thumbs down to the Michelle-driven USDA-mandated new government-school lunch regs.

Lenin in a designer dress

Mrs. MEC, at a White House lawn pow-wow for a Department of Agriculture program that wastes our tax dollars doing busybody nanny-state food indoctrination in government schools, sang the praises of government's ability to "shape who [children] will be."

These creatures are among the vilest that have ever drawn a breath.

Day-um, girl, you sure have some expensive tastes in chill time activities

Michelle Obama has spent $10 million of our tax dollars on vacations in the past year.  Top-shelf vodka, massages, Brazil, India, Spain, Hawaii, Mrtha's Vineyard. Would I be terribly behind the curve if I trotted out the Marie Antionette comparison?

Blind studies have shown that Grey Goose does not taste significantly better than Skol, babe.  Since this is on my dime, could we scale back the snob appeal?

Because where freedom, my mouth and my belly intersect, it gets personal

I think this blog is going to be a great resource.  The focus is the MEC regime's policy encroachments into the field of food, with interesting reportage on the First Family's own culinary forays and how they are or are not consistent with their exhortations, initiatives, gentle extortions and attempts at fiat.

Since I launched LITD yesterday, we've already looked at the new fuel efficiency standards being imposed on car and truck makers.  No doubt we'll be covering the attempt to preserve the normal-people light bulb in the face of the Freedom-Hater Frente's campaign to shove those curly-Q mercury-laden units of tepid illumination down our throats.

But, food, now, that's where Daddy definitely draws the line in the sand.  Food's place in my life is sublime.  It infuses the human experience with meaning on levels too numerous to count.  I host a food-and-dining radio show on our local news-talk station, on which I offer recipes, talk about herb gardening, wine and restaurants, and, you may have surmised, get on the occasional soapbox when a food-news item has cultural implications.  I post photos of meals I've prepared on Facebook.  I have a running household-menu-planning section of my mind that functions concurrent to my other thought processes.

So totalitarian measures like mandated nutritional-value signs in restaurants, or leaning on supermarket chains to put stores in "underserved" "food deserts," or spending stimulus money on eat-your-broccoli posters in day-care centers, gall me in particularly astringent ways.

Thus, I'm gratified to see this excellent site to which I'll no doubt refer frequently.