The Salt Police

           Taking a quick break from studying, I caught a part of the McLaughlin Group yesterday. Wrapping up their routine partisan bickering, they moved on to a new topic to wrap up. Apparently, the heads of the FDA under the Obama Administration feel that there is a new national crisis brewing (as always). It also happens to be a threat to our “national security.” (What isn’t?)  Of course, it can not be fixed by none other than…gasp… the government. What a shocker!

            So what is this dangerous threat that is deteriorating the American way of life?  Could it be genetically modified foods? Or is it a new, unstoppable virus? Cocaine, possibly? Actually, it’s none of the above. It’s that dangerous, harmful, “unnecessary substance,” called salt. That’s right, salt. The crazy concoction of Sodium and Chloride that’s essential to animal life and the best natural preserver of food.

     On hearing this absurd claim, two questions popped into my mind. One, is it the government’s role to regulate salt intake? Second, why is the government really pushing for this?

            The first question brings up the concept of the nanny state.  Essentially, the argument is that people are not intelligent enough to make the best decisions for them selves. We “need” an expert, an authority on the matter, to “help” people make the right decision. Personally, I find the arrogance amusing. I can’t help but ask, who is it that can’t decide whether eggs are good or bad? What about low fat vs. low carbohydrate diets? Let not forget, saturated or unsaturated?  Should we exercise more or diet? Should we even do anything all, or is it all a lost cause because of genetics? Then we might as well sit on the couch all day in front of the TV, watching Soap Operas and stuffing ourselves with Twinkies and Cape Cod potato chips?

            When the so called experts can’t decide for themselves, should they have the power to make decisions for us? What right (even under the constitution) do they have to do so?

            Well, if they don’t have the right to do so, and can’t make the correct decision, then why do they still insist upon telling us what to do? Is it for the sheer joy they get from abusing power? Or is there something else? Well, the end of the segment could hold a clue as to why there’s a massive push for the removal of salt from the food supply. Coincidentally, around the same time scientists formed a “consensus” that salt is bad for our health; we have made a new discovery of salt substitutes that will solve all of our problems. We get the same flavor for half the harm.

            How about that?  Do you mind guessing whose payroll these scientists are on?  Or who contributed to the Obama campaign?  Need I say more? Corporatism at its finest.