Actually, I'm as wacky as the next guy, so it's kind of surprising that I didn't really get into a book called The Isaiah Effect, which combines ancient Essene prophecies with modern quantum physics to explain how we can rediscover the lost arts of prophesy and prayer to avoid global destruction and instead usher in an era of peace and love.

Probably I'm down on the book because the author, Gregg Braden, was unshaven in the photo on the back cover, and he looked pretty good. Me, when I don't shave for a day or two, I could audition for "third hoodlum" in a Jackie Chan movie. 

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Students in England's state schools are up in arms over the government ban on junk food lunches, according to an article in today's New York Times:

Five months after the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver succeeded in cajoling, threatening and shaming the British government into banning junk food from its school cafeterias, many schools are learning that you can lead a child to a healthy lunch, but you can’t make him eat.

The fancy new menu at the Rawmarsh School here?

“It’s rubbish,” said Andreas Petrou, an 11th grader… “We didn’t get a choice,” he said of the school food. “They just told us we were having it.”

Goodness! What is this evil and draconian menu foisted upon the helpless children of the Empire?

The government’s regulations, which took effect in September, have banished from school cafeterias the cheap, instantly gratifying meals that children love by default: the hamburgers, the French fries, the breaded, deep-fried processed meat, the sugary drinks.

Now schools have to provide at least two portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day for each child, serve fish at least once a week, remove salt from lunchroom tables, limit fried foods to two servings a week and cut out candy, soda and potato chips altogether.

Why is this so objectionable? Two reasons:  Keep Reading…

There was an article in the New York Times this week about one man’s “energy diet.” The writer, Andrew Postman, managed to reduce his carbon emissions by almost one ton, without selling his house and moving into a cave. Heck, he didn’t even give up his flat-screen high-def 37-inch TV.

He replaced his regular light bulbs with compact fluorescents, lowered his thermostat in the winter, shortened his shower, and lowered the water temperature on his washing machine. He canceled a bunch of catalog subscriptions, and turned off his cable and satellite box when he went on vacation. He wrapped his hot water heater in a thermal blanket.

My family engaged in a similar pursuit this past month. We and several of our neighbors organized an “Energy Star” challenge. While our goals were noble, our form of feedback was as selfish as we could get: dollars off our monthly electricity bill.

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The New York City Board of Health looks like its serious in its efforts to keep New York residents safe from trans fats, the synthetic oil and butter substitutes that do nasty things to our insides. They voted to limit the amount of trans fat per serving in the city's 20,000 restaurants.

Many restauranteurs are upset, of course, in the same way bar owners were ticked off when they weren't allowed to poison their staff with cigarettes, and the way car manufacturers were outraged when they were forced by the government to put in seat belts, air bags, and other life-saving technologies.

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Every so often I see a news report about the "Negative Calorie Foods" diet. Basically, it suggests, certain foods take more calories to chew and digest than they provide. Celery is often given as an example. After eating a few sticks of celery - plain, of course, not slathered in mayonnaise or peanut butter or whatever else - you're thinner than you were before, or so the theory goes.

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My neighbors, who belong to the local Rotary Club and are active in a project to end world hunger, showed me the following remarkable statistics:

In the US every year, we spend

• $18 billion on snacks
• $24 billion on candy
• $20 billion on ice cream
• $103 billion on fast food
• $60 billion on soft drinks
• $45 billion on beer
• $33 billion on diets to deal with it all!
• $102 billion on health care for illnesses directly attributable to obesity (actually, I snagged that stat from www.obesity.org)
  

For a total of $405 billion annually (That's billion with a "B").

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Ever heard of George Seldes?

He was a newspaper report who got his start in the Pershing campaign of World War I.  When he returned to the US to continue his career, he began noticing a pattern: newspapers would refuse to print stories that shone negative light on their advertisers.  Keep Reading…

Here's an interview with Amie Hamlin, Executive Director of The New York Coalition for Healthy School Lunches. Learn why our kids are being poisoned by our government (doesn't that sound like an X-files episode?), how to advocate and agitate for healthy food in schools, and what hope lies on the horizon.

Find out more at www.HealthyLunches.org.  Keep Reading…