It's more than a slippery slope . . . it's a tsunami.

I used to say that our rights as U.S. citizens are slowly being eroded by government regulation and political correctness. I no longer believe that. Our rights are being swept away in a tsunami of "We know what's good for you."

A bunch of parents (the article doesn't specify whose parents) have taken up positions outside a small grocery store in Philadelphia. As children from a nearby elementary school stop on their way to school or home, these self-appointed "protectors" check their sacks to see what kind of snacks they bought. McKinley Harris, who was pictured outside the store in his Middle Eastern headdress, peered into one little girl's small bag. "Candy!" he said. "That's not food."

In the first place, I don't want some man who looks like a terrorist approaching my child without my permission. In the second place, I don't care whether it's food or not, if it's not his little girl or he's not been entrusted by the child's parents to care for her, then it's none of his business when she's buying an item it's lawful for her to buy. The next thing you know, the food police will be accosting adults outside the store. We better wake up and shout, "Enough already! Get your nose out of my grocery bag!"

The irony is that these are the same folks who don't believe there should be any restrictions on what people can buy with food stamps. We are truly living in an idiocracy.

P.S. I wrote to Michelle Obama with the suggestion that if she were truly concerned about childhood obesity, she should propose that food stamp dollars be limited to wholesome, heart-healthy foods. I didn't get a reply, nor have I read anywhere that she's accepted that suggestion. Hypocrite!

"Soldiers in anti-obesity war." The Dallas Morning News; March 28, 2011; p. 6A.