Elmo, Michelle Obama to Indoctrinate Your Kids With Veggies

[...] Amy Sullivan Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 10:40 am Submit a Comment • Trackback (0) Our colleague Jim P. has the video of Michelle Obama's upcoming (November 10) appearance on Sesame S.... And to save White House critics some time, he suggests some possible protest-ready reasons to get [...]

[...] the original post: Elmo, Michelle Obama to Indoctrinate Your Kids With Veggies … Share and [...]

Brilliant, and exactly what jumped to my mind as soon as I read BBC News' headline on the subject. I can't wait for the anti-Obama crowd to spin this in some absurdly negative way.

"At the end of the video, Mrs. Obama declares homegrown vegetables delicious to eat. Then the vegetables themselves command the children to cheer for the First Lady, who has just endorsed their destruction. If that isn't brainwashing, I don't know what is."
LMAO! That is a bit masochistic on the part of the veggies, isn't it...

Wasn't that Max Baucus next to the carrots? You know, the large, red squishy thing...
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I was a bit worried by the reference to seeds and planting. God only knows what the Republican kooks might make out that ambiguous phrase.

[...] http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/09/30/elmo-michelle-obama-to-indoctrinate-your-kids-with-veggies... a few seconds ago from web [...]

"All these seeds need to grow is sun, soil, and water"

When I was a boy, people talked about how plants need sun, soil, water and love. What do you have against love, exactly?

Must be a Muslim. Proper Christian farmers never forget to mention the love.

Huh, I always did believe that Elmo was a Red (monster).

they're not actually going to grow any food in that fake TV dirt, they're just going to throw it all away in a trash can behind the studio. It's all just a commie hate-filled propaganda scam.

HELLO EVERYONE. jUST TOOK THE TIME TO DO THIS BECAUSE I HAVE READ AN INSULTING MORONS' ARTICLE. WRITTEN ONLY BECAUSE HE WAS GIVEN LINCENSE TO DO SO! ONE JAMES PONIEWOZIK. I would believe that I am not the only one who has been insulted by his abality to get published with the trash he just put forth. An example may be; that haveing read his article on "Time mobil" earlier this morning, it is now gone from the mobil and also does not appear anyware else unless you "Google" search. (SOMEONE IN HIGHER COMPANY STATURE NOTICE ALSO? OFFENDED?) GOOD - Just for the fun of it, I would imagine that this person is overweight, definately WHITE (me also, I am not a bigot), eats lousy food almost all the time. Has an undervalued mind in the sense of dumb. Vegetarian hater! You should try it some time Mr Phoniewozik. And yes, I spelled your name the way I did on pourpose! In your 40's and needen a by-pass soon?..Mark my words.daaaaaa.. I wonder who was the genius that hired you? Now, there is an article. "The dumb behind the dumber". Time should be ashamed of itself..bad Time mag, bad. Michell Obama is doing something that should have been done "decads" ago. So today we have all these fat 12 to 30 somethin, 64 oz minds out there with early onset adult diabetes, an epidemic of obesity in the US and this Moron is touting against logic!...why do I bother?

wow, hoping that was a poe.

I'm sorry but reading the article just made me mad and sad to know that there are such dumb ignorant fools in the world.
Below I have tried to show you how wrong you are.

1.Have you ever heard of the food crisis? I'm sure you haven't because otherwise you wouldn't say stupid things like children growing vegetables in the backyard is growing to undermine the agriculture sector.
If children grow food in their backyard
a) They will actually take the pressure of the agriculture business because the households that once demanded a certain amount of food have now reduced. And if every household does this the demand will fall and the prices of food will fall. Classic demand supply Scenario. I take it you didn't Economics in high school.
b) The amount of jobs has been projected to fall over the next few years but not for the reasons you think-http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs001.htm#outlook
2. In the Video Mrs. Obama never says do not eat meat.
She says eat home grown vegetables. Just because she says one thing doesn't mean that the unsaid is true.
3.Do you know that America has one of the highest and fastest growing Obesity rates in the world? Well its due to large amount of Mcdonalds, Growth Hormones in meats and lack of minerals and vitamins. While I dont agree with Mrs. Obama that being a vegetarian is the way to be. I agree that eating homegrown vegetables is immensly important to the balanced growth of a child. It is not actually a belief but Its a fact. Google it.
4.Hitler was not a vegetarian but going on the premise that all vegetarians want to commit genocide then you are saying that some of the worlds greatest minds are the same as Hitler.For example:- Leonardo da Vinci, Martin Luther, Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Hans Christian Andersen, Charlotte Bronte, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Vincent Van Gogh, George Bernard Shaw, Henry Ford and Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein. Some of the giants who have shaped our world today are in that list and you insult them. It's sad
5.I don't think you understand what is said in the statement "a two-year science initiative designed to increase positive attitudes towards nature, deepen children's knowledge about the natural world and encourage behavior that shows respect and care for the environment." Do you know that we are all connected? The trees, the insects, the animals and us.
If one aspect is damaged the others are affected. Its called systems theory and it has been proven by Quantum physics. So if we teach the future generation to understand this then the world can be a better place.
6. If you think that telling your children that caring for the environment is unnecessary because you seem to refuse to believe Mrs. Obama, then I feel sorry for your children to have such an ignorant fool for a father.
7. Umm do you think that vegetables can actually talk. Its a kids show. Its not real. The reason for the show is to educate young children who have people like you for fathers.

Don't take anything that I have said as a personal attack. It's just that you and the people who agree with you are an insult to the human intelligence. It makes me mad to hear people say things like Hes a Muslim so therefore he doesn't know about love. Love has got nothing to do with religion, race or belief.

So learn from this experience and try and be open to other points of view.
Times what were you thinking?
I agree with nuttan - the only one with true intelligence out if the lot of you.

salut

[...] Yesterday we examined how Sesame Street, gearing up for its 40th anniversary, is preparing to conscript your children into Michelle Obama's Khmer-Rouge-like farming collectives. Today , the show attempts to introduce children to Cheeveresque drama of white-collar angst, [...]

[...] the clip above to see Michelle visit time.com to read all evidence pointing to Michelle’s visit being a radical agenda to push veggies on [...]

[...] the Vegetarian Star points out, TIME magazine has a hilarious take on the First Lady’s appearance on the show saying that she’s doing it only to [...]

Um, guess I missed something, if the folks objecting to this article badly enough, apparently, to want to draw and quarter Mr. Poniewozik for having penned it are correct in their reading.

Which I most assuredly do not think they are. As one whose living depends in large measure on words and their meanings, I'll guess that I'm a fair judge of analyzing authorial intent. Not infallible, of course, but after a lifetime of dealing with words, I have developed a certain ability to guess their meanings and why the author might have used them in such a way.

I do propose, as have others before me, that the writer here was being sarcastic as h*ll, mocking the nuts that'll come crawling out of the woodwork to attack the First Lady.

Will that happen? Of course it will. After all, it's bad enough she's in the White House, not as a domestic (that would be just fine) but as First Lady and -- gasp! -- the wife of THAT MAN. A.K.A. "President Obama," the 44th duly-electe4d POTUS.

Unbearable, ain't it?

Mr. Poniewozik, looks like some of your readers are "twofer's" -- i.e., gotta whop 'em up aside the head twice with that two-by-four you used in this article to make your point.

[...] out Time Magazine’s hilarious prediction of Obam-antagonists responses to Michelle’s  “radical/Marxist/fascist message”, as well as Michelle’s Sesame Street [...]

I'm here because this "sarcastic" blog post made its way to my part of the world, Australia, appearing this morning on some well known Australian news websites. The brief one-liner header enticing readers to delve further into the article reads as follows:
'Fascist' Obama to appear on Sesame St.

In a world where people assume such brief snippets of information to be fact, you should be careful as a blogger on a supposedly well respected news journal, of spreading malicious hate. Surely you have a responsibility to readers worldwide, not just in your little world. I am disgusted with your tongue in cheek article and I don't even live in your country.

The segment by sesame street with Mrs Obama may, amongst many other positive things, inspire a generation to eat locally rather than import vegies from the other side of the world.

I've never read your blog before but get over yourself Poniewozik. Please write a little more responsibly. If a US ally, such as Australia, picks up a line of your article and spins it a certain way, I can only imagine how those hell bent on our destruction will interpret your seeds of propaganda.

Just disappointed really.

So it's his fault your local news site changes his title to something that contradicts the message of the article? (it's pretty clear it's satire if you read the second paragraph.)

Another comment from Australia. James, if that's your idea of satire, I'd get another day job. The difference between clever satire and what you've dished up is like the difference between a cabinet maker using fine handtools, and someone demolishing a home with a wrecking ball. I only read your article because of a report in the Australian press, and I won't bother coming back to read anything more by you. I'm going back out to my veggie garden to pick the broad beans, lettuce, rocket and spinach that I grow, and enjoy being out in the sunshine. The carrots should be up soon. And no, I'm not a greenie, a communist, a facist or any of the other groups you seem to associate with this activity. I eat meat and vegies, and have killed and harvested both myself. I work fulltime, have two kids and want them to know where their food comes from.

nickelking - comment 19. Yes - I agree our Australian media posted an irresponsible, attention grabbing headline, however they didn't provide an opportunity for readers to comment further on their poor excuse for a story. I am therefore going to the source. I am more concerned on how glib, sarcastic comments that can be easily skewed. Why bother writing such rubbish in the first instance? BTW, the accompanying article on the Sesame Street episode made it clear that the blog was 'satirical'.

[...] Elmo, Michelle Obama to Indoctrinate Your Kids With Veggies … [...]

[...] kids all about the importance of healthy eating and planting your own garden. Although according to TIME magazine, the First Lady was “spreading her radical/Marxist/fascist message about planting [...]

[...] [...]

[...] be gainfully employed these days. Thankfully, you can watch Michelle's enlightening gardening tips (aka commie food witchcraft) at your leisure on the [...]