Oh dear.

I know pokin fun at somebody's name is not the best way to get them to take criticism seriously, but I can't help it: Lil Ezra acts and thinks boyish. Like he's better than you. I don't mind that. It's just ... he's never been properly checked. Seems he came up through the education credentials route, and no doubt his boyish clean-cut looks help endear him to his journalistic elders. But real-world common-sense checking? Not his strong suit.

Truth be told: Ezra Klein is inaccurate, and in over his head prescribing liberal solutions to all the nation's ills.

Start with the "healthcare reform" laws that do nothing to address skyrocketing costs of medical procedures with no plans at all to determine how finite resources should be most efficiently allocated. Instead, we "fix" that problem by corralling millions of healthy, non-participating adults into involuntarily contributing to private businesses. To prop up a failing insurance system currently unable to balance premiums coming in with payments going out.

Trouble is, what if all those new (forced) paying customers decide they want treatment and services for their premium dollars too? If they're not content to pay in for others with pre-existing medical needs and bills, without drawing out for their own healthcare desires?

Have the number-crunchers calculated human psychology into the mix? Because by "guaranteeing the right of healthcare to all", Mr. Klein and his economic expert pals might just be doing the exact opposite of what we all know is eventually needed: to curtail unnecessary and ineffective medical care in order to most effectively help the greatest numbers of Americans. Seeing "medical costs" reclassified before the private companies have to comply with the supposed "teeth" in the law ... well nevermind that. Ditto with pointing out that the medical needs of undocumented immigrants have not been fiscally addressed in the reform. You think that might have been a key part of addressing America's healthcare needs and how we work together to finance what we can.

But that issue "solved", we're on to bigger and better windmills for the little liberals to tilt against:

Today, Mr. Klein in his position as junior economist at the WaPo, has pulled out a "new" study, illustrated with Katie Couric and Elmo Sesame Street "when families grieve" graphics. Too cute! (But c'mon cheer up: y'all won't miss the Capt'n Cruch that much.)

Turns out, kids can be influenced by tv ads. Who knew? But help is on the way. It's gonna take some government funding to get those parents the resources they need to turn off the boob tube and teach the young un's to eat right.

But what's this? The "new" study is dated September 20, 2005? Could it be young Mr. Klein is reaching for stats to support a pre-conceived talking point of today?

Namely, that Americans are too dumb to feed ourselves properly without government spending to help us?

Why we need calorie information on menus
Let's say you take your family to Claim Jumper for a delicious dinner. You're trying to eat a bit better lately, so you'd like to make a relatively low-calorie dining choice. Should you order the spicy jambalaya, the "widow maker" burger, the cobb salad, the whiskey-apple glazed chicken, or the homemade beef stew?

Answer here. I bet you got it wrong. And let's not even get into the sodium.

I don't know. Seems if you cared, you could get online and do a little personal research before you even arrived at the restaurant to order*. Had a friend Sue in high school who was determined to lose weight. She could tell you not only the calorie count of every food, depending on how it was prepared, that went into her mouth ... she could tell you the calorie count of every food that went into your mouth too. Cafeteria table fun, but it touches on something the Lil Klein's of the world never seem to acknowledge:

Willpower. Wanting it badly enough. She educated herself, and found committment in the process, because it wasn't something you could pay for and buy. Not for yourself, not for others.

Klein doesn't get this. No skin off my teeth. Lots of folks walking around out there who think differently than me, and who have different ideas of human motivation and psychology. But... and this is the thing that grates:

When the little know-it-all's overreach, they want to provide for others at the expense of common sense and often the truth of the matter. So an old study becomes "new", and generations of common-sense food planning and preparations passed down through generations suddenly becomes inferior to something the government can provide and charge taxpayers for...

What did we ever do without the young Mr. Klein's of the world looking out for us? Heck, even in the simplest of recipes sometimes when measuring you have to stop and check yourself.

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* Really, it's a bit like bitching the line at the post office is just too long, and the answers unsatisfactory, when you failed to do the necessary research into what stamps you might need, and when the best time to discuss these issues without inconveniencing those in line behind you.

My advice? Turn around sometime kids, and take a look at all those people patiently waiting in line behind you. Then think about perspective, and recognize that just because it's the first time you've confronted bureacracy or "new" studies showing that marketing indeed works, doesn't mean it's the first and most important problem anyone's ever confronted under the sun...