Let them sell cake!

Bake sales!  Don't talk to me about bake sales!

As a parent, I try to keep up with my daughter's education. And like many parents, I have my opinions about education.

Being me, my opinions sometimes get me into trouble.

Lately, there has been an inordinate amount of media attention and opinions focused on a law that is designed combat childhood obesity , which bans, among other things, bake sales on school property during school hours.

And people are mad as hell!

Am I mad as hell? Yes, but not for the reason you think.

The problem is, I don't see any reason to be mad about this. I think we should do something to combat the constant onslaught of advertising designed and honed to the single purpose of getting junk food into our kids' mouths. So a few common sense steps along those lines sounds pretty good to me.

And really, should we be having bake sales during school hours anyway? Shouldn't the kids be, you know, in class, maybe? Save the bake sales for weekends, or during football games, or something. And if you have to sell something during school hours, there are other things to sell. Sell flowers. Sell books. With the internet, you can get your own t-shirts made in no time and sell those! It doesn't have to be a bake sale.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think bake sales are evil, and I don't think home-baked pies and cookies are necessarily junk food.

So what am I so mad about?

Maybe that my daughter's education is being funded by a BAKE SALE!

Seriously, a BAKE SALE!

Can I pay for her college this way, too?

Now PTOs and booster clubs and other school-related groups do a tremendous amount of work and their fundraising adds much to the schools, but have you ever stopped to wonder why all that fundraising is necessary?

Because our schools, the institutions charged with educating our children and preparing them for adulthood, are chronically underfunded.

And everyone's just ok with this?

Why can't we ban bake sales, and JUST GIVE THE SCHOOLS THE FREAKIN' MONEY!?

Now, maybe you don't agree with my "tax and spend" bleeding-heart liberal politics.  It's a free country.  You can complain all you want about retaking our country from the Kenyan Muslim Socialist president, I don't really mind.  If you want to be willfully ignorant, or just plain misguided, hey, go ahead.  But none of that changes that fact that our schools are being funded by BAKE SALES!

The future of this country, funded by BAKE SALES!

Now do you see why am I mad?  No?

BAKE SALES!

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're going to get mad, make sure you're getting mad about the right things.

Boy, am I worked up!  And all this bake sale talk has made me hungry. 

Daddy needs a cupcake.  Anyone know where there's a bake sale?