Michelle Obama is the spokeswoman of a national health campaign called "Let's Move."
The program is designed to encourage children to engage in healthy activities, to eat better foods, to drink plenty of water, and to encourage everyone to get outside and exercise.
It's a noble message (run by federal dollars) in a world of video games and excessive saturated fat.
But, like all government programs, intentions end up trumping fiscal sanity.
You see, to promote the cause, the U.S. Postal Service created a series of 15 commemorative stamps to celebrate children having fun and getting active.
Here are what three of the stamps look like:
Now, here's the ridiculous part.
The printer is going to destroy every set they printed.
According to Linn's Stamp News, the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition complained that the three stamps above promote "unsafe activities" for children. The actions these two-dimensional images represent have been deemed "unsafe" because the caricatures jumping in a pool, doing a hand stand, and riding a skateboard aren't wearing "proper safety equipment."
The USPS will destroy these stamps because the skateboarder isn't wearing kneepads, the kid doing the handstand isn't wearing a helmet, and the pool-jumper is doing a cannonball - too dangerous even in cartoon form.
The entire purpose of these stamps was to make being active look fun. But this is how crazy the logic of some people in Washington has become.
How have any of us made it this far in life, without the government constantly looking over our shoulder and evaluating the danger of our activities?
It's just a matter of time before they ban Bugs Bunny cartoons, because, according to those story lines, you can stop bullets in Elmer Fudd's gun by sticking two fingers into the barrel...
Keep in mind that the USPS has lost billions of dollars and, after 15 years, still hasn't been able to adapt to competition from email providers.
This begs another basic question: Is destroying these stamps a responsible economic decision as well?
About the Author
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.