Just another "wimp-ification" of America

I just found an article. It ticks me off. You can find the original article here.

Apparently doctors want hot dogs and other typically-kid foods redesigned to reduce the risk of choking. Other choking hazards mentioned included hard candies, nuts, peanut butter, and grapes. The whole thing seems just stupid to me. First of all I, and many other kids like me, have survived my childhood with no damage due to choking on stuff. And that was all before the choking hazard warnings, laws, and regulations we have now. Secondly, once again, where are the parents in this thing? Is anyone really that stupid to feed these things to their children? (Yes, Jamie, yes there is.)

If you wanna give your child a hot dog, here's a novel idea: cut it up! Same with grapes. Or another thought: wait till they're a little older and can handle more solid foods. I mean, why does someone have to tell us these things?! If you give someone a piece of food bigger than they can handle, they might choke. It's not rocket science.

Oh, and I like how the article calls for a "mandatory system . . . to label foods with appropriate warnings according to their choking risk, to conduct detailed surveillance and investigate food-related choking incidents, and to warn the public about emerging food-related choking hazards."

Emerging food-related chocking hazard? As far as I remember, grapes have been on the menu since ancient Greece. And I'd bet that the Greecians had a couple babies choke now and then too. So... how is this emerging? And to think that someone, somewhere is actually going to dedicate money to studying this just infuriates me. I have a real problem with people who conduct dumb, unneeded studies of things. As a person who has a disease that currently has no cure, I can't stand to see this money going to waste on these sorts of things. Yes, I know some children die of choking hazards, but I am going to guess it's not that many. And maybe if we started forcing parents to have so sense about parenting, the number might go down. I can think of 50 better things to research than if a hot dog needs to be redesigned so a child can eat it. (Speaking of which, how would someone redesign the hot dog? It's been this way for so long, it seems downright appaling to think of a hot dog being shaped like a hamburger or something. Elgh!)