The absence in this current culture of a right emphasis upon human dignity coupled with the driving economic force behind its government is a recipe for the control over its citizens’ basic decisions.  When most individuals consider universal health care I would bet they don’t take into account the affect it will have on their trips to the grocery store and their family cookouts.  There is a connection.  Once the government bails out the health care industry, it will be inserting itself in a sacred location – between you and your body.  Disguising his plan in terms such as prevention and patriotism the president ultimately seeks to stand between you and your pizza.  Not only will the government be making your critical health decisions during each stage of life, but it will also seek control over your lifestyle decisions.  I cringe at the thought.

In her article at The Politico, Coach Obama: Shape Up Now, Carrie Budoff Brown captures a small taste of the dessert to come.

You like hopenchange? Well here it is:

President Barack Obama eats his vegetables and exercises every day — and he really wants you to do the same.  From the White House garden to his picks for top health jobs, Obama is telling America’s McDonald’s-loving, couch-dwelling, doctor-phobic populace that things are about to change.

Obama and Congress are moving across several fronts to give government a central role in making America healthier — raising expectations among public health experts of a new era of activism unlike any before.

Brown further speculates:

Any health care reform plan that Obama signs is almost certain to call for nutrition counseling, obesity screenings and wellness programs at workplaces and community centers. He wants more time in the school day for physical fitness, more nutritious school lunches and more bike paths, walking paths and grocery stores in underserved areas.

The president is filling top posts at Health and Human Services with officials who, in their previous jobs, outlawed trans fats, banned public smoking or required restaurants to provide a calorie count with that slice of banana cream pie.

Even Congress is getting into the act, giving serious consideration to taxing sugary drinks and alcohol to help pay for the overhaul.

There is a new CDC (emphasis on control) guy in town:

The appointment last month of New York Public Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden as director of the CDC really made the libertarian-minded nervous.Frieden is a big part of the reason New Yorkers no longer smoke in bars or eat trans fats at restaurants and find calorie counts on their menus. Frieden once said that when anyone in New York dies at an early age from a preventable disease, “it’s my fault.”

His groundbreaking approach to curbing chronic disease — heart disease, diabetes, cancer–has been mimicked in cities across the country, including Baltimore under Joshua Sharfstein, now the deputy commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration. (One example is Sharfstein inaugurating a Salt Task Force last year to study the “impact of excessive salt intake in the city.”)

“Frieden’s stick-over-carrot, for-your-own-good approach to public health is no longer confined to the Big Apple,” the industry-backed Center for Consumer Freedom wrote on its blog. “Get ready, because the ‘nanny state on steroids’ is going national.”

Many are suggesting that this president will soon seek to push his health care agenda. In an FDR-esque statist power move he will package his plan neatly and tightly wrapped in the sort of moderate teleprompter language that will send thrills up Chris Matthews’ leg. However, after our nation takes its bite out of this apple it will be sour to the taste and bitter to the belly. There will be much projectile vomiting.

Believe me, I am a supporter of public health, disease prevention, and education. However, I do not support the selling of my birthright for the Obamacare Stew.

This image was created by Leo Alberti and taken from Michelle Malkin’s latest Obamacare photoshop contest.

Update: Malkin’s photoshop contest round 1 and round 2