SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

ARRIVAL – We are awaiting a huge blizzard here in New York.  I have done all the things I learned to do as a Boy Scout.  I've charged every battery.  I have a full tank of gas.  I've brought in an over-supply of nutritious, life-sustaining foods like popcorn and ice cream.  I have my Midland emergency radio turned on.  I'm at a window watching birds massing in the trees, which is what they apparently do during weather like this.  And I'm waiting for Al Gore to declare the blizzard a product of global warming.  Is there anything else I should be doing?  The Clintons live about 20 minutes from here, and it's rumored that Hillary will blame this storm for low voter turnout.

KIDS JUST WANT TO BE KIDS – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   Faced with students who won't buy lunches low in salt and sugar and jacked up with bland-tasting grains, the nation's 54,000 school cafeteria workers are urging Washington to junk health-focused rules pushed by former first lady Michelle Obama.  Feeling that they have an ally on their side in the Trump administration, their lobby group, the School Nutrition Association, plans to press for less-strict restrictions on ingredients that taste good.  The reason is simple: Studies show that public school students aren't eating what cafeterias are serving, turning many operations into money-losers. While the school districts can opt out, doing so results in federal subsidy cuts for those programs.  I once had to debate a parent who wanted to ban hot dogs for a school class that was going to a Yankees game because they weren't nutritious enough.  Parents like that can destroy Americanism.

WHACKJOBS AHOY – FROM PJ MEDIA:   At a college in Illinois, students seemingly believe that the best way to effect social change is to go to sleep. No, seriously.  "The nap-ins are part of the internal journey to diversity," student coordinator Marissa Amposta, a senior studying art at Southern Illinois University (SIU), told the Daily Egyptian, the student newspaper. "All dreams start while sleeping."  Amposta is facilitating four two-hour sleep sessions in March for Women's History Month, setting up a safe space in the rotunda of Morris Library. She said the sessions are meant to "internally generate student dreams of diversity."   When I sleep tonight, I'm sure diversity will be the first thing that appears.  I can't wait.

March 13, 2017