Until today, I was blissfully ignorant of Julie Gunlock.  She flitted across my radar, and I set out to write a post about some very foolish remarks she made on Fox & Friends yesterday morning.  A simple post about a single issue, yes?  But nooooooo … Julie would not be satisfied with that.  She wanted more.  She begged for more … and then she showed me why she deserved the famous and much-coveted Idiot of the Week Award.  I must admit, Julie is more than qualified for this award and who am I to argue with an idiot?  First, let me tell you what put her in the cross-hairs to begin with.

On Fox & Friends, Julie despaired that schools are becoming too liberal.  Why?  Because … wait for it … they are providing meals and sometimes even healthcare for children!  GASP! 

“More and more now these schools, elementary schools are taking on and supplanting parents. They get dropped off at 6:30 in the morning, they get three meals a day. There is after-care. There is even health care services at some schools. So, really schools have tried more and more to take on the role of parenting.”

Gunlock added that liberal bias was seeping into the curriculum as well, lamenting the fact that some schools were teaching kids about climate change and transgender issues.  OH HORRORS!!! To remedy the problem, Gunlock suggested reading The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. Um, no thanks.

So who is Julie that she is such an ‘expert’ on children and education?  Is she a teacher?  No.  Does she have a degree in education?  No.  She is “a Senior Fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum and directs the organization’s Culture of Alarmism project. She is the author of the book ‘From Cupcakes to Chemicals: How the Culture of Alarmism Makes Us Afraid of Everything and How to Fight Back’.”

Ms. Gunlock has contributed articles to a number of publications, including The Washington Post, New York Times and Huffington Post, but more recently she is a regular contributor for such conservative publications as The Federalist, Townhall, National Review, and The American Spectator. Just a look at the titles of some of her recent articles in these publications reinforces her qualifications for this award:

Radical Environmentalists Should Mind Their Own Business – Takes on the “Mind the Store” campaign which is a coalition representing more than 11 million individuals and over 450 organizations and businesses united by a common concern about toxic chemicals found in homes, places of work, and products consumers use every day. Ms. Gunlock claims to know better.

It’s Best to Take Government Health Advice with a Pinch of Salt – claims that FDA guidelines are “completely ineffective and based on dubious and outdated science.”

This Summer, Let’s Stop Blaming Soda – “These days, soft drinks are in the cross hairs of the food nannies, and are blamed for a variety of conditions and social ills – from obesity to violence in children … such rhetoric has little to do with actual research.”  Gee, she has no degree in any of the hard sciences, so I wonder … ???

The Food Marxists at the FDA – rants against FDA requirements limiting salt in processed foods.  “And, if that isn’t outrageous enough, consider also that food manufacturers are already providing consumers an abundance of low-salt and no-salt products.”  Oh the inhumanity!!!

Popping the Bee-Pocalypse Myth – claims that despite scientific evidence, she somehow knows that “the environmentalists’ dirty little secret is that bees are actually doing fine”. Again … where is that relevant science degree?

#FreakoutFriday: The Truth About Gummy Bears – “How in the world could anyone freak out about adorable, sweet, chewy Gummy Bears?”  I’d hate to see your kids’ dental bills, lady!

Ms. Gunlock also writes a blog:

Debbie Downer Alarmists Ruin the Greatest Show on Earth – criticizes animal rights groups for protesting cruel treatment of wild animals, specifically elephants, in circuses.  Oh yes, by all means let us continue abusing animals, for they were put here only for your entertainment, Ms. Gunlock!

Alarmism About Food Creates New Mental Condition: Orthorexia – claims that such things as nutritional labels and FDA warnings contribute to a “fixation on righteous eating”, and “an obsessive focus on clean food consumption”.

Gunlock’s main focus seems to be about food.  She is miffed at the government for issuing advice and warnings about GMOs, sugar, salt, and raw cookie dough, to name a few.  She rails against former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and former First Lady Michelle Obama for their campaigns to get people, especially children, to eat healthier and consume less sugar.  She is against environmental regulations, and just about everything else that makes sense.  She seems obsessed with food, and is resentful of any attempts to advise consumers about eating healthy.

She decries the fact that if shopping for toys on Amazon, the toys are not labeled as being for either ‘boys’ or ‘girls’.  I guess that gives us a clue where she stands on LGBT rights, eh?  And by the way, she appears to be a fan of da trumpeter, which by now should come as no surprise.

So, back to her complaint about schools serving meals to the children.  Never mind that, in many school districts, the meals they receive at school may well be the only nutritious food they get in a day. And never mind, I suppose, that in many cases both parents in the family work full-time just to make ends meet. I can just picture Ms. Gunlock saying, “Let them eat cake!”

Ms. Gunlock says she fixes her children (she has two children) a breakfast of cinnamon toast (with sugar) in the morning, packs their school lunch, including cookies or candy, gives them a cereal bar for an afternoon snack, prepares dinner (with desert, of course), and then gives them a bowl of cereal (with sugar) at bedtime.  I can see where her way is so much healthier than the fruit, veggies and protein they would have gotten in those awful school lunches, can’t you?

So, Ms. Julie Gunlock, for your beliefs that healthy eating is a liberal plot to make you and your children miserable, and for your obvious intent to spread the joy of tooth decay, obesity and heart disease to the rest of us, I now award you Filosofa’s Idiot of the Week award!  No, don’t thank me … you have more than earned it!  Just please, stay away from my kitchen!