A question that keeps recurring: Why are the free-speech rights of corporations more important than our shared imperative to protect children?

No rights are absolute, as exemplified by falsely shouting "fire" in a crowded theater, as expressed by Oliver Wendell Holmes in a 1919 Supreme Court case. In the larger sense, there are very few absolutes in a world colored in shades of gray, anyway.

I'm late to this topic, and perhaps have failed to add to, or take advantage of the momentum generated when this special Reuters report on food marketing to children was released April 27. But it's too important not to bring it to your attention, and by more than just a tweet.

A while ago I tweeted a Forbes article which asked whether the Academy for Nutrition and Dietetics, formerly known as the American Dietetic Association, was seeking to eliminate competition by proposing dozens of state laws that would further codify who can give nutritional advice and provide stiff penalties for those who do so without the imprimatur of AND.

In 1979, I was over 300 pounds, a daily pot smoker, and about to piss away my opportunity to graduate  with my college class by blowing off two courses in my last semester. Joan Gussow was already preaching a gospel of healthy, sustainable food that I would have ignored had I known about it at the time. Somehow, it makes me more appreciative of it now.

It's hard to know which is more breathtaking about the "Center for Consumer Freedom," its intellectual dishonesty or its harebrained reasoning. Either way, the come across so often as devoted idiots.

Yes, that makes me the chronicler of idiots, which I hope won't be my epitaph. But someone has to call out their crap, lest it be allowed to stand as fair, rational, logical discourse.

I stray too often, but my goal on this blog is to share personal perspective, because foremostly, that's what I have to offer: I am a food addict, recovering from the obesity that resulted for my first 30 years. With 20 years on an altered path, I can share what both sides feel like, as well as the treatments, practices, and attitudes that allowed me to change.

A study published in British Food Journal and reported by foodnavigator.com casts doubt on whether giving consumers more nutritional information will lead to healthier eating habits, and I generally agree.

At Dr.

Utterly revolting, a McDonald's radio spot I heard yesterday foreshadows an all-family dinner which Junior doesn't text, Billy doesn't play video games, and Dad doesn't watch sports. It's as home-homey-home as Laurie David and other sages of the dining room would want it, right? But then comes the punchline: "Wait, we're having it at McDonald's?"

Few things sound as boring as a discussion of future federal crop insurance fortunes, but believe it or not, said discussion will be a fulcrum in the next Farm Bill, whether it comes up this year or next.

I don't care about crop insurance per se, but I do care about federal ag policies that subsidize some crops at the expense of others.