Apparently the Obama administration wishes to revise child labor regs such that children under 18 are restricted as to what activities they may participate in on their parents’ farms.

That being said, a couple of blog posts by Rachel Campos-Duffy and Sarah Palin gave Dr. J. pause.

Mrs. Palin writes:

The Obama Administration is working on regulations that would prevent children from working on our own family farms. This is more overreach of the federal government with many negative consequences. And if you think the government’s new regs will stop at family farms, think again. 

Our kids learn to work and to help feed America on our nation’s farms, and out on the water. 

Federal government: get your own house in order and stop interfering in ours.

Mrs. Campos-Duffy writes:

As a parent, I can’t think of a more cautionary example of the perils of big government. The sense of purpose gained from contributing to a family enterprise harkens us back to a traditional American model of self-reliance, precisely at a time when nearly half of US kids and 90% of African-American kids are being raised on government food stamps.

Dr. J. and Mrs. Dr. J. are city mice. Dr. J.’s a good chef, and Mrs. Dr. J. an excellent baker, but neither of them have a green thumb, and find that their spayed cats take their animal husbandry skills to the limit and all the cats need are a full food bowl, fresh water and a clean litter box. Any attempts at home agriculture have resulted in weeds and insect ridden produce.

The Lil Resident and the Lil Med Student have classmates at the Jedi Academy named Almanzo and Royal. They, along with their middle sister Eliza Jane live on a 100 acre farm. In addition to reading, writing, ciphering, and learning the ways of the force at the Jedi Academy, they are being educated at home, learning farming, animal husbandry, fishing and hunting skills.

Dr. and Mrs. Dr. J. know and love their parents. Pa Wilder is an absolute hoot. He is a salt-of-the-earth guy who runs his own business in addition to managing the homestead. Ma Wilder is as sweet as can be and works at the Jedi Academy during the day.

To some degree, Dr. J. is envious of their lifestyle in that they have a tremendously valuable skill set that it would take Dr. J. a second lifetime to cultivate, let alone pass down be able to the next generation.

There is nothing more critical than our food supply, and we should have nothing but pride and admiration for those proud Americans who grow and provide much of it for us. Fortunately, we have skills that are sufficiently valuable, that should the ‘night of the comet’ come, we are prepared to barter, at least for food.

The fact that the Obama administration wishes to cripple our children’s generation by hindering their ability to learn first hand, from their parents, how to provide sustenance for themselves is not only foolhardy but shortsighted. Do you know who can’t grow their own food? North Koreans and folks who live on the Upper East Side.

Do you want to be like them? Dr. J. thinks not.

Like everything else his administration and the Progressive movement has done before him, it is nothing more than a set up for America to fail.

Dr. J., for one, refuses to let that happen.

Dr. J.