Who writes this stuff?

From an excerpt of a law review article* assigned for my admin law class:

While these questions may seem fanciful, they suggest the logical implications of NPR I's management philosophy. We really cannot have the cake of dispersed administrative discretion and ingest significant legal control of it as well.

I'm not sure whether this is second-degree metaphor abuse or pure comic genius. Thoughts?

*Jerry L. Mashaw, Reinventing Government and Regulatory Reform: Studies in the Neglect and Abuse of Administrative Law, 57 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 405 (1996).