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| Fifth Column |
| UN makes a subtle spelling error in Translation of Steve Forbes’ Tax Plan |
| 2004-01-30 |
| EFL - Snarky Opinion Piece that contains ideas that border on freedom. Trolls with blood-pressure problems should beware. Fred remove if you desire as article is not strictly WOT. More of a WOK War on Fleptocracy piece. Every day on Planet Earth, 25,000 people die of starvation. Given this startling reality, one might be forgiven for wondering why the most controversial issue on the agenda of last week’s World Health Organization meeting was the size of our love handles. Yet the venerable global health body practically begged for this fight. WHO’s anti-obesity strategy includes a call for "fat taxes" on hot dogs, candy, and the like. The Bush Administration won the right to amend WHO’s plan after charging that it neglects "the notion of personal responsibility." Predictably, defenders of the fat tax cried foul. Most notably, the self-described "food police" at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) accused the Administration of "sabotage." They consulted on WHO’s plan, and the fat tax is the crown jewel of their anti-obesity policy. "We could envision taxes on butter, potato chips, whole milk, cheeses, [and] meat," says CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson. CSPI’s food scolds didn’t respond to the Administration’s "personal responsibility" charge -- and for good reason. They genuinely don’t believe average people are capable of making their own food decisions. CSPI’s Margo Wootan recently declared: "We have got to move beyond personal responsibility." Twinkie-tax inventor (and CSPI scientific advisory board member) Kelly "Big Brother" Brownell also wants to "get away from these arguments about personal responsibility." One recent poll gave it an eight percent approval rating, which puts its popularity somewhere between a root canal and Dennis Kucinich. -snip- Translation - WHO and UN are shaking down us fat guys at the expense of poor Cuba sugar farmers. Pass me a salad. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #12 Personally I wouldn't mind a $.05 sin tax on every candy bar, bag of chips/doritos/pretzels, and other junk food if the money could all be gaurnteed(sp) to go to some really worthy purpose. But with the UN involved it would most likey go to French restraunts in NY |
| Posted by: Cheddarhead 2004-1-30 11:04:03 PM |
| #11 Assume for a moment that the UN nannies are successful in their quest for the "Fat Tax", do they get to skim off of this fund at the same rate as they did on "Oil for Food" program? Just another trough to dip from and people will still be starving at the same rate. |
| Posted by: Gasse Katze 2004-1-30 6:41:32 PM |
| #10 Oh No! My wife is in Atkins Purgatory. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-30 5:35:56 PM |
| #9 Mr. Chemist.... I've shamelessly copied your whole post.... I'll try to give you credit when I can... |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-30 5:33:51 PM |
| #8 Actually the sad thing about this is how obvious that none of these people have a clue how the human body works. It is also obvious that they love to treat obesity like a religion: complete with original sin (eating that first "bad" food), sins, salavation (lots of exercise and only "good" food) and heaven (that perfect body). |
| Posted by: Chemist 2004-1-30 3:57:30 PM |
| #7 Apparently they haven't heard of the Atkins diet - I can eat as much fat as I want and I'm still losing weight - really! These guys need to get with the program, a high carb tax is more like it. |
| Posted by: B 2004-1-30 3:52:21 PM |
| #6 I second that. Come yank on my hot dog and you'll have my tax payment in no time. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-1-30 3:16:28 PM |
| #5 I got yer "fat tax" right here, bub. All you gotta do is COME AND GET IT! |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-1-30 3:11:12 PM |
| #4 This is as irrational as the famous Twinkie Defense. That was also used to abdicate personal responsibility, if I remember correctly. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2004-1-30 2:47:32 PM |
| #3 From what I remember, CSPI pretty much consists of that Jacobson fellow and a fax machine. The press gives them coverage because the press would rather reprint press releases and leave early than work a little to write a real story. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-1-30 2:20:07 PM |
| #2 Fat has it's place. On a short visit to the Soviet Union in the middle of February I was offered Russian bread and a white spread. Discovered the white spread was lard... I also discovered I had suddenly developed a taste for it. Weather does strange things..... |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-30 2:17:42 PM |
| #1 Tax on cheeses? Do they really think phrawnce would tolerate that? |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-1-30 1:37:26 PM |