Junk food-specifically soda has been linked to obesity according to recent research… although it seems like a no brainer.
The reason is why the idea to tax junk food was brought up as a solution to come up with about $1 trillion in funding to change the United State’s health care system.
Public health advocates say drinking soda is directly linked to obesity, which is partly responsible for skyrocketing health care costs.
“This study that we did with UCLA showed that regardless of income or ethnicity, adults who drink one or more soda a day are 27 percent more likely to be overweight or obese,” says Harold Goldstein, a physician and executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy.
On average, Goldstein says, Americans drink 50 gallons of soda a year. He says it should be taxed so the beverage industry pays its fair share for the obesity epidemic.
According to Brendan Nyhan
Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling continues his interesting polling on political misperceptions in a new national poll (PDF) that was conducted Sept. 18-21 and released today.
As in the New Jersey poll released last week, PPP’s national poll includes contrasting “truther” and “birther” questions. However, Jensen consulted with me on the wording of the “truther” question, which I had criticized, and ended up selecting new wording I adapted from a Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll. The new question removes the ambiguity associated with the phrase “advance knowledge,” which could be interpreted to refer to the August 2001 memo Bush received warning of the threat from Al Qaeda:
Old question: “Do you think George W. Bush had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks?”
New question: “Do you think President Bush intentionally allowed the 9/11 attacks to take place because he wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East?”
From CNN.com
An assassination plot against President Obama has been foiled in Turkey. US officials are allegedly taking the threat “very seriously.” However, the president did not need to change his schedule. The man who had been planning the attack was arrested last week in Turkey. Read more…
Joe and Jill Biden appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show yesterday. On the show, the (almost) vice-president’s wife told viewers that Barack Obama gave her husband the choice to be either his running mate, or the Secretary of State. Joe Biden immediately shushed his wife, which caused raucous laughter in the audience. He finally allowed his wife to continue, and she said she had told him that if he were Secretary of State the family would rarely see him. This account of events was denied by the Obama transition team after the show aired yesterday afternoon. Read more…
In an unexpected move (sarcasm), Time magazine has named president-elect Barack Obama person of the year for 2008. He fought a long and difficult battle to the presidency, and gave hope to America and the world; plus he overcame a mess of obstacles I’m not even going to get into. For these reasons, he is the person of the year, and we await his inauguration anxiously. Read more…
But, that doesn’t mean he’s not worth keeping a watchful eye on. John Hastings thinks so:
President-elect Barack Obama appeared on 60 Minutes last week to weigh in on all the big issues, after taking an apparent media break since his election:
As JFK was the first television president, Barack Obama is going to be the first internet president. In fact, he will be delivering an address weekly via YouTube. Read more…
NEW Yorkers were left a little confused overnight as more than a million copies of a fake newspaper were handed out by a team of pranksters rallied through the web.
“Iraq War Ends” read the headline of a fake “special edition” of The New York Times, dated July 4, 2009, which was handed out to commuters as they rushed for work.
Since last week’s historic election of Barack Obama’s as the next U.S. president, a number of high-profile Europeans have been sticking their feet in their mouths while commenting on the situation (Well, some were being outright racist). For example, a leading Austrian television journalist said - on camera - that he “wouldn’t want the Western world to be directed by a black man.” The Italian Prime Minister tried to joke about it, by describing Obama as “young, handsome and even suntanned.” The National Democratic Party of Germany ran the headline, “Africa Conquers the White House,” on their website. And these aren’t even the extremists. Read more…
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