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Cigarette smokers also pay enormous social and economic costs due to their lifestyle, yet a direct excise tax on cigarettes did produce a measurable and significant drop-off in smoking and cigarette sales. Direct cost increases are more obvious and can have a proportionally larger effect on behavio...

If better health habits result in junk food sellers going belly up boo-fucking-hoo. People are more important that pure profits. Society can survive industries going away, and there wasn't massive unemployment when the buggy-whip makers went under. Things change. Business owners either adapt or don...

The assumption is being made that lining the pockets of junk food purveyors and cushioning their transition to a business which doesn't prey on the appetites of those with poor impulse control is less important than reducing the epidemic levels of obesity in this country. Yes, and I can see that th...

You want the government to "act now" but refuse to consider a tax to pay for that action? I don't refuse anything of the sort. I spoke out in response to Mike's advocacy of the idea that the United States government should "wring" itself back to solvency by imposing a higher lev...

My preliminary assessment is that this tiger was quite stressed.

Kast, its clear that you object to the proposal on ideological grounds. May I suggest that you actually address it on those grounds? I would advocate a vigorous public debate prior to any decision about whether or not to impose a "fat" tax of any kind. I think that American society in gen...

I guess you're hoping nobody will bother reading back through this thread to realize that you use this argument as a generalized attack against any form of tax increase, since it does not say anything whatsoever about the specific details of said increase. If anybody read back through this thread, ...

At no point does that statement say or imply that the solution must necessarily include no spending cuts whatsoever, liar. Just that it's not going to happen without the average person paying his share. Neither did I ever suggest that taxes must never be raised. Pot, meet kettle. By the way, that's...

If people will BUY fresh fruits and vegetables the storage/restocking problem becomes moot. The only reason spoilage is a problem is because the shitty junk food is cheaper and placed to catch people's eye, and people have been trained to eat junk instead of real food. Junk food is better-advertise...

An additional consideration is whether smaller markets will be able to profit in the event of diversification. A friend who works at a small grocery store in Colorado offers some useful observations. The suggestions offered in this thread presume that the tax imposed on junk food will drive up price...

Locally (meaning the greater Chicago area, which extends into parts of Indiana and Wisconsin as well as Illinois) such foods as you describe are all required to have a sell-by date and this is enforced by local health inspectors. Of course, this will not eliminate ALL chicanery, but it does mean th...

As usual, you're a dishonest sack of shit. As usual, you're a small, small man who needs to get his kicks from playing e-thug. [quote I never said that any solution should be 100% tax increases. However, your position is that it should be zero percent tax increases. I am perfectly willing to entert...

How does a non-balanced budget, pork-barrel spending and unrealistic expectations of the government's role in life increase obesity rates, and how would fixing those problems decrease obesity? I was replying directly to Mike's general remark that governments should tax their way to solvency. I don'...

The government should wring its way back to solvency at the expense of the average consumer. How else is it going to accomplish this feat? As usual, you behave as if taxation is the only solution to cost overruns, and blame anybody who questions high taxes of favoring the wealthy. There are a numbe...

I don't see a value judgment in that phrase. Obama's light skin and ability to "sound white" almost undoubtedly helped him get elected. I don't like it anymore than you do. I agree. I agree. It's absolutely true, especially within minority communities, that light skin is preferrable to da...

But it does remove you from the protections of any state. Not so. If I am set upon in international waters, the likelihood of rescue is low, but authorities would still respond, if available. Attempts are made to punish piracy, for instance. And what course of action is that? Remember, at this poin...

And what do you do when the police tell you to go fuck yourself? Or if they are the one's committing the crimes? Or if there is in fact NO police I can call? I'm not advocating anarchy and chaos, you moron, I'm saying that in an anarchy like international water (or in war) the only person you can r...

Yes, but no one complains when you shoot at soldiers. If no one with legitimate authority is going to go after the employers, and if you accept the notion that what they are doing is wrong (as Wong and the Sea Sheppards obviously believe) then what are you supposed to do? Just stand by and let an a...

So? A junk food tax would be incentivizing the stocking of healthy foods in inner city areas. I fail to see how this is a bad thing. Only if junk food and green stuff were indifferent, excepting cost and nutritional value, which they are not. A convenience store is ill-equipped to sell fresh produc...

Taxing "junk food" is often attacked for many reasons which have nothing to do with the perfection of anti-obesity measures, or the lack thereof. My parents, who are both quite fit, and buy sodas only when entertaining for guests, regard the "junk food" tax as a cynical attempt b...

Political unreliability when mercenaries decide that they have an incentive to screw with the state to secure their pay, So, too, do the professional soldiers of more than a few nations. You are presenting a false dichotomy. The political unreliability of the mercenary soldier can only be measured ...

I don't know if I'd call them opinions since they're based off the findings of an investigation, but there's really no point in playing semantics. Unless those investigations are automatic grounds for conviction, they do not constitute proven guilt, making all this talk of justice derailed a bit pr...

According to reports filed by the US military, and FBI only 3 of the 17 killed may have been justified. Beyond that all reports by the Iraqi government, US military, and FBI conclude that the shooting was unprovoked and not a single Blackwater operator was even injured. That's a generous helping of...

Is there compelling evidence to substantiate guilt? The State Department gained admission that the Xe guards fired first -- but what about whether they were firing at targets which appeared to pose an imminent threat? I wasn't aware that the case was so open-and-shut. Unless we're strictly hunting f...

If you had more than two braincells to rub together you might understand that some of us are annoyed that these arguments quickly get stale and tired the moment some dildo with an axe to grind decides to equate copyright infringement to theft. The argument in the OP was that it was unreasonable to ...