Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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1. Did our author, N.Y. Times Investigative Reporter Michael Moss, win his Pulitzer Prize for coining the phrase “pink slime”? What is “pink slime”?

2. What is the meaning of the phrase “salt of the earth” and from where does it come?

3. What is a “pleasure center”? What is a restaurant chef?

4. Is there such a thing as a “pleasure center” for fat?

5. Our August 2007 meeting was the inaugural use of our bulletin board (http://www.readingliberally-saltlake.org). Among the 28 postings in its Reference Materials section for that meeting was a Reuters/London report that the U.K. was considering imposing a “Fat Tax” = a special 17.5% Value-Added Tax (VAT) “on salty, sugary and fatty foods” that would save an estimated 3,200 lives/year. Was the “Fat Tax” instituted and, if so, what were the results?

6. What have private employers in the U.S. done with their employee-health plans to impose higher employee-contributions toward premiums if they are overweight or lead an unhealthy lifestyle? What did CVS Pharmacy announce just this past week that it was doing in this regard?

7. Since, as we have studied, America has “The Best Government Money Can Buy” according to Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank’s Homo Politicus and long-time Business-Week Columnist Robert Kuttner’s The Squandering of America, how could it possibly be true as our author alleges that “executives within the private sector have done more soul-searching about addressing the obesity epidemic than their cowed counterparts in government agencies” if the executives are the ones who are busy showering Pols with “campaign contributions” to influence the decisions of the governmental agencies?

8. Since America has “The Best Government Money Can Buy,” will Obamacare make any reforms such as those pioneered in the U.K. and in private U.S.-employee health plans, impossible as a practical matter to adopt?