JulietteTerzieff.com

So a few not-so-random thoughts as a follow-up to my post: Perils of Living in a Fast Food Nation.

 According to this Der Spiegel article from Germany, governments across the European continent are examining legislative ways to trim the fat out of their nations’ diets. Like residents in the U.S. and other regions, Europeans are seeing an explosion of expanding waistlines. Proposals on the table reportedly include more taxes on chocolate in Denmark and fast food in Romania, limits on the use of trans fat in Spain and an end to advertising of sweets to children under 12 in Germany.

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I wonder if we are ever going to get past inane discussions about female politicians’ wardrobes as a story in the media in favor of continued focus on more important things like – oh, I don’t know – health care, nuclear nonproliferation,  the international arms trade and climate change.

 Recently German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop told a German magazine that German Chancellor Angela Merkel should don more low-cut attire, and that if anyone makes snide comments about her more revealing outfits “she can always slap them on their fingers using a fan from her clutch handbag.”

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I guess Rick Newman’s article on the state of global economies was intended to give Americans something to feel good about as the U.S. economy continues to stumble along on crutches. But the idea that we should be elated to learn that the International Monetary Fund now predicts at least 11 major economies will fair worse than ours in 2010 is naïve at best.

Rejoice, Newman writes, for “when times are tough, one thing that tends to raise the spirit is knowing that somebody else has it worse.”

The reality is that economic distress brews a nasty stew of undesirable societal ills – extremism, militancy, xenophobia, jealousy, crime, authoritarian leadership and violence.

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