The New Republic

'Reconciliation" means "restoration of harmony." But as a term of art in budgeting, it has become an act of war. President Obama and most Democrats in Congress hope to include health and education reform in reconciliation instructions as part of the budget process. No mystery why. The sixty vote hurdle in the Senate of the filibuster could scotch these central components of their agenda via united Republican opposition. Bills considered under reconciliation cannot be filibustered and can therefore pass the Senate by majority vote. READ MORE >>

What if free-range pork, grown without antibiotics, actually posed more of a health risk than pork produced on industrial farms? READ MORE >>

Top food cop Marion Nestle has a post up over at The Atlantic about the new study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Public Health, showing that ninth-graders who go to school within 500 feet of a fast-food restaurant are more likely to be fat than those who don't.  Noting the National Restaurant Association's irritation at the study, Nestle notes: READ MORE >>

David A. Bell is the dean of faculty and Mellon Professor in the Humanities at John Hopkins University's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. READ MORE >>

 The flip side of Fat America is the growing obsession with healthy eating by (at the risk of stereotyping) many blue-state cultural elites who would rather drink kerosene than ingest refined sugar, non-organic produce, or any food stuff that had ever come in contact with a trans fat.  READ MORE >>

"No," Mahmoud says as he gets back into the car, slamming the door. "They don't want. They are afraid." I had come to Gaza’s border with Egypt to see for myself the infamous underground smuggling tunnels. Active since the 1980s, the number of tunnels has skyrocketed since the Israeli blockade of Gaza in 2007. Israel claims the tunnels are used to smuggle arms; their destruction provided much of the rationale for its recent 22-day offensive. READ MORE >>

Chait's right, that Lisa Schiffren post about Sam Kass as a new White House chef is absurd. That said, Schiffren has a shred of a point when it comes to the annoyingness of Alice Waters. READ MORE >>

New York Governor David Patersen has a commentary up on CNN.com today, arguing for an "obesity tax" on sodas and sugary fruit drinks. Though well-intentioned, this kind of proposal gives me the willies. I appreciate the public health challenges posed by the "obesity epidemic," but there are a variety of reasons why fat is not tobacco (a parallel Patersen draws in his opening graf). I wrote a piece to this effect back in 2002--which I would link to if our READ MORE >>

New York Governor David Patersen has a commentary up on CNN.com today, arguing for an "obesity tax" on sodas and sugary fruit drinks. Though well-intentioned, this kind of proposal gives me the willies. I appreciate the public health challenges posed by the "obesity epidemic," but there are a variety of reasons why fat is not tobacco (a parallel Patersen draws in his opening graf). I wrote a piece to this effect back in 2002--which I would link to if our archives weren't so craptacular. READ MORE >>

In the Times this week, not only did Michael Pollan write an invaluable overview of the problems with the U.S. food-production system, he even went ahead and offered a slew of solutions for the next president to adopt. The broad outlines of Pollan's argument are fairly well-known by now: U.S. READ MORE >>