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By gauging happiness, there'd be more to consider than cold hard cash when deciding matters that affect daily lives, according to a report this week from the National Academy of Sciences, which advises the government. The panel of economists, psychologists and other experts assembled by the academy recommended that federal statistics and surveys, which normally deal with income, spending, health and housing, include a few extra questions on happiness.

By setting several new precedents, the FDA's decision on trans fats may bring some of our most beloved ingredients -- salt and sugar -- under new scrutiny by the agency, they predicted

The FDA announced Thursday that there is no safe level of partially hydrogenated oils. The move — unusually bold for an agency that typically leaves additive safety to the private sector — is the first step in what could be a long road to removing trans fats, which are still widely used to improve the texture and shelf stability of processed foods like frosting, doughnuts and crackers. There is no safe level of consumption of artificial trans fats, Hamburg stressed. Consumer advocates are applauding the FDA’s actions.

A 20% tax on sugary drinks would reduce the number of obese adults in the UK by 180,000, say researchers writing in the British Medical Journal. Earlier this year doctors called for a soft drinks tax to reduce sugar intake. The impact would be greatest in the under-30s, the Oxford and Reading university study suggests. But some groups say a tax is misguided and simplistic, and would not have an impact on older age groups who might benefit most from losing weight.

Popular television judge Judy Sheindlin – better known as “Judge Judy” – told Megyn Kelly Friday on "The Kelly File" that “government is there to serve us. Not the other way around." Judge Judy didn’t stop there, also questioning whether the welfare state has allowed people to become too dependent on government.

CARSON:...the founders of the Soviet Union ran into opposition, as well. And they felt that they knew better than the people did, and if they could force upon the people their way of thinking, that the people would eventually come to accept it. And this is basically what's going on with ObamaCare. ...I thought that America was supposed to be for, of and by the people. I thought it was supposed to be people-centric and not government-centric. And I think there are a lot of other Americans who agree with me on that. And you know, if we sit by...

SACRAMENTO -- California's lowest-paid workers are in store for a 25 percent raise after lawmakers late Thursday boosted the Golden State's minimum wage to the highest of any state in the country. In the final hours of its 2013 regular session, the Legislature voted to hike the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $9 next July and $10 by January 2016 -- a move Democrats praised as a boon to struggling workers and Republicans lambasted as a "job killer." Gov. Jerry Brown has already promised to sign the bill, making California a leader in a growing movement to increase...

Police State: The administration is building a detective squad that will target consumers and companies that don't follow ObamaCare's rules. The game of "good cop, bad cop" has arrived in American health care. It was bad enough to know that an Internal Revenue Service that targets the political opponents of the Obama administration between partying on the taxpayer dime would be in charge of monitoring compliance with ObamaCare's individual mandate via our tax returns. Now, the Daily Mail, which lodged a Freedom of Information Act with Health and Human Services, reports that the agency has hired a bevy of criminal...

My brother sent a short quote from a book that was written in 1955 and is excerpted in the body of comment ...

Doctors are the only people who can drive the change in healthcare delivery that's needed to save the country from a financial crisis, a health policy expert said here. Emanuel highlighted six elements that must underline payment and delivery reform efforts: -- Focus on cost value -- Focus on the patient -- Standardize processes .... "We need a big infrastructure to be able to deliver high-quality care going forward," Emanuel said.

GLENDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- Proposition 37 is a measure to require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food. There are two sides to this contentious issue.

In a debate with a friend who intends to vote for Obozo, I asked her: "Why?" Her answer: "Because Democrats support the poor and Republicans only support the rich and business." My response: "Given that Democrats controlled the Senate in all years but 9 since 1950 and the House for all but 7 years, do you really think they want to end poverty or control the poor through handouts?" She said: "They want to end it." My response: "A report out last summer showed that there is more poverty now than ever before, in both absolute and relative numbers, and...

The European Commission on Tuesday opened proceedings against Microsoft to investigate claims that the US firm had failed to meet its 2009 commitment to offer users a choice screen enabling them to easily select web browsers other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. "On the basis of information it has received, the Commission believes that Microsoft may have failed to roll out the choice screen with Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which was released in February 2011," the EU's executive body said in a statement. "This is despite the fact that, in December 2011, Microsoft indicated in its annual compliance report to...

As we’ve seen, you can’t believe what politicians tell you. Yes, that’s a shocker, we know. But voters seem to buy the same old clap trap time after time then wonder what went wrong. Just more evidence of our point from some weeks ago. So, you might recall some years ago the Legislature adopted and the governor at that time, a former movie actor, signed into law the much trumpeted Global Warming Solutions Act. What could go wrong? . . .

If he were in charge of travel, the Soup Nazi might say, “No Passport for you!” In real life, travel may seem unrelated to taxes, except perhaps for those annoying airport taxes on international destinations. But a bigger tax and travel connection could keep you at home—permanently. A tax law quietly proposed a few months ago—Owe IRS Taxes, Lose Your Passport—is quietly gaining momentum. Now more people have noticed. If you owe the IRS? You’re not going anywhere if this law passes. In America, we love to tinker with our tax laws. Congress is always introducing one bill or another...

The defenders of Obamacare, it is pretty obvious, don’t intend to stop with dictating that you buy insurance, and what kind of insurance, and how much you must pay. They want a nationalized health care plan like Great Britain’s. Obamacare is a step, albeit a big step, in that direction. So, what would it be like to put the government in charge of your health care? Isn’t that British system wonderful? Not exactly. But George Orwell would recognize it. “An elderly woman was ordered to find a new GP because the ‘carbon footprint’ of her two-mile round trips to the...

It’s like a political blindside to the American voter. Somehow, with virtually no coverage in the press, the White House has managed to close in on the unthinkable… bending online piracy laws to give the Department of Justice abusive power over the Internet. Sound farfetched? Constitutionalist attorney Gary Kreep, President of the United States Justice Foundation (USJF), not only has a firm grasp on the legislation that would grant this authority, but he also has inside sources informing him that the Senate is scheduled to make this potential nightmare a reality when they pass S. 968 into law on January...

On Uprising Radio, April 2008, Van Jones had this to say: VAN JONES: One of the things that has happened too often to progressives is that we don’t understand the relationship between minimum goals and maximum goals. Right after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, if the civil rights leaders had jumped out and said, ‘OK, now we want reparations for slavery; we want redistribution of all wealth; and we want to legalize mixed marriages,’ if that had been their…, if they’d have come out with a maximum program the very next day, they’d have been laughed at....

Senate Bill 432, which requires hotels use fitted sheets and provide housekeepers with long-handle mops . . .

Ben Franklin wisely advised, “A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.”The opposite could also be true. A nation of ill informed men who have not been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them can be enslaved. Don’t surrender your liberty in Christ to leviathan. A Christian can only agree to be governed without challenge by those that are governed by Jehovah. To be lorded over by evil, wicked...