EAT (A
LITTLE) CHOCOLATE EVERY DAY
Tom
Anthony:
“According to a recent study
by European governments, eating chocolate was associated with a 48%
reduction in stroke risk and a 27% decrease in heart attacks.
Chocolates, however, vary widely in their flavonoid content. To get
the best health effects, alkali-treated chocolate, i.e. Dutch chocolate,
should be avoided as this particular chocolate has been treated with
alkalis to remove its bitterness and unfortunately many of its flavonoids.
Note,
for example, that Hershey’s DARK alkalized cocoa has much less
flavonoid content than their regular cocoa. . . . The regular inexpensive
baking cocoa at most supermarkets is natural cocoa and is what you want.
Just adding a teaspoon of natural cocoa to your coffee should get you the
reductions in stroke and heart attack risk without any of the added fat or
sugar that you get by eating candy chocolate.”
OH,
CANADA
Steve
Baker:
“Here’s
the difference between Canada and the USA.”
EXECUTIVES SAY IT’S TIME TO RAISE TAXES
By Richard Blackwell
Globe and Mail
Mar. 29, 2010
Canada's
business executives, not usually a tax-friendly bunch, have acknowledged that
it may be necessary for Ottawa to boost taxes in order to get rid of the
deficit.
Almost three out of five of the senior executives who
responded to the latest C-Suite survey agree that in order for the federal
government to balance its books, some form of tax increase may be necessary.
While executives are almost unanimous that the recession
is over and economic growth is under way, they are worried about how the
government is going to deal with the stimulus-induced deficit. Half don't
believe Ottawa will be able to balance the books in five years, and that's why
so many think a tax increase is necessary.
"I think it is in the country's best interest
in the short term to suffer a little bit and perhaps pay some higher taxes in
order to try to get things back under control and back on an even keel,"
said Chad Ulansky, chief executive officer of Metalex Ventures Ltd., a diamond
exploration firm based in Kelowna, B.C.
Mr. Ulansky was one of 151 top executives who
responded to the C-Suite survey, which was conducted just after federal Finance
Minister Jim Flaherty tabled his budget in early March.
The survey was conducted for Report
on Business and Business News Network by Toronto research firm Gandalf
Group.
While almost two-thirds of the executives surveyed
said they had a favourable view of the budget, half of respondents said it did
a poor job of reducing the deficit and almost two-thirds oppose running a
deficit through 2015.
Mr. Ulansky, who believes consumption levies are the
fairest form of taxation, said a temporary boost to the GST might be the best
way to get the country out of the red - partly because it would involve the
fewest administrative headaches.
Other tax increases would also be acceptable to Mr.
Ulansky. "I'd be willing to pay a little more on my income tax"
and even a boost in corporate taxes might be palatable for the short term, he
said. "If we could somehow have consensus around the country to all suffer
through a bit of higher taxes for the next five or 10 years, we'll be a far
stronger country on the other side of it."
Philip Deck, executive chairman of Waterloo,
Ont.-based software firm MKS Inc., said he, too, feels a tax hike may be
necessary, and raising the GST makes the most sense.
☞ People seem horrified at the prospect that
taxes might return to their levels under Clinton/Gore. Among Republicans,
it hearkens back to 1993. The first Clinton budget got not a single
Republican vote. Not one. And yet it wasn’t such a bad time
for Americans at all income levels. The rich grew richer; the poor, less
poor; the deficit, not at all. Think about it.