Author: Jonathan Zasloff
Jonathan Zasloff teaches Torts, Land Use, Environmental Law, Comparative Urban Planning Law, Legal History, and Public Policy Clinic - Land Use, the Environment and Local Government. He grew up and still lives in the San Fernando Valley, about which he remains immensely proud (to the mystification of his friends and colleagues). After graduating from Yale Law School, and while clerking for a federal appeals court judge in Boston, he decided to return to Los Angeles shortly after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, reasoning that he would gladly risk tremors in order to avoid the average New England wind chill temperature of negative 55 degrees. Professor Zasloff has a keen interest in world politics; he holds a PhD in the history of American foreign policy from Harvard and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University. Much of his recent work concerns the influence of lawyers and legalism in US external relations, and has published articles on these subjects in the New York University Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. More generally, his recent interests focus on the response of public institutions to social problems, and the role of ideology in framing policy responses. Professor Zasloff has long been active in state and local politics and policy. He recently co-authored an article discussing the relationship of Proposition 13 (California's landmark tax limitation initiative) and school finance reform, and served for several years as a senior policy advisor to the Speaker of California Assembly. His practice background reflects these interests: for two years, he represented welfare recipients attempting to obtain child care benefits and microbusinesses in low income areas. He then practiced for two more years at one of Los Angeles' leading public interest environmental and land use firms, challenging poorly planned development and working to expand the network of the city's urban park system. He currently serves as a member of the boards of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (a state agency charged with purchasing and protecting open space), the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (the leading legal service firm for low-income clients in east Los Angeles), and Friends of Israel's Environment. Professor Zasloff's other major activity consists in explaining the Triangle Offense to his very patient wife, Kathy. View all posts by Jonathan Zasloff
I hear Japan is nice this time of year.
Clearly it was mutated by the leaking radiation.
Second that! And noting that (in a voice of horror) this was the infant size!
Remind me of the distinction between pushing this stuff and selling alcohol or cigarettes to children.
Butbutbut rational consumers will read the food label, count the calories, divide the calories in the food product by their daily caloric intake and order the sushi salad instead! Free Market roolz.
I am surrounded by people who evidently eat things like that as a matter of course. It takes a real man or woman to face Type II Diabetes!
James: A distinction without a difference.
KLG:
The answer to these problems is at hand! http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/EASD/22352 shows the cure.
Universal fecal transplants can rescue the health care system!
This has not yet been on “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” but is certainly inevitable.
James, I’m disappointed. I always unfairly assumed that as a European, you would be less Puritanical. I usually consider myself fully within the RBC mainstream; a rational lefty. And I agree that there’s an obesity problem and that the “toxic food environment” is a contributor. But really, comparing selling a double-sized sandwich to selling alcohol or cigarettes to children?
It pains me to have to go through this, but 1) Nicotine and alcohol are drugs; we forbid sale of them in any amounts. This is simply two sandwiches put together. 2) Unlike cigarettes, there’s nothing inherently unhealthy in large portions of food. 3) There’s nothing inherently unhealthy about or small portions of alcohol, but there are immediate and acute consequences of drunkenness. The effects of unhealthy food are relatively moderate.
Or maybe you were joking? I’m hoping…
Of course, Japan is the country that, until fairly recently, famously had beer vending machines (a few also stocked fifths of whiskey), so anyone with the change (220 yen when I lived there) could get a half-liter can of their favorite. (Interestingly, the price at a store also was 220, and the price of a six-pack was 1,320 yen). These were taken out sometime early in the 2000’s, but until then it seemed evidence of a somewhat, mmm, relaxed attitude towards the drinking age (20).
I don’t know whether the even more ubiquitous cigarette machines are still there, but those were combined with really cheap prices (120 yen, or less than a buck and a half at current exchange rates, for a pack), and absurd TV ads (my favorite was the mountain biker charging up a reasonably challenging hill, then lighting up a Mild Seven once he reached the top). As a result, it was really common to see middle-school aged kids lighting up walking back from school. In terms of availability, price, and promotion, it was like the 60’s in this country. When I was in junior high (’66-’69), anyone who couldn’t score a pack just wasn’t trying.