A Los Angeles Times column by John Balzar draws parallels among different parts of the nanny culture. Is secondhand fragrance the new tobacco? Wear too much perfume and you might find out. Are taxes on fatty foods just around the corner? Considering how quick we are to tax alcohol and tobacco, fat taxes might be closer than you think. Will restaurant portions become the province of federal regulators? Balzar thinks so. His tongue-in-cheek mention of tax credits for people who keep their cholesterol down is no longer in the realm of the ridiculous. “Where does it end?” he asks. “How far will we go to restrict what we do, and what we expose each other to, in the name of our common welfare?”
