Browsing PBH By Articles

Panera CEO Tries To Live On Food Stamp Budget–And Can’t

The Article: ‘A Lot of Carbs’: Panera Bread CEO Learns to Live on $4.50 a Day by Julie Jargon in The Wall Street Journal.

The Text: Panera Bread Co. CEO Ron Shaich is trying to subsist on $4.50 a day for a week. It’s not going so well.

Mr. Shaich agreed to try to get by on the average amount allocated to individuals in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as part of a hunger awareness campaign in which a number of corporate executives and politicians are taking part – September is Hunger Action Month — and to bring attention to a Congressional proposal to cut funding for the program.

Spending just $31.50 per week on food has turned out to be a lot harder than Mr. Shaich thought.

“I’ve been eating a lot of carbs and drinking a lot of water,” says Mr. Shaich, who started his SNAP diet last Thursday. “I drive by these restaurants I go to all the time and I can’t go in. I can’t even go into a Panera.”

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Why We Should Stop Linking Video Games With Mass Shootings

The Article: Don’t link video games with mass shootings by Christopher Ferguson in CNN Online.

The Text: The horrible shooting at Washington Navy Yard adds to the recent litany of mass shootings in the United States. Much attention typically focuses on what we, as a society, might do to prevent similar events in the future. Unfortunately, the line between reasonable reflection and cultural crusade can sometimes be blurred, with activists drawing in shootings to advance their particular axes to grind.

Since the 1999 Columbine massacre, that issue has often been violent video games. So it should come as no surprise that we have already seen some speculation about whether the Washington Navy Yard shooter, Aaron Alexis, may have played violent games.

Earlier this week, an op-ed by Dr. Brad Bushman may have crossed the line from science to advocacy.

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What Ted Cruz Doesn’t Understand About “Green Eggs And Ham”

The Article: by Matthew Yglesias in Slate.

The Text: As part of his fake filibuster today, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) read aloud the text of Dr. Seuss’s book Green Eggs and Ham. It’s a strange choice of author for a conservative senator. Admittedly, Green Eggs and Ham lacks the overt left-wing politics of a Butter Battle Book or The Lorax but this is still a progressive book. In broad strokes, it’s a book advocating openness to experience—one of the key moral dimensions on which liberals and conservatives differ.

In the specific context of the health care debate, though, I’m reminded of Nancy Pelosi’s much-mocked remark that “We have to pass the bill so that you can find our what is in it.”

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Quit Whining About Obamacare

The Article: Quit Whining About Obamacare by Bill Boyarsky in TruthDig.

The Text: Amid the whining about Obamacare, women, men and children are signing up for what will be a transformation in health care and, to some extent, American society.

There are many complaints about the law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Unions say it threatens their health care plans. Republicans charge it will bankrupt the nation. Consumers worry about a doctor shortage. Advocates of a stronger federal health insurance plan accuse President Barack Obama of surrendering to the insurance companies.

The nation, of course, would have experienced a much bigger transformation if Obama had approved the only plan that would have truly cured the country’s sick health care system—Medicare for all. That would have extended to everyone the benefits that are now available to those 65 and older.

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The Wealthy “Make Mistakes”, The Poor Go To Jail

The Article: The wealthy ‘make mistakes’, the poor go to jail by Chris Arnade in The Guardian.

The Text: I knew him as “Mr one-glove”. The origins of his nickname were cloudy, but had to do with his legendary stinginess. He had just lost his company close to $1bn betting on mortgages. That company, facing massive losses from him and other traders, had only staved off bankruptcy because of the grace of the government.

It was late in 2008 and Mr one-glove had joined us at a bar, a group of disparate Wall Street traders united in an attempt to drink away a bad year. Near the end of the night, Mr one-glove leaned into the table of beers, and asked,

Do you think we will get paid well this year?

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