Question: You would think that cultivating a taste for such ascetic modes of enjoyment would be at least as effective a diet strategy as glorifying blubber, but Klein fails to entertain this possibility.
You would never think that a taste for such ascetic modes of enjoyment would be as effective as a diet strategy making people fatter.

Answer: no

Question: After all, he's just a newspaper columnist.
He has always been a newspaper columnist.

Answer: it is not possible to tell

Question: Bullets explode in shards of glass and light, bringing death in chiaroscuro.
The bullets were the cause of death.

Answer:
yes