Back from Vacation

Two weeks is a long time to try to avoid the news and keep away from all the blogs and news sources. I needed a break from the daily immersion in the nonsense into which our political system has evolved, thanks in large part to the main stream media (MSM) and their self-important spinning and censoring the news. By censoring, I mean the choices the MSM makes every day about what to report and what not to report. Their spins are obvious. I can listen to a speech or comment made by a politician or government official and then hear something quite different from the media's description of what I myself had just heard. Oh well. By the time they figure out what's going on, no one will be reading the newspapers or watching the news. I guess the MSM will have to be re-invented.

Some thoughts since I last posted:

(1) On Hillary - This week I heard on the radios that some people think Hillary is not acting enough like a woman, John Edwards is not acting enough like a man, and Barak Obama isn't black enough. Bizarre. However, it must have bothered the Hillary camp somewhat because they sent out their big gun Bill Clinton who defended Hill by saying that he didn't think she was acting like a man, just like a leader. Then two days later she shows up on CSPAN or someplace wearing a low-cut shirt and showing some cleavage (GASP!). I guess she set out to prove that she IS a woman after all. I question the timing. You rarely see her in anything the slightlest bit revealing. Her handlers choose her wardrobe very carefully and she has Hollywood's best and brightest to assist her presentations. I know, it is a bit catty of me to even mention this.

(2) On the immigration bill - Now is the time for Republicans and other concerned Americans to jump on the good ideas that abound concerning immigration, legal and illegal. First, secure the borders. Then enforce the laws that are on the books and that are being ignored. Deal with each part of the problem individually without an omnibus bill that is too comprehensive to pass. Don't let nothing get done at all. Make the presidential candidates deal with it, debate it and present their ideas.

(3) On Huffington Post, Penelope Trunk has an article titled "It Doesn't Matter that Journalists Misquote Everyone." In it she complains that she's tired of people saying that so-and-so has been misquoted. In her mind, one can misquote with wild abandon because no two people see the same thing the same way. Ok, if you're a fiction writer, I can go along with that. Reporters, however, have a different purpose. Whatever they may feel about it, reporters are supposed to stick to the "who, what, when, where, and how" of a story. Editorialists, or OP-ED writers as they are called now, have the leeway to present their own bird's eye view. She can forget the rationalization, in my opinion. No one should pay any attention to anything she writes from now on. 'Nuff said.

(4) "The Fancy Food Show hit New York last week, and we spotted a welcome trend amid the countless aisles of confections and high-end preserves: Cane sugar is making a comeback. Since the 1970s, high-fructose corn syrup has dominated the sweetener market—its low cost has made it difficult for manufacturers to resist. But ethanol has changed the equation, and customer demand has sparked a return to a classic." This is from a weekly online email from Ruth Reichl at Gourmet Magazine. What is it they say about the road to Hell? Paved with good intentions, I believe. All those ethanol instead of oil pushers who complain about $3/gallon gasoline are going to be complaining about $3/can of corn soon. And anything else that will be used for ethanol. Carrots, $3 each. Looking for green peppers? Sorry, that field is growing corn now. Hamburger? $3 each at McDonalds. Cow's have to be fed and pastures are growing corn for ethanol. Sorry.

Let's just drill for oil, off-shore, on-shore, Arctic, Texas, wherever. Stop feeding the sheiks and start feeding the United States cheaper corn. If we don't, food prices will soar. Maybe that will solve the obesity problem, at least.