Enough already!

Ohio man gets nine years
for repeatedly stealing
women’s underwear.

So enough already! Is everyone crazy? What’s with this nonstop MSM coverage of the ridiculous exchange between Sara Palin and David Letterman? This is just another example of our so-called news media ignoring the real news of the world in favor of utter drivel. Yes, David Letterman said some things that were inappropriate. Actually, they were not only inappropriate, they were downright stupid. But, hey, David Letterman is paid millions of dollars annually for saying stupid and inappropriate things. He’s been doing it for years. While he has acknowledged that what he said was offensive he hasn’t really apologized. He says he was commenting on Palin’s eighteen year-old daughter who has already been “knocked up,” but Sara, not one to let any opportunity slip by for publicity and the public eye, insists he must have been talking about her fourteen year-old. This has given her an opportunity to portray herself as a great champion of the rights of young women. Not satisfied with a good thing, Palin has now raised the level of idiocy by suggesting outrageously that her daughters might not even be safe around Letterman.

Letterman said something stupid and offensive, just like he does night after night. His writers must have trouble finding lines night after night. Apparently they have no one with the good sense to say, hey, that’s stupid, when they should. I’m not a fan of Letterman, never watch him (and only very rarely watch Leno), largely because I believe his humor is basically stupid. But Palin should have left it alone after the initial complaints. But think of all the free publicity she would have missed, and she has never been adverse to exploiting her children for political purposes. I find quite terrifying the fact that there are people who actually see her as Presidential material. This is just another symptom of a truly sick society.

At least the MSM did manage to inform us that people in Iran were rioting in the streets to protest what they believe was a stolen election. And there does seem reason to believe that it was indeed stolen. This controversy will no doubt continue for several days but we are unlikely to get an unbiased view of it all. It would seem to me, however, that no matter how it finally comes out, the young people of Iran have made it very clear they are unsatisfied with the status quo and crave a better relationship with the West.

Curiously, none of the Doctors I have encountered in the past couple of years belong to the American Medical Association. And they all claim (at least) to be in favor of a single-payer health care system. My friends tell me the same thing about their doctors. So, although the AMA is supposed to be the single largest Medical Organization in existence, it pretty clearly does not represent all Doctors. From the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (if not even before) until now, the AMA has opposed all attempts to create a viable universal health care plan. They claim mostly, I think, that they don’t want any interference with the patient/doctor relationship, but what they really want, of course, is to protect their profits. As one of their principles is supposed to be the promotion of public health, one wonders how their resistance to any change in the system for the better does that. Anyway, between the AMA, the Insurance companies, and the Pharmaceutical industry, you can bet they will do anything and everything to torpedo public expectations for a decent health care system.

Extremism is the pursuit of nonsense is no vice. Now the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals want the fishmongers at the Pike Place Market in Seattle to stop throwing dead salmon to each other. They say it is disrespectful to the fish. I suspect they would rather we not catch and eat the salmon in the first place but, as we do, we are not treating them with enough respect (they are, of course, dead). I agree that we should treat all animals (even fish) with respect, but, really, I think this idea is going too far. I guess they would have the fisherman transport the fish to each other in special cases built for the utmost in comfort. While this would slow down sales and packaging, especially if they had to stop for religious rites on the way, I guess it would show more respect. What I wonder about is People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants. It seems to me that plants are often truly brutalized. Think of carrots, for example, ripped out of mother earth, aborted, that is, before maturity, at the whims of humans. These are not fetal carrots but full-grown adults with deep roots and a history of belonging. We can’t hear them but I’m certain they must be screaming in agony. The same thing is true of rutabegas and turnips. Parsnips must have a stronger union as we are told they must be dug rather than jerked. Some would say that carrots and turnips are not truly sentient and have no feelings, but how does anyone know that? Has anyone ever been a carrot or a turnip? How about a parsnip?

I am sorry that plants and animals have to give up their lives for mine. But unless we learn how to exist purely on inanimate objects that’s the way it is. Remember, when people still lived close to nature, and knew where their food came from, there were rituals of thanks to the animals and crops. Giving thanks to cans of beans, cartons of milk and tins of sardines and corned beef is not the same thing.

LKBIQ:
Thought: Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.
Woody Allen

TILT:
Carrots were first cultivated in Afghanistan. They were every color except orange, and very often purple. The Dutch created the orange carrot during the Middle Ages.