11 More Foods to Consider

This article from the New York Times lists 11 foods most people don't eat but should. Among the foods are beets, cabbage and sardines. I'm OK with the cabbage, especially cooked in olive oil, but beets is a little hard on the palette. I can actually go either way with sardines. They can be mixed in with a bunch of stuff so you aren't actually looking at tiny fish heads.

I have no idea what Turmeric is though. I'll have to check that one out. Seems harmless...

Pandering to the Masses?

Well I guess I spoke too soon on McCain.

In a major energy speech that implicitly criticizes Vice President Dick Cheney, who dismissed conservation as a "personal virtue" in 2001, McCain was to call for a variety of means to increase production, including lifting a federal ban on offshore oil and gas drilling and building refineries and nuclear reactors.

Ok, so either he's seen the light, or he's pandering on one statement or the other to the public. In my last post and in other statements he's steadfastly refused to engage in drilling. Today he's in favor of it.

I saw this before with the immigration bill last year. McCain was steadfastly on the "let's not build a fence". Then the public opinion was quite loud in the opposite direction and McCain dropped his support for the bill that would in effect give amnesty to a few million illegal immigrants.

Regardless of where you stand on that issue, the main point is McCain seems to now be changing his stance in the face of more public support for drilling.

I'm actually happy to see this, but it does raise the question of where the real McCain sits on the topic. Has he been pandering to the Obama left-of-center, or is he now paying lip service to the right-of-center voter?

In other new Obama still believe we can survive on engines that use fluffer-nutter and pixie kisses.

Free Markets? LOL, Wut?

John McCain has once again proven he know nothing about free markets and is perhaps the most left leaning Republican to ever get the nomination.

[W]e all know that some people on Wall Street are not above gaming the system. When you have enough speculators betting on the rising price of oil, that itself can cause oil prices to keep on rising. And while a few reckless speculators are counting their paper profits, most Americans are coming up on the short end -- using more and more of their hard-earned paychecks to buy gas for the truck, tractor, or family car.

Naturally it's the speculators. The fact that by law we can't drill off our coast, can't drill in ANWAR, and can't reclaim oil from the oil shales in Colorado has absolutely nothing to do with the situation we're in now. When was the last president elected who actually understood free markets? Seriously, I can't think of one in recent history.

And yes, for the record Obama is far worse on this point. However, one would expect that from the Democratic nominee. The party is, if nothing else, consistent in it's lack of free market knowledge.

Coffee Good for You After All... Again

Once again it looks like coffee is found to be good for you. For those keeping score at home this now means a meal of fish, eaten in the sun, with a glass of red wine along with an after meal cup of coffee optimizes your ability to avoid heart disease.

This is getting to be a long list, though so far I don't see any problems as I like all of the above.

Trained Attack Snake Fails At Attack Command

According to this article a man in Bridgeport, CT couldn't get his pet snake to attack the police.

Police arrived at Rodriguez's apartment after receiving a report that he was threatening his girlfriend with the albino python.

After the building's superintendent opened the apartment door for the officers, Rodriguez allegedly threatened them with the snake and told it to "Get them!"

When the snake didn't move (probably unsure of the attack words) he ordered his pet snails to do a full on aerial assault, which also failed due to the fact that snails have no wings. This was naturally a small oversight to an otherwise bullet-proof plan.

The Mess that is Gas

Here's a very excellent article from the Wall Street Journal on why we sit at $4/gallon for gas.

"Amid $135 oil, it ought to be an easy, bipartisan victory to lift the political restrictions on energy exploration and production. Record-high fuel costs are hitting consumers and business like a huge tax increase. Yet the U.S. remains one of the only countries in the world that chooses as a matter of policy to lock up its natural resources. The Chinese think we're insane and self-destructive, while the Saudis laugh all the way to the bank."

The fault really lies with Congress over the past 20-30 years and their inaction on a realistic energy policy.

In another great article from the NY Post on this topic, an additional moral and ethical point is made,

"The wealthy, especially political liberals, also like that high-priced gas translates into less burning of fossil fuels by others and will help accelerate research into alternative energies.

But what these elites don't seem to realize is that the energy policies they advocate are paralyzing almost everyone else - and that the truly ethical and environmental solution would require embracing positions long considered anathema to traditional liberalism."

I highly recommend reading both articles. My sense is that the public mood on this issue is also turning toward more drilling here at home. My prediction is that the first candidate to talk seriously about doing just that will win the election. However, I don't see Obama doing this at all as he's essentially keep the status quo Democratic position and McCain is far too wishy-washy on the topic to have any coherent plan in place.

Vitamin D and Heart Attacks

Very interesting finding here on the role Vitamin D plays in heart attacks in men. Essentially heart attacks increase in the winter and decrease in the summer and correlate with vitamin D levels. The men in my family all seem to have had a heart attack at one point or another so this is kind of interesting. I try to get out into the sun at least 15 minutes of the day.

Assuming this study is correct, and resveratrol from red wine also reduces heart disease PLUS eating fish reduces heart attacks, it stands to reason that I should be sitting in the sun, drinking a glass of red wine with my grilled salmon. Or said another way, Sizzle and I should really move to a warmer climate or the Mediterranean. Either one is very appealing ;-).

Mass Transit Up, Driving Down, Econ 101 Intact

In a shocking discovery by the Washington Post, people are driving less and using more mass transit as fuel prices go up.

Soaring gas prices are pushing more Americans to take public transit, with streetcars, trolleys and other light rail experiencing a 10.3 percent increase in ridership for the first quarter of the year, according to a report released yesterday by the American Public Transportation Association.

Get out! You mean when it costs less to take mass transit then to pay for gas people ACTUALLY go with the least expensive option?!?! It's like some kind of invisible hand is at work here...

Next story, sales of winter coats expectantly rise in the fall. Reporters and store owners are baffled.

Inventor of Pringles Dies

A sad day indeed. He was of course buried in Pringles cans. No joke. He really was.

The man who designed the Pringles potato crisp packaging system was so proud of his accomplishment that a portion of his ashes has been buried in one of the iconic cans.

Get Out! Men like Bachelorhood over bad Marriages!

From the campus of No Duh University, this wicked serious study discovers that men prefer being a bachelor over having a bad marriage!

I hear the next study will get to the bottom of why most men prefer watching sports instead of doing laundry. Intense stuff here! This is the kind of hard hitting science that's usually reserved for Al Gore and Leonardo Dicaprio.

I have two questions. Where does one apply for the grant money for these studies and how can I get in on this scam-er science?