Government Regulations on Food

They say that America has increasingly high rates of obesity and diseases like diabetes. Lawyers are threatening to sue food manufacturers, just like they sued those mean tobacco companies. But is "high fructose corn syrup" and soda really destroying our health? First of all, if you expect food companies to put the most expensive ingredients into their processed food, you don't understand business, or capitalism. The reason why they use high fructose corn syrup instead of sucrose is because it's more concentrated, and therefore, cheap. Cheap means higher profits. That's why they used sucrose in the first place, it was cheaper than honey. Honey is not only expensive, it's actually good for you. We can't have that! But is the problem really the food itself? I don't think so. The majority of Americans eat too much. When I worked in an office, I was astonished to see what people eat for lunch. I brought in my usual chicken salad on whole wheat toast, which I washed down with filtered water. To me this seemed like a perfectly satisfying mid-day meal. But most of my co-workers, men and women between the ages of 20 and 60, scarfed down the basic American lunches: Big mac with cheese and fries...3 or 4 slices of Pizza...General Tao's Chicken with a side of fried rice, and of course the Pennslyvania favorite, The Cheesesteak sandwich (if you haven't gorged on one of these, just imagine low-quality fatty, chopped meat on a foot long sub covered with onions and melted wiz pride cheese). Of course they all had the standard 20oz cup of Coke to help blast the greasy grub down their throats. I love an expensive steak once in a while, especially USDA Prime, which cost around $20 a pound. About once or twice a year my wife and I go to an expensive steak house and split one of these tasty treats. Why do we split it? Because the top steakhouses don't sell a steak smaller than a cockerspaniel. It's insane. Why would anyone need to eat a 36oz steak? At home I only eat about 4 to 6 oz of meat at a time, tops, but in a restaurant I can go as high as 12--and even that's too much. It just isn't necessary. Unfortunately, the chubby children you see all over the place are learning to eat like pigs from their parents. Hey, I took my kids to McDonalds too, but we split a large order of fries, split a Jumbo soda, and instead of Big Macs we ate quarter pounders. Besides, when you eat smaller portions, you have more room for dessert.

Global Warming?

I really like Bill Maher's HBO show. I've watched his show since it was "Politically Incorrect" on the Comedy channel years ago. But Bill, like many in the media, often has guests on that agree with him and then doesn't ask them key questions. Friday night he had on a scientist who thinks that global warming is causing more and severe hurricanes (because the ocean is warmer). First of all, there are other scientists and meteorologists who believe that the wamer ocean is a cycle (the ocean was just as warm about 80 years ago and it resulted in a 10 year period of increased hurricanes). Personally, I believe that global warming is taking place, but it could very well have nothing to do with polution. The earth has gone through many dramatic changes, such as the ice age,and as far as we know, these changes were not man made.

Media Bias

My Liberal friend's try to tell me that there is NOT a liberal media bias.

I agree to a certain extent. I believe that there is a Media Bias, but I don't think you can only point fingers at the left. There is certainly a right-wing Media Bias as well. I'm not cynical by nature, but I've become more cynical as I've learned and lived. People tell me that they believe something to be true and when I ask them where they read it, they say, "The New York Times." I ask, "Don't you think that the Times slants the news to the left?" "No," I don't, they reply. "The Times is a great newspaper." And Dan Rather was an honest reporter with no agenda.

The truth is, Michael Moore takes things out of context, but so does Ann Coulter. If you are a liberal, and you truly believe the New York Times, Dan Rather, Michael Moore, please understand that you like them because you agree with them! You probably think that Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh are horrible people--because you don't agree with them. Think about it. If you are a liberal, and someone is on the radio or tv giving views that are exactly like yours, aren't you going to think that they are telling the truth? Same thing for conservatives. If you are a conservative, you are going to agree with people like Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity. They are preaching to the choir, you! Therefore, you think that they're honest and truthful.

The truth is, the liberal media, like the N.Y. Times, CBS, and ABC, spins the news to the left, and the conservative media, like Fox News, and the Wall St. Journal, spins the news to the right. Unfortunately, we have to try to figure out the truth.