Do You Go with the Crowd?
“Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it istime to pause and reflect." ---Mark Twain
Most folks apparently agree that:
--People cause global warming, --Organic food is good for you,--Ethanol helps save energy,--Smoking is bad.
I don’t. Maybe that’s why writing this column, now in its 11th year, is such a pleasure. You see, with these words on paper I can let off steam without getting too tacky or downright libelous.
For me it’s much better than speechifying. I’ve tried that, and if you ever heard me give a talk, you’d agree. Thinking on my feet isn’t the problem; it’s getting the thoughts out of my mouth.
Problems of column writing are different. For example, after getting many pieces into print, we columnists tend to return to the same old subjects again and again. I certainly do. See above.
So maybe I’m too preachy. Even fanatic? I hope not. It reminds me of what Winston Churchill once said:
“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”
An apt quote is useful for conveying the idea of broad literacy. It might even be relevant. I saw a neat example in the Washington Post. Reporter Joel Garreau wrote critically about the new dollar coin, launched despite past flops of both the Susan B. Anthony and the Sacagawea coins. He then quoted Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” Sweet. But I digress. Back to my above list:
* Is our world getting hotter? Sure, it’s also what’s happening to a few other planets like Mars, I hear. So we yappy little fly-specks currently infesting one small planet claim we’re the culprits, not the sun, and that we can do something about it. We’ll waste billions and die trying.
* Are foods grown in manure better for you than on conventional farms? Some folks must think so, or they wouldn’t be paying extra for organic foods.
Remember the recent fuss over contaminated spinach? The media did handsprings trying not to mention the possibility that organic farming might have been guilty, and perhaps offend big advertisers..
But guess what? It was. Here’s friend Dennis Avery:
“Organic food activists are being served a heaping platter of organic crow now that we finally learn last fall’s outbreak…was caused by organically grown spinach. On Feb. 27, California food regulators admitted…that the tainted spinach that ultimately killed 3 and sickened over 200 was traced to a 50-acre organic field--contrary to the repeated denials of organic activists.”
Avery is a senior analyst with Hudson Institute, and I do mean senior. We once worked together in USDA in the good old days.
Being a good agriculturist, Avery also bemoans the growing production of ethanol from our breadbasket corn fields. After all, corn’s highest use is in providing nutrition for us and the millions starving in Africa, etc.
* Diverting the corn to ethanol, besides being bad in taking more energy to produce than it yields, raises today’s costs of food. It also raises prices of gasoline, since it must by law be mixed with it, cutting its power. Worse, corn growers and their political pals make sure we can’t import much cheaper ethanol to help ease the gas price at the pump.
So we’re forced to burn Corn Belt ethanol while environmentalists lobby to stifle our oil production and exploration. And you thought only Al Gore was wacky?
* And how about (cough,cough) smoking? True, it’s bad for your health, but Virginia has done quite well by it, reaping monster tax receipts from long-time Richmond giant, Philip Morris, the world’s top cigarette maker.
Remember, tobacco, first grown in Virginia, helped the colony get on its feet in Jamestown's early years and produce our country's forefathers.
Nowadays, given the health-settlement payments the tobacco companies keep funneling to state treasuries, when we smoke less the states garner less loot. So just keep puffing, addicts, to sustain Virginia—and incidentally shore up the social security program as you would-be pensioners die off early.
Of course, you may wake up and get more interested in living to a ripe old age. Like me. I quit cold turkey at age 35. I had puffed three packs a day, then got disgusted over my habit. This was before the Surgeon General condemned the weeds (and before any silly claims against second-hand smoke arose).
As Phil Harris used to croon, “Tell Saint Peter at the Golden Gate that you hate to make him wait, but you’ve just gotta have another cigarette.”
I memorized the song, then smoked and quit and ain’t dead yet.
Most folks apparently agree that:
--People cause global warming, --Organic food is good for you,--Ethanol helps save energy,--Smoking is bad.
I don’t. Maybe that’s why writing this column, now in its 11th year, is such a pleasure. You see, with these words on paper I can let off steam without getting too tacky or downright libelous.
For me it’s much better than speechifying. I’ve tried that, and if you ever heard me give a talk, you’d agree. Thinking on my feet isn’t the problem; it’s getting the thoughts out of my mouth.
Problems of column writing are different. For example, after getting many pieces into print, we columnists tend to return to the same old subjects again and again. I certainly do. See above.
So maybe I’m too preachy. Even fanatic? I hope not. It reminds me of what Winston Churchill once said:
“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”
An apt quote is useful for conveying the idea of broad literacy. It might even be relevant. I saw a neat example in the Washington Post. Reporter Joel Garreau wrote critically about the new dollar coin, launched despite past flops of both the Susan B. Anthony and the Sacagawea coins. He then quoted Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” Sweet. But I digress. Back to my above list:
* Is our world getting hotter? Sure, it’s also what’s happening to a few other planets like Mars, I hear. So we yappy little fly-specks currently infesting one small planet claim we’re the culprits, not the sun, and that we can do something about it. We’ll waste billions and die trying.
* Are foods grown in manure better for you than on conventional farms? Some folks must think so, or they wouldn’t be paying extra for organic foods.
Remember the recent fuss over contaminated spinach? The media did handsprings trying not to mention the possibility that organic farming might have been guilty, and perhaps offend big advertisers..
But guess what? It was. Here’s friend Dennis Avery:
“Organic food activists are being served a heaping platter of organic crow now that we finally learn last fall’s outbreak…was caused by organically grown spinach. On Feb. 27, California food regulators admitted…that the tainted spinach that ultimately killed 3 and sickened over 200 was traced to a 50-acre organic field--contrary to the repeated denials of organic activists.”
Avery is a senior analyst with Hudson Institute, and I do mean senior. We once worked together in USDA in the good old days.
Being a good agriculturist, Avery also bemoans the growing production of ethanol from our breadbasket corn fields. After all, corn’s highest use is in providing nutrition for us and the millions starving in Africa, etc.
* Diverting the corn to ethanol, besides being bad in taking more energy to produce than it yields, raises today’s costs of food. It also raises prices of gasoline, since it must by law be mixed with it, cutting its power. Worse, corn growers and their political pals make sure we can’t import much cheaper ethanol to help ease the gas price at the pump.
So we’re forced to burn Corn Belt ethanol while environmentalists lobby to stifle our oil production and exploration. And you thought only Al Gore was wacky?
* And how about (cough,cough) smoking? True, it’s bad for your health, but Virginia has done quite well by it, reaping monster tax receipts from long-time Richmond giant, Philip Morris, the world’s top cigarette maker.
Remember, tobacco, first grown in Virginia, helped the colony get on its feet in Jamestown's early years and produce our country's forefathers.
Nowadays, given the health-settlement payments the tobacco companies keep funneling to state treasuries, when we smoke less the states garner less loot. So just keep puffing, addicts, to sustain Virginia—and incidentally shore up the social security program as you would-be pensioners die off early.
Of course, you may wake up and get more interested in living to a ripe old age. Like me. I quit cold turkey at age 35. I had puffed three packs a day, then got disgusted over my habit. This was before the Surgeon General condemned the weeds (and before any silly claims against second-hand smoke arose).
As Phil Harris used to croon, “Tell Saint Peter at the Golden Gate that you hate to make him wait, but you’ve just gotta have another cigarette.”
I memorized the song, then smoked and quit and ain’t dead yet.
posted by Ben Blankenship at
10:50 AM
