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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
svanegmond
Published Letters: 12 Editor's Choice: 3
A seemingly reasonable man steps into the role of Iraqi PM; promises to come down hard on corruption, and refuses to work with people who are not in bed with those who promote violence; indicates he will ask americans to depart in short order (which everyone in Iraq seems to want). Only Juan Cole could see cause for pessimism in this, and lob loaded words like "politburo" at the man while he's at it.
Juan's tone of late has been quite clear: the situation is fucked, nothing will make it better, and we can only put our heads between our knees and wait for the whole wreckage to come to a flaming, skidding halt... sometime. If there is cause for optimism, he certainly doesn't relate any.
As an Informed Commenter on the situation, I have to wonder if he does see any way out of this mess. From his bloggings and articles here on Salon, it certainly doesn't seem so.
Countries have been acting wierd about their farm protectionism for years, and I still don't understand it. The United States subsidizes corn to a massive degree, making it incredibly cheap, and an easy filler ingredient to add to most foods, and whoa hey look, everyone's fat now.
It should come as no surprise that "Organic" has become commodified and is now subject to the same price pressures as everything else in this world. Of course it has -- people have signalled they're willing to pay a lot more for something that costs a little more to make. It's an easy choice.
I think a system of low trade barriers, no farm subsidies, and informed consumers (more on that in a minute) would be better for farmers, better for food eaters, and better for the environment. This margin is not large enough to contain the entirety of the argument for this.
As to what's better for migrant workers... I can't say I care. I mean, yeah, I care about Mexico, and wish it well, but I don't consider it my explicit job to find something for unskilled Mexicans to do. I have noticed that Canada's "guest worker" program, where people come over, work at a farm picking tomatoes at a farm in Leamington for a few months, then go home, seems to work well to everyone's benefit.
About informed consumers. This is related to the claim that the nutritional value of food has dropped precipitously since the earlier part of this century. Why would it have? It's the same reason that gas is cheap -- the externalities, of noise pollution, of ruin to our lungs, of un-human suburbs, aren't priced in. Ask yourself this: can you tell by looking at two tomatoes which one has greater nutritional value? I sure can't. Rationality means you buy the cheaper one. So fertilizer becomes optimized to punching out tomatoes year after year on the same land, and things that nobody is rewarded to care about (like enhancing the nutrient content of the tomato) are eliminated.
I would love to get a way of learning the nutritional content of produce, and have it right up on the wall or the produce box alongside where it came from. I would also love to find a way to penalize farmers (all farmers in the world) for not using sustainable farming methods. All of this would be accomplished with trade agreements, and my dirty leftist little secret, is I hope they sort that shit out one of these decades.
My personal soluiton to buy local; at least it's on the vine/tree longer. I'll trade an organic peach from California over an inorganic peach from Ontario any time.
Doesn't anyone here remember that Ninjas, not muslim terrorists, used to be the quintessential stupendous badasses? I was scared to death of ninjas for the longest time, and used to fantasize about being a ninja so I could kick the ass of Gerry who used to make fun of me in grade school.
If the terrorists knew anything, they'd teach some of their suicidal types how to be ninjas, and turn them loose somewhere where lots of Americans hang out. That'd be great.
Then we'd all get to ride on the plane with our hands and feet safely cinched together, with a urinary catheter and vacuum cleaner under our seats to take care of our needs. The stewardess lady would come by and make sure we were hydrated, and they wouldn't have to spend all that money on bad coffee and tomato juice.
... is 11 to 11 a "stunning rebuke"?
I've said it before -- just wait until The Bad Guys deploy some martial-arts-trained attackers, and kill a bunch of people. Then we'll get to spend the duration of the flight with our hands and legs strapped together with disposable nylon handcuffs. Won't that be great?
Patrick- love your column. Salon editors- bring us more people like him! Your non-US readership isn't terribly interested in all politics all the time.
... please start busting some heads to allow Canadians to download BSG off iTunes. I want to make my support for the show known, and I'll be damned if I buy a TV and subscribe to cable for just one show. Every time I pirate this show off bittorrent, I feel guilty and want to mail Ron Moore a cheque for 10 bucks along with a handwritten apology.
I guess I will have to console myself by buying DVD's for my unenlightened friends.
Oh, and thank you to the writers for making Baltar interesting again. He was a delight early on, and a simpering irritant for a season and a half. Thank you thank you.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
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