Why do I hate freedom?

Because I think hiring a prostitute with a porn website as your shill fake reporter and then feeding him state secrets and letting him hang around the white house is TACKY. That’s why. (Please note: censored but still racy pictures of former “reporter” Jeff Gannon aka J.G. Duckert at that url.)

If we can impeach the last President for doing the bumpin’ uglies with an intern in the White House, why not impeach this one for giving espionage secrets to a rent boy with aliases and a $20,000 judgment against him who’s been hired under false pretenses to impersonate a reporter? If we needed lurid sex along with the dereliction of duty and violation of oath again, we got it now.

What’s necessary to take these bastards down? Do they have to reenact the entire 120 Days of Sodom on the White House Lawn on a squad of preschoolers, or something?

Just ask this scientician!

I’ve just spent some time researching the kerfuffle over Splenda. This is an artificial sweetener (generic name sucralose), which is increasingly popular. Unlike aspartame or saccharine, it doesn’t have a nasty aftertaste and can be used in baking since it doesn’t break down with heat. The manufacturer’s website is at http://www.splenda.com/

You make it by beating the hell out of sugar and chlorinating it.

The sugar people, understandably, don’t like Splenda. Recently they’ve gone after Splenda’s manufacturer for the ad phrase “made from sugar so it tastes like sugar”, arguing that this is misleading since Splenda is not a natural substance but a heavily processed chemical one. This is just FUD and bullshit pretty obviously; “natural” is a meaningless noise. They have a website ( http://www.thetruthaboutsplenda.com/ ) and a lawsuit, and they’re getting all sorts of news coverage. They say things like “It hasn’t been proven to be safe” when of course that’s not how science works, you can’t prove that. Lots of weasel words. You can smell the panic. It’s similar to the anti margarine campaigns the butter people put on during the last century.

The sad part is that they’ve got the Center for Science in the Public Interest on their side. My respect for the CSPI has been declining as they’ve become nannyish and publicity-hungry, but this is the last straw. I can’t see how saying something is “made from sugar” when it is, in fact, made from sugar is fraudulent, or why the CSPI needs to be involved when there’s no evidence that Splenda is bad for anyone. The case revolves around the idea of “natural” food which is religious and not scientific. “Natural” is a word used by health food store cranks, not nutrition professionals or biochemists. I’m not sure whether the CSPI is gradually becoming psychoceramic or has been bought out by a donation from Big Sugar, but in any case I can’t consider them authoritative now. It’s shameful to play on peoples’ ignorance about chemistry and nutrition to grab headlines.

If someone can find a critique of sucralose that is not riddled with the “natural” fallacy, scientifically illiterate blather about deadly chlorine, psychoceramic typography, ads for another product, or plain appeals to fear I’d be interested in seeing it.

et in arcadia emo

I saw the scariest man in Costa Mesa today at the Borders in the magazine section. He was a fortyish surfer/skater type covered in tattoos, including most of his head and face. Most notably he had a large red and black swastika on his skull with some writing in German around it. He was not attempting to conceal this at all. Eep. His rockabilly woman was somewhat tatted up too but not like him. I swear his entire head was illustrated with malevolent shit. I wanted to see it more in detail but I was afraid of looking at him too long.

I get to take the car in tomorrow because the “check engine” light is on. I foresee a delightful day of waiting around, not being called, calling them, and them trying to screw me on the warranty so I pay for the service somehow. Hurf.

I have a stomach ache, I’m broke, and it’s perilously close to Big 5 Time.