High Fructose Corn Syrup Might Make You Stupid

A "corn sugar" fan.

Now, this would explain a lot. They put high fructose corn syrup in every damned thing. I don't know why they do, but they do. How do I know? Because I've been on a slightly modified version of the Atkins Diet most of the time (with wagon falls) over the last five or six years. When you start reading nutritional information, and start wondering, why does this salad have 15,742 grams of carbs? You realize they've pumped everything full of "corn sugar." Yes, they really call it that now. Time was, food producers were scared of the word "sugar." Super Sugar Crisp became Golden Crisp (after a journey through Super Honey Crisp and probably others, with a mascot formerly called Sugar Bear!). But when you have an unnatural product like HFCS that you desperately want to seem "natural," you call it sugar.

So, now that much of America looks like People of Wal-Mart, and those people have decided to be arch-conservative tea baggers, you have to wonder where that all comes from. Corn sugar! It's making them stupid! It all makes so much sense now.


[Excerpt]

High fructose corn syrup might make you stupid

Eating too much sugar can eat away at your brainpower, according to US scientists who published a study Tuesday showing how a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup sapped lab rats' memories. . .

Read more at: AmericaBlog

Why Standing Up for Marriage Equality Could Get Obama Re-elected

Yeah, Newsweek? Not helping. Image from source.

I started this blog almost five years ago after extreme Bush fatigue.  Plus FOX "News" and the whole right-wing noise machine, really. At that point, I was a semi-regular commenter and a constant reader of John Aravosis' AmericaBlog.com. I refreshed the home page of that site many times on any given day. In the haze of Karl Rove-brewed alternate reality, I'd found a place that made me feel sane. So, I was inspired to become a blogger myself. Not a full-time career blogger like Aravosis of course, but at least it gave me an outlet. He's sort of my blogfather (a term I wish I invented, alas I did not).

After Obama was elected, the tone at AmericaBlog got a little strident for my taste. Being gay like me--but much more of an actual activist--Aravosis' focus could sometimes stray deep into the gay weeds. The stories rubbed me the wrong way a bit of the time, but the comments section ran me out. It was all, "Obama doesn't care about gay people!" and "we're not voting for him, he's not going fast enough," and when I'd try to comment on the futility of that, I was run out as a "concern troll." It left me a little bitter.

But I got over it. The site seemed to become a little less strident. I still read it several times a week, even if I don't check it every hour any more. I mostly stay out of the comments section. And I still have a thing for Aravosis, a man who I respect, despite my for-a-time disagreement. He started it all for me, and he's still a heck of a writer. Witness. . .


[Excerpt]

John Aravosis, image from bartnagel.com

Why Gays Did President Obama a Favor by Pushing Him on Gay Marriage

“Black voters will freak.” That’s what the chattering class kept warning those of us pushing President Obama to endorse same-sex marriage. He’ll lose the black vote and energize evangelicals all the way to defeat this November, they told us. And, of course, it would be the fault of the gay community for making such an unreasonable demand. . .

Read more at: The Daily Beast

Ron Reagan Jr. & John Aravosis on Hardball: Obama and Gay Marriage

All day Thursday, there has been buzz that the New York State Senate may pass (or fail to pass) legalized same-sex marriage. At almost the same time, President Obama held a fundraiser with GLBT folks. Awkward! Why? Because for good or ill, Obama and his administration--while openly supportive of gay rights--has been dancing up to the line in regards to marriage equality. Apparently they just can't go all the way to "yes, I support same sex marriage." He has to fall all over himself, (rightfully) touting the things that have been accomplished toward gay rights during his term, and reaffirm his belief that gays and lesbians should have equal rights. As far as full equality regarding marriage (which conveys rights), they're hedging: Obama is "evolving" on that issue.

Many people, myself included, think that Obama actually does support marriage equality, he just can't say so unless he gets reelected. And I kind of get that. Except that I'm irritated that we acknowledge and accept that our political leaders--all of them--lie to us as a matter of course, for political expediency. Yes, politicians have always had the reputation for lying, but here is lying that we wink-wink, nudge-nudge, tolerate.  Anyway, commenting on all of this is Ron Reagan, Jr. (a personal favorite) filling in for Chris Matthews on Hardball, and my "blogfather" John Aravosis, my main inspiration for starting this blog.

AmericaBlog's John Aravosis on Don't Ask, Don't Tell

John Aravosis' AmericaBlog was one of the first blogs I ever read (back during the Jeff Gannon story, 'member that one?), and was part of my inspiration for blogging myself. So, I'm always glad to see when Aravosis appears on one of the cable news shows, especially when it is in the arena of gay rights. I have no self-delusions either that this blog compares to John's, nor that I'd make a very good TV pundit.  But it's nice to see a blogger I like get some exposure.  I mean, if it isn't on TV, it didn't happen, right?

Canadian Version of Daily Show Punks Sarah Palin

I found this at AmericaBlog, where Sarah Palin has been dubbed "stupid" for falling for this prank. Far be it for me to argue with my blogfather, John Aravosis, but this doesn't make her stupid. This makes her ignorant. But she's stupid too, so, po-tay-to/po-tah-to.

More of John Aravosis on the DOMA Story

After posting the video of AmericaBlog's John Aravosis on CBS News, I found this article he wrote for Salon yesterday. It's great, so here' you go. . .

[Excerpt]

President Obama betrays the gay community

Team Obama keeps telling lesbian and gay Americans like me to be patient. If we just wait a little longer, administration officials whisper to us lovingly (and out of earshot of the media), after the White House finishes with healthcare reform and getting the troops out of Iraq, your time will come. In the meantime, cheer up -- we put a gay band in the inaugural parade! . . .

Read more at: Salon

AmericaBlog's John Aravosis on DOMA Flap

AmericaBlog's John Aravosis was one of my inspirations for starting this blog, and he continues to blaze a trail at his site. Right now, one of the biggest stories on AmericaBlog is the dust up created by President Obama's Justice Department writing a pretty horrible brief defending DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act). Were it not for Aravosis, the issue might not have even hit the mainstream. Anyway, he was on CBS today, so here is the clip.


Watch CBS Videos Online

The Constitution, Socialism, Dictators and Hypocrisy

Sometimes, I plug away on the blog, and walk away feeling a little pride in my work. Then, I'll read a post on one of the real blogs and feel inadequate.

AmericaBlog was one of the first blogs I ever read, back when I wondered--much like I do today about FaceBook and Twitter--what all this fuss was about blogs. It was one of my inspirations for starting this blog almost two years ago. To me, this is just a hobby. I don't pretend to be in the big leagues. So I guess I shouldn't feel like I ought to be as good as those who do this for a living.

The short post excerpted below is really not so different from what I do, I suppose. It takes the issue of political hypocrisy to task, showing Newt Gingrich and Sean Hannity to only be concerned about the Constitution and freedom when the "opposition party" is in control. It's an important point, one I've attempted to make before. But John Aravosis is a pro, and something about his writing sums it up better than I have.

[Excerpt]

After 8 years of Republicans trashing the Constitution and illegally spying on Americans, now the GOP is suddenly worried about "rights"



. . .Funny that Gingrich and Hannity sure didn't care when their Republican buddies in the White House and Congress spent the last eight years trashing the US Constitution and the rights of our citizens, all for the "greater good." That was okay. But trying to pass legislation to make it easier to forestall a depression, that's dictatorship. . .

Source: AmericaBlog

McCain's Health: What's Going On?

Image from source, AmericaBlog

This past Friday, one of the more surprising aspects of the first debate was that John McCain seemed fully awake, upright, engaged and less doddering than usual. In this event, and in his speech at the Republican National Convention, McCain seemed very different than he often has on the campaign trail. I'd really like to know how they get him pumped up for the big events,

when he seems like a slowly deflating balloon at the smaller ones.

The issue of McCain's general health has become--for some reason--an almost taboo subject in the mainstream press, or from the Barack Obama campaign. Almost nobody seems willing to touch it. I'd really like to know why.

McCain was allowed--in a now more familiar "stunt"--to release his medical records on his own terms, by letting a select number of reporters view his voluminous records for a limited amount of time. Then they pulled the records from view. MoveOn.org recently ran an ad regarding the importance of knowing the status of McCain's health, and were slammed for it, with FOX "News" even somehow shaming a skittish MSNBC into dropping the ad. But these are valid points.

John McCain is our oldest candidate for a first-term President. People don't say much about it, but the previous record holder, and the oldest candidate for a second term, was very likely experiencing the beginning stages of Alzheimer's Disease while he was President. Well, as a blogger, I have very little to risk by doing my little part to bring some of this to light. I particularly have no fear of FOX "News!"

John Aravosis and the other bloggers at AmericaBlog, have been paying close attention to McCain and his health, and they've noticed that McCain had an odd appearance on this morning's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. They quite rightly are asking, what is up?

TW has not yet aired out here, so I may revisit this topic later in the day.

[Excerpt]

Swollen, lisping McCain appears on ABC's THIS WEEK

Remember, the reason we are forced to speculate about John McCain's health is because John McCain refuses to release his medical records. McCain let a few journalists review his records for 3 hours, that's it. They couldn't make copies, they had to leave everything behind. They got about 5 seconds to review each of other 1000 pages, then they had to move on to the next page. It's patently absurd. But that's where we are, due to John McCain's own choice in hiding his medical records. Thus, we are forced to speculate whether our potential next president is sick or dying. . .

Read more at: AmericaBlog

AmericaBlog Notices Something About McCain's Left Eye

I found this story fascinating, because I too have thought there was something odd going on with John McCain's face, but I couldn't put my finger on it exactly. It reminds of the strange, intermittent jaw-wiggling George W. Bush sometimes does when finishing a sentence.

I've already noticed for some time that John McCain blinks a lot. And he has these little button eyes that make it extra noticeable. So it isn't surprising that a change in the way his eyes look was setting off alarms. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this, or if it has anything to do with yesterday's bizarre behavior.

[Excerpt]

Anybody else notice anything weird with McCain's left eye recently?



Joe and Rob both mentioned this to me in the past week, and now several readers have brought it up. I also just noticed that Atrios picked up on this too today. Something wrong, changed, droopy or puffy with McCain's left eye. Anybody else notice anything? I just searched Google a bit more and found references to his eye being droopy in April and May of this year as well. But whatever it is, it seems to be intermittent. (McCain has had 4 bouts of melanoma, and did in 2002 have a benign growth removed from under his left eye.). . .

Read more at: AmericaBlog

Amazing Shots of Lighting over Washington DC

I'm not religious (to say the very least), but doesn't this look like somebody's retribution for all the nefarious deeds done in Washington, DC? The shot was taken by one of my favorite bloggers, and inspirations for this site, John Aravosis. Great shot, John!

And there are several more. Check them out at: AmericaBlog

UPDATE: For a dose of unintentional humor, go over to my archives, and click June 2008. The post that appears immediately after this one completes the joke!

State Department Guilty of Plagiarized Iraq Report?

In another story I didn't see or hear anywhere today, John Aravosis of AmericaBlog has a post up comparing a State Department report on Iraq with pieces of several articles. There are amazing similarities. . .

[Excerpt]

BREAKING: State Department official Iraq update is really compilation of plagiarized major media articles

Kind of pathetic when the official report from the US State Department on what's "really" happening in Iraq is actually just a bunch of plagiarized paragraphs from the major media in the US. To wit, the following analysis an anonymous friend just sent me. I just checked it out and he's right. State outright plagiarized much of the major media in making its "report." And what's really funny, they even stole a number of paragraphs from a New York Times article when, as I recall, the NYT is the newspaper that George Bush refuses to read because it supposedly has such a "liberal bias."

See what he's talking about at: AmericaBlog

Bush Gets Petulant Over Congress

Photo from Reuters.com

Something strange has been happening with our President over the last couple of weeks. He's always acted like a spoiled brat, but lately he's been more petulant than usual. He's had a series speeches and press conferences, each one of them growing more irritable. He's rattled off a series of charges against Congress, and increasingly raises the specter of doom if they don't do what he says.

When Congress doesn't capitulate to his whines (rare these days), he simply does an end-run around them. Sometimes he doesn't even give them an opportunity to knuckle under, and goes around them ahead of time. And all the while, he ratchets up the rhetoric. You almost expect him to hold his breath and turn blue.

And like a child throwing a tantrum, he's not above lying to make his case. John Aravosis at AmericaBlog has a great post up right now, analyzing Bush's latest charges. Check it out.

[Excerpt]

It's sad how many lies Bush can weave into one press event

. . .Our president is a liar. That's because he comes from a party of liars. All the extremists leading the Republican party know how to do nowadays is lie. They look in a mirror, pick out the worst things they're doing, and then blame the Democrats for it. Bush let Osama go? Blame the Democrats! Bush bankrupted the country while Clinton left us with hundreds of billions of dollars of surplus? Call the Democrats fiscally irresponsible because they want to add a few billion to a program to insure millions of children. . .

Read it all at: AmericaBlog

Larry Craig on CNN: AmericaBlog's John Aravosis

My favorite blogger, John Aravosis (AmericaBlog.com) was the guest on CNN's Out in the Open today, regarding Senator Larry Craig's media blitz. I don't agree with everything Aravosis says ("cops lie" maybe should have been "sometimes, cops might lie?"), but he's smart, articulate, and is a refreshing change from many of the tired old faces you see on these political talk shows.

Republicans Do Not Believe in America

In yet another excellent editorial, AmericaBlog.com's John Aravosis counters the "conventional wisdom" that Republicans believe in America and its principles. I would dearly love to see what kind of rebuttal a conservative could offer to this very truthful assessment. I can't think of a counterpoint.

[Excerpt]

Republicans simply do not believe in our democracy

. . .this kind of democracy-baiting isn't new for the Republicans. They don't like our system of jurisprudence either. They have disdain for judges - but really, it's a disdain for the entire branch of government, the very existence of the branch.

Then there are the rights and liberties underlying our country. Freedom of religion? They don't believe in freedom of religion. They believe in freedom of the Southern Baptist religion. All others need not apply. Freedom of speech? They don't believe in any speech at all anymore. Freedom of the press? They think reporters should be tried for treason. Then there's domestic spying. A crime once considered verboten. Now it's shrugged off as just another acceptable fact of every day life because, you know, we have nothing to hide. Which goes to another underlying fact of American life, the right to a lawyer and the right to be innocent until proven guilty. Republicans don't believe in those either, anymore. . .

Read the rest at: AmericaBlog.com

Republican Family Values

I give a lot of space at Greenlee Gazette to AmericaBlog, and for good reason. AmericaBlog was the first blog I ever visited, during the Jeff Gannon/James Guckert story, and I've been a regular reader ever since. It was AmericaBlog that actually kept me away from blogging, myself, for a long time. I just didn't think I'd be able to compare.

AmericaBlog founder, John Aravosis, has a great editorial up right now, in response to Rudy Giuliani's command to "leave my family alone." It's very, very good.

[Excerpt]

The extremists running the Republican party have two sets of values. The ones they live under, and the ones they expect YOU to live under. They spend like drunken sailors, but they expect you to tighten your belt. They send our troops off to wars based on a lie, without the proper equipment, and you hate the troops. They have more divorces and marriages and affairs than Zsa Zsa Gabor, but you're the threat to family values. And September 11 happens under their watch, but you're the one who's weak on terror. . .

Read the rest at: AmericaBlog.com