Pen-Elayne on the Web

To Catch a Thief

Feeling under the weather today, probably leaving work soon to collapse in bed this afternoon. They say Saltines are good for what I think is ailing me, but I'll probably just get a box of (non-shmura) matzoh instead on the way home.

I watched an interesting episode of Penn & Teller: BULLSHIT! last night talking about food issues. I liked the part that exposed the diet industry (although it was kinda creepy what with Atkins just dying) but was a little perturbed about the second half, which raked Greenpeace over the coals (they're going to do it again on tonight's show about "environmental hysteria" so be forewarned). Jillette's conclusion: that environmentalists concerned about genetically modified food should just "shut the fuck up" because we live in a land of plenty and GM food could help feed billions of people, whereas organic food is a loser. So I guess that means he's okay with all those crops designed to only work with agribusiness pesticides, and with small farmers being thrown out of work, and with multinationals pretty much taking over another aspect of self-sufficiency in developing countries. Kinda disappointing, I generally like Jillette but I'm not even going to watch his upcoming anti-environmental screed if this was a taste of it. (And hey, kudos on the timing, the week before Earth Day.)

But speaking of taste, I do agree that well-fed folks in the US ought to be more concerned about feeding the starving people throughout the world (without poisoning them!) than about whether a second helping of dessert will go straight to their hips. Absolutely, we should all strive to be less insular and provincial in our thinking, even if we're as individually powerless to help stave off starvation as we are to stave off war. So I'll go out on a limb here and say that I too think that some of the recent looting in Iraq might actually be a good thing, but only when it comes to food. Yes, I'm sure some of the thieves were black marketeers, but I can't help but feel that just as many if not more were just ordinary hungry people. And in the apparent absence of any organized attempts to distribute that food, I don't really have a problem with them helping themselves to it. But then, I often have fantasies about how all food staples ought to be free, so don't mind me.

Speaking of freedom, which we must because it's Passover and Good Friday and all, Kevin Moore (link at sidebar) points to an interesting article by Naomi Klein called "Privatization in Disguise." It's basically all about how what our government is trying to pass off as reconstruction is actually going to be privatization of resources. Notes Klein, "Some argue that it's too simplistic to say this war is about oil. They're right. It's about oil, water, roads, trains, phones, ports and drugs. And if this process isn't halted, 'free Iraq' will be the most sold country on earth." So you know, it's unconscionable when books are burned and antiquities purloined from museums, but that theft seems to be small potatoes compared with stealing the soul of an entire country. Just another reason people observe that the US is now very good at destruction and not so good any more at rebuilding.