Well Since The Bee Apparently Won't Print My Letter....

I guess I can print it myself. I sent it in a week ago and figure that if it has not appeared by now, it probably won't (although I have been wrong about that before)......

Dear Editor:
As I was downing my nightly bowl of ice cream, I came across Christopher Tasy's letter in response to your recent obesity story wherein he stated that the poor are simply not smart enough to realize that steamed broccoli is a better nutritional choice than a fast food burger and fries. In other words, they have only themselves to blame for being overweight.
Unfortunately, nutritional knowledge is not the entire answer as to why those in poverty tend to be more obese. A recent study at the University of Washington found that, on a calorie for calorie basis, junk foods are far cheaper than fruits and vegetables. While fruits and veggies are in fact rich in nutrients, they also contain relatively fewer calories. Those foods packing the highest energy density include pastries, baked goods and snacks. These foods are usually a better caloric bargain for cash-strapped shoppers.
To put this in terms of dollars, a 2000 calorie diet would cost under $5 per day if it consisted of junk food while a 2000 calorie diet consisting of low energy foods like "steamed broccoli" could cost over five times that much per day. If you only have $5 per day to feed yourself, you are more likely to gravitate toward those items which yield the most calories per dollar.
And even more tragically, because nutritious foods are increasing in price faster than junk foods, healthy eating is sadly becoming an unaffordable luxury for many.

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

Rice for VP? What a Joke!

Some folks, in the Bee and other media outlets, have been starting to push Condoleezza Rice as a suitable VP candidate for McCain. Maybe the two actually belong together. However, I am sickened that someone who was intimately involved in the decision to torture people, in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions, should be considered eligible for such a position. If there were any justice, she should be facing some sort of war crimes tribunal, along with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others.
Here is an excerpt from the article:

The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

The advisers were members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy.

At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

As the national security adviser, Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House Situation Room and were typically attended by most of the principals or their deputies.

Then-National Security Advisor Rice, sources said, was decisive. Despite growing policy concerns -- shared by Powell -- that the program was harming the image of the United States abroad, sources say she did not back down, telling the CIA: "This is your baby. Go do it."


[And I won't EVEN get into how someone who ignored a report entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in United States" back in 2001 is too incompetent for elected office....or how someone so connected to oil companies that she had an oil tanker named after her is the last thing we need to get us going in the direction of a new energy policy!!!]