news -- live and learn

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-- "If you can't get laid, get drunk" seems to be one of the sub rosa suggestions of a fruit fly study that says sex-deprived flies had a greater tendency to consume alcohol. Similar tendencies have been noted in mice. Bar owners may have cause to rejoice and addicts find a new 'explanation' for their behavior... though of course scientists will disavow any absolute if-then conclusion.

-- In the endlessly numbing and nationally embarrassing race for the Republican presidential nomination, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has been quoted as telling Puerto Ricans that if they really want statehood, they will have to make English their native tongue. A "race to the bottom" is too kindly as a description of the wrangling miring the national political tableau these days. Serious discourse in a time of high unemployment, a war footing in the Middle East, and a skyrocketing growth of U.S. mediocrity on the world stage is simply not possible.

-- Whatever "pink slime" is called, still it has made its way into beef products in a way that must delight beef-makers but leaves consumers in the dark. When is ground chuck not exactly ground chuck? "Pink slime" is in fact beef, but is composed of leftover beef parts ... the stuff producers cannot sell as readily. So ground chuck is still beef, but where that beef comes from on the cow is anyone's guess. One thing's for sure -- the prices seldom drop. It's tiring, getting flim-flammed and tiring as well to hear the flim-flammers utter cries of surprise when someone sticks a revolutionary gun in their faces and says, "Cut the crap!" Good intentions are such a lame excuse.
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