Corn.

Are you familiar with it? You're familiar with one type of corn.

My interest in this wonderful-tasting vegetable was aroused recently by the recurring commercials touting ethanol engines in American cars using "American corn." They've been called "flex-fuel" vehicles.

Check it out in Google.

Then turn your brain on.

Who stands to profit here? Is it the foundering corn industry? The foundering American car industry? Both? Yes. You're right. It IS both.

Corn is one of the most heavily subsidized crops in the US. It is subsidized mostly for the great fields of beef we like to grow here (which is an entirely different entry).

Something happens when you offer a reward for people for doing a particular thing. THEY START DOING IT!

Hence the farmers of our great land, who were increasingly being edged out by big corporate farms, and terrible business practices on behalf of our USDA, began growing CORN (or soybeans...or wheat...). Then we had an over abundance of the stuff. What to do...what to do?

I have a good idea. Let's turn it into sugar, and put it in absolutely every food we can. Yes. Check your labels.

Recent diet crazes, and real nutrition experts, have been blaming High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) for the obesity of America. Really, it should be a game of "Follow the Corn..." - the high beef intake of our nation doesn't help its waistline or health. Or maybe, "Pin the Tail on the Subsidy..." - our addiction to wheat-based products is equally as fattening.

So now, subsidized corn is in danger. What to do? Well, there's this fuel thingy. Let's use that!

Instead of taking a look at the absurdity of the situation, and changing it, we just find a different outlet for our bad behavior. I think this is actually just human nature. Look at your own bad habits. Don't you do the same thing on a personal level? You just find a new way to explain your bad behavior. "Oh, I have to do it like this, my doctor said I'm ADHD" (and prescribed you expensive and essentially un-tested mood-altering drugs).

I want to make a quick soybean note, since this is exactly what happened when tofu rose in popularity within the US. There was a massive soybean overstock, and the industry needed to figure out what to do with it. Let's make tofu popular. Suddenly, you see "scientific" reports touting the health benefits of tofu. You see the sht in everything - tofu ice cream, tofu chicken wings, tofu water.

You see it on the tube, and you get sucked in. You're trained to believe what you see. You're trained to do that, not just from your upbringing, but from evolution. What happens to the monkey that doesn't believe its eyes when it sees a tiger? It doesn't pass its genes on. That's what.

I implore you, the next time you hear a "scientific" study, to put it into Google and look for a refuting study. 9 times out of ten, you'll find one.

You may think I'm getting off topic, but this is exactly what I'm referring to, in all of these entries. Use your brain friends. Use it for good. For truth, justice, and the American way.