My Sick Mind

We're conflicted, us humans. How? Glad you asked. There is a glut of gluttonous food available to us, and even though we keep hearing about how morbidly obese we are as a species, food products are foist upon us that aim to keep us that way. The latest deal at McDonald's is a third of a pound Angus beef burger for four bucks. A third of a pound. It even has its own web site . The Angus Third Pounder ranges from 720 calories to 860 calories. Most of us can get by on 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day. Have one of these boys with the requisite fries and soft drink and you can survive the rest of the day on tree bark and pond water, since your body can presumably live off the half-hour of intake. Burger King puts the word "Angry" in front of a couple of their sandwiches, including the Angry Chicken : Tender, premium breaded white meat chicken filet topped with sizzling bacon, Pepper Jack cheese, deliciously spicy jalapenos, angry onions and our signature angry sauce. It’s ...

Nothing goes down better in an economic downturn than a warm donut and a grande mocha mint latte. Um-um. Nummers! You'll remember, a while ago I wrote about some construction going on in the area. A donut joint, hair salon and a drug store were being built around the corner from me. In the race for economic supremacy, donuts beat hair and drugs. The drug store lot is still in the run-down condition it was, ditto the hair joint. Sadly, area residents are going without a decent haircut, and their angst cannot be salved by a heavy dose of prescription medication, but the lust for fried dough and hot sugary coffee can be fulfilled. Of course, that doesn't rule out the 6 other drug stores within a 5-mile radius (one less than 2 miles from the planned Rite Aid) and the numerous other hair salons that couldn't possibly compete with what was once a Taco Bell. Not to mention the Dunkin' Donuts that is a scant 2 miles up the street from the one they just finished building on...

WASHINGTON – The White House warned Monday that the "cash for clunkers" program, already zooming toward a quarter-million trade-ins with the initial $1 billion in rebates, could sputter to a stop by Friday unless the Senate quickly approves $2 billion more. Apparently, what I was missing was that the "clunkers" are being sold as scrap, crushed and removed from civilization. May I suggest that we add Hummers, Yukon's and any vehicle larger than a swimming pool to the list? Bucks for Behemoths . Everything needs a catchy name to lure-in the general public. Like so many other things, our government didn't properly read the public and found out quickly that people had old vehicles sitting in what we call "The Family Museum" out in the back yard - on two tires, rusted and apparently not worth more than the $4,500 that the Feds were going to give them. The program is running out of money. Go figure. Hurry up and get yours. Meanwhile, I'm sitting...

I'm squinting my eyes trying to understand the government's " Cash for Clunkers " program, which implies that the government is giving money to consumers for trading-in their gas guzzling vehicles for more economic ones. But I wonder if it's doing anything besides helping sell cars. What happens to the "clunkers" that are traded-in? Aren't they merely re-sold to someone else as a "pre-owned vehicle" and put back on the road? If they're being crushed and sold for scrap metal, somebody needs to tell me, because I don't think that's part of the program. The government (our government) is spending $1 billion as of now to support the program, which they say has been wildly successful. I guess that means that it's helping the auto makers reduce inventory, sell cars and drive up consumer debt in the form of a new auto loan. That's nice, since the government (our government) owns two of the auto makers, and has given out enou...