Flipping through the channels, I finally caught snippets of Bush's big speech about the Middle East. It's Pale-stine. Not Pale-stein.

Just sat there and I could think about was seeing every Palestinian watching it yelling "Palestine, it's Palestine!" like Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein.

Jesus-frickin'-Christ.


Anyways, Made the mistake of buying Fast Food Nation today and I can't put it down. For those who don't know about it, it's basically an expose on the Fast Food industry- how they operate and how they've fundamentally changed America and the World. And not for the best.

I knew I shouldn't have gotten it because I've been warned, but I got it anyways. Just as I thought, it's pretty scary.

Among other fun little facts that I've read so far, I found this-

-In 1947 GM and a few other car manufacturers bought up most of the major trolley companies then completely demolished them so as to pave the way for more roads to be built. Which, besides more cars, also meant more busses were needed (made by GM, of course). They were all indicted for anit-trust measures, but the judge fined all the CEO's of the companies a whopping $1.

-Due to lobbying pressure from the meat industry lobby, government can recall any number of defective products, but can't any sort of contaminated meat. Which is how we get e-coli outbreaks.

-Due to a lack of school funding, many textbooks are written by major corporations. Suprisingly, a study guide sponsored by the American Coal Foundation dismisses Global Warming and another one sponsored by Proctor & Gamble teaches kids that clear-cut logging is a good thing. Oh yeah, all these textbooks are, of course, tax deductibles for the corporations.

-In an attempt to hook kids at an ever younger age to drink soft drinks, several major soft drink companies, licensed their logos to baby bottle manufacturers.

-And finally, that in 1998, more fast-food workers were murdered on their job than cops. And that most of the fast-food hold-ups are done by ex or current employees (which is what happens when you pay only 5.75 an hour and make 16 year old kids work til 1 in the morning). In 1998, a government attempt to make the fast-food places safer for their employers (by doing things like making the parking lot well lit) was foiled by intense lobbying in congress. Didn't want to have to spend money making sure their employees weren't shot by other employees. Naturally, one of the major lobbying groups against the workforce rules was everyone's favorite group, the NRA.

And I'm only on page 90.

Besides the fact I might never eat at a MickeyD's again, the book is almost enough to make me grow dreadlocks, stop showering, and start attending those anti-globalization protests.