Olive Garden, the fast food chain of "Italian" eateries, has pulled the plug on sponsoring the David Letterman show for the rest of the year. I didn't really think that the joke told at the expense of an Alaskan politician's daughter was funny, but the point is how this illustrates the clearest example of advertising dollars easily diluting and homogenizing any content with a bit of teeth on network television. Besides, Olive Garden's food comes pre-frozen. Hmmmm, so do most network television shows. Mmmmmm, good.

My wife spotted this as we were driving this evening...

Romica Puceanu. Listen, watch and marvel...

I caught the Diane Rehm show this morning with guest David Kessler, author of The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. I haven't read the book yet but what he had to say on the show fascinated me. I heard about half the show on my way to work but the main premise of the book, and his theory, has to do with the food industry force feeding us reward-driven snack food, high in sugar, salt and fat, which are all addictive brain stimulates. If you get on this train, not unlike the cigarette and booze express, it's not so easy just to get off at the next stop.

You can hear the interview for yourself here. Now, where's that bag of Cheetos?

What's up with (this) Dick? Cheney, that is. I can't think of too many people who scare the bejesus out of me like this man. The scariest part of all is that he's still being given credence and that a certain number of people view his pretzel logic as truth.

Paul Begala, CNN political commentator, addresses his insanity head on in a recent article in the Huffington Post. He specifically takes him to task regarding his position that Obama is endangering American lives by dismantling many of the Bush administration's policies on "enhanced interrogation techniques".

He then cuts to the chase that 9-11 occurred on Bush and Cheney's watch and cites several points that these good ol' boys ignored before the attacks that, if paid attention to, may have prevented the events of that day in the first place.

You should read the article but here's a couple paragraphs that more or less sum it up:

First, this awkward fact. When it came time to risk his hide to serve our country during the Vietnam War, Cheney got five draft deferments. He later told the Senate, "I had other priorities in the sixties than military service." John Kerry did not. Nor did John McCain. Nor Gen. Colin Powell, nor Gen. Jim Jones, nor Gen. Wes Clark, nor Jim Webb. These warriors - and so many others - strongly oppose the use of torture. They were willing to die to protect America. It is insulting for a doughy draft dodger like Mr. Cheney to suggest they would endanger us today.

Perhaps what's most galling about Mr. Cheney is how, without irony, humility or apology, he holds himself out as someone who has protected America when in fact he shirked his responsibility before 9-11 and misled us into war after. The closest Dick Cheney has ever come to fighting for America is when he shot his lawyer in the face

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Scary man.