David, re: Senator Grassley’s remarks, at such moments it’s hard to see the point of electing fellows with an R after their name. You quote him as follows:
“You make ethanol out of corn,” he said. “I bet if I set a bushel of corn in front of any of those delegates, not one of them would eat it.”
That might be true. Some of my elderly Continental relatives don’t care for corn-on-the-cob. To certain Mitteleuropeans the idea of eating what you feed your livestock is bizarre. Still, a nice cornfed chicken would find plenty of takers among those delegates. So would the cornfed chicken’s eggs Benedict on an English muffin with a side of seasonal fruit.
On the other hand I bet if I set a bushel of corn in front of any Iowan not one of them would think of putting it in Al Gore’s Prius unless he were being rewarded by the government for doing so. Like the song says: I love you, a bushel and a check.
We are on the verge of a global tragedy, summed up in the characteristically smug bumper sticker Mona spotted the other day: “Don’t burn fuel. Grow it.” The ecochondriacs abetted by the likes of Senator Grassley have taken subsistence crops and made them part of the energy market. No good can come of that, only vast human misery. It’s the oldest conservative lesson: The real problem isn’t the “problem” but the Big Government solution to it.