Ethanol is Nasty Business--So is the Iraq War

From my idealistic Republican perspective,

I would like to think the war in Iraq is about freedom for the Iraqi people.

Adding 26 million people to a world of free thought and expression would be a remarkable achievement. An achievement not possible without the sacrifice of 4,000 of our nation's son and daughters.

Quite frankly, the reality of the situation is this simple: We sacrifice our sons and daughters to stabilize our supply of cheap, foreign oil.

I think about this every time I fill my tank. I think about a better way to power our country and our way of life.

Ethanol from corn is inefficient at best. But it is a start. If we can grow our own fuel, our money stays in this country, rather than sent off to Saudi Arabia. We are talking billions and billions of dollars for investment and jobs in this country.

Ethanol technology will advance. Other, more efficient crops will be converted to fuel. We can still drive our cars and maybe, just maybe that young person now driving a tank in Iraq will come home to drive a John Deere tractor, harvesting sugar beets in Western Minnesota.

First in A Series

Thanks, Jon

Third Snow on a Robin

I've never heard that saying before. The cashier at a C-store told me, according to her husband's grandfather, a robin will never see more than three snowfalls after it returns to the frozen north.

And this is the third one. A sure sign that spring is on the way.

Jon

Honest Politician--An Oxymoron?

I'd Lie to you for your vote, and that's the truth!

An oxymoron (plural oxymorons or, more rarely, oxymora) is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Oxymoron is a loanword from Greek oxy ("sharp") and moros ("dull"). Thus the word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron.

Oxymorons are a proper subset of the expressions called contradictions in terms. What distinguishes oxymorons from other paradoxes and contradictions is that they are used intentionally, for rhetorical effect, and the contradiction is only apparent, as the combination of terms provides a novel expression of some concept, such as "cruel to be kind".

The most common form of oxymoron involves an adjective combination. For example, the following line from Tennyson's Idylls of the King contains two oxymorons:

"And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true"