is it just me?

[magicicada]

has anyone else had these questions? or better still any answers?

1. so, how do the sunnis and shi'ites tell each other apart? are there major racial differences? is it just clothing?

followup:
if it is just a matter of clothing, why not carry a second 'hat' or ID in order to switch off and get through checkpoints.

if this is a religious thing, is the idea of conversion unheard of or unacceptable?


2. Accepting that a switch to ethanol based on corn may raise food prices significantly, is it possible that there is a 'sweet spot' where price supports on sugar are dropped and corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup are removed from foods in favor of their old school counterpart?

followup:
if you believe that high fructose corn syrup is responsible for much of the obesity in the U.S., is it possible that a drop in obesity might result - leading to lower medical costs, which would put back into the economy the money that the higher food prices have removed.


----

these might be dumb questions and that is why i'm not hearing anyone ask them, but i'm getting tired of debating them inside my own head. question 1 is something i've never heard addressed anywhere, as if it is not even a matter to be questioned, but why? haven't enemies always tried to sneak into one another's camps? how do you know one side from another?

question 2 is because i have heard vast amounts of discussion on the economics of ethanol, the health effects of high fructose corn syrup, and the economics of obesity and i'm wondering if there is a good logical reason why no one has put all these together.

p.s. i'm also really sick of doing french journals.

Comments

[penguinicity.livejournal.com]

Ooh, #2 is a good question. Moving corn into fuel production resulting in cane sugar going back into food is an interesting possibility. Unfortunately, a lot of food policy is driven by lobbying for specific political interests rather than by a big picture approach, and that may be why there isn't much talk about those connections. I wonder how much favoring corn over sugarcane is due to a) corn grows more places than sugarcane, b) the corn growing states had better politicians than the sugar growing states, and c) sugarcane grows in places like Cuba that US policy doesn't want to support economically.

[toadbarracuda.livejournal.com]

don't froget sugar BEETs. in michigan my mom went really 'mad' at the local farmers who jacked up rates when a hurricane hit the everglades. she started using honey only.

There are huge scams with the sugar industry. Question two is something i've thought about, but big sugar is a huge, huge, huge, lobbby corn syrup too, and stevia isn't even allowed to be called a sweetner due to BIG SUGAR. corrupt evilness, that's what they are.... sugar blues in more ways that one.

[toadbarracuda.livejournal.com]

oh yea, and that's me, frog, not toad. :)

[penguinicity.livejournal.com]

Yep. One thing many people don't often realize, Colorado used to be a major sugar producer. Now, Eastern Colorado is dotted with the hulks of abandoned sugar-beet factories.

[gardenwaltz.livejournal.com]

i think a hell of a lot of it is based on politics. i think there are a lot of corn growers who are wondering what they have gotten themselves into.