Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Boo for the White House. Boo for Food Network.

The produce used on the Food Network’s Jan. 3 Iron Chef of America two-hour special White House show was billed as being from the White House garden….

Except for the honey, no food on the show came from the White House.

The whole “local sourcing” gimmick of this show irritated me from the start. The show only exists because of its use of non-local ingredients. So for them to be all high, mighty, and preachy was a real turn off.

I am somewhat amused that the gimmick was exposed by their true production plan which was either to source the food from DC and consume it in New York (kind of against the entire point) or that they really did intend to use only local (to NY) ingredients and then lie through their teeth about the whole thing. The only true driver the “eat local” movement –to borrow a charge from the lefties — is special interest greed.

[written last night]

• In what is becoming something of a trend, I went to a fancy restaurant and left largely unimpressed. Is all fine dining just a huge ripoff?
• I may be at an all time high for the number of books that I have started and failed to finish. In the near future, I may have to focus on one or two just for the sake of reducing the number.

There is one good thing about the brouhaha between Conan, Leno, and NBC: people are talking about — and I bet even watching — late night TV again.

Says Drudge, “White House blames outdated computers for ineffective government…” Outdated computers are caused by ineffective government.

In other words, government is responsible for government sucking.

I ain’t buyin’ it.

Some of you may have seen videos on the web of a dog in California “sensing danger”, or as Drudge says, “Evidence of dogs’ sixth-sense: Labrador bolts from U.S. office before earthquake tremors strike building.” The video comes via the Times Standard. Frankly, I’m calling BS. I mean, literally the dog does sense danger, but it’s really not that far ahead of the humans. And I’m pretty sure it didn’t notice the earthquake before the earthquake. If you watch the video, the first thing you notice is that the dog bolts, which does lend to the story. The second thing you probably notice is the guy with the black shirt and beard emerging from behind the column. He was on his feet and moving about 5 seconds after the dog bolted. Note that the guy was up and moving out before the quake “appears” to strike. If you watch again, you will notice that just after the dog bolts, the guy spins in his chair and one of the drawers of filing cabinets on the left opens. I think it’s pretty clear that the quake struck before it struck visibly. The dog merely responded visibly before the quake struck visibly.