Stuff on my Mind Today

Recently, I bought a jar of organic peanut butter and, as I do with everything I buy, I read the label. I was shocked that it contained this warning: "This product contains peanuts." My first thought was "are Americans really that stupid that they need to be told that peanut butter contains peanuts?" However, an even more disturbing idea came to me later. Are there peanut butters on the market that DO NOT contain peanuts? I suppose it shouldn't really surprise me. There are fruit juices that don't contain fruit and bacon bits that don't contain bacon. Why couldn't there be peanut butter that doesn't contain peanuts. It makes me wonder though, who thought of making products without the main ingredient? I envision really high chemical engineering students up late on a weekend night craving something and only having their lab available to them. They say Necessity is the Mother of Invention. Unfortunately, in this country, the Father is Greed.

On a more political note:

Did anyone out there watch the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" with Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker last night? Here is part of the actual transcript from the program (Pay close attention to the freudian slip made by Gen. Petraeus which I bolded for emphasis):

JIM LEHRER: Now, General, back to Senator Biden again. He said again last night -- he accused you of spinning. He said -- and I quote -- "He was spinning" -- meaning you, General -- "He was spinning. He knows full well, in my humble opinion, he knows full well that what he was able to do in Anbar has virtually no relationship to what happened in Baghdad and the surge."

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS: Well, the surge has not been just Baghdad. In fact, the surge has been about areas around Baghdad about as importantly as it has been about Baghdad neighborhoods. In fact, a number of the subsequent brigades after the first two, and certainly the two Marine battalions and the Marine expeditionary unit, have gone to the so-called Baghdad belts, including some of them in eastern Anbar province, because that's where al-Qaida had sanctuaries.

And this is not just about al-Qaida by any means, but they are, as we term it, the wolf closest to the sled, the organization, the terrorist group that has carried out the most horrific and most barbaric and most casualty-producing attacks. They are the ones who sparked that round of escalation of sectarian violence by the bombing of the mosque in Samarra back in February 2006.

JIM LEHRER: So you were not spinning; you were just reporting?

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS: Look, my entire assessment, I tried to prevent -- to present the facts as we understand it. Our data has been collected. There's a methodology for it. It has remained consistent. And, if anything, we think we had more situational awareness because of just the sheer number of additional forces and the fact that they're living in the neighborhoods now where that sectarian violence, in some cases, is still ongoing.

For the full text of the interview check out the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer website:
Interview with Patraeus and Crocker

I don't watch the program enough to know Mr. Lehrer's interviewing style, so I can't claim to be surprised that he didn't ask Gen. Petraeus about the Freudian slip. However, I was disappointed that it wasn't pointed out at all. Maybe there will be something in the news today about the General accidentally letting the truth slip out during the interview. While I believe the General is trying to do his best job in Iraq, I think he may have orders from his superiors which result in his "preventing" the facts from the American people.