Jeez, what is with these people?!

Okay, so it's official: The Daily Vidette is an extension of the moonbat brigade. These people are nuts! I submit to the court the following pieces of evidence:

Exhibit A: College Democrats

The ISU College Democrats, upon hearing that IL congressman Ray LaHood would possibly make a run for governor in 2006, bought up domain names LaHood might use in the future. It made the paper yesterday that several "Republican blogs" (Dang, I wish I had been in on that) had criticized the ISU dems for their childish prank. Some of the McLean County republicans laugh it off as a harmless prank. The Vidette's reaction? "You can't criticize them. They're just doing what other IL republicans are doing."

You can't make this stuff up, people.

Let's see where they go wrong. First, they can't seem to distinguish between the operators of the "republican blogs" and the people who bought up www.rodblagojevich.com. Second, why cannot we criticize both? Surely it is just as stupid and juvenile to have purchased Rod's namesake on the part of those republicans as it was to have purchased LaHood's. Or can I not say that? Not according to the Vidette. Third, the angle of the article to "blame" the IL republicans for the ISU dems' behavior is bizarre. I thought college students were intelligent, independent thinkers who didn't blindly follow anyone?

And finally, this sentence: "In a time of voter suppression and racial gerrymandering, this is the least abrasive of the lengths some have gone to for the sake of the party."

Wow. That came out of left field (pun intended). I'd love to hear more about this "voter suppression" I keep hearing about. Do you mean what happened in Washington State, for example?

Exhibit B: Grass is the Devil!

Annie Spiro, you just don't know when to quit, do you? In this weeks silly invective, Annie goes on a tangent against the American lawn.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm just as confused by people who spend thousands of dollars to have picture perfect yards, even going so far as to paint their grass.

But here are some of her main points: "Gas mowers pollute way too much, you should use manual mowers instead;" "Pesticides cause cancer, don't use them!"

Now, I'm not sure she's advocating that people should let their yards run absolutely wild. But I always thought that doing so ran a greater public health hazard than cutting? Doesn't a wild yard invite critters and diseases that are unfavorable to healthy living conditions?

Even so, she cites California as an example of emission standards. Now, I know there are people in CA with enormous houses, and lawns to match. My own house has, probably, about 2 acres of grass. It takes about 3 hours to cut it using a riding lawn mower. The time it would take to cut using a manual, push mower? I don't even want to think about it. I'd say at least 9 hours. But that's okay. My father doesn't really need to do anything with his weekends.

I'm all about protecting the environment, and yes, emissions are bad, but surely we can agree that we need to find a better way to reduce emissions, yes?

As far as the pesticides go, she needs to learn some basic science. Do chemicals in pesticides cause cancer? I'm sure they do. Most of the compounds in your food cause cancer, probably. The thing they fail to mention is exposure: how much of this stuff must you ingest at a time before it harms you?

This is not to say, "Oh, well let's pump our bodies full of non-toxic dosages of all kinds of chemicals!" But before you go off on saying a compound causes cancer, you have to be able to quantify that risk. Cancer is a very strange ailment. On many things, we can only make a tenuous connection between cancer and the thing that may or may not cause it. And, again, exposure is a big part. Will cancer come from one big dose or small doses over an extended period of time? If so, how much over what period of time?

The answer, more often than not, is that we just don't know. Annie doesn't and the EPA doesn't either. It's reactionary science at best.

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The staff of the Vidette is absolutely nuts.