I’ve just spent some time researching the kerfuffle over Splenda. This is an artificial sweetener (generic name sucralose), which is increasingly popular. Unlike aspartame or saccharine, it doesn’t have a nasty aftertaste and can be used in baking since it doesn’t break down with heat. The manufacturer’s website is at http://www.splenda.com/

You make it by beating the hell out of sugar and chlorinating it.

The sugar people, understandably, don’t like Splenda. Recently they’ve gone after Splenda’s manufacturer for the ad phrase “made from sugar so it tastes like sugar”, arguing that this is misleading since Splenda is not a natural substance but a heavily processed chemical one. This is just FUD and bullshit pretty obviously; “natural” is a meaningless noise. They have a website ( http://www.thetruthaboutsplenda.com/ ) and a lawsuit, and they’re getting all sorts of news coverage. They say things like “It hasn’t been proven to be safe” when of course that’s not how science works, you can’t prove that. Lots of weasel words. You can smell the panic. It’s similar to the anti margarine campaigns the butter people put on during the last century.

The sad part is that they’ve got the Center for Science in the Public Interest on their side. My respect for the CSPI has been declining as they’ve become nannyish and publicity-hungry, but this is the last straw. I can’t see how saying something is “made from sugar” when it is, in fact, made from sugar is fraudulent, or why the CSPI needs to be involved when there’s no evidence that Splenda is bad for anyone. The case revolves around the idea of “natural” food which is religious and not scientific. “Natural” is a word used by health food store cranks, not nutrition professionals or biochemists. I’m not sure whether the CSPI is gradually becoming psychoceramic or has been bought out by a donation from Big Sugar, but in any case I can’t consider them authoritative now. It’s shameful to play on peoples’ ignorance about chemistry and nutrition to grab headlines.

If someone can find a critique of sucralose that is not riddled with the “natural” fallacy, scientifically illiterate blather about deadly chlorine, psychoceramic typography, ads for another product, or plain appeals to fear I’d be interested in seeing it.

Because I think hiring a prostitute with a porn website as your shill fake reporter and then feeding him state secrets and letting him hang around the white house is TACKY. That’s why. (Please note: censored but still racy pictures of former “reporter” Jeff Gannon aka J.G. Duckert at that url.)

If we can impeach the last President for doing the bumpin’ uglies with an intern in the White House, why not impeach this one for giving espionage secrets to a rent boy with aliases and a $20,000 judgment against him who’s been hired under false pretenses to impersonate a reporter? If we needed lurid sex along with the dereliction of duty and violation of oath again, we got it now.

What’s necessary to take these bastards down? Do they have to reenact the entire 120 Days of Sodom on the White House Lawn on a squad of preschoolers, or something?

Shannon Elizabeth is ready to curl up and dye. Best known for her breakout role in “American Pie,” the 31-year-old actress makes her debut as a TV series regular in “Cuts,” a UPN comedy premiering Monday, Feb. 14.

The sitcom, a spinoff of the UPN hit “One on One,” stars Elizabeth as Tiffany Sherwood, a rich party girl whose father, Jack (Corbin Bernsen), is the new owner of Phatheadz, a former black family-owned barbershop in an upwardly mobile Los Angeles neighborhood.

Your Marginal Entertainment Update

LAKES GNOME GARDEN’S FATAL ATTRACTION FOR DIVERS

A recent discussion in another forum about “white elephant” parties revealed that at least in some places they are called “Dirty Santa” parties. This is a much better name in every way, but it does bring up a kind of CAKE BOAT situation in which someone mishears and doesn’t realize until slightly too late that they’ve been invited to a Dirty Sanchez party.

My valentine’s day resolution is to smack my bitch up.

Courtesy kniwt: GO CNN!

Probably apocryphal. Enjoy. Missile Guidance (330K MP3).

More here.

I had too much wine last night so the day began slowly. However I did manage to solve a couple of technical problems after coffee. Went to D’s and read Clive James for a bit, especially on Orwell who fascinates me still lately. I want to be George Orwell when I grow up.

Ran into anariel and Julie, who are lovely and talented and my future ex-girlfriends. anariel made me realize what I’d missed not seeing Jonathan Richman last night. Rats. He’s so cool.

Had quite a talk with young Dave about the grimy, corrupt life of the small towns he grew up in, where five families ran everything and you got disappeared if you screwed with them. Red Bluff, CA sounds like something out of a Jim Thompson novel. And Bullhead City is a real nightmare, like “Chinatown” but without the glamour of a big city. Don’t open a restaurant or the Restaurant Gangsters will burn it down, etc. White supremacist skinhead gangs, brutal racist cops, bad schools, and nothing to do. He’s happier here.

I must not think bad thoughts, I must not think bad thoughts.