There's A Reason So Many Women Invest In Their Looks

But, to be honest, a low-cut top would have sold this argument,...

There's No Difference Between NewAgers & Other Fools

“A mouldering pile of newspaper clippings about Prince Charles’s organic farms is a Holy Relic.”

Penn & Teller's Bullshit (On Organic Everything)

Somebody. Please. Make. It. Stop. Now.

"Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?

Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:

The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. 'Now it's time to buy some food,' she told several hundred people who came to watch. 'Let's shop!'

Cowbells were rung. Somebody put a lei of marigolds around Obama's neck. The first lady picked up a straw basket and headed for the "Farm at Sunnyside" tent, where she loaded up with organic Asian pears, cherry tomatoes, multicolored potatoes, free-range eggs and, yes, two bunches of Tuscan kale. She left the produce with an aide, who paid the cashier as Obama made her way back to the limousine.

There's nothing like the simple pleasures of a farm stand to return us to our agrarian roots.

The first lady had encouraged Freshfarm Markets, the group that runs popular farmers markets in Dupont Circle and elsewhere, to set up near the White House, and she helped get the approvals to shut down Vermont Avenue during rush hour on Thursdays. But the result was quite the opposite of a quaint farmers market. Considering all the logistics, each tomato she purchased had a carbon footprint of several tons.

The promotion of organic and locally grown food, though an admirable cause, is a risky one for the Obamas, because there's a fine line between promoting healthful eating and sounding like a snob. The president, when he was a candidate in 2007, got in trouble in Iowa when he asked a crowd, 'Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?' Iowans didn't have a Whole Foods."

-- Dana Milbank, reporting that the cultists we have in charge are hypocrites, and idiots, of an equally-astounding measure - I'm talking completely off the charts here - as they command The Washington Post.

Bwaaa-Ha-Ha!!! Now THIS Takes The Cake!!!

"Isn't Barack Obama's birthday cake hideously ugly? This is not at all in line with Obama's sleek, skinny-tie persona, and frankly, we're shocked.

It looks like the Cake Boss's disgruntled ex karate-chopped the frosting bag,...How'd this happen? Michelle wears $540 Lanvin sneakers to plant organic veggies in the White House garden,..."

-- Carissa DiMargo, proving that no matter how many examples of bad thinking, and equally bad taste, the Obama's present to us - Michelle's expensive fashions (during a recession) are idiotic and gross, plus organics are expensive and worthless - there's no breaking the spell cast by The Cult of Obama, at least not in the stupidly "progressive" offices of NBC.

Or They Can Always Call It A Comic Book,...

"Tim Miejan became the editor of a New Age magazine this year. And he found himself smack in the middle of the shifting, fractured New Age world — where beliefs change faster than you can flip a tarot card.

'We are about what it means to be human, in the metaphysical, holistic and spiritual realms,' said Miejan, of Woodbury, who bought The Edge magazine with a partner in February.

As the editor, Miejan has become a New Age gatekeeper, deciding which legitimate beliefs get into the magazine and which are too far out to be included.

It's not an easy job.

Chiropractors want out of the New Age movement. Channelers wonder if they belong at all, and pagans feel jilted. Organic farmers don't want to be near pet psychics. And no one knows what to do with the witches.

For a movement based on peace, love and understanding, New Age looks like a battleground.

'I have customers who completely believe in fairies and will laugh at you if you believe in Bigfoot,' sighed Teisha Magee, owner of the Sacred Paths Center, which describes itself as an 'organization celebrating earth-centered spirituality,' in St. Paul.

Lest anyone laugh at their beliefs, New Agers point to the tenants of mainstream religions that seem bizarre to nonbelievers — such as virgin birth, turning water into wine and rising from the dead.

'Is there a way to prove the afterlife?' Miejan said.

Until Miejan took over, The Edge was 'an airy-fairy New Age publication,' he said. But he is redefining the magazine's mission — and whipping up some Age of Aquarius acrimony.

Miejan favors articles on stress reduction and spiritual quests. He welcomes columns on astrology, written by 'Moonrabbit.' He recently featured an article which pleaded for a halt to construction of wind turbines because of the harm to life-force energy flows called 'prana.'

He says he would include stories about 'nature divas,' the politically correct name for fairies. 'We would never say those do not exist. We are one of the forums where people can share those ideas,' he said.

But even Miejan's open mind sometimes snaps shut.

Channelers — people possessed by spirits of the dead — are out. So is the belief that reptile-like aliens have taken over the bodies of celebrities, including Queen Elizabeth and — according to one Web site — former Minnesota U.S. Rep. Bill Luther.

Paganism? Out.

'I am not saying that because paganism offends anyone,' Miejan said. 'But it is a complete niche by itself.'

Other New Age leaders are appalled.

'He is excluding channeling? Yikes. Or pagans? He should not be doing that,' said Kathy McGee, editor of the Washington-state-based magazine New Age Retailer.

'New Age is an umbrella term encompassing anything on a spiritual path — Bigfoot, Jesus, Buddha. Even worshipping a frog is sort of OK,' McGee said."

-- Bob Shaw, capturing the "debate", if you can call it that, on what NewAge is - other than a lot of politically-motivated people with severe mental problems - in the Pioneer Press.

These Weird, Scared, And Ugly Little Critters

"Green campaigners and writers would dearly love to see prince Charles control our lifestyles. The lionisation of Charles by liberals is perhaps one of the strangest developments of recent years. Back in the Eighties and Nineties, Prince Charles was widely derided and ridiculed. His views on architecture, organic farming and his habit of talking to plants were rightly lampooned across the political spectrum. Now a weird and alarming reverence surrounds the prince and his nutty pronouncements are taken very seriously indeed.

In 2005 Charles demanded that then US president George W Bush should prioritise tackling ‘global warming’. Hardly an eyebrow was raised over an unelected figurehead finger-wagging at a democratically elected president. To the contrary, he was cheered. The Times (London) asked earnestly ‘should Bush listen to Prince Charles?’, as if he was offering sound and insightful advice.

The support from apparent leftists for Charles’ environmentalism is indicative of just how far material aspiration has disappeared from progressive political thinking. After losing the arguments on the economy and social change, liberal left wingers’ promotion of green ideas and ethical living – effectively swapping materialism for moralism – found a welcome ally amongst the upper classes.

Not long ago, the landed upper classes and royalty were widely despised and mocked, even by those of a moderate political persuasion. They were rightly seen as a barrier to Britain becoming a modern liberal democracy. Now, it seems, many can’t get enough of the upper classes’ ‘green credentials’. From hectoring us on healthy eating to preventing new homes being built, the dead hand of these deadbeats is weighing heavy on ordinary citizens.”

-- Neil Davenport, noticing - more than any other group - it's those pink-bellied liberal upper classes pushing this NewAge nonsense on the rest of us, demanding we relinquish our freedoms, before realizing the Kool-Aid's been Spiked!.

Winemakers Are No-Brainers (What Are You?)

"I bumped right into [a problem] while out for dinner,...at a Toronto eatery that specializes in ethically raised meat, local produce and sustainable alcohol. Reading through the list, I noticed they offered both an organic wine and a biodynamic one.

Unsure what, exactly, the term biodynamic meant, I asked the waiter. He said something about the grapes being grown according to the lunar cycle.

Sounded kind of hokey. Was this moon-based method of viticulture somehow greener than simply growing organic grapes regardless of the time of day?

The waiter responded that he didn't really know but thought it had more to do with spirituality and the holistic approach to wine making -- that is, from the seed through to the glass.

Still sounded hokey.

The principles of biodynamics are largely based on Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner's teachings from the early 20th century and revolve as much around the spiritual aspects of agriculture as the scientific ones. Some biodynamic winemakers are simply taking organic principles to a higher level; others go so far as to include elements of astrology and homeopathy into their technique. As Ray Isle, a senior editor at Wine & Spirit magazine, has said: 'It's kind of a no-brainer as a consumer.'"

-- Vanessa Farquharson, on the NewAge lunacy (and lies) in the world of wine, for Canada's National Post.

Let This One Be A Lesson: Give 'Em An Inch,...

Heads up. Gavin Newsom is making the leap from Mr. Green to Mr. Green Jeans.

San Francisco's ever eco-conscious mayor is turning Civic Center Plaza's central promenade into an organic vegetable garden, filled with beets, broccoli, cabbage and mustard greens.

"This is the next big narrative in the environmental movement," said Newsom.

It wouldn't be the first time Civic Center has been turned into a food charity program of sorts.

For years, Food Not Bombs annoyed city officials by handing out free meals to the homeless there.

Former Mayor Willie Brown, whose City Hall makeover helped clean up Civic Center, wasn't overly impressed with Newsom's turning the plaza into Green Acres.

"You start having cows and chickens and goats and other things at Civic Center," Brown said, "and I'm not sure it's a good idea."

Newsom, however, remains committed - noting that organic dining diva Alice Waters even won a commitment from Democratic presidential nominee-to-be Barack Obama to plant a similar garden at the White House if he's elected.

-- Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross, detailing yet another reason why these kooks must be stopped (if you needed one) for the SFGate

Except For Volkswagen (We Like Volkswagen)

"On principle, everything the Nazis were for – racial hygiene, organic farming, natural remedies, homeopathy and anti-vivisection – I am against."

-- Michael Baum, writing about the "War Against Cancer" in Spiked!