Comments on: IT’S THE CORN, STUPID

By: lefty skeptic

lefty skeptic — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

''Come on then, if you love toping,'' the journalist William Cobbett wrote his fellow Englishmen in a dispatch from America. ''For here you may drink yourself blind at the price of sixpence.'' Give me your poor, your tired, your befuddled masses yearning to drink free ...

By: Rodney Dill

Rodney Dill — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

I'll drink to that

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Thanks James.. That was a cool article.

But it makes Lou Dobbs look like a complete moron. Yesterday he was on CNN hyping a story that I guess he ran today about the upcoming crisis in America.

In 10 years, he warned in dire tones, American farmers will only be able to produce enough food to feed our expanding population we will have none to export. After 10 years we won't even be able to feed ourselves.

Of course that makes sense of you assume population is dynamic but farm production static. Surely the excess corn of the 18th century could not feed today's population... Markets have a "funny" way of working... If there is not enough corn begin grown, more people will become farmers.

Imagine that.

Paul

It amazed me someone of Dobb's stature running that story. Certainly he is smarter than that.

By: Dean Esmay

Dean Esmay — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

It's rather amazing that most people don't realize that the Women's Christian Temperance Movement was, in fact, primarily concerned with spousal abuse and child neglect, which they linked to overconsumption of alcohol. By the way, they weren't wrong, so far as we can tell--the correlation between alcohol abuse and domestic abuse and neglect are still quite strong today. Correlation is not causation, but it's hard to prove causation in social science. By the way, there was also a long time when "temperance" simply meant "drinking lightly, and avoiding distilled spirits." For some, beer was considered the drink of moderation and temperence, although some were harder about it and wanted it eliminated. By the way, here is an article that makes a fascinating companion piece to the NYT article you linked: Beer and America from the American Heritage.

By: Bob the tomato

Bob the tomato — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

i am a stupid korn lover can u help me i try to kill my self if i cant get corn

By: Dean's World

Dean's World — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Jess A Lil' Drinkie
James Joyner has got a fascinating story on the history of alcohol abuse in the early 19th century. As I mentioned in his comments, not...

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