Brian Buying American

I love me some "Family Guy."  Besides being just funny, it has plenty of social commentary and satire, which I feel is generally on-point.  I don't agree with 100% of what Seth McFarlane says with the show...But maybe 99%.  And the fact that he makes equal fun of everyone is a plus.

But episode 2 from the current season (9, by the way) had something that made me a little sad.  Take a look (starting at 16:05, ending with the scene change):



Since when is American stuff this crappy?  I'll admit - I haven't bought a lot of American gadgets because I just don't have the budget, but I've never run into this problem with what products I or others have bought.  I think that the most disappointing thing about it was that it'll only discourage people from buying domestic products, which in the end is worse for the economy, the environment, and human rights.  My hatred of anything made in China is pretty well documented, so I'll admit I'd have found this fair if the scene was about Chinese products, but what was the last time you heard about an American toy manufacturer putting lead in their toys?  Or putting contaminated ingredients in pet food?  Or killing over 6000 infants by contiminating formula in order to make it appear to have a high protein content?

I rest my case.

It's just so frustrating to see American products lambasted unfairly in such a popular medium, and in one of the more popular venues of that medium.  If there is a problem with American products that I haven't noticed, I hope that "Family Guy" will spur a change; but even if it does, it might still hurt the market - it doesn't matter how good your product is if no one's buying it.

Then again, considering how China has proven time and time again that if you build it cheaply, they will come (even if it kills them), maybe I'm worrying over nothing.

My White Powder of Choice

Do you remember when we were kids, and we were always asked what our favorite things were?  Favorite color (green, by the way), favorite food (maguro-don), favorite animal (Ebola virus; unless you point out that viruses aren't strictly "alive," in which case gut flora; unless you point out that bacteria aren't even in the same taxonomic domain as animals, in which case baby ducks, I guess).  But no one ever asked you what your favorite chemical was, did they?  Well, in my quest to Be Prepared For Things That Will Never Happen, I've chosen a favorite chemical: sodium bicarbonate.  That's right, I <3 BAKING SODA.

Although it's closely followed by salt (I mean, seriously, even disregarding it's flavoring qualities, how can you NOT like salt?!), baking soda takes the cake just because it's so useful that I don't quite know what I'd do without it.

Now, understand, I'm a hippie at heart.  I recycle copiously, prefer local organic food, use cloth diapers on my baby, and highly value peace, love, and understanding.  Okay, so that doesn't make me sound so much like a hippie as a yuppie, but the hippie cred really shines through when it comes to personal hygiene.  Enter baking soda.  I wash my hair with baking soda.  I use baking soda as deodorant.  I brush my teeth with baking soda and salt (see - salt!).  And I'm prepping to move to toilet cloth (also know as the "family cloth," which term always makes me puke a little inside), which doesn't so much have to do with baking soda as it does with my hippie cred.

...

Moving along.

Baking soda is incredible.  It deodorizes.  It cleans.  It polishes.  It's non-toxic and EDIBLE for God's sake.  What more could you want out of any given chemical, let alone those in your house?  Besides being part of my current plans, it's also part of a lot of my future plans: homemade laundry soap, homemade dish soap, homemade carpet deodorizer, homemade facial exfoliant...

And it's made in New Jersey.  Could this stuff possibly be any better?!