Scaremongering

So now I'm on a roll, and I have to write about a TV programme I found myself watching last night. It was after the Simpsons, the telly was still on and I was painting my toenails. The host of the show, a Dr somebody (I'm pretty sure the Dr was a spuriously gained title) was busily engaged in putting the fear of God into a incredulous audience who should have known better. Not literally the fear of God, as in, I wasn't watching a televangelist, but this guy was talking about all the terrorist threats out there against ordinary, hard working, God fearing Americans.

Anthrax is the biggest scare, he told us, in hyperbolic tones. Easy to manufacture, easy to drop. Wipes out whole cities. The US military are vaccinated against anthrax, but the general population needs to be too. Forget the recession, this is a matter of the highest urgency.

Then he brought on the rats. Two of them, big brown ones in a cage. The audience shuddered. "Bubonic plague!" he pronounced dramatically. "Wiped out half the population of Europe in the 17th century! It's us next!" It's the government's fault, of course - they are putting sufficient time or money into developing a vaccine. And on it went.

Now, this was prime time TV. I actually couldn't believe that they would schedule this kind of stuff to appear at all, let alone then. It was pure scaremongering, delivered by an opportunistic presenter to an audience who were lapping it up and should have been at home. If I were a terrorist contemplating an attack and watching that programme I would have been tempted to drop a load of anthrax on the studio. I'll probably get taken out for saying it, but there we go. The Land of the Free, right?

The humblest of apologies and a few thoughts

Oh my poor blog. I am so ashamed of how I have neglected it. There I was, fully intending to update it every day with tales of my travels, and I was utterly useless. But, I am not going to give up. So, a few succinct thoughts on California in general and the differences between California and Kansas:

California is an unbelievably cool state. I always knew I would enjoy going there; I hadn't realised quite how much. It's so varied - in its terrain, in the cities, in the landscape. You can be in San Francisco or LA one moment, then a couple of hours later driving through the arid desert, where the temperature's 112 and there is literally no life, apart from the eerie Joshua Trees, winding up through the sand. We wound the coastal highway through towering redwoods and misty fogs that rolled in off the Pacific, and we hammered along baked highways where the sun shimmered off everything and it seemed as if we were underwater. Incredible.

The people are so refreshing. We struck up a few conversations with strangers - in bars, by the side of the pool - and almost immediately were talking politics, international relations, gay rights... out here (in Kansas), most of the time I am trying to keep my mouth firmly shut on any of the above, because I know that a) the person with whom I am talking is quite likely to hold a diametrically opposed view and b) that they are unlikely to even listen to an opposing point of view and accept that person might have a point. Not so in California, where we had genuine debates on topics with utter randoms. Of course I'm being sweeping in my generalisations, but it definitely made an impact.

The food.... oh the food. A farmers market in every small town you went through, often on a Thursday night when the whole street would be closed off and families would stroll along in the gathering darkness, eating from stalls, doing their weekly shop and hanging out with friends. Restaurants serving right from the sea seafood. A choice in restaurants - not just burgers and grilled chicken sandwiches, but fresh, flavourful, seasonal food, made from local ingredients. The most amazing wine. Not cheap, mind you, but delicious. And available.

The sea - or rather, the ocean. California's got it, Kansas 'aint. Can't beat that I'm afraid....