Uncle Sap rides again

Back in the day, one of the cartoonists at the New York Daily News had a character called Uncle Sap. It looked just like Uncle Sam, but dumber.

Obviously, it was used to illustrate how our country had been taken for a ride by some other nation or some group. 

The time may be here to resurrect Uncle Sap, who would have many first cousins.

What I'm talking about is what's going on in Sudan. 

There was a story in the New York Times. Read it here

Doesn't it make your blood boil?

We are paying highly inflated prices for food because it is getting more scarce and, under the law of supply and demand, less supply and more demand makes prices go up. Why is the supply down? Because we are giving away millions of bushels to countries like Sudan. 

We have always tried to help the downtrodden. But, as the story goes, we are helping the rich to become richer. 

Now, that's nothing new. Because of the cowboy in the White House, we help make oil companies richer, banks richer and mortgage crooks much richer.

But for a nation like Sudan, with its record on Darfur, the province in which millions were massacred, raped, forced from their homes and gathered into festering camps, there is no excuse.

Of course, nations like Saudi Arabia and Jordan, with their stellar human-rights records, are helping out by buying food from Sudan, which is selling as much food on the world market as it is accepting from donor nations all over the world.

You might be interested to know that we're not the only suckers. According to the Times article, the United Nations is also buying food and giving it to Sudan.

These guys who run this nation, the largest in Africa in terms of area and one of the richest in agricultural lands, have no conscience. That's obvious. The only way to fight this is to stop buying from Sudan. 

If they have no market, they might decide to use the grain to line their people's stomachs instead of their own pockets.

Page 2

Did you see the piece on the New Haven Independent and other Web sites in Sunday's Connecticut (and the region) section of the Times. They got the Independent's Web address wrong (it's newhavenindependent.org, not .com, but either will get you there.

Speaking of the Times over the weekend, in Monday's paper there was an op-ed by Susan Bysiewicz, our secretary of the state. She was talking about how the VA keeps out people who want to register the veterans to vote and teach them how to use the state's new voting machines. 

The only problem is, last Thursday, she did just that at the West Haven VA hospital. I was there, covering for the Independent. It could be that her op-ed piece was submitted before she and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal paid their visit to West Haven, but somebody should have updated it.

Page 3

We need to congratulate the U.N. Really.

Israel, the only nation in the organization not eligible to sit on the Security Council because it doesn't belong to a national bloc, has been allowed to sit on the board of the international postal service run by the U.S.

Hey, it's a start.

Page 4

You probably don't care, but Len'sLens now has its own office.

Yes, I still work from home, but instead of working at the kitchen table, I went out and bought a desk and chair. I suspect my writing has improved at least 50 percent (just kidding).  I'm still the same old curmudgeon. 

Anyway, I just thought I'd share. And thanks for coming around.

Until next time...