Papaya. Sweet Potato on Acid, Timothy Leary style.

What we have here is a full grown succulent Papaya grown in a residential neighborhood in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  I know this because I grew it.  This is NOT fake news.  This season I had two Papaya trees, they were about 1 meter apart, in the same soil and received the same amount of sunlight and nutrients.  One grew strong and bore many fruit and the other, although strong and promising at first, later failed to mature and propagate.

There is no explanation for this failure to thrive by the one and not the other.  It's like having kids.  One goes to the University of Michigan and the other goes to Jackson Michigan State prison.

Coming from the West my experience and familiarity with Papaya was limited.  If available in America they were just "green" blobs to be occasionally seen in "Trader Joe's" or "Whole Foods" and to be assiduously avoided.  Why?  The price was prohibitive and the condition was questionable.  (What slow boat from Asia had it come over on?) What was inside?  Did you want to  pay $10.00 for it.

After having consumed a full season of Payaya I liken them to, strangely enough, a sweet Potato.  Yes they are like a sweet well cooked sweet Potato on LSD.    Yes  quite possibly, former US Army Sgt. Timothy Leary would be rolling over in his grave to hear this but it's true.  The flavor, color and texture of the Papaya is, at first seemingly like a sweet Potato but 10 times more intense, if your thinking sweet potato.

And we learn from  Drugs.Com  that "Papaya is cultivated for its edible ripe fruit; its juice is a popular beverage, and its young leaves, shoots, and fruits are cooked as a vegetable. The fruits are a source of flavoring used in candies, jellies, preserves, and ice cream. Shallow cuts on the surface of fully grown but unripe fruits cause a milky sap or latex to ooze that is collected, dried, and termed “crude papain.” Papain has many industrial uses, as well as milk-clotting (rennet) and protein-digesting properties." 

And who ever knew that "Nearly 80% of American beer is treated with papain, which allows the beer to remain clear upon cooling. Papain is most commonly used commercially in meat tenderizers and chewing gums. Cosmetically, papain is used in some toothpastes, shampoos, and facial creams." 

You see above the healthy "fruitful Papaya.   Below her pathetic sister, although promiscuous, she failed to follow the prime directive.

A tall strong stalk, well formed leaves but no fruit.  No amount of government support or subsidies would have made a difference and helped this plant to propagate.  Mother nature is not inclusive and fair.  She is not in the business of underwriting failed species or non performing instances of successful species.  No title IX support offered here and neither should we be, as a society, in the business of supporting and paying for policies that subsidize groups or individuals that weaken our society as a whole.  It may sound cruel by today's, over indulgent and destructive standards but it is not.  Continued government support of the flawed, the degenerates, and the infirm at the expense of the healthy, creative, energetic and productive will ultimately lead to the overall destruction of our republic.  While it is wonderful and just and proper and should be applauded that individuals and private charities reach out and support and attempt to rehabilitate the infirm.  Government has no place in imposing this largess on the taxpayers of this nation.

Fake News or just old fashioned Propaganda?

Update: I wanted to update my article on "Fake News" with a link to an article I read by a liberal blogger today that very articulately and much more thoroughly reflects my own position. The article by John Laurits can be found Here.  John highlights the dangers of what organizations like Google and Facebook are doing in including legitimate news sites like Breitbart, RedFlag, Info Wars, Red State and others. in their ban on Fake News when these sites are clearly NOT Fake News anymore than CNN is.  However, these sites do express a political viewpoint that Google and Facebook don't agree with.  The question is who decides what is "Fake" and what is Not.  Who determines it?  What criteria is used?

There have been a recent spate of articles on "Fake News". From CNN last week and now from PC World. Both outlets pretending to be the unvarnished, unbiased neutral third parties on what is and what isn't "Fake News. The PC World article on "Fake News" is so fake and misleading I almost had to vomit. How do they think they can get away with the blatant propaganda they put out? Didn't they learn anything from the election? Who's checking the Fact Checkers? And what's up with this PC World's pathetic excuse for an editor, Mark Hatchman? This individual is no journalist or editor. He admittedly conned his way into his current position. He claims to be an enthusiastic hiker but but one look at him and you can determine he hasn't been hiking in 10 or 20 years. If you can't trust his assertions about his own personal life, how can you rely on his published reporting?

Note: Update note. I noticed that the link to the photo I had in this article of Mark Hatchman was bad, i.e., no longer existed. Much to my chagrin and amazement it appears that Mr. Hatchman and or his agents and or Google systematically searched the web for all images of Mr. Hatchman and removed them. (Especially the ones showing him in his current state of as a rotund bloated, left wing, social justice warrior bloviate. So I was left with no recourse than to hurriedly draw a likeness of him. (See below) I know. I know. It's juvenile and pathetic. I'll make improvements in the not too distant future but this will act as a placeholder until that time.

Also, what's up with the term "Fake News" itself. Is that some spiffy new Leftist politically correct term? What's wrong with calling it propaganda, opinion or even wistful thinking? Who is going to be the arbitrator of what is fake and what is real? CNN? PC World? Zuckerberg's FaceBook staff or God help us, Mark Hatchman?

Look, most people are smart enough they don't need some "self appointed, ivy league, politically correct, adjunct professor of "human studies" to tell them what's propaganda and what isn't. The proof of my assertion is the result of this election. Despite a relentless and massive misinformation campaign by the democrats, and the Media (Same organization really.) The America people figured out for themselves that the Media and the Democrats, RINO Republicans, and Never Trumpers were lying to them. As the 1970's Rock and Rollers, The Who, once cried, We Don't get Fooled Again.  But it now appears that Google and Facebook and the Federal Government under Obama and the Democrats are determined to make sure we don't have free and unfettered access to any news or information we are interested in.  They want to "control" our access and determine for us what is and what isn't news.   This is never a good thing.