It appears that both candidates will be announcing their vice presidential choices very soon. Perhaps we could have a non-partisan discussion on the matter. It seems to me that it is anti-democratic and just wrong for presidential candidates to have the power to select–according to their whim, personal preference, or political ticket-balancing calculation–an individual to hold this important office.

The notion that the vice presidential office is worth less than a warm bucket of spit, as one holder of that office put it, and so doesn’t matter is just not true. The VP can very well ascend to the highest office in the land, and often has. At the very least, the VP is the chairman of the Senate, which is no mean responsibility. And very often, after the president fulfills his term, the VP becomes the leading candidate for the succession. The office is too important for it to be filled by personal appointment as chosen by one individual.

I think people should run for the office, or, at least, be chosen by the party convention.

Do I have a point?

A man won $6 million in the Florida lottery. Doubtless grateful to God, he wanted to give a tithe to his church. But the Baptist congregationturned down the $600,000 since it came from gambling. Is that integrity or legalistic scrupulosity?

In 2005, corn sold for $2 per bushel. Today, it goes for $6 per bushel. Farmers’ land is now worth more than ever. Agricultural-related businesses are booming, and the farm states–unlike other parts of the country–are thriving economically. This article gives details. Farmers work hard, we all depend on them for our daily bread, but they are often poorly rewarded. I’m glad they are doing well.

Bigfoot has been found, went the reports. And we have a body, a furry corpse frozen in a block of ice. Well, they thawedThe Associated Press: Researcher says bigfoot just a rubber gorilla suit.

Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice — handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed to have found it — was slowly thawed out, and discovered to be a rubber gorilla outfit.

The revelation comes just days after a much ballyhooed news conference was held in California to proclaim that the remains of the creature found in the North Georgia mountains was the legendary man-ape.

Steve Kulls, executive director of squatchdetective.com and host of Squatchdetective Radio, says in a posting on a Web site run by Bigfoot researcher Tom Biscardi that as the “evidence” was thawed, the claim began to unravel as a giant hoax.

First, the hair sample was burned and “melted into a ball uncharacteristic of hair,” Kulls said in the posting.

The thawing process was sped up and the exposed head was found to be “unusually hollow in one small section.” An hour of thawing later and the feet were exposed — and they were found to be made of rubber.

Here, see for yourself: