SARAH SPEAKS FOR HERSELF, NOT ALASKA and

has enough character, integrity and honesty to not use the office or the people of Alaska when she is unable to give 100% to the job she was elected to do. Now she is free to go where and when she wants to, to say what she wants to and to be able to be herself without being concerned as to how it might reflect on her beloved state of Alaska.

It's almost funny to see the pundits falling all over themselves saying she is running away from the tough situation. No way! She is opening the door to be as honest as she needs to be. She doesn't know how to act any other way.

Now one of the big questions will be to see whether the McCain campaign staff with all their negativity will shut up. The rest of us, even through the primary, had to be careful of what we honestly thought and said about John McCain because we didn't want to hurt him or the ticket if he got the nomination. It's time for his followers to do the same for the good of the party and the country. John McCain lost that election and his staff are largely responsible. Stand up and take responsibility. Sour grapes doesn't make it and if John McCain doesn't stand up like a man his legacy will suffer even more.

I have no clue as to what Sarah intends, but whatever it is, it isn't because she is running away from a problem. That is not her style. She lives to fight another day.

Before the Palin announcement I had intended to talk just a little about the movie out called "Food, Inc." which is apparently a hit piece against the food industry similar to Roger Moore and Al Gore's efforts with their pet money makers.

This guy pulled out a couple of statistics: When he was a boy, people spent 18% of their wages on food and 5% on healthcare. Now, the reverse is true. We spend 18% of our budget on healthcare and 9% on food. He comes up with all the reasons this is a bad deal, but doesn't mention the reasons that jump out to anyone looking or listening.

Frankly, I think it's a great thing that food is plentiful and crops are not lost to bugs both above and below the ground. We have many more people to feed both here at home and world wide so we'd better have made some improvements.

On the healthcare side would you like to go back to the life expectancy of a generation or two? That's part of the price we pay for going from average age of 62 in 1935 to 77 now. We have all kinds of medications and medical procedures to make life pretty comfortable through the years and most of us are willing to pay the price. It isn't just inflation or high prices, it's a better product.

When my kids were in school, all the way through, from elementary on up, we always tried to teach them to question the sources of information from the textbook to the teacher (nuns included) to the news and current events and to always think for themselves. None of my kids were debaters, but trying to defend both sides of a question is the best training any of us had.

So-called "leaders" depend on being able to spin a fine yarn, snow the folks with statistics and "feel their pain" as ways to get elected. Don't be fooled. Obama and Schauer can be described as "nice" and "smooth" and "caring" but that isn't going to put food on the table.

What a week this has been--
Have a very happy and patriotic Fourth!

God bless..........