few weeks , let alone commenting.Between school and the farm and old age I guess I need to back off somewhat on the blogging. But the oil spill is I believe the most important news at least since the recent financial crash, and if it is not soon capped ......... it may become much more important. I generally tend to shy away from conspiracy theories but this whole story sure pops up at a rather opportune time. Oh looky everybody Home Land Security has saved the day and another completely amateurish evil plot, by a bumbling fool highly trained terrorist has been foiled. What Oil spill?! Treating this as a non-rhetorical question - Since it's a known, communicated fact that the statistics for inflation have been "adjusted" over the last few decades (first, exclusion of energy & food, then substitutes and heuristics used to hide observed price increases), then it follows that the statistics for GDP probably have been massaged as well. If the economy is based on consumerism, then it behooves the government to be in the "feel-good" business to encourage folks to consume. Thus more massaged statistics meant to make folks feel good. Alan Very glad you include Lifestyle. 'The West',the USA in particular, but very much including my own country GB, has created enormous suffering by evolving a perverse 'lifestyle'. However, during the last 10 years while we have been plugging away at our local Heart Support Group, we have seen considerable (but still lagging) change in