BAD IDEA FROM THE PAST: Back in the early 16th Century, King Henry 8th (of England, of course) needed a new source of government revenue. He and his chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, decided to go after the monasteries, which owned a whole lot of land. Within a few years, the monks were out of business and their land was sold off by the state. In so doing, old Henry destroyed many ancient libraries and put a bunch of orphanages and hospitals run by the monasteries out of commission. Historian Norman Davies said that the infamous king “abolished a few nests of corruption together with the greatest network of social and educational welfare that England had ever known.”

Footnote to that episode: Some years ago I had a penpal from England, and I once mentioned to her that I was reading a book about a medieval monastery in Glastonbury, not far from where she lived. In her reply, she told me how good it was that the ancient kings had chased out the monks, who were all corrupt and hypocritical. I suspect that this notion was something she learned in school. Another interesting example of how the winners write the history books.

BAD IDEA FROM THE PRESENT: Because of President Bush’s need to divert our attention from Iraq with a grand space venture, i.e. returning to the Moon and then to Mars, NASA is now diverting funds away from unmanned science missions. Within the past few years, the unmanned missions have given us vast amounts of new data on the origins of the Solar System and the cosmos. Today, physicists are making tremendous progress in stringing together a theory-of-everything that will increase by several orders of magnitude our understanding of the overall cosmos and the tiniest particles (using string theory, of course). However, they need a variety of space-based experiments in order to test their ideas and affirm their predictions (and thus develop new ideas and predictions). Just the things that NASA is now putting on hold.

Right when we are on the verge of finally understanding what Brian Greene describes as “the elegant universe”, our President decides that it’s time to re-do what we did back in the late 1960s. Sorry, GW; putting men on the local space rocks was a breathtaking concept back in 1959, but today we’re on the verge of discovering how the whole Universe works! Putting our money back into manned space adventures right now makes about as much sense as the theory that all Iraq needed was a little shock and awe to make things right.

BAD BLOGGING IDEA, BUT: Last week, the CEO of McDonalds died of a heart attack (Jim Cantalupo, age 60). Some bloggers made note of the irony, given that McDonald’s business plan has always been the satiation of America’s craving for saturated fats. But then again, other bloggers felt that it was rather insensitive to laugh about someone’s passing. Besides, who knows if eating McDonalds food had anything to do with Mr. Cantalupo’s health. Perhaps he didn’t eat much of it anyway.

Well, I agree that it isn’t very humane to smirk about anyone’s untimely death. But then again, McDonalds can’t be let off the hook for the health damage that its products and its marketing contribute to. “McDougals” is too big a player; it spends too much on advertising and influences too many people to be treated like the local pizza joint, which serves up greasy pepperoni pies because that’s what its customers want.

Sorry, but in my book, when you influence the economy and consumer choices of the entire planet, your level of social responsibility and accountability goes up (even though I don’t think that law suits are the answer, either). Mr. Cantalupo, to his credit, did cut down on the “supersize” marketing, substituted less fatty oil for the fries, and increased the menu variety with a greater range of salads. However, there was a note in the Harpers Index recently saying that some of Mickey D’s salads have more fat in them than a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. (I checked an older nutrition chart; the DQPWC had 48g’s whereby a Crispy Chicken Bacon Salad with Ranch Dressing had 51 … however, the current chart on McD’s site shows the crispy ranch salad down to 36 grams, probably thru portion adjustments; but that’s still a hearty meal … and watch out for that Big Breakfast, with an eye-opening and artery-closing 47 g’s).

So, a moment of silence for Mr. Cantalupo’s passing, but also a moment of warning to the living — think before you order your next lunch (a side salad with vinaigrette has only 8g’s of fat, and 4 McNuggets add only another 10g – if you’ve got the will power to hold it at that).

Another P.S.: there’s a documentary out by Morgan Spurlock called “Supersize Me”, about his attempt to live on nothing but McDonald’s food for one month. That one should be interesting, I hope to get to see it.