You can't live by bread alone...but it sure helps!

    Sometimes you have to shake your brain or stretch it or knock it or imagine that it is not thinking the thoughts that actually snap from one brain cell to the next.

    One of the tasks of our "upstairs" is to link and arrive at reasonable conclusions.

    So, just for the moment, let's try to link some of these loose ends:

    1) In Buenos Aires the courts ordered the closing of the free soup kitchen operated by Raúl Castells in the posh Puerto Madero district. Castells is a "piquetero" who is vociferous in his criticism of the administration of President Néstor Kirchner. He is also a candidate in the October presidential elections. The alleged reason for the closing was said to be failure to comply with city hygiene requirements. Here one might ask the following question: how many not-very-hygienic food joints are allowed to sell grub in the city?

2) Cost of fresh vegetables are hitting astronomical figures in Argentina--theoretically due to cold weather--milk has become a scarce and expensive item and the "food basket" for the ever-present poor in the country went up by 14% during first six months of the year, according to the "Sociedad de Estudios Laborales (SEL), while average family income increased by 11.8% and the official line of poverty continued at $298.86 pesos. Question: how can anyone survive on that in Argentina?

3) Elsewhere in the world, in Washington, the government of President George Bush is trying to get Democrats to accept a military aid package of $63.4 billion dollars....for enemies of Iran. Theoretically by shelling out weapons to the Sunnites, the balance of power can be maintained (while the Pentagon ponders how to leave Irak without really doing so). Questions: Does that make sense? And: how many hungry mouths could be fed with that money, how many hospitales, schools could be built...

The reader is left to link up these bits and pieces of information...and answer the questions.