I'm a former creative director at big consumer packaged goods ad agencies in New York and Chicago, and I can tell you firsthand, that if you knew what I know about the ingredients in the mainstream products available... you'd be making your own shampoo and toothpaste as well. One of my favorite stories is working on a smoke-reduced cigarette... invisible smoke. They thought it would make smoking more socially acceptable. It was marketed heavily by the big tobacco people. How could they claim no smoke... the paper was laced with asbestos. It just burned hotter and became invisible. I went crazy and tried to bring a sample to the alcohol and tobacco people and I was warned I'd never work in New York again. That's precisely what happened.

I've got story after story of hideous cover-ups, and, frankly, I was an ignorant accomplice. As far as the little guys getting eaten up by the big boys, I guess everyone has his price. Sustainability? We have already so compromised the future, I don't know how it can ever be undone.

For most of my life, I was afraid that I wasn't smart enough to comment about politics. Then along came Bush, and -- suddenly -- there was a good chance that I was in fact smarter than the President of the United States. The one positive aspect for me about Bush is that it got me interested in politics. I realized that if I stayed tune for a specific issue, that -- in the course of about a week -- I could identify who was lying and who had the wrong idea.

So I'm delighted to have come into my own in time for Palin. I'm shocked to think that McCain has such little regard for females that he'd toss us this bone. And that's where the delight ends. She frightens me. Frightens me to death. Her mean, violent mentality... the mentality of her perhaps soon-to-be son-inlaw. Frankly, it's a segment of our society that I've been protected from until now.

And it plays into what I fear will be a wave of crime across the country. Yes, crime. When you tell people that they're way in debt... that they're lost all of their savings... tell college students that there will be no jobs for them if and when they graduate... people get evil. I've caught a couple of instances of random violent outbursts. People getting violent for no apparent reason, other than they're bored and have no hope. There was an incident at Chico State the other day. I'm afraid it's starting. That's why it's imperative that we have a calm, peaceful, peace-making person as our leader.

This country needs fire-side chats again. Someone to smoothe our brow. And if it's going to get as rough as it seems like it will, I personally need to tough it out for someone I can look up to like Obama.