From politics to flu shots, life getting more ‘curiouser’

“Curiouser and curiouser!” That’s what Lewis Carroll spoke in the words of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

That’s what some of us say about the political goings-on all around us right now, and we’re not smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Facts are being disputed right and left; statistics are in total conflict. We’re just about as befuddled as Tweedledee: “If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”

Close to home, the battle about bear baiting continues. And continues and continues till all some of us want is a ban on any mention of the issue. Then, we have the fierce debate over the statewide cap on property taxes, proposed by a woman whose name is better-known – yet less-revered – than Andre the seal’s. The Palesky tax cap, as the measure is called, has generated such controversy folks now are arguing the merits (or demerits) of Carol Palesky herself rather than the initiative.

Farther afield, according to a recent segment on National Public Radio, some Bush-backing bankers decided to compete with Heinz ketchup and make a political statement at the same time. So they invested in their idea and have successfully marketed thousands of bottles of their own ketchup, named for George – George Washington, that is – with the ketchup bottles patriotically displaying flags and red, white and blue colors. Heinz cries foul.

On a deadly serious note – but again curious – is the report that the nation will get only about half the 100 million flu shots it had expected for the current flu season.

The reason is that one of two primary vaccine suppliers, Chiron Corp., is barred from shipping its vaccine from a British factory because of contamination problems.

Why, one might ask, would there be only two primary vaccine suppliers? How this public health crisis occurred has not been adequately explained – certainly not to those vulnerable elderly or chronically ill people.

Which brings us to another obvious shortage, one that will affect Mainers relying on fuel oil for heating their homes over the long winter – and gasoline for driving the often-long distances to work.

A recent article by John Cassidy in The New Yorker magazine explains that the 290 million people who live in the United States make up just 5 percent of the world’s population, but consume a quarter of the world’s oil supply. “Given the public’s ignorance about energy issues and the entrenched interests that dominate the industry, many analysts are skeptical about the prospects for change,” Cassidy writes. And he quotes Joseph Romm, a former assistant secretary of Energy in the Clinton administration, about Americans’ voracious demand for fuel:

“If people cared about oil imports, they would buy different cars. In response to 9/11, people started putting flags on their S.U.V.s and buying Hummers. That tells you something.”

What it tells some of us is this is a curious place, especially now. As the queen said in “Alice Through the Looking-Glass”: “Now, here, you see it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”