As the headline suggests, this article is bits and pieces. Perhaps interesting, but each not enough for a column.

• Last month’s column about the CIA and John F. Kennedy’s death brought two very interesting e-mails.

A person from Australia strongly suggested that the CIA was to blame, and the recent book by James W. Douglass, “JFK and the Unspeakable,” convinced her so. The other person, from Georgia, strongly feels that the CIA had nothing to do with JFK’s death and suggested that the older book, “Reclaiming History” by Vincent Bugliosi, convinced him so.

• In the latest election in May, most people voted the same way I did. I always knew my politics were mainstream.

• Speaking of voting, in order to vote, you need to be a citizen. And in order to be a citizen, you need to be able to read English. So why do we have ballots in anything but English?

• A year ago, we had the warmest June on record, and we were told it was caused by global warming due to excess carbon dioxide.

This year’s June was one of the coldest on record, and we are told it was caused by global warming due to excess carbon dioxide.

As it is difficult for the average person to link global warming with cooler temperatures, global warming is now called climate change, so that any normal change is now considered not only alarming, but also dangerous.

• The feds still make silver dollar coins that say “one dollar.” Although they are out of stock at the present time; the price when available is $37.95.

• Bernie Madoff was recently convicted and sent to prison for his illegal $50 billion Ponzi investment scheme. Some asked how this could happen, and I say it is easy.

For about 30 years, your Congress has stolen a lot more than $50 million from the Social Security Trust Fund each year and has replaced it with about $2 trillion of worthless IOUs.

• Many years ago, before spy satellites, I knew an Air Force traffic controller at an Okinawa airbase where SR-71 Blackbird spy planes were based. She said the local people would start lining up along the airfield’s fence to watch the planes take off about 45 minutes before each “secret” takeoff time.

• Talking about planes, the auto company big shots were recently chastised by members of Congress for flying to Washington in their private jets to beg lawmakers for money to keep from going broke.

As the federal government has been broke for years, maybe it ought to park not only Air Force One, but all the rest, too, until Congress balances its budget.

• Recently, I had a digital multimeter that had problems. I changed the battery, and then it only read 666.

When I switched the dial, all that happened was the decimal point would move, but it still read 666.

Not being a Christian, it took a little while before I realized this was the work of the devil.

• Our government discounts the value of nutrition, suggesting that anything over the minimum dose of vitamins could be a serious problem, although problems from an overdose of vitamins are almost nil.

On the other hand, Avandia, a supposedly effective drug recently recommended for diabetes, has only the following few simple side effects: heart failure, liver damage or failure, pulmonary edema, macular edema, swollen legs or ankles, shortness of breath, vision changes, difficulty in breathing, chest pains, dizziness and rapid unexplained weight gain.

• Meanwhile, the FDA is on General Mills’ case.

The cereal box says Cheerios can lower cholesterol 4 percent in six weeks. The FDA says that is true, but Cheerios may not be legally marketed with this claim in the U.S. without an approved new-drug application, because it is making a health claim.

Hooray for common sense and limited government.

• Patterson resident Earl Hiatt is a semi-retired agri-businessman whose major interests are nutrition, economics and religion. His columns appear occasionally on the Irrigator Voice page. His e-mail is ehent@hughes.net.