Mrs. Bill Clinton's Travel Diet

This article from the UK's Daily Mail, which seems to cover US politics more effectively than any domestic paper, tells us about Mrs. Bill Clinton's passion for both chilis and air travel.  A new biography of the former First Lady by BBC reporter Kim Ghattas, who rode along with the Secretary of State a distance corresponding to 12 1/2 times around the planet, marvels at the stamina and endurance of the celebrated woman.  My, my.  Don't commercial pilots and crew members cover even more miles in the ordinary course of their working lives?  What's so hard about riding around in an airplane, eating free catered food and having internet access, along with a stable of servants?  It isn't like she's been walking from Quito to Cairo.  And what, exactly, has the pasty-faced power-seeker accomplished by burning up about 5 million gallons of  JP-4?  Most of the heads of state and their attendant thugs have adequate cell phone access, why not give them a call while baking some cookies for Bill?  Is peace breaking out in the middle east?  What else can this architect of international diplomacy brag about when she makes her run, as a 69 year-old, in the next presidential election?

There's a probably apocryphal tale about author Edna Ferber on a coast-to-coast flight asking the pilot to fly lower over Texas as she needed to gather the information to write her acclaimed novel "Giant".  No doubt the aerial travels of Mrs. Clinton have similarly made her an expert on the rest of the world.