In case you're wondering why your pig fat laced with microscopic meat slivers costs upwards of four bucks a pound lately, most of the answer is here:
The (U.S. Energy Information) agency said 4.8 billion bushels of this year's 12 billion to 13 billion bushel corn crop will be needed to satisfy ethanol demand.
The word "demand" is a fraudulent use of language unless you think a political bribe to Monsanto and the Farm Bureau constitutes "demand."
The reporter seems doubly joyful that the 48-cent to one-dollar per gallon subsidies on ethanol and biodiesel have been renewed. The agrithugs get richer.
The rest of the four-buck bacon price is due to a Bernanke/Geithner /Obama trick with disabling the governor on the currency engine.
---
Possibly, just possibly, some one from the depths of Pelosi land will stumble across this and go "Huh?" It's like this, Sunshine. Bacon comes from hogs. Hogs eat corn.
Dec 26, 2010
My most obnoxious personal geekery begins on Boxing Day, the countdown to that glorious date when wearing socks is an option.
At these coordinates we have 20 days until the average daily high begins rising -- from 21 to 22. This is my personal favorite; my Six has just been told extraction Hueys are on the way.
In 59 days, on Feb. 22, the average daily high reaches the freezing point.
And in just 79 days the daily mean exceeds 32. Three days later, on St. Patrick's Day, we plant our potatoes. On average. :)
Dec 25, 2010
Christmas dispensation
--In Iraq, a father kills his daughter for wanting to be a suicide bomber. (H/T Roberta)
--Iowa Area Education Agency bigwumps use your tax money to create a private subsidiary which is apparently making money for someone through bid-rigging and other fiscal peccadilloes.
--A Pakistani father doesn't kill his daughter for wanting to be a suicide bomber, and she blows up 40-some folks.
--Congress won't pass cap and trade, so the EPA says it will do it, or something very like it, by decree.
--French officials are congratulating themselves for finding most of their jetliners in the Orly drifts and persuading America to ship them some de-icing fluid, which they forgot to re-order.
--Italian thugs (calling themselves anarchists) bomb some embassies.
--Et al. Just another Yuletide season.
But I revert to my childhood training. On Christmas, don't worry, be happy, love everybody.
Time enough to nail the poor, misunderstood, miscreants next week.
(Edit: Correcting an error in the second paragraph. The probabable thugs are not from the community colleges in this case. They're from the AEAS which were established to improve publek skuls by adding a layer of bureaucracy to vital process of tossing your money around.)
--Iowa Area Education Agency bigwumps use your tax money to create a private subsidiary which is apparently making money for someone through bid-rigging and other fiscal peccadilloes.
--A Pakistani father doesn't kill his daughter for wanting to be a suicide bomber, and she blows up 40-some folks.
--Congress won't pass cap and trade, so the EPA says it will do it, or something very like it, by decree.
--French officials are congratulating themselves for finding most of their jetliners in the Orly drifts and persuading America to ship them some de-icing fluid, which they forgot to re-order.
--Italian thugs (calling themselves anarchists) bomb some embassies.
--Et al. Just another Yuletide season.
But I revert to my childhood training. On Christmas, don't worry, be happy, love everybody.
Time enough to nail the poor, misunderstood, miscreants next week.
(Edit: Correcting an error in the second paragraph. The probabable thugs are not from the community colleges in this case. They're from the AEAS which were established to improve publek skuls by adding a layer of bureaucracy to vital process of tossing your money around.)
Dec 24, 2010
December 24, 2010
The smartest people I know carry their cynicism openly, like a Peacemaker in a fast-draw rig. It is the best defense against a world of questionable sanity and undeniable unkindness.
About this time of year, however, some of us set it aside if random events conspire to evoke the awe of a four-year-old watching Daddy pretending to clean the chimney lest Santa get too sooty.
About midnight the light snow began, windlessly and perfectly, a Bing Crosby dream of the Christmases we wish we had had. A watery sun will shortly rise to reveal a fresh two inches of whiteness, a virginal cloak hiding the smudge of earlier snowfalls.
Among other things it moves me to imagine the most romantic kind of Currier and Ives winter print, with a sleigh of toys for apple-cheeked children and the makings of a feast. I send it to you with a hand-written "Merry Christmas."
Best
Jim
About this time of year, however, some of us set it aside if random events conspire to evoke the awe of a four-year-old watching Daddy pretending to clean the chimney lest Santa get too sooty.
About midnight the light snow began, windlessly and perfectly, a Bing Crosby dream of the Christmases we wish we had had. A watery sun will shortly rise to reveal a fresh two inches of whiteness, a virginal cloak hiding the smudge of earlier snowfalls.
Among other things it moves me to imagine the most romantic kind of Currier and Ives winter print, with a sleigh of toys for apple-cheeked children and the makings of a feast. I send it to you with a hand-written "Merry Christmas."
Best
Jim
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