I'd have used a more clinical word

So Pennsylvania Boss Democrat Rendell thinks we're becoming a nation of wusses because a little snow storm moved big-money football to cancel a game. Right on, Ed. That's what I've been saying all along.

Although canceling ball games wasn't really one of the reasons I had in mind.  I was thinking more along the lines of governors who veto self-defense bills because they might irritate  enough scared soccer moms and dads to make a difference at election time.  

A rasher of dumb

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.

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. :)

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.)