Good morning, all.  It is still frozen here.  No sign of a warm up and we are expecting some snow.  How much no one really knows.  The main storm stayed south of us.  I did get out yesterday.  The car started with some complaint and then proceeded to scare the life out of me.  I sat and watched the gas gauge drop from slightly more than three quarters to just under half over, maybe, 30 seconds.  Gathering my wits, walked around it looking carefully for any sign of gas puddled underneath.  Didn't see any so I got back in and watched the gas gauge again and after a couple of minutes it started to go back up.  I breathed a sigh of relief and went about my errand.  Before I finished the needle was back up to the three quarter mark.  Did I mention it has been cold around here?

I was able to get a new knitting spool at Michaels  but the entire needlework section is so sparse that I was very disappointed.  I think I will be working entirely from my yarn stash for some time to come and may make my next purchase on line.  I remember about twenty years ago when Michaels shifted to a fad I didn't want to follow.  I didn't go into any Michaels store for over a decade.  I did have a choice of knitting spools between three plastic and one with metal pegs embedded in ceramic.  None of the plastic inspired my confidence that they would last any longer than the last one did (about 2 months--it broke on my second project).  So I went with the ceramic.  We will see how well it stands up.

Well, it is obvious that Citi 'doesn't get it.'  They prove it by contracting to buy a $50million jet and then justify the action by claiming that they didn't use any TARP money to do so.  Bulls**t.  They could have used that $50million to bolster their business directly instead of engaging in conspicuous consumption.  Worse, they chose a foreign supplier.  This is just like AIG holding those 'seminars,' or whatever, at pricey resorts after receiving their bailouts.  What is wrong with these idiots??  Chris In Paris at Americablog has a few choice words and a link to one of the stories.

And Robert Reich at TPM Cafe has another entry in the category of inappropriate expenditures or institutions that have received a bailout.  Now that the second half of the TARP has been released, the banks, et al., are lobbying congress to impose restrictions that are few and light.  Why should they be allowed to spend OUR money that way.  They have screwed up so badly and yet they want to be allowed to screw up even more.  I think ALL institutions that receive government bailouts should be barred from lobbying.  Including the auto makers.  I am sure that they are very unhappy that the Obama is reviewing EPA restrictions and California's request for a waiver from Federal Regulations (since their own are more stringent.)

To move from EPA regulations to climate change--this little story was at the BBC site.  For some years now, when Mom and I have discussed the 'global warming' controversy (or climate change, if you prefer), I have expressed skepticism.  Not about whether climate change is real and not about whether humans are now a major cause of it.  Rather I am skeptical about whether we could generate the political and social will to slow down (much less reduce) the release of carbon in its various forms.  Also I have been very skeptical about the time tables put out.  By the time even a majority of people realize there is a problem and can come to some agreement on solutions, the problem has grown to Godzilla-size.

I found this little item on the Consumerist by way of digg.  Just when I think I have already seen the ultimate in mean-spirited money grubbing something else comes along.