Good morning, all. Cold and wet today--though they say we may get a brief period of sunshine. We are so glad we are not in Michigan or Wisconsin and not because those states have Repthuglican governors since our Repthuglican governor is simply keeping a lower profile. Those folks are expecting up to a foot of new snow today. Needless to say I won't be doing any outside tasks. I did notice that the catnip is starting to sprout. I need to find some patterns for crocheted balls that will be suitable for cat toys.

I found this story at Green Prophet this morning. Another wonderful 'advance' from the same food industry that has given us 'pink goo.' What is worse is that the industry is getting 'better' at hiding significant information from its customers--with the complicity of the government that is supposed to protect us. Think about the ruling a couple of months back that GMO Atlantic salmon did not have to be labeled as 'genetically modified.'

Robert Reich calls out the Congressional Repthuglicans on their claim that reducing the Federal deficit will create jobs. Only two conditions would result in their claim being proven true. First, we exclude Federal jobs and those jobs that depend on Federal business from the definition of 'job.' Or, second, decide that given enough time the private economy will recover to the extent that it can absorb the laid-off Federal workers. The first is a sure fire method. The second holds only if you give things enough time. Reminds me of a quip in Heinlein's Time Enough For Love. Lazarus Long says that you can teach a horse calculus if given enough time--defines as a million years or so.