Good morning, All, and Happy Valentine's Day.  We have already had our high temp for the day (somewhere around 40F) and it is now dropping (38F).  They say we should have wind but not nearly what we had a couple of days ago.  Since we expect colder temps over the weekend we plan to have some nice homemade chili (with homegrown tomatoes).

Nanny Bloomberg strikes again.  I can understand banning styrofoam containers because it isn't biodegradable or because it clogs up the landfills that are becoming overfilled anyway or any other such reason but please don't tell us it is for our own good.

One of the proposals--one of the few--in Obama's SOTU to receive favorable comment is the 'Trans-Atlantic Partnership' free trade agreement already being negotiated.  A companion piece to the Trans-Pacific Partnership that is nearing completion.  Of course the major hope for American business and industry is that such an agreement will gut environmental and health/safety rules with which they are so unfairly burdened (sarcasm alert.)  This is only one of the stories which should give us all some sleepless nights when considering such an agreement.  So far the investigation has yielded a bunch of fingers pointed in every direction and a whole lot of "Not Us!!" proclamations from the targets of the pointing fingers.  And that is a scandal entirely within the Eurozone.  The bigger the zone the harder it will be to track such incidents.  And this is the second scandal in as many weeks.  Just a couple of weeks ago authorities found ground beef contaminated with various amounts of pork.  And one of the most offensive components of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (unless it has since been scratched) is the clause which prohibits country of origin labeling.  We refuse to buy fish from certain countries because they are farm raised in highly polluted waters.  We know where the fish comes from only because they are labeled with the country of origin.  Sometimes we have to look for labels that say 'Packaged for X company in Y country" but usually we can find that.  We should have the right to know where the product comes from and what is in it.

Hey, Kay--glad you had someone to watch the SOTU with and it sounds like you are getting geared up for the next set of elections.  I don't expect much for two reasons--first, many of the same Repthuglican idiots who define 'bipartisan' as the Democrats roll over and give them everything they want are still in Washington and, second, we don't know what Obama will really fight for.

Thankfully, our little meat market gets its supplies from farmers who use no antibiotics and no growth hormones.