Monday, February 17, 2014

Another commercial holiday.

President's Day.  Once upon a time we had Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday and some of us had days off.  Then they started holding sales on those holidays.  After all, if people aren't working they should be shopping--right?  So now we pretend to honor our President's (select ones actually--just take a look at the ads) while exhorting "consumers" to worship at their local altars of commerce (checkout stands).  Ah, well--let's see if there isn't something else to be contrary about.

I have seen articles over the last two or three months on drought in Brazil.  This, however, definitely puts the situation in the "ouch" category.  Imagine having water service for 13 hours--every three days!!

From Senior Planet yet another way to rip people off.

So President Obama is promising large amounts of aid for drought-stricken California Farmers.  I have to wonder, in my contrary fashion, exactly what the aid is designed to do.  If you say it is supposed to help farmers recover,  I think you need to specify what you mean by the term "recover."  Do you mean buy new livestock to replace what they sold off because they couldn't afford to feed or water the animals?  Or do you mean helping them change their practices to something more suited to a dry climate?  The latter is something that might be helpful while the former is a waste of money and effort.

It's time for a bit of humor given the dismal winter.  Enjoy!!

Found this L.A. Times article and the headline figure blows me away.  This year is only a month-and-a-half young.

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