Some Contrary thoughts. Utah school lunch fiasco.

Happy Friday, everyone.  We only had a dusting of snow yesterday late.  More significant snow coming later overnight.  The local weather people say that this January is the third snowiest on record with a little less than a yard of snow.  What is coming won't change that.

We are staying snug at home for the most part and carefully selecting those days we go out on errands.  Last thing we need is to get caught in nasty conditions.

So the Utah school district has apologized for taking the lunches (already distributed) from children whose parents were behind on paying their children's accounts.  One of the parents claims her child's account was up to date.  Contrary thought one: the cruelty of this is mind blowing.  Or, rather, would be if it weren't for several recent similar incidents.  An Arizona school district thought giving children with unpaid accounts a slice of cheese food between a couple of slices of white bread was a reasonable response.  Contrary thought two:  evidently the all notions of adequate nutrition went out the window when money is considered.  Strange isn't it that financial considerations had considerable weight for a school district but not so much in discussions of the urban poor in food deserts? Contrary thought three:  the waste was obscenely immoral.  I don't know how many stories I have seen over the last few months claiming that as much as half of all food produced in this country (and, according to one, worldwide) is wasted.  I often wonder if people have simply had their common sense surgically removed.

Question: Why has it taken three months to get this bit of idiocy this far?  I know our court system seems to move in a glacial pace but three months for a case of vandalism seems a bit much.

Not so cold but more snow coming. How to trivialize weather woes. Miscellaneous and contrary thoughts.

We should be getting the firs of three waves of snow starting this afternoon.  The snow removal people our landlord brings in worked most of yesterday taking out some of the snow that last came in just before the deep freeze and clearing the snow from in front of the mail boxes.  We don't know if the post office simply didn't deliver on Monday and Tuesday because of the sub zero temps or if the carrier couldn't reach the boxes.  If anything blocks their access, they don't deliver.

Our news has focused on the weather troubles in the south--meaning Kentucky to the Gulf.  However, this story irritated me.  That little phrase "horror of horrors--buying cheap wine." is simply inane.  And what exactly does it mean that the woman they interviewed admitted that her responses to the cold was "simply an first world problem."?   And though the title touted "Heat or eat?" they quote her saying "Eat out? What is that?"  This article trivializes the whole problem of people facing double or triple their normal energy bills.  I look around our living room and see my shawl and lap blanket and Mom's lap blanket.  We are wearing layers.  Our thermostat is set at 70 degrees only because the actual temperature in the upstairs rooms is 65 and downstairs about 68.  Those adjustments, for us, are normal annual routines.

And now the blame game pitting politicians against the weather forecasters.  Frankly, I agree with the sentiment that the politicos should simply suck it up and admit they were wrong.  They did have warning of the possibility but, in our 24/7 365 culture, no one wants to close down.  Workers won't call off on a "possibility."  Shoppers won't stay home for a bad weather "possibility".  Business won't close on a "possibility."

Tomdispatch linked to this article.  I hadn't heard the term "dead muds" before but it sounds like an apt description of the fact.

I have followed a number of controversies concerning women (usually Muslim) who wear some form of veiling (and there are several levels of veiling).  This is one of the few where researchers actually asked the women themselves why they wear veils--in this case the niqab or face veil.  It refutes the notion that most women who wear veils are forced to do so.  I am always somewhat bemused by those on each side of the argument--those who claim it is a sign of oppression and those who insist it is a sign of religious purity.  Both are pure BS.

John Michael Greer always writes an interesting blog at the Archdruid Report.

No, we didn't watch the SOTU.

We simply didn't want to devote that much of our evening to it.  I didn't expect anything more than we saw last year: Dems cheering at the drop of a phrase and the Repubs sitting stone faced.  The political reporter on our morning news said that was exactly what we got.  One of the reporters last night remarked that most Americans were very pessimistic and didn't trust the government--any part of the government.  My very contrary remark: well, duh!!!  What have we to trust?  When a government does something and is seen to do something, you can have some trust that they will address problems.  You might not agree with what they do but at least they are doing something about the problems.  Our government is so dysfunctional they are doing almost nothing.

I wondered if someone would bring this up.  One of the prominent sound bites from the State of the Union was Obama's pride in the "lowest unemployment rate in five years."  But how has that rate been achieved and who is left out.  I am glad to see the article note the drop in the participation rate (the percentage of working age people in the labor force) is only partly due to baby boomers retiring. I wonder how many "retired" boomers are like me.  I "retired" as soon as I qualified for Social Security but after two-and-a-half years unemployed without unemployment benefits.  And during which time I had only one interview inspire of filing applications for every job out there.  How many people simply fell off the statistics?

The sentiments expressed here mirror mine very closely.  I do go on Facebook but only to play a couple of games and those are becoming less and less enjoyable.  I hate the notion that I have to have oodles of not-really friends to get anywhere or I have to spend real money for virtual (non)goods.  I have often thought how nice it would be if they arranged a game that you could play without inviting all of your not-really friends to join in also.  I do have family on Facebook but they all know that the best ways to contact me are e-mail or phone.  Every now and then I fantasize about deleting Facebook.  Just have been too lazy to do it--yet.

I think the question asked in this headline can be answered in the affirmative.  We are, indeed, sleepwalking into a cashless society where every transaction we make is recorded and noted somewhere.  I wonder how long before the dictionaries will drop the word "privacy" and its variants because we won't be using it.  It will be meaningless.

The State of the Union--as it should have been.

Is it me or do these things always turn out worse than initially reported.

Thankfully, no cows were hurt.  Until I saw the source (Reuters) I wondered if it was a serious news story.

Over the last decade or so it seems like we are remarking on how strange the weather and weather related conditions are.  Area (including Chicago) schools are closed a second day for the wind chill.  I grew up in this area and I can't remember a time when wind chill has closed schools.  The governor of Illinois has just declared an emergency because of a shortage of natural gas.  He has asked consumers to conserve electricity and not run appliances like clothes dryers.  I have never seen that happen here either.  So what happened to the bonanza we supposedly were getting from hydraulic fracturing?  This might be part of the problem but I can't remember so many explosions, leaks and other accidents involving oil, natural gas or other fuels as we have seen over the last three or four months.

This is a refreshing attitude.  Let's see what she does.

Another reason not to put apps on your phone.  Why make it easier for the snoops to follow you?

Cold and getting colder. Insanity.

The temperature is just barely above zero and it will get colder over night.  They say we may get some sun but it won't warm us any.  For the first time that either of us can remember school districts are closed because of wind chill temps that are already deep into negative double digits.  Those are also expected to go much lower.  Hope you are staying warm and safe.  These conditions are brutal.

Another case of agricultural insanity.  We keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.  However, since Monsanto and other agribusiness giants are heavily invested in the genetically modified plant technology and want a massive return on their investment, we are not likely to do anything significantly different.  I have to ask one big question.  The system as it stands is setting up a nasty technological/scientific failure and what happens to our faith in science and technology when the failure comes?  Monsanto and its brethren have over-promised and under-delivered and all of their proposals simply double down on the original plan--if plants resistant to one herbicide is good then making plants resistant to another herbicide as well is better.  Might we not end up with a situation resembling the problem we are now having with strains of multiple-drug resistant bacteria?  I would guess that is a very likely outcome.

hope you all are staying warm. Another data breach. Other miscellaneous links.

We did get snow over night--maybe another 2 inches.  Temps right now about 10F.  We are supposed to get some really cold temperatures over the next week.  Cold as in below zero.  We are still hibernating.

File this story under "here we go again."  I haven't shopped at Michaels for a good while.  They changed their inventory to a lot of things I really didn't want or use.  I was glad when Hobby Lobby opened just so Michaels would get some serious competition.  I don't like the politics of either company so that is a bit of a wash.  I wonder how many other retailers have been hit.

We have often suspected that our "antiseptic" culture is detrimental to health.  This story lends credence to that notion.  Don't get me wrong.  Cleanliness is one thing but our focus on indiscriminate killing of any and all bacteria is another.

This is an argument I can support.  But it is interesting that all of the economic theories involved have more resemblance to religious belief than to science.

Some time ago I said that perhaps the way to handle the notion of gay marriage was to simply take the state out of marriage all together.  The problem, of course, is the legal relationship has so many repercussions which the Oklahoma law makers proposing a ban on all marriages have not considered.  Think about how marriage structures real estate ownership and inheritance.  Think about how marriage structures influence child custody and adoption.  Think about how marriage controls what benefits one can tap or how much one has to part with in taxes.  Instead, we would have to regularize a contractual system to cover all of the relationships wired into the notion of marriage.

A respite before the next cold snap. Miscellanea.

Our temps started in the low 30s (F) but have been dropping and will continue to drop to single digits by this evening.  The wind of course makes it feel much colder.  We had planned to visit the annual garden show but decided against.  Sorry to miss it but by the time we would be coming home the wind chill will be well below 0.

This story intrigued me and infuriated me at the same time.  I was intrigued because I had never heard of abrin which led me to Wikipedia where it was described as a "select agent," something else I had never heard.  I won't link because you can easily find it if you want to.  It is a nasty substance related to ricin.  What infuriated me?  The lawyer giving a sob story about the poor little shit who was orphaned before age 15, and has been in and out of foster care since.  So now, at age 19, he should be treated gently.  Sorry, I don't buy it.  He was producing it (and ricin), trying to sell it on line with specific instructions on how to use it to kill someone, and had two meth labs in his house.  Maybe Floridians should elect the brat to congress.

I will not download this but I absolutely love what it does.  I don't need the program to translate bullshit titles.  I do a pretty good job by myself.

Found another intriguing article.  What was especially intriguing was the notation that the pig virus was also spreading in the U.S.  We hadn't seen anything about it here.  However, the Wall Street Journal had an article two weeks ago.  Being a business publication the WSJ focused on the probable effect on the meat industry and consumer prices.  Mainstream media, however, is very urban oriented.  All it would report is the rise in prices (after the fact) and nothing about the cause.

Update:  just looked out the patio door and saw near whiteout.  The wind has picked up and is blowing both new and old snow sideways.  Just as well we decided to hibernate.

Update 2:  we have sun now but the wind is still high.  Mom is happy--the wind is clearing the car for her.