Funny how we forget that day 22 years ago today. Remember vividly. Sitting eating in my 4th grade cafetaria, the noise of the lunchroom broken by a teacher telling us that the space shuttle Challenger exploded.
Lest we forget. We should remember them today.
Inflation has risen at it's highest rate in 17 years. I blame George Bush and Congress 100% for it.
Do you want to know why inflation has been so high lately? It is mainly because of a sharp rise in the costs of food.
WASHINGTON - Higher costs for energy and food last year pushed inflation up by the largest amount in 17 years, even though prices generally remained tame outside of those two areas.Consumer prices rose by 4.1 percent for all of 2007, up sharply from a 2.5 percent increase in 2006, with consumers especially feeling the pain when they filled up their gas tanks or shopped for groceries. Prices for both energy and food shot up by the largest amount since 1990.
For December, the Consumer Price Index rose by 0.3 percent, down from 0.8 percent in November, as food costs were flat for the month and energy prices rose by 0.9 percent after an even bigger 5.7 percent jump in November.
So basically if it wasn't for food and energy, inflation would be low.
So although the government may save almost $7 Billion consumers will most likely end up paying that and more in increased costs for all those 2,500 corn related products.That brings us back to the question of the energy it takes to produce ethanol. One of the biggest energy components of producing Corn is nitrogen fertilizer and one of the biggest components of Nitrogen fertilizer is natural gas. Plus it requires a great deal of electricity to actually make the ethanol. Back in the 1970's it actually took more energy to grow and refine the ethanol than you got from it . Today due to increases in efficiency that is no longer the case.
So ethanol is a complex proposition that uses a significant amount of energy to produce and could have a major impact on the price of a wide variety of other products competing for the corn.
This was signed into law by President Bush and Congress. It is only going to get worse as Ethanol requirements increase, so will the price of corn and subsequently costs of other food items.
Bush really has let down the conservative movement on this one. It is sad. I was once a Bush supporter, now I have to think that he will go down in history as one of the worst Presidents in American History.
I have a 2 month old son. Once while I was up at 2 am feeding him, I saw a commercial for "The Infinity Razor". Guaranteed never to become dull. And to prove it, they give you two for $19.99.
Sounds fishy. I didn't buy it, but I did come across cool web-site that reviews these late night offerings.
I like technology, but sometimes I get a little too much of it. In the day and age when you are bombarded with cell phones, instant messages, and music downloads, sometimes you are too connected.
I noted earlier on my love for my typewriters. I haven't written as much lately as I would have liked, but I still enjoy them.
For Christmas I received a Crosley 4-1 record player. It sounds great for it's size and most importantly it plays the old LPs. There is something tactile a about pulling a piece of vinyl out of it's sleeve, placing it on the turntable and gently placing the needle to it.
Now it seems vinyl is making a comeback.
As counterintuitive as it may seem in this age of iPods and digital downloads, vinyl -- the favorite physical format of indie music collectors and audiophiles -- is poised to re-enter the mainstream, or at least become a major tributary. Talk to almost anyone in the music business' vital indie and DJ scenes and you'll encounter a uniformly optimistic picture of the vinyl market. "I'm hearing from labels and distributors that vinyl is way up," said Ian Connelly, client relations manager of independent distributor alliance IODA, in an e-mail interview. "And not just the boutique, limited-edition colored vinyl that Jesu/Isis-style fans are hot for right now."
And you can still buy vinyl now too. Of course there is Ebay, but also Amazon.com. They recently launched their own vinyl store
It's not just old copies of Foreigner albums either. There also new pressings from bands like the White Stripes and U2.
So fire up the turntable, sit back and listen to the warmth and detached attitude of an old technology.
Government is stupid, and the civil servants who work for government are the lowest end of the brain power that humans can put out and still be considered not retarded.
A good example is how Pepperoni Rolls are illegal in some states.
Pepperoni rolls are simply baked yeast rolls with pepperoni baked right in. Stromboli, Calzones are still legal, just rolls with Pepperoni.
Go figure.