How an Economist Views Marital Habits

As efforts to minimize transaction costs--see this post at Freakonomics. I understand and agree his point, but it's not always wise to minimize such costs. I'm sure I'm not the only person who's found that new experiences shared with the spouse, where you both need to negotiate, can improve the marriage. Of course, sometimes not.

Haunted by History, Hungary Redux?

Fred Kaplan in Slate opines on Georgia.

His comments remind me of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, at least of the post-mortems in the U.S., though they don't seem to show up in the wikipedia article. As I recall, the Dems blasted John Foster Dulles for comments seeming to call for the "rollback" of the Iron Curtain and Radio Free Europe for broadcasts by exiles. The gist was that, in our hopes for democracy, we had said things and forgotten the realities. The "liberals" inside Hungary heard what they wanted to hear, that the West was with them body and soul, while the reality was that we were with them in spirit, but the flesh was unwilling. Ike and Dulles knew better than to do anything militarily.

It was a lesson in realpolitik, which left schoolboys throwing molotov cocktails at tanks.

See this link to The Moderate Voice for a discussion.

"Dad, Can We Eat This One?"

So much for the innocence of childhood, but Abby is cute, even though a bit ... Her father, Ron, is equally evil, posting great pictures of all the produce from his garden.

Farm Constitution Rears Its Head

The farm bill included a 10-acres base provision--no payments to "farms" with a base for the crop of under 10 acres. Now people are waking up to the implications and complexities. Via Keith Good (who's always good) the Lancaster FArming site reports on concerns of the PA Farm Bureau:

"PFB believes that the original intent of the measure was to allow farms with 10 or fewer base acres to be aggregated or combined with any farm or farms with base acres — whether owned or rented — to exceed 10 acres.

But according to Pallman [PA FSA head], the law is clear that the only way farm base acreages can be consolidated is through land purchase."

One complication, with which I became familiar in the early 1980's, is a "farm" is a "farm" is a "farm". So if disaster provisions are keyed to losses (on a farm) of production due to a natural disaster or the new ACRE program is keyed to expected revenue (on a farm), FSA has, in the past, maintained only one definition of a farm. So in Pennsylvania where farms originally were small, and operators are renting them from their owners (who may be the spouse, children, or descendants of the original farmer), if FSA treats each ownership tract as a separate farm, it increases the likelihood of eligibility for disaster payments. But it can make participating in other programs more difficult, as the acreage conservation reserve in the 1980's or the payment program now.

Map of Religions

Here's an interesting map of the US, showing the leading churches by county. I knew the Mennonite/Amish community was spreading, but not to Kansas. (The Presbyterianism of my father's side is a minority faith everywhere, even in its western PA heartland.) Hat tip to Religion in America.

New Term--Biodynamic Farming

Stumbled across a new term, new to me anyway: "biodynamic farming". Apparently there's a conflict between "organic farmers" and "biodynamic farmers". Best I can tell, it's mostly theological (I mean that literally--it reminds me of the differences among the Presbyterians during most of their history). The biodynamic faith is an offshoot, and more religious than plain organic farming.

Bureaucrats Are the Offensive Line of Life

A thought, prompted by the recent introduction into the Football Hall of Fame of Art Monk and Darrell Green. Consider this: there are 5 times as many offensive linemen on the field as quarterbacks, but the Hall of FAme has 33 modern era offensive linement to 23 quarterbacks.

Oh for the Safety of the Chlorophyll Based Economy

I'm searching for a term to contrast with "carbon-based economy". But the title is tongue-in-cheek; witness this sentence quoted in today's NYTimes Book Review: "“In the New York of 1867,” he writes, “horses were killing an average of four pedestrians a week (a bit higher than today’s rate of traffic fatalities).”" (Review of the book called Traffic, which sounds interesting.)

Monsanto and rBGH

Tom Philpott at Gristmill is among those noting with approval that Monsanto is trying to sell off its making of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). It's an interesting issue: on the one hand there's the "yuck" factor, those who believe that interference with nature is wrong and on the other the "green" factor, those who believe efficiency is the way of the future. That is, if the hormone enables the production of more milk from the same inputs, isn't that similar to an Energy-Star appliance?

Obviously I lean more towards the efficiency side. But "lean" is the right word.

Information to Complicate One's Understanding.

Why is Canada slim and the US obese?

Well, a possible reason is difference in the kind of statistics used (see the comments on the post). But it's interesting to consider the broader (ouch!) picture. Seeing a map of Mexico using comparable stats would also be of interest.