32-Ounce Drinks

The mayor of NYC is proposing to ban drinks over 16 ounces.  Much ado about it.

However the good mayor and I both remember the good old days, though I'm a tad older and a lot poorer.

The Coke bottle we grew up with was 6.5 oz.

EWG and Crop Insurance

Politico is just one of several articles on EWG's attack on crop insurance, using data on crop policies and policyholders. (Here's the link.)

In 26 cases, policyholders received an annual discount — carried on the government’s books — of $1 million or more in 2011. In 10,152 cases, it was $100,000 or more, while the vast majority of farmers received far smaller discounts averaging closer to $5,000.
“The eye-opening analysis shows crop insurance is not only very expensive,” said Craig Cox, EWG’s senior vice president of agriculture and natural resources, “but also very, very generous to large and highly profitable farm businesses.”
Corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton are among the leading beneficiaries, just as they dominate American agriculture. At the same time, fruit and vegetable growers, which account for about one-fifth of farm receipts, are disproportionately represented since their crops tend to be high priced and therefore more likely subject to higher premiums.
Potatoes, tomatoes, apples, onions and grapes accounted for 36 percent of the high-end subsidies over $1 million, which carried some irony since environmentalists have long favored such specialty crops.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76913.html#ixzz1wf2BLmap

Politico points out differences between crop insurance and FSA's farm programs but ignores one.  Because of payment limitation, I suspect EWG will would not find as many city dwellers benefiting from subsidized crop insurance.  One of the things EWG seemed to delight in with their database on FSA's payments was the revelation of where recipients lived, particularly in big cities and wealthy ZIP codes.  I don't know if FSA and FCIC ever tried to cross-match their producers, but my suspicion is that crop insurance's "producers", those people and entities who are the policyholders, come much closer to matching John Doe's idea of who is a farmer is than do FSA's producers.  

Note: I changed "will" to "would" in the previous paragraph because it turns out EWG couldn't get identities of producers; Congress barred it.

USDA Techies Represented by Sheep

That seems to be the message here (via Govloop).  (At least they didn't use bulls.)

Water Fountain: Bottled Water::Home Phone:Cellphone

In the old days we had public water fountains and landline phones in the home, also pay phone booths in public spaces.  These were shared utilities, whether provided by government or family, NGO's or private business.

In the new days everyone carries her own bottled water and her own cellphone; nothing is shared, all is private and individual.

Inflation in Machinery

Via today's Farm Policy, an illustration of the economics of farming at the farmdoc blog  (“Machinery Cost Estimates for 2012 and 2013”) that farmers are price takers: ”

": Prices of new machinery have increased for most machines between 2010 and 2012. For example, the list price of a 215 horsepower tractor in 2012 is $215,000. A comparable sized tractor in 2010 has a list price of $181,500. Between 2010 and 2012, the price of this tractor has increased by 18 percent."

 Now I don't remember any big price increases on cars or trucks in recent years, so what's happening is the implement manufacturers are raising their prices to what the market will bear, and there's not enough competition to keep the prices down.   Any guess as to implement prices if and when corn drops to $3?

I Smell

Research proves that old people smell [different than younger people].

Rooting for Clothes

Dave Berri at Freakonomics uses a Seinfeld phrase on politics: "rooting for clothes".  The idea is that Cleveland sports fans loved LeBron until he moved, Redskins fans haded Deon Sanders until he switched from Dallas to the Skins, etc. etc.

We can also apply the idea to politics, since in many cases the parties switch positions depending on whether they're in power or not.

Mrs. Obama's Garden Book

She's on the move promoting her book.

I'll give her credit; I was originally afraid the garden was just a fad thing.  It's still a vehicle for spin, but that comes with the territory.

[Updated: here's a pretty full description of the contents at Obamafoodorama.]

Guinness Puzzle Solved

The world has waited with bated breath to find the answer to the puzzle: why do bubbles in Guinness fall, instead of rise.  We now know, thanks to some Irish mathematicians.  (The tongue is firmly in the cheek in this piece at Technology Review.)

"Heroes": The Devaluation of Standards

There's a kerfuffle over some guy on MSNBC voicing reservations over calling people "heroes", thinks it encourages war..  And Mitt Romney  has a video in which he says: " “But every woman and every man who has or now defends American liberty share in their heritage of greatness. Every veteran is the greatest of his generation.”

To all of which, I say b.s.  We're now living in Lake Woebegon, where all the women are good-looking, all the children above average, and all the veterans/military are heroes and the greatest.  It's also the country where the "gentleman's C" has become everyone's B.

In fact, some served, some did not. Some did their jobs, some did not.  Some were very brave on some days, some were not.  Some received medals, some did not.  Some were Americans, some were not. Some were Germans, Japanese, Russians, Vietnamese, some were not.  Draw a Venn diagram and the sets will overlap.  All were human. Read "The Red Badge of Courage", then read Audie Murphy's memoir.

[Update: Tom Ricks provides some backup to my position here. Conor Friedersdorf has a long post on the original MSNBC program and the reaction thereto.]