Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Friday, April 18. 2008

No food for you

No more cheap pork for the Canadians

Ethanol is a food tax on the poor

Never let your dog eat raisins or grapes

Never ever eat Polar Bear liver.

Posted by The Barrister at 17:31 | Comments (32) | Trackbacks (0)

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awww, man, i just ate a big polar bear liver samwich -- NOW you tell me --
#1 buddy larsen on 2008-04-18 19:22 (Reply)
If you had it on rye bread, it counteracts it.
#1.1 BD on 2008-04-18 19:37 (Reply)
Buddy,

Don't believe him. He's fibbing. The only thing that will save you is to blend on "Whip-it-Good" two medium-sized penquins and one harp seal. Blend until smooth adding snow as you go for desired thickness.
#2 Meta - Liver expert on 2008-04-18 20:29 (Reply)
kee-rist -- i just ate six loafs of rye bread -- too fuull to chase them penguins
#2.1 buddy larsen on 2008-04-18 20:49 (Reply)
I had a mixed breed years ago who would have sold her soul for a grape. Loved 'em. Eventually learned to catch 'em from high in the air. I guess it's only a percentage of dogs in danger.
#3 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2008-04-18 22:13 (Reply)
bud chase it with a camel fart inhaler
#4 Anonymous on 2008-04-18 22:26 (Reply)
Always avoid the liver and kidneys of all predatory animals unless you are real sure it's not poisonous.
#5 NJSoldier on 2008-04-18 22:36 (Reply)
My daughters just graduating from vet school, so I've learned of a few other bad dog foods:

Macadamia nuts - cause a transient paralysis, reversible but dogs may require ventilatory support.

 Chocolate - especially dark chocolate. Takes a fair amount, though, unless the dog is small (my 70# standard poodle has snarfed down a few large bars, without any adverse effects. Best damned food scavenger on the planet, this one...)

Also interesting - aspirin is OK in dogs (small doses) but highly toxic to cats.
#6 Dr Bob (Link) on 2008-04-18 23:37 (Reply)
My poor, Runnin Jumpin Dog fell in love with a psychedelic toad and as he was want to lickin anything and everything he got his fill of hallucinogen secreted from toad's back,and up and died.

He liked any kind of chocolate but that never did him in.
#7 Leag on 2008-04-19 14:40 (Reply)
According to this week's CPI: Food costs were up 0.2%. Energy costs were up 1.9% in March.

Some experts claim that ethanol is cutting $0.50 Gal off of the cost of a gallon of gasoline.

Ask a poor person which is more important to him/her - $0.05 on a box of corn flakes, or $0.50 on a gallon of gas?

Wanna make a wager?
#8 rufus on 2008-04-19 17:03 (Reply)
Glad you are still on the debate, Rufus. It is a worthwhile one.
#8.1 BD on 2008-04-19 19:29 (Reply)
I've been spending a lot of time over on the oil drum blog, recently. Their theory is that we are at, or getting close to peak oil. I think they're right; and, if they are we're in for some {i}interesting {i} times.
#9 rufus on 2008-04-19 20:54 (Reply)
I think we will end up with enough oil to make a 'somewhat' graceful transition. There are still vast areas of the earth that have not been fully explored... under the sea. The recent discovery near Brazil a case in point. Yes, it's deep and hard to recover. But we can do it. Sure price dislocations may cause temporary harm... but we're not going to run out before we find something else, as the price dislocations will ensure that ample capital investment is available for new technologies. Ethanol is a small piece of that puzzle... but just that.
#9.1 Luther McLeod (Link) on 2008-04-19 21:35 (Reply)
We're currently using a little over 550,000 Barrels of Ethanol/day, Luther. That's a large enough percentage of our total 8.8 million bbl/day gasoline usage that it's probably having a significant effect on prices at the pump.

I expect that within ten years we'll have our consumption down to around 7 million bbl/day, and, ethanol will be providing about 2 million bbl/day of that. There's absolutely NO Way to predict what the price of a gallon of gasoline will be by that time; but, it might be a number that would take your breath away, today.

I don't expect the price of corn to be any higher than it is today. We have an incredible amount of unused/underused arable land in the U.S. alone (it will, however, take a few years to get ramped up.) Brazil is using only one percent of it's arable land to produce almost 50% of their transportation fuels.

Cellulosic will be a Big Thing (there are too many Smart People going from pilot projects to Demonstration Plants for it not to be) but, again, it will be several years before it's really making a difference.

We'll make the transition, alright; but the next ten years might be a lot more "interesting" than we would like.
#10 rufus on 2008-04-19 22:27 (Reply)
especially if the next election hauls us out of our rook's position in the middle east.
#10.1 buddy larsen on 2008-04-19 22:46 (Reply)
All right rufus... 10%, roughly, is a big deal. But you ignore my point of non-explored areas. The rest of your points fall within my 'somewhat graceful transition'... what are we arguing about?

Buddy... what other piece, aside from king or queen, is better... the knight... no way. Mr. Bishop, hmmm... not that different than the rook. Unless our pawns reach the far end... we have a lot of game to play as yet. We shouldn't neglect the power of the pawn. Small but mighty is he, in the right hands.
#10.2 Luther McLeod (Link) on 2008-04-19 23:08 (Reply)
hard to beat a good pawn player, for sure. they just wear you out. i dunno why i said 'rook's position'. i guess, the map, Iraq is a corner, and the MNL can move up or across at will if things ever get really ugly, like, you know, Iran. rook's even-steven with the others in the early and midgame, but much more powerful in the endgame, when the board is more opened up and cleared out.
#10.2.1 buddy larsen on 2008-04-19 23:40 (Reply)
MNF, i meant -- i typoed prob because i wuz wondering why i didn't just go ahead and say USA.
#10.2.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-04-19 23:41 (Reply)
Okay... that makes sense. Great points about end-game and corners. We're opening up the board right now... the kill comes later, and the rook will be most valued.
#10.2.1.1.1 Luther McLeod (Link) on 2008-04-19 23:55 (Reply)
if the dems win in November, there's gonna be a pretty parade marching into the pentagon demanding lord knows what and that rook is gonna immediately get so blocked and clogged we'll be back to yr 2000 in the mideast before we know it. gloom. loss. waste. shrivel. piss in the wind. hope i'm wrong. i can see that pretty parade already in my mind's eye -- a lot of 'em can be seen today, standing behind their candidates as they lie to the American people. i can see 'em and i do not like the way they look. they have 'that' look -- the one you run from when you see it coming at you with some idea for you to knuckle under to.
#10.2.1.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-04-20 00:12 (Reply)
It can be done, the Dems winning. But it would call for the most ineptness in a presidential campaign than has ever been seen. And if that happens they deserve to lose. Much as I hate to say that.
#10.2.1.1.1.1.1 Luther McLeod (Link) on 2008-04-20 00:26 (Reply)
No argument, Luther; I wuz just jabberin.
#10.2.2 rufus on 2008-04-20 01:57 (Reply)
As for food: The real "wild card" in the Ag game in the coming years is fertilizer. It's getting in short supply, now; and, it looks like we're going to have to come up with quite a lot more, mos skoche.

Between that, some horrible decisions - export controls - in two big "Command" economies (Chindia) with Exponential growth, other countries like Argentina, Kazachstan, Vietnam, etc. also instituting hoarding, biofuels, and a general rise in prosperity, with it's attendant increase in the desire for better protein, it will probably just get "interestiner, and interestiner."
#11 rufus on 2008-04-20 02:18 (Reply)
You're on to something here rufus. Something that might not fall into my 'somewhat graceful transition'... the canary in the coal mine.

All I do is jabber rufus...too damn old to do much more.
#11.1 Luther McLeod (Link) on 2008-04-20 06:15 (Reply)
well, that's traditional throughout human history -- we spend 5 or 7 decades learning from our mistakes, then we sit & jabber and hope something helps someone somewhere
#11.1.1 buddy larsen on 2008-04-20 14:34 (Reply)
Which it won't, of course.

Daddy could have "jabbered" 25 hours/day /365 till a year after he died, and I'd a made the same dumassed mistakes, for sure.

Course, the Ruffians have never been accused of bein overly bright folks, truth be told an all. :)
#11.1.1.1 rufus on 2008-04-20 21:39 (Reply)
Would you listen now though rufus... I'm wondering if I would, probably not. I'd likely take the contrary view just to get a rise out of him. Cut off your nose to spite your face kind of thing. Dumassed as you say. I do that a lot actually... never did like hanging with the conventional wisdom.
#11.1.1.1.1 Luther McLeod (Link) on 2008-04-20 22:14 (Reply)
I don't know; he's getting smarter, and smarter.

Oh, btw, Tapis Crude just hit $`123.00/bbl in Singapore.
#12 rufus on 2008-04-21 00:01 (Reply)
great caesar's ghost -- this run-up has gone parabolic -- Boone Pickens turned late last week, went back long, sez he's looking for 150.
#12.1 buddy larsen on 2008-04-21 00:27 (Reply)
Yeah, it's one thing to say it's gonna happen; quite somethin else to See it happen. Scary as Hell, I'll tell you.

Of course, this will probably seem like "free" in a couple of years (at the latest.:() Jeez, new world comin, I think.
#13 rufus on 2008-04-21 00:50 (Reply)
it is scary. a lot of pressure building up somewhere on something. General Petraeus will be feeling some of it.
#13.1 buddy larsen on 2008-04-21 04:36 (Reply)
It's all about the election... 'they' do not want another Republican in office. Or anyone with a spine for that matter. Many evil forces working against freedom. That's my conspiratorial two cents.
#13.1.1 Luther McLeod (Link) on 2008-04-21 08:20 (Reply)

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