Saturday, June 12, 2010

Sat night misc

GM's Mexican employees make$26.40 a day, and US car companies are moving work down there.
Mexico’s share of North American auto production may rise at a quicker pace as General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC seek out workers making less than 10 percent of what their U.S. counterparts earn.

Read all that here. Thanks, guys. Could we shovel a little more money your way?

An interesting interview by German pub Der Spiegel Online with Daniel Ellsberg, the guy who leaked the Pentagon Papers:
Daniel Ellsberg: I voted for [Obama] and I will probably vote for him again, as opposed to the Republicans. But I believe his administration in some key aspects is nothing other than the third term of the Bush administration.

All that story is here.

And an interesting specter raises up out there in the bigger world. From The Telegraph of the UK, "Rising food prices could threaten political stability around the world, the UN's leading humanitarian official said yesterday." Read all that cheery news here. We are truly lucky in the US that we have loads of arable land we've not yet wrecked. If we can stop the suicidal tendency to invite the world in and crow about population growth, we are well situated to survive, and even thrive in, a time of food shortages.
Ag from the producer's point of view: "There are three easy ways of losing money - racing is the quickest, women the most pleasant, and farming the most certain." --William Pitt Amherst

Shrimpfest has been a huge success, with our usually empty streets full of cars and partiers. Had a first-rate lunch from the food stands - brisket taco, shrimp taco, and a big container of seafood gumbo. Good digestion is truly a blessing in the sunset years. It's reported that the local law had to drive one drunk home today, and that's the extent of mischief from Shrimpfest.

1 comment:

Sugar Magnolia said...

Glad to hear the Shrimpfest was such a success. Wanted to go this year, but grandmother (not the one that lives here) was in the hospital in Conroe with chest pains. Everything eventually checked out okay, and she is back home now, and so are we. But we never can be too careful, what with the triple bypass she had years ago.....ironically a result, no doubt, of TOO MANY SHRIMP. No lie. Our family love the little buggers, and our cholesterol levels can attest to the many meals we have had around the kitchen table of nothing but boiled shrimp....

On a related note, yours truly, who has been desperately trying to catch up on her stacks of old Houston Chronicles, noticed the final tally for Houston Rodeo attendance and vendor sales broke all manner of records this year, as did spring break in Galveston. People apparently are still doing the "staycation" thing, since much of the income was from local yokels, but are spending more and enjoying the local amenities. That does my heart glad. Perhaps the Shrimpfest is experiencing a similar scenario.

I will get down there one of these years for that Shrimpfest, I swear.....