According to the St. Louis Fed, food inflation was 22% between January 2006 and June 2013, while core CPI clocked in at only 15% over the same period. This divergence grew following the recession, with food prices (9%) far outpacing core CPI (5.9%) since late 2009.
Certain family staples fared even worse: over the past five years, for example, the average price of meat, poultry, fish and eggs is 16.2% higher.
[…]
Perhaps the biggest offender is the government’s continued support for ethanol, particularly through the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires refiners to add increasing amounts of biofuels to gasoline.
After the RFS became law in 2006, ethanol production capacity — and demand for corn feedstock — exploded, thus creating a domino effect of price increases from corn to other staple crops to meat, poultry and dairy, and finally to Americans’ grocery bills.
The “Come Shoot Me” Sign
Report: 92% Of Mass Shootings Since January 2009 Occurred In Gun-Free Zones
It’s Probably Nothing
Don’t panic. It’s really, really hard to catch.
A Texas health care worker who was in full protective gear while providing hospital care for an Ebola patient who later died has tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition, health officials said Sunday. If the preliminary diagnosis is confirmed, it would be the first known case of the disease being contracted or transmitted in the U.S.
Meanwhile, a top federal health official said the health care worker’s Ebola diagnosis shows there was a clear breach of safety protocol and all those who treated Thomas Eric Duncan are now considered to be potentially exposed.
Related: “I get to the kiosk…mark the fact that I’ve been in Nigeria and nobody cares, nobody stopped me,”
O, Sweet Saint Of San Andreas
We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans
EDIT, killed autoplay crap – lance
h/t Ed S.
Those Moderate Muslims!
Do you think it’s easy for me to accept flag bearers of my religion as my enemy? Do you believe that it’s easy for me to accept the fact that a 16-year-old girl fearlessly took a stand against the biggest threat facing this country while men like me were busy being apologetic on the behalf of the “freedom fighters”?
Do you honestly believe that it’s easy for me to accept that a young girl from our neck of the woods, with all the societal handicaps that one can think of, can singlehandedly orchestrate a global rude awakening? The thought rips the bigoted, discriminatory and misogynistic ideals that I’ve grown up with, into tiny little shreds.
How can I accept Malala to be a hero, when her speeches do not have any Islamic or nationalistic agenda? How can I consider her to be my future leader when nothing she says or does imbues a false sense of superiority in me as a Muslim or a Pakistani? How can I accept that a young girl was able to highlight who our actual enemies are, when grown up men in our parliaments are still hell bent on befriending them?
Reader Tips
Max Baer was an American heavyweight boxer who won the world championship in 1934 by defeating the massive Primo Carnera, only to lose the title in his very first defense against against the “Cinderella Man,” James Braddock. Most boxing historians attribute his lackadaisical performance against Braddock to the fact that Baer, an amiable, confident extrovert (not unlike Jethro Bodine, the character his son would later play on The Beverly Hillbillies, only smarter) was more interested in women and carousing than training.
In tonight’s amusement en route to the tips, filmed the year before he won the title, the happy-go-lucky Baer, sporting the highest belt line you’ll ever see outside of a Florida retirement home, performs a song-and-dance routine with a gaggle of chorus girls in The Prizefighter and the Lady.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
“Organic” Is The Latin Word For “There’s One Born Every Minute”
It’s Probably Nothing
“It’s basically admitting defeat,” said Dr. Peter H. Kilmarx, the leader of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s team in Sierra Leone, adding that it was “now national policy that we should take care of these people at home.”
“For the clinicians it’s admitting failure, but we are responding to the need,” Dr. Kilmarx said. “There are hundreds of people with Ebola that we are not able to bring into a facility.”
Operation Empty Chair
It’s a disaster. By involving American forces half-heartedly, with an eye toward no objective beyond bumping up his poll numbers before the midterm elections, Obama has set ISIS up to brag about how they’re beating the Great Satan – not just holding their own under air assault, but actually making progress, taking ground, and retaining the strategic initiative.
[…]
The report also says an Islamist group in Egypt “has been staging ISIS copycat beheadings and is thought to have declared de facto loyalty to the group.” An editorial at al-Arabiya News claims the threat of the Islamic State spreading into Libya is one reason Egypt didn’t get involved in the Nameless Non-War, specifically mentioning the parade in Derna depicted above. Another reason is that our debonair internationalist Smart Power President Obama has been treating the Egyptians poorly ever since they overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood:
More here: How Syria policy stalled under the ‘analyst in chief’
Y2Kyoto: Winds Of Change
A Tale of Two Minds
I’m of two minds on Ontario’s decision to uninvite CBSA on their road-side stops.
On one hand I don’t think any illegal immigrant or illegal immigrant worker should be allowed to roam freely without fear of hindrance on the roads. The roadside checks success is evident when a net caught 21 in August according to the article.
On the gripping hand, I have a real problem with roadside stops engaging in unreasonable search and seizure.
Via, NWC.
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
Fauxtography at the CBC.
It’s not the first time.
Reader Tips
The drinking of the beer was the easiest part of tonight’s performance. Very impressive!
h/t William F
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Honey, I Finished The Internet
“The baddest body in sports.“
Oh, That Liberal Media!
A premature copyright objection from the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
More commentary: Brian Lilley dissects the latest attempt by the Media Party to protect Trudeau.
Baby Boomers
RT @DKurdistan: Islamic State praises death of ‘youngest martyr’ http://t.co/mBVLDgbtCR via @TimesofIsrael /cc pic.twitter.com/h6Xggip9Fz
— SaloumehZ (@SaloumehZ) October 10, 2014
The Sound Of Settled Science
New paper finds climate sensitivity to CO2 is only 0.43C, about 7 times less than the IPCC claims
There Are People Who Believe They’re Napoleon, Too
Heh. “At least my twat is real, Mister”
Go, Already
Liberal cuts threaten guaranteed rights, commission argues;
The Quebec Human Rights Commission submitted a 29-page brief earlier this week to Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard and to the new committee the premier has put place to review all government programs and measures with an eye to cutting fat.
In the brief, Frémont advises the government not to undertake its austerity plan with only economic or budgetary considerations in mind. He notes that cutting or reducing the scope of some programs may affect certain vulnerable groups disproportionately and in a discriminatory way.
The Charter, he writes, is a fundamental law that takes precedence over other laws, and the state is bound by it. The program overhaul cannot adversely affect rights guaranteed under the Charter, such as the right to equality, regardless of race, skin colour, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status, age, religion, political convictions, language, ethic background or nationality, income or disability.
[…]
Quebec is the only Canadian jurisdiction where social and economic rights are enshrined in a Charter. Quebec has also signed on to certain international agreements, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which address the right to work and to join a union, the right to a standard of living that supports health and well-being, and the right to an education, among others.