This will boggle your brain:
Part 2 apparently is due to arrive next week. Meanwhile, this here is your Weekend Open Thread. Talk about whatever you’d like, within reason and bounds of taste!
Illustration from Wikipedia page on construction one of these confounded contraptions:
UPDATE: A notable death this weekend, though he sure seemed to have had a good life. There’ll be no more candles on his birthday cake.
Question for those “in the know” on Prop 37- what about produce? Right now we have a choice b/t “organic” and unlabled produce which is presumably non-organic. Is the produce that we eat such as oranges for example, pretty much all genetically engineered? Is it a “seed” thing? I question this as I thought that organic was a growing technique, so that you could have a GE’d seed grown in an organic manner and it would be organic and hence exempt from GE labeling. For example, seedless oranges I believe are GE’d but if grown organic, they would not have to be labeled GE. I have read the text of the Prop and I am not a scientist, although I do like reading the text. Will this lead us to three choices for oranges- Organic, Non Organic Non GE, and GE? I imagine that the same question probably would not be true for veggies as much as they are new seeds each year compared to tree fruit and some other produce (i.e. berries).
It seems that the individual orange would not have to be labeled as GE’d but instead the shelve that it sits on (Sec 110809)…is that correct?
I’m going to short-circuit any such analysis thusly:
Much of the criticism of Prop 37 is that it’s not necessarily the final form in which we should want our labeling policy of GMOs to be. I say: “maybe not, but so what? That’s an unnecessarily high burden to demand of it.”
For example, Prop 37 would address canned meat (including pet food) but not restaurant steak. Should it also include labeling of restaurant steak? I could argue that one either way. It’s a fight that the author decided not to pick. We will have a better idea down the line, after Prop 37 is implemented, how well labeling works here (and let’s bear in mind that it already works well in Europe and elsewhere) and we’ll be able to have a healthy and separate debate about whether and how it should be applied to restaurants.
We don’t need to address that issue now. Prop 37 is not a custom-built home on a limited-space lot in which we all plan to retire, that we really have to get right the first time. It’s a stepping-stone, or a way station, on the path to a better destination. That’s all it needs to be. We can figure exactly what we ought to do next after we’ve taken that first important step.
As for some of your technical questions: Inge is our go-to gal on those, so I hope that she will chime in.
*Its like being a little pregnant. Once we pass Prop. 37……we can add whatever we
want through the legislature. We do need a mandate vote however. Anything over
66% will do the trick. Our hope is we get much better than that…like 78% or more.
OK, even though I think we’re on the same side here, I have to ask: how is that “like being a little bit pregnant?”
For those of us of a certain age, this is sad news. With Hobo Kelly, Paul Winchell, Captain Kangaroo, and Wonderama on weekends, I think that this covered my pre-Sesame Street childhood. See the video embedded in the update to the story.
“Put another candle on your birthday cake…you’re another year old today!” said
“Sheriff John” Rovick. Watched him and “Engineer Bill” Stulla growing up. Sheriff John was 93 years young……how bout that? Happy Trails Sheriff John….Happy Trails….you
will always be remembered.
In other news:
http://www.gfmag.com/tools/global-database/economic-data/11856-worlds-unemployment-rates.html#axzz28cj6PWvT
Just in case anyone wonders what the unemployments rates are around the world
take a peek. Does anyone understand that Mexico has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. Does Mitt Romney?
*$10 dollars a gallon gas? Nah….come on, just because they had a power outage in El Segundo? Exxon-Mobil…..Shell…..Chevron….Union……Arco…….hey: The whole world in Inter-connected isn’t it? Why is Nevada still paying $2.40 a gallon?
This is because we demand a special blend of gas to give us better air quality.
And, while I hate paying the extra money as much as the next person, that’s worth it.
Better get your bike in shape, $10 gas is coming to a pump near you soon.
In a prior post G D did say that Californian’s should pay more (in taxes) for the common good, So an additional 5 bucks a gallon tax on gas to pay for gold plated pensions for government management and elected aristocracy s for the common good?
No it isn’t — and I am happy to come out in opposition to “an additional 5 bucks a gallon tax on gas to pay for gold plated pensions for government management and elected aristocracy.” And I hope that my counterpart in whatever alternative universe it is where that is remotely possible will do the same. Honestly, why waste gold-plating on a pension? How do you even do that?
Vote by mail, or in person. Vote early or wait until Election Day?
Nationwide more than 1 in 5 ballots that are voted by mail are not counted.
In a close election, a 20 percent difference in counting the votes can change the outcome.