In the mean time, some oddments that caught my eye.  Maybe they caught yours today as well.

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Vitamin D for Deficit

Milk prices may increase soon.  Sure, if only it were as easy as "reducing the herd" to increase profits.  Farmers need to recognize that their market place has been changing; they are no longer alone in the market now that soy milk has become readily available and widely accepted by the public.  As milk prices increase, consumers may switch to soy milk as a substitute.  Soy milk comes with calcium and vitamin D fortification, offers a similar amount of protein, and may offer additional health benefits that milk can't provide.  So...how long will those milk prices stay elevated, if at all?

That 9/11 cachet

Hah!  That James Wolcott!  Such wise-assed attitude!  Great take down of Kerik -- and just as importantly, a well-deserved smack for the Dems:

"I'm glad the press is having a dance party with this, because God knows the Democrats are frozen at the steering wheel. I just saw a segment on MSNBC (which has been all over the Kerik story today, bless Rick Kaplan's cyborg heart) pitting a Republican strategist against a Democratic one, and the Democratic spokesman--who goes by the name of Michael Brown--seemed to have washed down his weeny pills with warm Ovaltine. Instead of kicking Kerik and Giuliana between the uprights for three points, Brown fretted that vetting process for cabinet candidates was "going to far," and that we were in danger of discouraging people from public service. Oh no, we wouldn't want to discourage philandering, pocket-lining, deadbeat no-show bully-boys like Bernard Kerik from having the opportunity to muck around with our civil liberties in the name of "national security" and hold bigshot press conferences. I mean, if that sort of thing were to continue happening, people might start mistaking the Democrats for an opposition party and thinking that the press has an adversarial role to play, and we don't want that to happen, it might actually lead to signs of life in that mausoleum we call the nation's capital.

This Michael Brown wouldn't even criticize Alberto Gonzalez for botching the background check and vetting of Kerik. I don't understand the self-emasculation of so many Democratic strategists, what they're afraid of, why they concede so much in advance. Give them an opening, and they close it like a silk kimono, ever so demure. What are they in politics for, the professional grooming tips? "

And the DLC can't figure out why the grassroots bear such antipathy towards them...get a spine, fercryinoutloud!

The New VO

Now on line, filled with ironic and quirky goodness!  (Fiona, love that bit of yours!  Eggnog!)

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Hope to be back to what resembles normal blogging tomorrow.