Surprise fireworks

When I was young, you would only see fireworks on the Fourth of July. Now we commonly see them on New Years Day, at baseball games, and on what seem to be random occasions. Today I saw fireworks outside of my window, and had to check to determine the occasion. It turns out that it's the Macy's Holiday Festival of Lights. I suppose it's yet another excuse to roll back the Christmas buying season. Whatever . . . I did enjoy this display of surprise fireworks; I snapped this photo from my 17th floor office:

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Meet the newest vegetable: pizza

The food industry lobbyists have been working overtime, and Jamie Oliver reports on what they have been accomplishing:

A new Congressional bill that looks likely to pass quickly will slow down reductions in sodium by requiring further study on long-term requirements, block whole grains by haggling over the definition, and help pizza stay on the menu by allowing two tablespoons of tomato paste on pizza to keep counting as a vegetable.
Jamie Oliver isn't the only person upset by Congressional corruption:
Many are outraged by these possible last minute changes, including Mission: Readiness, a group made up of hundreds of retired military Generals and Admirals who have been raising alarms about the readiness of our armed forces due to current childhood obesity. Amy Dawson Taggart, the director of Mission: Readiness, recently stated in a letter to politicians: "We are outraged that Congress is seriously considering language that would effectively categorize pizza as a vegetable in the school lunch program. It doesn't take an advanced degree in nutrition to call this a national disgrace.”

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Payday Lenders rule in Texas

Here's one way that deregulation has worked in Texas:

Large corporations that operate payday lenders, many of them based in Texas, have been steady contributors to Perry's political campaigns over the last decade, donating upwards of $200,000, according to Texas campaign finance disclosure statements. In 2004, Perry appointed William J. White, a senior executive of one of the nation's largest payday lending corporations, Cash America International, to a seat on the Texas Finance Commission, which is tasked in part with protecting the state's consumers. Two years ago, the governor elevated White to the chairmanship of that body.

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