Via Sarah at Corrente, an informative little piece in the Washington Post about the mercury in the ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup [HFCS] that has replaced real sugar in almost everything you buy that is sweet.

The mercury is introduced in the processing: “The use of mercury-contaminated caustic soda in the production of HFCS is common. The contamination occurs when mercury cells are used to produce caustic soda.”

The caustic soda and a powerful acid are used to balance the pH level in the HFCS.

The trade group of the people who make HFCS claim that they no longer use the contaminated caustic soda, but people supposedly no longer use lead paint on toys and would never consider using ethyl glycol instead of glycerin, or adding melamine to pet food.

Anyone want to guess where they are probably getting the caustic soda?

Just like the buzzards return to Hinckley, Ohio, when the weather starts cooling off people start showing up down here. Unfortunately some are people who, if they had any long term memory, should know better.

I was tied up with “Real Life” over the weekend dealing with one of them. He is a good worker when he’s sober enough to work, but given his history you have no guarantees, and everyone who might have a little work down here knows better than to depend on him.

If you know anyone who works in construction and was planning to head South, tell them to forget about finding work – there isn’t any. There should be work rebuilding the damage from the mid-decades hurricanes, but the money isn’t here to do it. The Federal money isn’t being distributed fast enough, or in quantities large enough to help out, thanks to greed, incompetence, and Republican state governments, and there are no building loans available.

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