Mother's Day Weekend Links

I suppose my mother would consider it a Mother's Day gift if I wasn't posting "another one of your rants,"* but after disappointing her this much, why change now.  Here are some interesting stories for you to check out this weekend:

* her quote when she saw me working on posting last weekend's links

Yankee, Executive, Soldier, Spy - Grantland

The Poison Oasis - SBNation

Livestock Farming Is Changing Agriculture on Long Island - New York Times.  

Never Mind Oil, Iran's About to Shake the World Pistachio Market - Bloomberg

The Texas Deep Frying Champion - priceonomics

Americans Are Drinking Less But Spending More on Fancy Booze - Bloomberg.  Also, see One Bottle To Rule Them All - Cincinnati Magazine

House OKs Expanded Sales of Raw Milk - Texas Tribune.  Where did I see somebody say that the proponents of raw milk were the food equivalent of anti-vaxxers?   Wherever it was, it was true.

Your Winter Vegetables: Brought to You by California's Very Last Drops of Water - Mother Jones.
 It's interesting how senior water rights work.

Getting a Clue About the Avian Flu - Pacific Standard

Monsanto Make Bid to Go Big in Pesticides - Wall Street Journal

 Overkill - The New Yorker.  Atul Gawande on unnecessary medical care.

The Computers Are Listening - The Intercept

Girl Strikers - Belt Magazine

Alberta Loses Its Goddamn Mind for the Fourth Time: A Guide for the Perplexed - Vice.  Very interesting history: "Before long, rural farmers got tired of being fucked over by Central Canada and their nonsense party system. So in 1921, they handed a massive majority to the United Farmers of Alberta, a co-operative group that had decided to turn itself into a political party to set up a government by farmers, for farmers. This kept the trains running on time until premier John Brownlee resigned in disgrace after a bizarre sex scandal in 1934.

In UK Election, Ancient Kingdom Eyes Political Comeback - Wall Street Journal. More history.

The UK General Election Result Will Probably End Up Changing Britain Forever - Vice.  It is interesting that Scotland is a recipient state and also anti-austerity while England is a donor and pro-austerity, while in the U.S. the recipients seem to be pro-austerity and the donors are anit-austerity.  See also, The Anti-austerity economics of the SNP - Pieria

Huckabee's Hucksterism vs. Clintons' Cash - National Journal.  The grifters of Hope, Arkansas.  Some might say Obama is the ultimate grifter of hope.  I'd disagree.

Surveillance planes spotted in the sky for days after West Baltimore riots - Washington Post