MaryContrary's Blog

2012-01-31T12:34:00.000-06:00

Good morning, everyone. Can you believe we have 40F on our patio this morning?? And the official temperature in Chicago is 46F. And we should get into the low to mid 50s because the skies are clear and we should have plenty of sun today. Kuma was happy because I let him out on the patio and he had plenty of water from the snow melt. I don't know what it is but he absolutely loves the water he finds outside. I thought he might not like the chlorine or whatever in the tap water and gave him the boiled water I prepare for our coffee and tea. But given the choice he will take the patio puddles first. The weather person on our local (Chicago) news station had a picture from one of their 'weather watchers' showing a tree in her yard starting to bud. Poor things--they are simply very confused. Oh, they also say we had a very minor earthquake just north of Chicago late last night. We didn't feel anything here although people from southeastern Wisconsin to our area in northwest Indiana called the news stations to report that they had.

This weather story triggered a question because of a story on our local news/weather last night. The weather person noted that the temperatures in Alaska have been between 10 and 20 degrees below normal at the same time ours have been between 10 and 20 degrees above normal. And last year when we had a below normal temps and record setting snow falls while they were warmer than normal. That seems to be a common pattern. I wondered if there is a similar pattern in Europe

For all the disparagement from Repthuglicans of 'Obamacare,' maybe we should look carefully at 'Repthuglicare.' Stories like this gives us a glimpse at the mire under the lofty language about 'free market solutions' and 'self sufficiency' in our modern economy and society. I linked to a story a couple of days ago where one of the victims of the Repthuglican mania for secure IDs for voting said that she felt as if they system had thrown her away by using a catch-22 that prevented her from easily obtaining the required ID. How many of us are thrown away each year because we can't get health care?

Oh, yeah--everything has been going up, Nicola and Kay. I know that you depend on Social Security as do Mom and I, Kay. But the idiots in Washington have told us for the last three years that, because inflation has been so low, our checks have not gone up. Inflation is low because our economic idiots have cooked the books to remove anything 'volatile' like food, fuel, medical care. We buy those frequently but the 'core' inflation is calculated based on the those things that aren't so volatile but which are also infrequently purchased--housing, cars, etc. They have also decided that they should take into consideration the propensity for consumers to purchase lower price substitutes (hamburger instead of steak) when faced with painful price increases. That keeps the inflation rate also but the real concern is the price increase of both the steak and the hamburger not that the consumer has shifted to hamburger because it still lower than steak. And that is masked. Most of our economic statistics have to be taken with a ton of salt because they have been so massaged as to be meaningless. They simply do not reflect anything in the real world.

Richard Cohen's op-ed for the Washington Post illustrates why I am trying to ignore the Repthuglican primaries. If I want to see clowns I will wait till the circus comes to town.

A couple of years ago the History Channel presented a series titled 'Life After People' which described how the modern world would fare without if people suddenly disappeared. On episode detailed how the pythons and boas, released by their owners into the Everglades, would, in relatively short time, become the top predators in the area. Evidently we don't have to wait till people are gone to find out if the prognostication would come true. Take a look at this piece on Grist.

I found this by way of undernews. I wonder if Jourdan Anderson, former slave, ever got an answer from his former master??

2012-01-30T14:20:00.001-06:00

Good Monday to you all wherever you are. We had sun on and off yesterday as well as a couple of brief periods of snow. We didn't get much. The predictions keep changing which isn't all that unusual. But the temperatures are highly unusual and the predictions tell us to expect high 40s--maybe even a 50F. I wouldn't mind sending you some of our warmth if I could, Nicola. I just looked up the 'la Nina' climate pattern because I thought that was supposed to be a cold and dry system. I was right on that but the articles say that 2011 was the warmest la Nina on record. Hmmm!

Obama mentioned congressional reforms in his SOTU alluding to the problems with the way filibuster has morphed into a means to prevent anything from passing in the Senate without a supermajority. However, this is another item that needs to be reformed. These despicable idiots can't get their masters' pet projects through on the merits of the project so they attach it to another bill that has more support. And then for added fluff they call it a 'jobs' bill. How about single topic bills with no riders. Keep the bills strictly highway bills (or defense bills, or whatever) not these bastard many-headed monsters.

We have been somewhat amused by the news reports over the last few days. Suddenly the media has noticed rising beef prices. We wonder what world these guys live in because we have watched the prices at the grocery go up for the last five years. It is almost as if they can't make the connection between repeated droughts in the southwest and southern plains and high beef prices. Or the connection between increasing prices for hay and feed and price. Or the interesting statistic that cattle numbers in the U.S. are the lowest since the end of WWII. Or the fact that we are exporting more beef to newly affluent countries whose new and growing middle classes want beef. Did someone hit the media masters between their eyes with two-by-fours?? And not a one has asked why, if the prices of beef (and other foods) have gone up so much (double digits) our inflation is supposed to be so low that cost of living raises have been rarer than hens' teeth??

2012-01-29T09:58:00.000-06:00

Good last Sunday in January to everyone out there. We had some nice sun yesterday and no new snow overnight. The weather people are forecasting several days in the 40s. We were deciding what to fix for suppers this week and what isn't on the list are soups and chili. Much of our winter fare just isn't appetizing. If this weather pattern continues I will put the cover on the mini-greenhouse in a couple of weeks. I spent yesterday cleaning out my file cabinets. The personal and legal papers are taken care of; now for the needlework patterns. I have an accumulation of quilting, embroidery, crochet, and cross stitch patterns gathered over 45 years. I started embroidery in my early teens and crochet in my late teens. Plus all of the miscellaneous craft patterns. I found one little booklet on soap making. I may never make my own soap but I am keeping it anyway.

I found this from karoli at Crooks&Liars. If there were more hosts like Martin Bashir I would watch the talking heads shows.

2012-01-28T13:03:00.000-06:00

Good Saturday morning, All. We had a dusting of snow overnight. Not much and nothing that requires shoveling. We may get more overnight. Temps in the 30s. But they say we may get near 50F with several 40s over the week. You almost have to look at the calendar to check that we really are in the last days of January. The weather people said on a recent segment that our temperatures have been so far above normal that they would have to be 10 degrees below normal for the rest of the winter to bring us back to average.

I am tempted to try the winter sowing technique this year, Nicola. I wouldn't have any problem getting a couple of milk jugs since we go through three gallons a week. I will read a bit more before deciding. I sympathize with the one expert they interviewed who said that he 'rescued' his plantings from the snow the first time. I am constantly looking over the plants I overwintered in the containers this year. That is a bit of an experiment because I have never kept plants outside in the patio containers. So far they are looking very good. After nurturing these plants all last summer it is hard to leave them in the cold and snow. But then I read that some seeds need exposure to cold to properly germinate. Need to re-read that, also.

CNN reported this morning that the UK police have raided the Murdoch parent company, News International, in connection with the bribery charges that helped bring down News of the World. I wondered as I read what little our news media over here wrote about this scandal how far up the corporate food chain this would go. The entire Murdoch organization appears to be corrupt from bottom to top. Unfortunately, I suspect that this is far more widespread in our predatory capitalist system. I think we need to find a way to execute corporations.

For a number of years now the Repthuglicans across the country have pressed for restrictive voting laws featuring a photo ID requirement. They have rammed these laws through inspire of widespread reporting of the hardships the laws would impose on many voters, especially the elderly, disabled, or minorities. Of course they could bleat all they wanted about voter fraud, which was never as rampant as they claimed, but the real purpose was to eliminate as many of the Democratic voters as possible. I think this article makes that plain.

Don't y'all just LOVE these fiscal conservatives?

Gaius Publius at Americablog has a good commentary on Mitch Daniels praise of Apple as a job creator should be taken with a ton of salt. I love Apple products, generally. I have always owned Apple computers and, if our current MacBooks died, would think about the iPad seriously. Not so enthusiastic about iPhones or iPods. But Apple is a profit-making company and, like others, looks for the most cost effective way to do business. I blame our government under both Repthuglicans and Damnocrats. They created incentives which allowed the off-shoring of jobs and profits.

2012-01-27T12:39:00.000-06:00

Good morning, Everyone, on this last Friday of January. My god how fast this month has gone. But then I have been saying some version of that for a long time now. We have been busily cleaning up and rearranging things. Still have a good bit more. When we do our normal round of errands on Monday we will take one pile of items to Goodwill which will clear up some space nicely. Now we have to go through the drawers and shelves and see exactly what we have in them. We needed to get those items out of the way so we could move after we rearranged the shelves and furniture. I can't really complain though since we haven't done this for several years. I am still amazed at the amount of stuff we have accumulated. Oh, Joy!! we just got sunshine. With temps around 40F some more of the snow should melt. And it doesn't look like we will get any more soon from the weather maps.

Now this is intriguing. I have seen several articles about 'winter sowing' lately. I think I will research it a bit more and maybe make a note to try it next year. Has anyone out there tried this?

2012-01-26T15:24:00.000-06:00

Good morning, All. The sun I reported yesterday morning went away by the early afternoon. It is gloomy with areas of fog this morning. The temperature is just below 40F.

I have already turned of the TV news. God what a bunch of repetitive nonsense. I find that I don't have much tolerance for it anymore. I did not want to hear about Buffet's secretary who has become the poster child for unfair taxation yet again. But I did and learned nothing more from the interview. I am sorry Demi Moore is in the hospital and I DO NOT care if it is simple stress and exhaustion or was part of an addiction gone bad. And I DON'T want to hear about it yet again--for the fourth day. And I have to wonder why the rape accusation against the son of the New York City police chief is worthy of national coverage. But then I switched over to CNN and they had (OMG) an interview with a friend of John Kennedy, Jr., wife who regretted advising her to get on the plane her husband piloted on their fatal flight. It has been how long? I turned off the set at that point.

This is the reason why I hope that the new mortgage fraud investigation unit is more than window dressing to ease through a blanket amnesty for the big banks. I hope JPMorgan's CEO has a lot to worry about.

I agree with your assessment, Kay, of Mitch Daniels. Unfortunately, the 'Ditch Mitch' campaign last go round failed and the idiot was re-elected. Thankfully, he can't run again because of term limits. But he is doing as much damage as possible. The Repthuglican controlled legislature looks poised to do a Walker on our workers. I did not listen to his rebuttal to the SOTU. But then I was so disgusted with the commentary after that we turned off the crud and went to bed. I noticed the stone faced Repthuglicans who sat on their hands for the most part and gave tepid applause to the other parts. I figure the only things that will get done will be through executive order. God, what crap. You were a better person than I was at that younger age. I slapped the little brat who tormented me--publicly. And then watched with satisfaction as our principal took him off by his ear.

An interesting juxtaposition: yesterday Ben Bernanke evidently set a 2% target for inflation and last night on the Nightly Business report they noted that the food commodities the restaurant trade depends on (meat, flour, etc.) have all risen by double digits last year. Oh, I forgot!!--foods, medical care, and fuel aren't considered in the inflation measure Bernanke was talking about. I guess the Fed Governors don't have to eat or fill their gas tanks.

I hope this (expletive, expletive) gets the full 15 years in prison. What gets me is that we have a national organization to supposedly monitor the professional behavior and qualifications of dentists but they have evidently been asleep at the switch. Dental licenses are, like medical licenses, granted through the state professional association which is affiliated with the national group. What would be so hard about keeping a record of those whose malpractice or other unprofessional behavior has led to suspension of licenses?

I remember a couple of years ago reading about the spider silk shawl which was currently making the rounds as part of a traveling exhibition. It was gorgeous. Well, the creators of the shawl have upped their game with a cape. Take a look at it here. My mind boggles at what went into its creation.

2012-01-25T15:39:00.000-06:00

Good Wednesday morning to you all. Frosty this morning. But it looks like we will have sun which always improves my mood. We didn't actually get anything done in the sewing room. We had to check out some of the light bulbs that have burned out. We need to go out to get the new bulbs and a couple of other stops we didn't get done yesterday. I think we needed a break anyway.

I have to transfer a couple of individual songs that I don't have the CD for but otherwise the loss of the files won't be any loss at all, Nicola. I have a large collection of CD (and vinyl and cassette) albums. If I really want to I to put them on my lap top I can do that at any time. I also need to scrub the hard disc. I don't keep much personal info on my computer anyway; but, better safe than sorry.

Welcome, Annie's Granny. Since I've retired my gardening and needlework have expanded to fill my time. There are plenty of worse ways to spend one's time. I am also an almost omnivorous reader, fiercely independent politically, and thoroughly skeptical about much that goes on in our financial/political system. Come on back any time and I will visit often.

Thomas Day at the Washington Post posted this opinion piece today that I think puts things in a nutshell. Unfortunately, I don't see the current situation changing any time soon. The Repthuglicans have, and have had for the last three years, only one goal and it isn't doing what is in the interests of the nation. It is, simply, to get Barak Obama out of the White House. Though racial and religious prejudice plays a large part, most of those idiots are simply pandering to the extremes hoping someone they approve of will ride the wave into the Presidency. In other words, they are cynical, hypocritical a$$holes. I suspect that underneath it all is simply a lust for power and they will do anything, say anything to get it. Sadly, those who want power so badly can rarely be trusted with it. I don't think any of those I have seen so far will be the exception to that observation.

Susie Madrak posted this at Crooks & Liars which I think is a good rebuttal to that quote President Obama used from Abe Lincoln. I asked last night how much most of us can really do for ourselves in the modern economy where a large number of working people are turning to food pantries and food stamps because the earn so little they can't keep food on the table. Medicare would be wonderful but the co-pay could bankrupt most recipients. Think about it: if you are hospitalized and the bill is $10k you have to come up with $2K. If the bill is $100k--you owe $20k. Tell me, how many do you think can come up with either without seriously discombobulating your budget. As I said: how much of what is necessary to modern life can ordinary people afford?

I cheered, at least for a minute, when Obama announced (as part of his SOTU speech) last night that he was going to instruct the Attorney General to form a fraud task force to look into mortgage initiation fraud. However, as quickly as I cheered, I had some second thoughts. The current efforts of the Administration has appeared to run to finding some way to erase the fraud the big banks (and the ones they absorbed) and leave them with the right to foreclose on properties involved in those fraudulent operations. Yves Smith appears to think that is a real possibility. One of the main reasons why the foreclosure wave has slowed down is that more and more courts and AGs are holding the banks to the law. And they don't much like it.

2012-01-24T15:43:00.000-06:00

Good morning to you all. We need to do our grocery shopping today. That is usually a Monday chore but yesterday was wet with falling temperatures and a possibility of snow. We did get snow but it wasn't much and didn't stick. But I will spend most of my time today reading my blogs/news and continuing the sewing room clean up. We got most things put back on shelves and drawers after rearranging things. Now we have to do the final clean-up, sorting, and repositioning. That will probably take several days.

And, now that I have most of the seeds I want to plant, I have to set up my planting schedule. I agree, Nicola. The bachelor buttons should show nicely in the gardens. I haven't grown them before. This is going to be an interesting year with pyrethrum mums, bachelor buttons, and tansy as the new flowers joining the mums, roses, impatiens, and poppies. So far the mums and roses look like they will survive outside in the large containers. We have the old TV and my old iMac to take to the city recycling center. I had kept the computer because I had all my music downloaded on it but I have not turned it on for the last year. My rule of thumb--if you haven't used or wore it for a year seriously consider finding a new home for it.

Sounds like you are getting some extensive spring cleaning done, Kay. Hope Miss Ruby stays clear but we still have another month-and-a-half to two months of winter. We also benefited from the thaw because our car also thawed out. Take things a bit easy on the cleaning. We worked for about two hours then played for a while and then did another couple of hours work. We just get too tired and cranky if we push it too much.

I will watch the State of the Union speech this evening. I have read some speculations about what will be in it and a couple of those speculations are--disconcerting. I want to find out if they are accurate. Tell you my impressions tomorrow.

The Irish reporter in this video is a man whose hand I would like to shake. He asked the European Central Bank idiot a simple question, after the man waxed poetic about the wonderful understanding the Irish people (even taxi drivers) had of the intricate and complicated problems of the European banking system and the need for bailouts. Why, he asked, should the Irish people should protect the unsecured bondholders of a defunct Irish bank. They tried very hard to get Vincent Browne to ask two questions of which, of course, they could choose to answer the least significant of them. When he refused, the idiot gave some claptrap about confidence in the European banking system and other meaningless evasions. On which Browne quickly called him. To my mind, forcing the Irish (or any other public) to make good on the losses of unsecured bond holders is rather like forcing the people of Las Vegas to make good the gambling loss of the losing patrons at Wynn's casinos. Another example of how certain privileged industries have managed to privatize profits while socializing risks.

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism linked to this post by emptywheel that discusses an Administration tactic used to get reluctant politicians to go along with questionable proposals. The first was the bribe of $45 million in expanded Medicaid funding for Kansas if Kansas Senator Nelson (who isn't running for reelection but might have lost if he did) voted for Health Insurance Reform. The second was the proposal that California homeowners be given $10 billion in foreclosure aid if California's Attorney General Kamala Harris would withdraw her objections and agree to a settlement of the banking scandal the Administration wants. Isn't government by extortion and bribery wonderful. And all taxpayers are contributing to the what has become a monstrous slush fund (a.k.a., U.S. Treasury).

Chris In Paris notes the report on the examination of U.K. police logs concerning Rupert Murdoch's hacking scandal. Surprise, Surprise! The dear boy's reporters lied to the police. I am so shocked. I wonder if they will be charged with crimes?? Perjury and obstruction of justice come to mind. Will Rupert protect them or hang them out to dry??

2012-01-23T15:16:00.000-06:00

Good Monday morning to you all out there. The temperature rose to the mid 40s overnight but should fall back through the day. We also had thundershowers during the night. Thankfully, nothing like rolled through the southeast. The weather people predict light show in the afternoon but no real accumulation. Needless to say, this is very unusual for January and 2012 appears to be continuing the pattern of violent and unusual weather set in 2011.

Oh, yeah, it was a busy weekend, Nicola. Now we have the sorting, rearranging, and labeling everything in that storage/sewing room. We are going through another spate of deciding what we really don't need any more and finding a new home for it if we don't. It feels a bit like peeling an onion--one layer after another. We started putting the sewing/storage room together and found room for some of the seasonal or occasionally used kitchen appliances. I am sure you all know where that is going. After finishing with our current task we will have to rearrange the kitchen. Some might consider this just spring cleaning. For us 'spring' cleaning happens when we have a significant rearrangement of the furnishings. Oh well, the garbage men will hate us for the next couple of weeks and the Goodwill people will love us. We have sizable piles fore each.

But a bit of good news--the last of the seed orders I placed last week came in today. And I got three free packs of seeds with it--bachelor buttons, love-in-a-mist, a purple radish. I got some love-in-a-mist last year that didn't do well. I have to review what I did and make changes. Hopefully, it will do nicely this year.

2012-01-22T12:07:00.001-06:00

Good morning to Everyone out there. If the weather people are right we should see a good bit of our snow melt away today. The predicted temperature in the low 40s with rain should make sure of that. Temperatures over the week will hang just about the freezing point.

I am ignoring the primaries as much as possible. I don't see any real choice for me in these candidates. Besides, as an independent I can't vote unless I register as a party member and then only to choose between the candidates in that party. I find it hard to choose the lesser of the evils when there are hardly any good points on any of their platforms. Mitt Romney--well, if a man wants the presidency so badly he will repudiate all of his previous actions in the political arena and espouse the most right wing fringe ideas I have no use for him and he should not be elected. Newt Gingrich--do we really want a serial hypocrite? I think it is incredibly cynical of him to insist that his marital infidelity should remain private when he led the charge to impeach a President for the same. And remember the standard for impeachment is 'high crimes and misdemeanors.' It doesn't really matter that the impeachment failed. It does matter that he supported impeachment for actions he has engaged in himself. Rick Santorum--I really don't care to have his religiosity influence the laws that govern me. I don't mind if these sanctimonious (choose your preferred descriptor--I've used my favorites way too much) hold to their chosen religious dictates but I deeply resent them imposing them on me. I am not a member of their churches. Ron Paul--I can respect the man for hewing to his principles. They just aren't mine. I don't mind the notion of self-reliance, in moderation. But I do resent the notion of 'you're on your own' in a society where we really have to depend on the good behavior and benevolence of others, corporate and individual. Right now we can't expect either.

We are busily cleaning and rearranging things here. Getting that new TV and stand means we have to find a new place for the old stand/entertainment center. It is too nice a storage area to get rid of and it would be in our way until one of the family decided to come and get it--if any of them would want it at all. And unless we are giving away something they really want and have a tight time frame, they might take weeks (or more) to pick up the item. We found a place for the old cabinet but to fit it in we had to completely re-arrange our sewing/storage room. That is exhausting since it involved moving five of six file cabinets, a heavy desk, and two 8ft bookcases. After that we have to go through everything and rearrange what we keep so we know what we have. That is going to take a while.

2012-01-21T10:44:00.001-06:00

Good Saturday to all of you out there. Well, most of the snow has passed. We ended up with somewhere between 7 and 9 inches. They say we should get some sun before a new system comes in--but that one should bring rain. In other words, we can expect a slushy mess starting tomorrow. Till then--cold.

Baker Creek has been very good, Nicola. This is the second year I have ordered from them. Everything has performed pretty much as described. We did get a couple of items that we won't grow again. We didn't really like the flavor of the little melon we tried last year but it grew well and produced well for anyone who might like it. The Vietnamese pepper was really beautiful and prolific but it was a bit too hot for our needs. But the little Dragon's Egg cucumber was marvelous and the Black Peony poppy (which would have done better if the gardener had been more experienced) was really pretty. You are right on the time difference--6 hours between Chicago and London.

Chris Martenson posted this interesting article on an experiment I have read about off and on for a while now. I have seen a lot about the local food movement but this one focuses on 'locally sourced' clothing.

Didn't see much worth commenting on and I have some housekeeping to do so I will stop now.

2012-01-20T16:30:00.001-06:00

Good morning, Everyone. We expect snow today and it is very cold. Only 15F on the patio and half that according to the morning news out of Chicago. How much snow? They have no idea. Their models are all over the place--anything from 2 to 9 inches.

I saw a bit of Morgan's testimony on CNN, I think. He came off very badly. I don't watch any of the talking head shows. I find they are, as a rule, loud, rude, and very biased while shedding very little light on the issues. I haven't watched any of Piers Morgan. I am not surprised that, so far, the Murdocks have been treated lightly--money buys you a lot of gentle consideration--and would not be surprised if they got off with a slap on the wrist. The story has disappeared almost entirely from our news. I hope, Nicola, that somehow our political and legal critters finally come back to the notion that criminal actions should receive the appropriate criminal penalties. But I am not holding my breath.

Well, this has certainly come full circle. For decades manufacturers have moved jobs out of the U.S. to foreign parts where they could get workers at slave labor rates and our politicians have castigated us because we weren't willing to take any back-breaking, lousy paying, no benefits jobs just to starve a bit slower. Now Canadian workers are being threatened with the loss of their jobs which the company wants to move--to Muncie, Indiana where we desperate Americans are willing to work for lousy pay and no benefits.

What a day!!! Our TV went out--right in the middle of a DVD. It was getting power but it wouldn't navigate between the cable and the blue ray player. It wasn't a total surprise; we just didn't expect it so suddenly. So we made a quick trip to Best Buy and found a very nice one. Brought it home along with a new entertainment center. We had to put that together which took a couple of hours. Actually it wasn't actually hard but neither of us are limber or as strong as we once were so we are now aching and exhausted. It looks good and we finally figured out the TV. I really hate getting new electronics. Figuring them out is always a pain. Something really strange though--we couldn't get the TV to function at all when the blue ray was plugged into the new surge protector with the cable box and TV. Once we moved it into an older surge protector everything starting working. I know several bloggers who don't use TV or cable but we can go that route only if we have no alternative.

On a good note: the first of my seeds have arrived. Baker Creek really processed and mailed the order fast. I only placed it Tuesday.

2012-01-19T13:35:00.000-06:00

Good morning to you all. We had a bit of snow overnight with more to come today and tomorrow. Between 5 and 6 inches here unless the forecast changes. And the temperatures are dropping from the high 20s to the mid teens over the course of today. Well we still have a month-and-a-half of winter. And I am grateful that the season has been mild to date.

I have already turned off the broadcast TV news. They are spending way too much time on the dramatics of the nomination battle and too little on the substance--as though any of those clowns have much in the way of substance. Huntsman was the only really serious candidate and he has dropped out. I was nearly sick when the, again, noted that Palin has endorsed Gingrich and Newt answered that there would be a place in a Gingrich administration for her. That alone is reason enough to pray he doesn't get the nomination and isn't elected if he does. Under the circumstances, I don't know whether to cheer this news, if true, or be more concerned. If Perry drops out of the race that means one less clown in the parade. Unfortunately, his supporters would gravitate toward either Santorum or Gingrich, which is scary.

On a much brighter note--we used white vinegar for the laundry experiment, Nicola. We keep a couple of gallons on hand because, a couple or three times a week, I boil our tap water to filter for making coffee and tea, and the vinegar takes the crusted calcium deposits out of the pot very nicely. I use elbow grease when necessary but only when I can't find an easier way to accomplish my task. We find that we have gone back to a lot of old (sometimes very old) processes over time. Vinegar is a lot less toxic and equally, if not more, effective than many of the modern 'conveniences.'

Well, I would say that this is a good start but I would still like to see criminal charges. And I think it was too hypocritical of Murdock to be supporting SOPA and PIPA while illegally tapping into phones and e-mail.

The Washington Post published this article summarizing the SOPA and PIPA debate. I have a couple of questions about this issue. First, the measures won't even effectively address the core problem the sponsors originally wanted to attack--foreign sources of pirated movies and music. They already have legal remedies for home-grown pirates. Please tell me how this would have gone after pirates located outside the U.S. Second--Senator Leahy says he wanted to provide legal protections for 'third party' entities from legal penalties for complying with court orders. Question--don't they already have that? One has to comply with court orders. Question--could people like me have their sites shut down for linking, as I have this morning, to articles, etc. I put in the links to credit the sources for the ideas and facts, and because I think anyone who reads my comments should have the opportunity to judge for themselves whether I have dealt fairly with my sources. If I were writing an academic piece it would be called 'footnoting.' I can agree that piracy, whether of digital content or counterfeit physical goods, is a costly problem but surely there are more effective and less intrusive way to combat it.

2012-01-18T12:39:00.000-06:00

Good frigid Wednesday morning to you all. The temperature on our patio is only 15F--or was when I checked it about two hours ago. I have a very unhappy cat. Kuma simply doesn't understand why I won't open the door. And he doesn't understand why I allowed all that cold, wet, white stuff fall all over HIS hunting ground.

I agree, Nicola. I also love the name given to some of plants. All of the ones I ordered yesterday are heirloom varieties. You might find a source for such seeds over there. I don't know if my sources could ship to the UK. But Baker Creek is noted for collecting seeds from all over the world. Last year I planted a Vietnamese Multi-color pepper, two French lettuces, and a variety of cucumber they found in Croatia. The pepper was spectacular but it is more decorative, in my opinion, than useful. I have always had a difficult time with lettuce but I will try again with a different planting plan. The cucumber was very successful. Mom usually doesn't like cucumbers but she loved these--sweet and thin skinned. I sliced, spiced and froze several some of which went really well in potato salad and in lettuce salads. The 'vine peach' is actually a little melon (sometimes listed as 'mango melon) and was originally cultivated by native Americans. The nice thing about heirloom, open pollinated varieties--if we really like them I can save the seeds at the end of the season for next year. I am not as dedicated to heirlooms as some others. The Burpee varieties I plan to get are all hybrids. I do draw a line--I don't want anything to do with GMO plants but. so far, those are largely cash crop plants. I grew a yellow cherry from transplant last year and we loved it. I planned to grow the Burpee Supersweet 100 but ordered the chocolate cherry on an impulse. I still plan to buy the seeds for the Supersweet and decide later which I will grow. I keep my extra seeds in baggies in the refrigerator so they last 5+ years. My Big Rainbow and Brandywine seeds are going on their fourth year.

Yesterday was laundry day and, Lois, as I promised here is a report on the effect of the vinegar. Mom soaked our dish cloths in vinegar and wrung them out before putting one in the dryer with each load. Compared with clothes and linens dried with dryer sheets yesterday's laundry actually actually came out either as soft or a bit softer. Enough to decide us to drop the sheets and go with vinegar. Added benefit--we are no longer exposed to the volatile chemicals in the dryer sheets (which are also present in the liquid softeners.) Mom thought we could use the sheets we had left as sachets in our drawers but when she opened one labeled as lavender scented there wasn't any scent at all. She threw the sheets away and I promised her sprigs from my lavender plants this summer.

We just had a good laugh. Mom is on her computer looking up some new recipes because she has some chicken soup to make up. She found one that sounded good: Chicken Soup with herb dumplings. Problem: it is vegetarian and contains no chicken. She is continuing her search.

2012-01-17T13:47:00.000-06:00

Good morning, everyone. We have rain that should change to snow shortly. A lot of the snow we got at the end of last week is gone--except for the small mountains where the snow plows piled what they scooped up. As came down the stairs this morning and looked out the window in the front door I thought it was either getting foggy or we had a very dirty window. Well looking out now we can hardly see across the street. The fog has really rolled in. And the temperature has risen to 40F.

Hi, Nicola. Thanks. Update on the weather--we have a fine snow blowing around outside. Mom said the thermometer on the patio was reading just at 32F so the temperature had dropped 8 degrees in just over an hour. We aren't expecting more than an inch or two but the news is saying the East Coast might just get slammed.

I am already disgusted with the morning broadcast news. It has shifted to the fluff all too quickly. So I put on Pandora and am perusing the internet for interesting items. So far nothing much. I will see what happens as I go along.

This BBC report echoes several stories I have read over the last few days It triggered a memory of a story I saw on one or another news program (on NHK World I think about a month ago). The slant of that story was somewhat different and concerned efforts to both make antibiotic treatment more affordable (sometimes free) for India's slum dwellers at the same time making it easier for the patients to stay on the long term treatment. It takes six to nine month of continuous antibiotic treatment to effectively treat TB. Like many American, Indians often stop taking the drugs when they start feeling better. One of the reports covered what I think is a minor controversy: whether the cases represent a truly totally-drug resistant form of TB or is merely another extremely-drug resistant strain. A distinction with no true difference, I think. But evidently there is some good news on this front: according to WHO the numbers of cases declined last year for the first time since the organization started keeping records.

I just took a break and placed 3 of my seed orders. Sounds like a lot but involved only 3 packets from each. I am leaving the Burpee order for later in the month when Menards should have their extensive Burpee display up. I remember they carried a couple of the seeds I wanted and may have others. I will still have plenty of time even if they don't to order directly. So what did I get? Here is the list--

Schumway--tansy, pyrethrum, and chocolate cherry tomatoes
Jung--Butterbush squash, cabbage babies (small versions of red and green cabbage), vine peach
Baker Creek--lipstick sweet pepper, albino bullnose sweet pepper, lemon squash

Should be an interesting year in the garden--but then aren't they all.

To continue with something far more dismal, Joshua Brown at Reformed Broker posted this bit that should scare the pants off anyone who has a JP Morgan Chase credit card. And I would extend the caution and skepticism to any of the other too-big-to-fail banks. If JPM was carrying the robo-signing fraud over to credit cards you can bet their competition did so also--to some extent.

I follow a few bloggers who tat. Every now and then I find something unusual as here at Suztats. I keep telling my self that one of these days I will get out my needles and get serious about tatting. Sigh--something always seems to draw me away.

2012-01-16T09:48:00.000-06:00

Hello, All. Didn't see much yesterday worth a comment or even worth a read. I spent a couple of hours on that cross stitch tablecloth that has languishing by my chair for months. Glory be, I am almost three quarters done. I need to clean up upstairs so I can find the crochet edging patterns and select one for the finish. Other than that--not much going on here.

I love this bit from Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism--

I once saw an exhibition on Indian art that featured crows, and the display included a considerable discussion of corvid intelligence. One scientist was quoted saying something like, “The stories you hear about the intelligence of most animals are exaggerated, but with corvids, they are understated.” The only anecdote I recall was a man was trying to frustrate a crow by giving him more than he could carry away (there was a reason I now forget why it was clear the crow would take any food and go). He tossed two doughnuts at him. The crow immediately stuck his beak through the hole in one, grabbed the other, and took off.

Maha has an interesting take on the Obama Presidency. Thought provoking and I am going to have to digest the notion a bit. I am reminded of a change in assessment of a previous President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. During and Immediately after his term, many thought him timid and ineffective on many counts. A generation later newer historians suddenly discovered a different Eisenhower--cunning, effective in achieving his goals, and restrained rather than timid. I have not been a great fan of Obama. He is far too restrained for my tastes but then perhaps he has been more effective than I have recognized. Further cogitation required.

Nor am I a great fan of Fareed Zakaria but he also, every now and then, says something that rings a bell in my mind. He does that with this post on the possibilities that oil prices will decline soon because the demand for oil is in relatively low and not likely to pick up soon. I have read only a couple of other posts (and those were some time ago) that talked about the price levels oil producing countries needed in order to meet their governmental budgets. This Reuters report lends credence to Zakaria's point.

2012-01-15T13:06:00.000-06:00

Good morning to you all. Still dark here at about 6:30 though that won't be when this is actually published. It takes me most of the morning to go through my e-mail, news sites, google alerts, and blog roll. Let's see what I find today.

MSNBC reports this morning that the State of New York is partnering with a Malaysian company to build a resort casino/convention center on the outskirts of New York City. New York's plans are, evidently, a response to recently passed legislation passed in Massachusetts which would allow as many as three casinos to be built. I have watched similar measures working through the Illinois legislature. Chicago badly wants its own casino to alleviate severe budgetary problems. I view these efforts with a skeptical and, some might say, cynical eye. The article mentions that the casinos may not generate as much revenue as the politicians hope as gamblers shift their expenditures from other consumption and the associated taxes drop. I am also not a great fan of the state profiting off of vice. Over the last several years we have watched the so-called 'sin taxes' go up as cities and states struggled to rake in more revenue. And with each increase in the tax the revenue from tobacco and alcohol actually declined. I remember reading a history on late Czarist Russia which described the social and economic problems stemming from rampant alcoholism. But the government wouldn't seriously address the problem because vodka taxes provided a very large part of the government's income. Evidently the fiscal needs of the state trump the good of its people.

Good to see you are back on, Lois. I agree with you about Mittens and the rest of the Repthuglican pack. They are all bad news. We have become a big dysfunctional family. I noticed that the McConnell et at. are making nice noises over Obama's proposal they give him the power to consolidate departments and get rid of the Commerce Dept. Let's see how long it lasts.

2012-01-14T14:30:00.000-06:00

Good morning on this cold Saturday when January has finally made an appearance. We got about five inches of snow yesterday. Thankfully, our landlord hires a lawn care company to remove the snow outside our patio fence so all we have to worry about is the path from the back door to the gate and to the shed. I was able to shovel that without any trouble at all. The lake effect snow stayed east and north of us. The news said that some of those areas got a foot or more.

With the economic melt down and the presidential election year we have heard a lot about 'reforming' entitlements and reducing government expenditures but we haven't heard much about other kinds of social programs built into our tax code that benefits mainly the well-heeled. Huffington Post provides a bit of information on that issue. The most interesting line in the article links the 'tax expenditures' to the recurring bubbles that have burst over the last ten years.

Casey Daily Dispatch posted this interesting article this morning. I might be able to pooh-pooh the conclusions except for several thoughts. Bush put all of the expenses for fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq off the books. The public never knew how much the wars cost or how they would be paid for or what we couldn't afford because we had to pay for the wars. Since Obama entered the White House our political class has been negotiating with the military over how much of a 'cut' the Pentagon would accept. There was no discussion of what we could afford or how effective our military has been given how much we are spending. Also all these negotiations are reported in a kind of double speak. The 'cuts' are touted as though they would reduce the current level of spending but in fact are never scheduled to take effect for a year or more down the road and they only reduce the rate of 'increase.' So in the end the military budget is going to go up just not as much as originally planned. And, lastly, we have seen the 'militarization' of all law enforcement at every level over the last 10 years as well as the creation of several new para-military agencies. I would say the author is right on and the military 'tail' is definitely beginning to wag the political/economic dog. I would love to know if there are any historical examples where the political/economic power ever were able to reign in the military without a major collapse a la Rome or Nazi Germany.

The Daily Mail had this story today which hasn't appeared on our local news radar--at least not yet. Although companies have not yet been declared persons by the U.S. Supreme Court (for any purpose), the problems dealing with them are are not very different. Here the company failed to comply with a court order but the 84-year-old owner of that company and its president are both trying to wriggle out of personal responsibility for that failure. The judge rejected that and has ordered both jailed until the company has completed the bridge project that is the focus of the court order which may take a year. The problem here is one of dispersed or diffused responsibility. Who do you hold responsible? This is a bridge but what about environmental pollution or other more dangerous possibilities? I liked one blogger's quip on corporate persons: he would believe in corporate personhood when Texas executed one. This case should be easier--after all, this is a company owned by a specific individual and managed by someone he hired. It isn't a corporation owned by a whole lot of stock holders whose ownership and responsibility extends no further than the number of shares of stock. What if the entity involved had been a corporation with 100k stockholders?? Who would go to jail?

Myrddin posted this item on Americablog that led to some deja vu feelings on my part. Most weekday evenings here we watch NHK English language news from Japan and a frequent story has featured the negotiations between the U.S. and Japanese governments concerning moving our Futema base on Okinawa. Okinawans don't want it whether at Futema or elsewhere. But here we see very little of the controversy. We agree completely with Myrddin that our news media us a great disservice by making assumptions and then presenting them as fact. We wonder if the European political leaders really want the U.S. military there, or if they merely want the funds those bases bring in. And do European civilians want us at all? Or are they as disconnected from their people as the Japanese government appears to be on this issue?

2012-01-13T15:05:00.000-06:00

Good morning, Everyone. Well, we finally got our first significant snow of the season. And it brings much lower temperatures with it. I wish I had the power to put the snow where I would like it, Nicola. Unfortunately, something or someone (take your pick and name your poison) has considerably more power than I do. But we were just remarking yesterday, in the wake of the tornadoes in South Carolina, the winter heatwave in California and flooding in Houston, that we don't seem to have our seasons any more. Tornadoes no longer appear in the spring. Fire season extends throughout the year. But to finally get something seasonal makes me feel better and we don't have to go anywhere for the next four days. During the winter we make sure that we have at least a week's worth of food and necessaries plus a few days. And substitutes in case the perishables do run out.

The teaser headline on this article ("Winking denial?") seems to reflect a consensus among the news media and bloggers. I couldn't give you a statistical tally but I get the strong impression that the denials expressed by Secretary of State Clinton have been taken with something more than a pinch of salt. And the facetious quote from the Israeli general that there seems to have been a rash of suicides among the Iranian nuclear scientists adds to the skeptical reception the denials have received.

Our morning news had a segment on this study this morning. At least the BBC account more accurately notes that the risk they found involved 'processed' meats. Our news reader finally mentioned that as a throw-away comment while the trailer on screen harped on the risk from sausage and bacon. However, the two accounts had one interesting difference: our local news expert (an M.D.) put the chances into more understandable form. The BBC report talked about a huge percentage increase in possible incidences of pancreatic cancer with increased consumption. Sounds horrible to talk about a 30% increase (or something like that). The local expert said that the actual potential for any individual is about 1.5% which rises to (wait for it!!!)---1.7%. We found that rather amusing because we only eat bacon or sausage (maybe) 3 or 4 times a month and we either make our own sausage from home ground pork or we buy it from our local meat market which seasons its own onsite ground pork. Either way--no nitrites. And our bacon is a brand that smokes it without nitrites. Either way we don't care to forego the pleasure of bacon or sausage to remove such a small possibility of pancreatic cancer.

This Red Tape article amused me a bit this morning. I love how the results skewered the agist prejudices so thoroughly. So grandma and grandpa puttering around the internet aren't the most likely marks for internet scammers. One factor that no one mentioned in the equation determining who might fall victim to the various scams is experience, unless skepticism is related to experience. All of the scams I have read about are simply the internet versions of old scams that ran through the phone lines or the mails not long ago. Thanks to the internet these vermin can reach more people in a shorter time but that is the only difference. Older people have probably already fallen for the get rich quick schemes, the fake charities, the worthless free gifts to get the 'fantastic' offer and have learned skepticism from the experience.

Gardening has been a growing trend for the last several years--since the financial melt down. It in't often that a financial page takes note given our highly urbanized society. Marketwatch has today taken note. I checked out Gardener's Supply, the site featured in the story, and they have a lot of interesting items.

A year ago the financial pundits were eagerly awaiting the '50 States Attorneys General' agreement to settle the robo-signing scandal. Then the New York Attorney General Schneiderman balked because the agreement would grant a very large blanket immunity to the financial institutions and short-circuit any state fraud investigations/prosecutions. Gradually he was joined by a handful of other AGs and now evidently 14 of them are meeting to discuss how to handle investigations and possible prosecutions. This little item from firedoglake provides the story and some of the background. And Yves Smith, who has covered this story at Naked Capitalism since it began, has this take here. My own take on this mess: fraud is fraud and is a crime. To give the fraudsters a pass because they claim they are too big and systemically valuable to be forced to obey the law or to penalize for their crimes is simply to abandon any idea of a legal/justice system.

2012-01-12T14:46:00.000-06:00

Good morning on this cloudy Thursday. We had some nice sun yesterday and the temperature may have hit 50F. We won't see that for a while. The news and weather people were mourning the passing of the unseasonal warmth and the 'cold' weather coming. The temperatures they were dreading are actually normal for this time of the year. Just in case, I got into the shed and pulled out our sidewalk salt and the snow shovel. I use 'salt' as a generic term--we get the environmentally friendly kind that won't harm plants, etc. We may get 3 to 5 inches of snow from the coming storm but just east of us they have predicted a major lake effect snowfall. We are close enough to get involved in that. Hope not.

I reviewed some of the preloaded web sites after Nicola suggested I explore BBC and find out whether I could receive the BBC radio. Well, I found that I can and I also found that the site had been preloaded along with a number of others. As happens too often, I simply got into a rut and clicked on my usual sites without thinking. I will have to explore the BBC and other sites more thoroughly.

Almost every news outlet has been carrying stories trying to dissect the assassination of that Iranian nuclear scientist. The BBC radio discussion I tapped into earlier had it as did the CNN interview of a Washington politician (sorry, I didn't get the guy's name), and this article on the CNN site. We were annoyed with the CNN reporter when she asked her target if the U.S. had any culpability in the murder. If the man had any real authority in the State Department he wouldn't answer the question and if he answered the question we can be sure he didn't have any real information. And the question of whether the U.S. had anything to do with the crime (and it was a crime) is all that important. The BBC piece noted that whatever the actual facts of the situation the episode has further complicated U.S.-Iranian relations which were already mightily complicated and tense. What matters is perception. Right now the Iranian government is spinning the story as one of U.S.-Israeli attempts to undermine Iran's nuclear program. If you think perception doesn't matter just remember the Bush Administration's weapons of mass destruction that provided the justification for our 'adventure' in Iraq. They didn't exist but that only matters after the fact--to the historians.

Sorry you had trouble with blogger through your server, Lois. I will be sure to post on the vinegar experiment. Hope you get the server problems straightened out--again.

Charles Hugh Smith has a good article posted at oftwominds this morning. We don't often think about medical care and the consequences of our modern techniques. Our society is fixated on 'more life at all costs' not on quality of life while receiving treatment. It is amazing to me that effective treatments for various conditions while providing a good quality of life are to expensive for most people without insurance at the same time that we push treatments for other conditions that only extend life weeks or months (at best) but destroying any adequate quality of that life. Karoli at Crooks & Liars describes exactly the problem I am talking about. How many of us can afford to pay $6-700 per month on medications, even effective medications? I agree with Smith--we don't have 'sick care' not health care.

2012-01-11T13:41:00.001-06:00

Good morning to you all.

I found the BBC site, Nicola. Will have to explore it more but I think it may play. I have bookmarked it. I am getting quite a collection of foreign news sites. I will go back to it later after we get back from taking the car in for a repair.

I wonder if the European politicians advocating 'austerity' thought about this possibility.

I have been following this kind of story for several years now. About 25 years ago a history professor who specialized in western water law told me that the Colorado River no longer reached the Gulf of California. At that same time I was reading a memoir of a cavalry wife, Vanished Arizona, in which she described traveling to her husband's new post by way of paddle wheelers on the Colorado. In the space of 100 years we had so confined, dammed, and diverted the water that her journey in the 1880s would have been impossible in the 1980s.

This piece led to a quick internet search and some discussion. We have used dryer sheets forever and never really thought much about what they used in them. Lately we have become very disenchanted because they don't seem to work. Now we have another reason to be dissatisfied--the chemicals. And we found that none of the ingredients are listed on either of the two brands of dryer sheets we have in our laundry space. I had thought that maybe we should use white vinegar in the rinse cycle. But mom is going to try soaking a cloth in vinegar and putting it in with the dryer load. If that doesn't work we will try the rinse cycle addition. We wish we could hang out the clothes in good weather but we don't have any room to do that.

2012-01-10T14:55:00.000-06:00

Good morning, Everyone. Sunny this morning and the weather people say the temps will get to about 50F. Reality is supposed to set in Thursday and Friday when the temps will be more normal with the possibility of snow. The local news presented its usual gardening feature and evidently their experts have been getting questions about tulips and other early flowers emerging. A lot of plants are confused.

We have had some few stories over here about Murdoch, Nicola. Usually, the stories hit the news when one of our celebrities have been involved. A couple of stories popped up when the Senate, I think it was, threatened to hold hearings and when one or another of our criminal investigative organizations or financial regulators made noises about investigating. I haven't heard much about the investigations in the UK but I am not surprised by that. I find I get more information from the internet than from our mainstream media. Unless there is some drama (like the pie in the face episode) stories never get past the filter that considers endless stories about Beyonce's baby more news worthy. I expect the mess will go on for a long time. We never seem to get resolutions on these corruption cases for years and then the punishments are mere slaps on the wrist without any admission of guilt. I wonder how high up in the British and American governments the slime goes. I haven't heard anything about the efforts some on the boards of Murdoch's companies to get father and son out. I hadn't heard of Sky News. I found it on line but its video doesn't work with my computer and my cable carrier doesn't offer it. From what little I have seen the Murdochs appear to have taken arrogance and sleaze to all new artistic levels.

And I am not surprised about the concerns, Lois, over what a reduced military might mean. Although I am reserving judgement about exactly how 'reduced' it will be. All of the hoopla over the automatic cuts that were supposed to go into effect made it sound as though those would be actual cuts in the amount of money the Pentagon would get now. However, the cuts involved future increases in the budgets not anything immediate. And a good many of our legislative critters, of both parties and both houses, are furiously trying to figure a way around the mandated cuts. What I don't see in any of the debates is any consideration of just how effective our trillion-dollar-a-year military is just how effective it has been of the last 60 years. And by what criteria do we judge effectiveness. Unfortunately, I think Catwoman's assessment of the rent-a-cops in Batman Returns is right on here: too many of our politicians "confuse their pistols (the military) with their privates'. Unfortunately, I think the military towns (here and abroad) are going to face the same problems that many other towns that depend on only a few employers will face if (when?) that employer leaves. Take a look at Detroit. Or at some of the towns affected by the last big round of base closings under Reagan. And, also unfortunately, the means by which our political leaders made those cuts (a dedicated commission whose recommendations had to be voted on in and up-or-down process without amendment) probably won'd work this time. Look at the results from the deficit commission and the so-called Supercommittee.

The evening news yesterday carried a similar story to this one. It was only a mention and one story noted that the figures included the debts owed by one government department to another (read the treasury bonds held by Social Security as an example.) What I find interesting in all of these economic stories is how nicely the numbers can be trimmed to get the results desired for whatever purpose. If you eliminate the debts owed between government agencies suddenly the debt is 70% of GDP. But honestly, debt is debt.

The teaser headline on this article was 'Be it ever so humble,' but there is nothing humble about the homes of the main GOP contenders. And these boys are trying to convince us that they are 'regular' guys who really understand the problems the rest of us face.

A couple of days ago I linked to the Self Sufficient Gardener noting that I liked his writing but disagreed with his point. Evidently, that post was somewhat tongue in cheek. That went totally over my head. His newest post indicates a far more adventurous spirit. And I had to look up 'naranjilla' because I had never heard of it.

2012-01-09T15:11:00.000-06:00

Good morning, Everyone. Still dark here but it looks like the day will be sunny. We are still in a warm pattern until later in the week when colder weather is supposed to come in. That colder weather is, for the most part, predicted to be normal for this time of the year. I hadn't heard about using bubble wrap for plants, Nicola. It sounds interesting. This is the first year I have tried to overwinter hardy plants in the containers. So far they are all looking good. I dug out a couple of bricks of cedar shavings Mom had picked up for a project long done and put the shavings around most of the plants. I also plant to have some late, cold season plants this year and will use my plastic tents to extend the season on them next fall. The nice thing about my very small space is that, if something fails, I can quickly replace it and try something new. I have several new items (new for me) on my list. I pulled out my shopping list and will be ordering the seeds I need later this week.

I saw this posted on Natural News as well as here. I agree the defense Pepsi has put up is a bit insane. They don't deny the possibility of a customer finding something disgusting in a can of Mountain Dew because their manufacturing process is so tight foreign substances couldn't find their way in. They deny the possibility because if it had the acid in the product would have completely dissolved it before the customer could possibly have consumed it. For my part, I never liked Mountain Dew anyway--I found the taste disgusting and I assume there wasn't anything in it that shouldn't have been there.

Undernews had this entry today which echoes a thought I had this morning listening to the news. Extending the school day by 90 minutes has been a major priority of the Emanuel administration in Chicago ever since he became Mayor. They bribed a number of schools and teachers last fall to get on the bandwagon while the Union raised a number of very serious objections to the plan including the fact that the teachers would not get additional pay for the extra time and there was no real plan on how that tim should be used. I have another objection: the emphasis the current Chicago Public Schools CEO placed on preparing students for college. So they extend the school day and emphasize the skills the students need for college so those students can spend four years getting a degree only to work as waiters, waitresses, and sales clerks. That is a royal waste.

2012-01-08T11:47:00.000-06:00

Good Sunday morning to you all. Right now it looks like clear skies today so we should get some nice sun today. The overnight lows are about where the daytime highs should be and the high--expected to be in the low 40s. I have read a number of gardeners' blogs, Nicola, and they all say what you did--their plants are thoroughly confused. What I really worry about is a sudden cold snap that would damage or kill the plants. Everything I still have in the containers are very hardy but even the most hardy plant can't take sudden extremes. I am debating putting up my plastic tents early. However, the lowest temps predicted for the next week should be about normal--high 20s.

I hear you all (Kay, Lois and Nicola). Computers have made some aspects of our lives so much easier and more convenient. The only real way to deal with the possible downsides of our technology is to recognize them and plan for dealing with the possible consequences. But that goes for all of our technology.

Crooks & Liars noted Rick Perry's notion expressed at last night's 'debate' that he would send troops back into Iraq. Good Morning America showed the clip but without comment. How absolutely stupid can one person be?? We should never have gone into Iraq in the first place and did so only because the Bush administration stampeded us with the claims they had proof of 'weapons of mass destruction.' Rick Perry now wants us to go back to keep Iran from going back in. Iran wasn't a major influence in Iraq until we got rid of Saddam. Nor was Al Qaeda. It seems to me that our invasion of Iran produced just the results we wanted to avoid. How many times must we shoot ourselves in the foot?

2012-01-07T12:51:00.000-06:00

Good morning, All. Thank you, Lois and Nicola. We are feeling a bit better. The only thing that really works for colds is time and relieving the symptoms as much as possible. Thankfully, neither of us has anything pressing to take us out of the house.

This is interesting in light of yesterday's story about computer (in)security. The fact that Symantec may have been hacked by way of a cyberattack on the Indian military reveals just how vulnerable computer systems anywhere are.

I can relate to your caution with respect to on-line banking, Lois. It has made a lot about our lives easier but the worry about a failure in the system, for whatever reason, is never far from my mind. Computers have so invaded our lives that it is almost inconceivable how we would get along without them and the internet. My nephew remarked, at one of our family gatherings, that his oldest daughter was very impatient when internet content didn't load fast enough for her. He remembered how much slower such operations were only five or ten years ago. I reminded him of when every program you used had to be loaded from floppy discs because nothing except operating software was permanently installed and the only 'internet' option was dial-up. I am not really a Luddite but I am very uneasy depending on something that nature or man can take away easily.

A couple of weeks ago I read a news story about Hispanic Americans getting caught up in immigrations sweeps and being kept in jails until they proved their citizenship status. I wondered then what would happen if and American citizen were deported during these procedures. This story gives an idea. I will grant that the girl did lie to immigration officials but what did they do to confirm her story?? It looks like they didn't do much if anything. Don't you think they might have gotten suspicious when a 15-year-old African American girl claiming to be a 21-year-old Columbian woman does''t speak Spanish?? I guess intelligence is not part of the qualifications for the job.

I have noted before how unusual our weather has been. We aren't the only ones experiencing very warm temperatures this winter as you can see from this article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. A 60F day in western Minnesota during the first week of January??? In the last week of December one of the local (Chicago) weather people said that December had been so warm that to get a 'normal' average for meteorological winter (Dec through Feb) we would have to post highs well below freezing for the rest of the season. Normal high today is 31F but we expect temperatures to reach the low 40s after posting a 55 yesterday.

2012-01-06T10:43:00.001-06:00

Good morning on this first Friday of the new year. Again warmer than normal--by a lot. They were saying that an ungodly number of record high temps were set yesterday. And the weather people expect that to continue for the next week. I am not a great fan of cold weather but I do like my weather to be seasonal and it hasn't been for a long while. This erratic weather with unseasonal temps is not good for the plants--as the freeze in Florida shows. Expect higher prices for orange juice--again.

I have read more and more of my favorite bloggers saying that their accounts (e-mail, blog, or other) have been hacked of late, Nicola. It is totally annoying even though I did get things back to normal quickly. We do have cell phones--only. A few years ago we decided to eliminate the land line. It seemed to us that the only ones who called us on the land lines were telemarketers and wrong numbers. We preferred having cells as a safety measure while driving around. I can sympathize with your problem because I used to live in an area where cell reception was spotty and unreliable.

Continuing on the theme of hacking, Red Tape posted a warning about a very scary new virus that can allow a hacker to steal your banking log-in info, use it in fraudulent transactions, and hide the fact from you when you check your account--as the experts have recommended. And expert quoted at the end of the article recommends that one simply avoid getting the virus into one's system in the first place. My question--HOW??

Let's see what I can do today. We have both been fighting through colds so we spend much of the day sleeping or vegetating. We only do what we absolutely have to as we get the energy--which isn't all that often right now. They had a story on the news last night and this morning which claimed that driving with a cold is the equivalent to driving drunk. Yeah, but how do you get around that. You can choose to not drink when you know you have to drive but you can't choose not to get a cold. Call in sick?? Yeah, try that with some of the bosses I have known!!

Karoli posted this at Crooks & Liars this morning. I think anyone who goes into politics these days have had to have their common sense surgically removed, along with their hearts and consciences if they are Repthuglican. The attack on compulsory education I could dismiss as an aberration if I hadn't read some months ago of an effort by some Repthuglican to directly rescind such laws in Missouri. It is ironic that on the one hand we are told that for this country to be competitive globally we have to have an educated work force and on the other we see these efforts to kill primary and secondary education as a public enterprise. As to the move to require any legislation to be justified with a specific article of the Magna Carta--obviously those boy haven't read the document thoroughly or considered the wisdom of tying modern laws into an 800-year-old straight jacket. Although it is very much related to the Christianist view of putting all of us into a 2000-year-old straight jacket that has been modified many times in the intervening time and which most of them haven't read (or understood) thoroughly.

Well, I think I need a nap. Take care and see you next time.

2012-01-05T08:31:00.000-06:00

Good morning to you all. Unseasonably warm again today. Much of the snow has melted at least in the sunny areas. Most of the next week should be the same if the weather people are accurate.

The Repthuglican Traveling Clown Circus has moved from Iowa, which can go back to the insignificance in which it usually exists, to New Hampshire, which will bask in its quadrennial spotlight until after its primary. Politics is such a strange game. John McCain decided to endorse Romney whom he described as honest and straightforward--ignoring the fact that he characterized Romney as a 'flip-flopper' during the last Presidential primary cycle. Bachmann is out but Perry has decided to stay in. And not a single Repthuglican isn't pandering to the Religious Right. Damn!!!

Damn on another front!! Hotmail froze my account this morning because someone hacked in and used it to send a bunch of e-mails. I had to give them my cell phone number and get a code to unlock it. I don't know what would be a good enough punishment for the @$$hole. Oh, well the account is back.

Hey, Kay, you may have gotten the lake effect snow that set up just east of us and affected Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Hope our warmer weather comes your way.

2012-01-04T10:38:00.001-06:00

Hello, Everyone. About 10F warmer than yesterday at this time. We are on the upward trajectory for temperature and the next week looks to be in the 40s. Mom always says that one extreme follows the other. Last winter was unusually cold and snowy. So far this one has been warmer than usual with very little snow. Most of our precipitation has come in the form of rain. However, we have two more months of winter, if you count from December 1, or three, if you count from the Solstice. Either way it is certainly not nearly over.

Sorry about your garden, Nicola. I know weather happens but that doesn't mean I have to like the results of it. 'Pitching' is an Americanism for 'throwing out'. Here that is reserved for something that is worn beyond any repair or use. Not many things get to that point. I have an old nightgown that though not reparable will be cut up into strips that can be crocheted into rugs, mats, or bags. When I check my t-shirts some of them will go that route also. If I can put something, or part of something, to a new use I generally do that.

I was wondering how you were doing with the weather out there, Lois. I remember some of the fantastic snows we got in Ft. Collins that seemed to melt away as quickly as they came. Hope your boys aren't as bummed out as Kuma is here. He doesn't understand that his fur coat is only partial protection agains the kind of cold we had over the last couple of days. Nor was he at all happy when I opened to door and he got a blast of snow in the face thanks to the high winds. He suddenly decided he didn't want to go out after all while, of course, he blamed me for not doing something about that awful white stuff.

2012-01-03T15:27:00.002-06:00

Good morning to you all. We have sun but still have a few snow flakes fluttering down. Later I will go out and clear the doors and paths on the patio and clear what is left on the car. The landscaping people who work for our landlord have already cleared the sidewalks outside the patios. The high winds that came with the snow cleared a lot of the snow so it won't be too strenuous. I did have to go out (thankfully before the temperature dipped below cold into the frigid range) and settled the milk jug cloches more firmly over my blueberries. They have lost most of their leaves but the stems are still nicely green so I have hopes they will survive the winter in good shape.

Nicola's comment on my last post reminded me of the changes in my attitudes toward snow over my lifetime. As a child I loved the snow. I can remember only one time when we had enough snow at one go to cause officials to cancel school so an impromptu vacation was not likely but the cold weather provided the opportunity for different sports and activities. But as an adult I found the snow simply an inconvenience at best and a danger at worst. I remember a couple of real hairy almost serious crashes because I had to go out in nasty weather for whatever job I had at the time. Luckily I emerged from those without even a dented fender. Now I can relax and enjoy the season because I don't have to go out in the weather. I have been retired for three winters now and was unemployed for two before that. We carefully choose when we go out on our errands and make sure we can hunker down for at least a week or more in case we do get snowed in. Even the big blizzard last winter only kept us homebound for five days while we got the patio shoveled, the landscaping crew cleared the sidewalks, and the city plowed the streets. It looks rather pretty outside now with the sun on the snow. I can enjoy it.

This is going to be an unusual day and probably the first of many. With the new year I have a lot of sorting, pitching, and donating to do and at the same time clean up the room that has become a catch all over the last few months ago. We used to spend a lot of time there because that was where our computers were. When Mom's old iMac died and mine was dying, we got a pair of low end MacBooks. Since they are wireless equipped laptops we moved our computer use downstairs to the living room unless we have to use the printer (which isn't wireless.) As a result that room has become a disaster area which really must be cleaned up. So I do a bit and take a break with the computer, do another task and take a break with the computer, etc. Right now I am taking a break from my first task--clearing out the storage bins that held (originally) my out of season clothes. I have three empty small bin, one half filled large bin, and two bags of clothes that will find new homes via the Goodwill store.

The Self Sufficient Gardener has an interesting post but I don't think I will follow his advice totally. I agree with his assessment of ground cherry having tried it last year. I found the taste more like a very dilute strawberry drink--not enough flavor. Although it produced well, I will put in strawberries. But I like trying different and unusual plants and I look for plants that are suitable for our climate. I put in my old faithfuls--tomatoes and peppers--but try some new items each year. Some I won't try again (ground cherry and Tigger melon) because we didn't like the flavor. Some because the plants don't really play nicely with what I already have. But I have found some gems--the Dragon's Egg cucumber and stevia. I have to balance two factors--I only have several large containers and that limited space will not under any conceivable circumstance provide enough to totally take care of our needs. As such my gardens will always be evolving which makes it ever new.

Grist posted this item today which explains why we don't buy our groceries at Wal-Mart and haven't for several years now. But we have found lately that we have to be careful of our local groceries as well. A while ago I recounted how we put back some margarine (a name brand, at that) because, from the oily residue on the packages and the carton they came in, it was clear that the product had not been kept at a proper temperature and had partly melted. We also do not buy the bagged salad greens--that is simply asking for food poisoning.

2012-01-02T12:04:00.000-06:00

Good morning, Everyone, on this first Monday of the new year. We woke to snow--light for now. The weather service has a winter storm warning out for northern Indiana beginning just east of us. How much we get depends entirely on how this system sets up because we are on the edge of the snow bands coming off Lake Michigan. But by the end of the week we should be back in the high 30s and low 40s.

I don't know how people afford fireworks either, Nicola. But then some of my spending would probably amaze those who buy fireworks. I just wish they had a quieter sort of frivolous spending.

Crabby Old Lady (a.k.a., Ronni Bennett) at Time Goes By expresses my own frustrations with the current election cycle perfectly.

2012-01-01T12:02:00.000-06:00

*******Happy New Year*******

Well, here it is---2012. It has been a very long time since I partied to bring in a new year and this year did not change the pattern. We went to bed at our usual time--no champagne, to funny hats. We did have some idiots who had to shoot off their fireworks and woke me. I wish they would just go to the nearest 'official' fireworks display. I also don't do resolutions. I went through years of making ambitious (over ambitious, perhaps) resolutions that last, at most, a month leaving me feeling guilty. Instead, I assess what I do throughout the year and plan small changes.

This morning, as on so many over the last month, I looked at the thermometer hanging on the outside of the patio door and wonder if somehow it has broken because the temperature it registered was way too warm. Well, like every other such morning, the morning news confirmed the thermometer. The new year is continuing the old year's pattern. Unseasonably warm days punctuated with normal or slightly below temperatures. The weather people are predicting a 'major' winter storm is coming in and, as usual, how much snow we get will depend on exactly how it sets up and how much 'lake effect' snow comes with it. But by the end of the week we should see temperatures back in the mid 40s so most of it will not last long.

I wonder if 2012 will continue another pattern from 2011--earthquakes. Over the weekend Tokyo and Ohio registered quakes--7 in Tokyo and 4 in Ohio. Luckily no results to match the March quake/tsunami in northeastern Japan, or the Christ Church (New Zealand) quakes, the couple of quakes in eastern Turkey--to name just a few.

I didn't read Krugman's latest, Kay, but what I have noticed most is that they all argue from an ideological/religious bias--and all of these positions are held with a religious fervor that easily matches the intensity of the Wars of Religion of the 16th and 17th centuries. The problem is that none of the economic models are the absolutes their adherents claim. Most of them were formulated to explain what recently happened but, as the phrase that has been attributed to Mark Twain says, history doesn't repeat, it rhymes. This down turn does not repeat the Great Depression and the Keynesian theories came out of that episode so the prescriptions based on those theories may not work as expected, if at all. However that doesn't mean I advocate cutting the Federal spending especially not on the social side. Those kind of cuts simply increase the number of people without jobs and without any means of subsistence. Most of those who advocate such cuts argue from their own moral bias and they will never feel the pain of the cuts themselves. As to the politics--well that is basically about what 'we' are going to do and who exactly that 'we' encompasses. All too often, as I listen to the Repthuglicans, I feel that I am being read out of the 'we.' Too old, too poor, too dependent on programs that I paid into but now they don't want to continue.

2011-12-30T13:11:00.001-06:00

Howdy, All. We did get some sun yesterday and very welcome it was. I am always amazed at how much my moods improve when we have sun no matter what the temperature. But today is wet though warm. Forties today with possible 50 tomorrow--before the more seasonable temperatures return for a couple of days. The weather people say that this has been one of the 20 least wet Decembers on record and one of the 20 warmest.

Another of my wish books (a.k.a., seed catalogs) came yesterday and I started with my garden lists--what I might like to plant. The next round will begin to rearrange that list taking into account the space I have and what we can actually use. So far I have 4 varieties of tomatoes (6 plants between them), two new varieties of sweet pepper (a drastic reduction from previous years so we can use up the stock we have in the freezer), eleven herbs (including four new ones). I am still contemplating a really pretty sweet corn, an heirloom variety of potato, and an heirloom sweet potato. I told mom I am going to have to rearrange my seeds into three groups now--those I will never plant again in the foreseeable future, those I am not planting this year but like well enough to use again, and those I am planting this season. I need to find a new home for the never plant again group.

This is the first post by Gonzalo Lira I have read and I am debating whether to follow him or not. He makes a lot of sense on the implications of the MF Global bankruptcy. I think he is absolutely right on the money when he says that the regulators and the rest of the Federal government have conflated those so-called 'systemically important financial institutions' till they are the financial system not a part of it. Talk about the tail wagging the dog!! And the handling of the MF Global fiasco is simply another example of the bias of our powers-that-be toward the big banks and financial institutions and against the ordinary citizen. Most of us are simply the sacrificial lambs on the financial industry's altar.

For those of you following the Maya Calendar debate I thought you might like this cartoon found on Phil's Favorites. It is a financial blog but has some interesting insights if you are into economics.

Evidently the notion proposed by Lira above (a run on financial institutions) isn't all that far fetched. MSNBC posted the results of a poll that asked what disaster the respondents were most concerned about. Sixty-three percent said economic collapse. The author noted that the pollster didn't specify or differentiate between global or nations but that, it seems to me, is a distinction without a difference. If the global economy goes down the drain we will go with it.

Mark Bittman has a good NY Times Opinionator piece on the failure of the FDA to produce standards that limit the use of antibiotics in farm animals. One would think that would be a no-brainer in an era of increasing incidence of multiple-drug resistant bacterial infections but not when it interferes with corporate profits. Another case of the big companies privatizing profits and socializing the costs. After all they don't have to pay the medical bills or funeral costs of those of their customers who get sick from eating the tainted product.

And this might be one reason why people responding to that poll cited economic disaster as something they most feared.

2011-12-29T12:25:00.000-06:00

Good morning, all. We did get some sun yesterday. Just not much. The weather people say we should have rain this morning before the system moves off and the temps move into the mid 40s F. Still unseasonably warm here. So far three of my seed catalogs have come in and I have been looking through them. Right now my gardening plans involve writing down all of the seeds I would like to try. Next I have to bring the list down to reality. I also have to start putting some areas I have used as catch-alls for the last several months into some order.

I agree, Lois. Sears used to be one of our favorite stores but then it changed. It tried to be trendy (whatever that meant at the time) when we wanted conservative and functional. On the Illinois issue of tax 'relief' for corporations, I soured on the whole theory a long time ago. The only ones who benefited from any such deal I have ever seen have been the companies. The local areas (states, counties, cities) lost taxes and people lost jobs. This would be considered a criminal scam if any individual tried it.

I think the chimp that just died may indeed be the real Cheetah, Nicola. According to Wikipedia chimpanzees have been known to live more than 60 years in captivity. The article I read said that this one had been transferred from Johnny Weissmuller's estate to the Florida refuge in 1960. Weissmuller was still alive then.

Mom and I had a damned good laugh over this one. If ours wasn't such a busy-body society it would be one thing but we have so many do-gooders out there who are fine with forcibly medicating any troublesome young brat or eccentric old biddy that these definitions of psychiatric maladies are scary. And I am not at all comforted that the head of the task force formulating the new edition of the psychiatric bible says it is still a work in progress or that it will contain about the same number of ailments as the old. I think 300 is way too many to begin with.

2011-12-28T11:34:00.001-06:00

Good morning, Everyone. We had a little over an inch of very wet snow yesterday. Most of what fell on the paved areas melted and, with temps for today and the next two or three going to 40 and a bit, the snow on the grass won't last long. The weather people said this year is the second wettest on record. They haven't said how it stacks up temperature wise but a couple of months got on the top five list. Right now I see mostly clear skies just before our sunrise so we should see plenty of sunshine unless clouds come in rapidly.

I don't know how many remember the old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies but for those who do I found this item. The last star of the movies, Cheetah, died at about age 80 in a Florida wildlife sanctuary.

Burning Platform posted this little video explaining our national debt problem. It would be funny if it weren't so depressingly accurate. And, according to a couple of stories over the last couple of days, that debt limit that was passed with such dramatic posturing just a couple of months ago, is about to be reached.

Hey, Kay, glad to see you back. I have tried to be more polite or restrained in my comments but something about the Repthuglicans just set me off. It may have been that Gingrich aide who compared the Gingrich campaign's failure to get enough signatures in Virginia to 'Pearl Harbor.' Romney's comparison (to Lucile Ball in the candy factory) was more accurate. Something else that would be funny if it weren't so utterly pathetic.

I find this story a bit ironic in light of the concerted effort by Repthuglicans across the country to limit the voting rights of certain groups who reliably vote Damnocrat. But, because poor little Ricky couldn't get his act together, he now wants the Federal courts to step in and modify the state law to suit his needs.

This news dropped like a bomb on Illinois politicians. They just spent the last couple of months cobbling together a tax relief package for Sears and the CME Group to keep those companies in Illinois and now they have to explain to their constituents how it was worth the cost. Of course, they didn't get any real guarantees from either company and Sears only promised to keep its headquarters in Chicago. I wonder how many Illinois stores are on the chopping block.

2011-12-27T10:32:00.000-06:00

Good morning, Everyone. Hope your Holiday was happy. Ours was very pleasant. Christmas Eve we spent with my brother and his family while Christmas Day we visited my sister and hers. Now we are just vegetating. I didn't see anything much to comment on yesterday so took the day off. I did get some stitching done on a table cloth that has languished for the last log while.

I guess I can become MaryContrary again. The idiots give me plenty of opportunity as this piece from Natural News shows. So I guess Dow wants to fight the problem of Round Up resistant weeds by engineering corn that is resistant to the major component of Agent Orange. By the time those boys get done we won't be able to grow corn because our fields will be overgrown with multiple-herbicide-resistant weeds.

Along with all of the Christmas shopping news the media managed to glide over (as in barely mention) the fact that only TWO of the seven remaining Republican candidates managed to qualify for the Virginia primary. Newt Gingrich was not one of the two even though his official residence is Virginia. But none of the commentators made the same conclusion I did: do we really want any of these disorganized bozos as president??? These guys and gal couldn't, to use a rather bawdy comparison, couldn't organize a f**k up in a whorehouse.

This morning, over coffee when both of us found our get-up-and-go gone, I remarked that this week between Christmas and New Year's is like being in a state of suspended animation. Lo, and behold--Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By made the same observation.

2011-12-25T07:46:00.001-06:00

Good morning and Merry Christmas to you all. Thank you, Kay and Lois, for your good wishes. We are simply relaxing and enjoying the day. We had dinner with my brother and his family yesterday and will be with my sister and hers today. Still warm (highs in the low 40), sunny, and dry. Very much out of the normal for December.

Huffington Post linked to some spectacular pictures from space that seem perfect for the season. Take a look at the 'Wreath Nebula' and others here.

Enjoy the day!!

2011-12-24T10:54:00.000-06:00

Happy Christmas Eve to you all. I don't know if I will bother with any comments on the political/economic scene. I am recovering from having a bad tooth extracted yesterday. It was rather impromptu. I knew that tooth would have to come out but was hoping to wait until after the holidays. However, the dentist had a cancellation when I called yesterday for my new patient evaluation and then manned to squeeze in the extraction as well. It all went very well--much better than I remembered dental visits from years ago. And the rest of the news was better than expected. I will need some expensive work but my teeth are sound except for the one that isn't there any more. A couple of caps, a couple of fillings, and a good cleaning.

Enjoy your Christmas with the family, Nicola. I had never heard of echium before and had to look it up. Interesting; will merit further research. I dried several cuttings of lemon balm and use it in brewing my tea. I know what you mean about the smell when you brush up against the plants. Our handy man remarked on our lemon verbena and spearmint. I couldn't move on the patio without releasing the scent of mint, lemon verbena or balm, thyme, and rosemary. I found an interesting book on sacred and healing beers made from almost every imaginable herb, fruit, or other edible plants. One of the recipes makes a lemon balm ale. I may yield to the temptation to try a small batch next summer.

I also love my gardens even when dormant, Kay. There is something bleak and sterile about the patios without any kind of growing thing on them. I look out at the containers and I don't really see the dormancy--I see next season and what I might plant. Anticipation is wonderful.

Follow this link to wonderfully warm and inspiring story from the Daily Mail in the UK. The world could use a lot more of this kind of eccentricity.

Maha posted links to a couple of absolutely adorable animal videos. Watch as the kittens and ferrets explore Christmas.

2011-12-23T11:46:00.000-06:00

Good morning on this day before Christmas Eve. No change in the weather. Thankfully we won't get the last round of snow that hit the plains from the north. Update: yes the weather has changed!! Sun!! I almost forgot what sunshine looked like.

I am glad to see another Federal judge is challenging the government's wrist-slap settlements with financial companies. I hope many more do the same.

This story tells us where disgraced former legislators go after they leave government--lobbying for big business.

Well, the Repthuglicans finally decided to go along with the Senate on the two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment extension. For the first time the Tea Partiers and their allies over-reached themselves. One of the commentators yesterday noted that Boehner's news conference was really putting 'a lot of lipstick' on the pig. Let's see if they are more cooperative in the negotiations for the full year extension.

I don't know if we have become numb to the lies and other forms of prevarications, Kay. I think most of us now take the pronouncements with a large dose of salt. I noticed this morning the reporters presenting the bombings in Syria that the Syrian government has attributed to Al Qaeda remarked that it was very convenient timing with the Arab League representatives either just arrived or just about to arrive for talks about the unrest in Syria. Terrorism has become a wonderful catch all for any opponents. I am surprised our own government hasn't insisted that the Occupy movement had ties to Al Qaeda.

For those who wonder what my gardens look like in the winter:

The frame at the left of the top picture is the mini-greenhouse. The cover is folded up in its box for now. I will put it up again in early March. I moved it toward the house where I hope it will get enough shade to moderate the temperature. Last summer it got up to 120F in there. The tidy cat boxes and white buckets have a capacity of about 5 gal. and are perfect for peppers and tomatoes. The other containers are all larger. The milk jugs in the blue container in the lower picture are covering the blueberries. As I said a couple of days ago, Kuma found them and thinks they are tasty. I have never tried to overwinter hardy plants in the containers so the blueberries, roses, German thyme, mums, lavender and lemon balm are an experiment. The lemon balm looks rather pathetic now but below the dead leaves lie some nice bright green leaves. I have two new containers that are just a little smaller than the big ones in the pictures I got at the end of season sales. I will put them into production next spring along with a whole bunch of other smaller pots. Six months from now the patio will look like a jungle again. One very good thing about container gardening is that the rabbits and squirrels aren't much of a problem even if they could squeeze through the fence somewhere.

Don't worry about going on, Nicola. Everything you say is right on point.

Green Prophet posted this story that fits well with the Christmas season.

Well, one of my wish books (a.k.a., seed catalogs) came in the mail so I will end this and take a look. See y'all later.

2011-12-22T13:50:00.000-06:00

Good morning to you all. Can't tell what it is like outside yet. It is still dark. But they say we should have light rain with the temps rising to about 40F. Still unseasonably warm. What a difference a year makes. Last year we were watching the weather to see if we would be snowed in on Christmas. The snow that fell for Thanksgiving didn't melt away before spring. I had piles of snow on the edges of the patio 4ft high. We have had only two snow falls that covered the ground but each were less than an inch and disappeared quickly. The forecasts don't show any significant snow for at least the next week. We'll see what January brings. Update: overcast and gloomy with a bit of fog.

No one should be surprised by these developments. Of course, fingers are being pointed at Al Qaeda. But Al Qaeda has become the whipping boy for everything nasty in the Middle East.

They keep telling us that the economy is improving and that the Great Recession ended some two-and-a-half years ago but I keep seeing stories like this one.

Found two stories on rising college costs this morning. (Here and Here). It is interesting that at a time when various government officials tout a college education as the way for young people to get ahead economically that same government is cutting the grant funding (forcing students to take out loans) and the colleges seem to be most interested in extracting more from their students (while the executives get fat pay and compensation packages.) And given how many recent graduates can't find jobs and have moved back with their parents I guess I can be forgiven for questioning the real utility of shelling out so much money (especially when it is likely borrowed) for a degree.

Hi, Kay. I agree on the weather--weird!! And getting weirder. I remarked just the other day, for the umpteenth time, that we have said the same thing for the last ten or so years. Keep warm, my friend, and take things easy.

Glad you came back, Nicola. Stevia attracted a lot of interest about three years ago--at least that is when I became aware of it. Like you I looked it up and thought it intriguing. At that time only one greenhouse carried seedlings so I bought some seeds which consistently failed me. Thankfully the seedlings did very well. One or two of the gardeners who blog have said that stevia has an aftertaste they found unpleasant. I haven't found that at all. We prefer it to sugar. During the summer we brew our tea with a couple of sprigs of fresh stevia and I dry it through out the summer. It is a tropical plant and way too tender to over winter here. I do my gardening in containers because I only have my cement patio to work with. I sometimes amaze myself with how much production I get out of those containers.

Hey, Lois, sorry to hear you are under the weather. Hope that flu goes away soon. Yeah, Kuma is a character and has become more so as he gets older (he turns 17 this spring) and since the two older cats passed. Good you didn't get buried as some did elsewhere. That was a nasty storm and I am very glad it didn't come our way.

2011-12-21T12:32:00.000-06:00

Good morning, everyone. Another gloomy day but warmer than normal. The temp on the patio reads about 42 F. It is also foggy and wet. The weather report yesterday said we may have hit 50 and, if so, that would have been the 13th time this month--highly unusual. I had to put my milk jug cloches over the blueberries--the Monster Cat (a.k.a., Kuma) found them yesterday and started nibbling. If they were fully grown I wouldn't mind but I just put them this fall and am anxiously hoping they survive the winter and thrive. However, his munching sent me to the internet to find out if I should worry about harmful effects. Evidently not. In fact the blueberry leaves make a nice tea. When my bushes are fully grown I will harvest some leaves along with berries. I also plan to double the number of stevia plants because I am already half way through the stock I dried this season. If I run out, I will shift to honey.

Hello and welcome, Nicola. I enjoy seeing what needleworkers are doing and reading about people who live in other places. I have been derelict about my own needlework for the last several months only putting in a stitch here and there. My goal for the new year (I don't make resolutions) is to get back on my various projects and maybe make progress learning a couple of techniques I have flirted with in the past. Your cross-stitch is beautiful. Hope your holidays are happy and the new year prosperous.

Well, it is Winter Solstice and the days will start getting longer. That is nice. But I will really rejoice when the Spring Equinox comes and the shadow of the house touches the top of the fence. The reflection of sunlight off the fence turns my deep shade patio into bright light for my container plants. That allows me to plant peppers, tomatoes and other sun loving plants in the summer.

2011-12-20T11:36:00.000-06:00

Good morning, everyone. It is gloomy but not wet--yet. It is now very doubtful that we will get snow. The temperature is 38 F at the moment. From the forecast I saw this morning, we won't get much, if anything, over the weekend. The weather people said that we have had five 50+ days this month where last year we didn't have any.

This story matches the weather here--dismal. I only got through the first page and couldn't stomach reading any further. I can remember a couple of times in the past ten years when I was sorely tempted to apply for a warehouse job and actually resented a representative at the personnel agency I had just signed up with for not sending me out to such a job. To say I was desperate is understating my situation. Reading this I am thankful I didn't get those jobs.

Yahoo news posted this amazing weather picture.

I have been reading stories about the rapidly cooling Chinese real estate market. Here is another that brings to mind our not so recent past. Their local governments relied on land sales while ours relied on property taxes--both are screwed for the same reason: plummeting values and demand.

John Aravosis at Americablog posted this item. I hadn't read about this tactic and it wasn't mentioned in the couple of stories I read. If this is Boehner's strategy it is indeed a slimy end run. Aravosis has a link to The Gavel which covers the issue, with further links, in more detail.

I love blog that give me ideas on how to use items I already use in new ways. This one talks about vinegar, describes how to make your own and lists a variety of items you can use to make homemade vinegars.

2011-12-19T12:17:00.002-06:00

Good morning to you all on this Monday before Christmas. Goodness, how warm it is this morning--in the low 40s. I hope my friends in Colorado weathered the snow storm well. The weather people predict lower temps here and some snow, but not much. I finally got the winter wreaths on the doors Saturday. Looking at the fall wreath I figure I will have to do some refurbishing next year. The sun through the storm door does a job on some parts of it.

The main story on my Google start up page is the death of Kim Jong-Il. I won't link because you will find all kinds of stories on your own. I am not surprised. I remember the hullabaloo this last spring or summer when his son, Kim Jong-Un, made his appearance on their national scene apparently being groomed to succeed.

The House (read the Repthuglican bloc) are balking at the two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday. Of course, Boehner mouthed all of the idiot-fringe talking points with the obligatory homage to 'job creators' who need 'certainty.' Since the 'savings' from the tax holiday was limited to the workers, why 'job creators' would need 'certainty' on this score is a bit of a puzzlement.

2011-12-18T11:59:00.000-06:00

Good Sunday morning to you all. Oh my, how time has flown. Only a week till Christmas. And two before this year ends. I don't do resolutions. I have always found that resolutions, like rules, are made to be broken. I will begin the serious work of planning what I will plant in the gardens starting in January and when I will start the seeds. Hmmm--I should probably get the seed starting trays in before we get a heavy snow that I would have to shovel to get into the shed. And start making the newspaper starting pots. I want to see how that will work out.

I saw the obituary for Vaclav Havel first thing this morning. I remember watching the news of the Czechoslovak revolution in the 1980s. I was a history grad student in Colorado at the time. Now I am one who has to remember that what used to be Czechoslovakia is now Slovakia and the Czech Republic. How the map of Europe has changed in the last thirty years.

Now that the U.S. has declared victory and left Iraq the assessments of the costs and gains begin. I think this one pretty well sums things up. I think the key is near the end where the author writes that there is "simply no conceivable calculus by which Operation Iraqi Freedom can be judged to have been a successful or worthwhile policy."

Thanks, Kay. I am glad I am not the only one to have trouble with the cf bulbs--and I don't have implants. I don't mind being eco-conscious but not at the price of serious eye strain.

A couple of days ago I linked to the report of the historically low levels of the Danube. This comes from a world away in drought stricken south China. Xinhuanet posted a rather dramatic picture in its story from the same region.

All of the news this morning are ecstatic over the Senate's approval of a 2-month extension of the payroll tax 'holiday.' I for one am not impressed with either the news media's ecstasy or the measure itself. Here we are again bargaining over a month or two. But I am also not impressed because the measure isn't final. The House has to vote on it and those idiots are balking. The Senate attached what will, if the measure finally passes, either be a gift to the oil industry or, they hope, a club to beat Obama with in the fall--a.k.a., Keystone XL. The House wants more cuts to the health care reform measures and to put in the 'doc fix' so doctors who treat Medicare patients won't see their payments drop. As with the debt ceiling extortions, the Repthuglicans will keep playing this game till the next elections.

I follow a number of blogs devoted to container and/or vertical gardening. I especially like stories showing inventive ways to use items that would otherwise go into the landfill. Tree Hugger has a nice post this morning showing one idea from Turkey.

Golem XIV presents a truly Byzantine labyrinth of financial details that should make anyone nauseous. He also explains rather clearly why MF Global's clients will be very lucky to get much of their supposedly sequestered funds back. What is even more sickening is that this 'looting' is very, very legal.

I wonder how many remember the scene at the end of War Games where the computer learns that in some games 'the only winning move is not to play.' That is certainly the case with Tic-Tac-Toe or Thermonuclear War and, maybe, in modern finance as this story from the Guardian demonstrates. I get the feeling that most of us are merely turkeys to be plucked and trussed to our financial lords and masters.

2011-12-17T12:53:00.000-06:00

Good morning to you all. We have light snow but I don't think we will get much and it won't stay long. The weather people say we should get a couple more episodes over the week but not enough to give us a white Christmas. Kuma went out a couple of times but wasn't happy with that white stuff.

I saw this on one of the news broadcasts last night and, much as I would like to be more 'environmentally' sensitive on this, I am glad they rescinded the government's ban on incandescent light bulbs. The compact florescent bulbs are more of a pain to dispose of, is more environmentally hazardous when not disposed of properly, and don't give as much light. As I have gotten older I find that I need better light to read and do needlework and the cf bulbs simply aren't adequate.

David Kaiser at History Unfolding has some very well targeted remarks about the Republicans and about our current lack of a functioning government. I especially like the parallel Kaiser draws between the Repthuglican debates and a 'Maoist party' confessional/purge. I agree that the absence of workable government thanks to intransigent party ideology but even worse is that so many of our legislators seem to think that the absence of workable government is a good thing.

I found this blog by way of Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By. I will have to visit occasionally and I love the term coined to describe our current political morass: assholocracy.

2011-12-16T12:45:00.000-06:00

Good morning, everyone. The temperatures are back to seasonally cool. In the mid 30s today. I hope we will see the sun today. I thought we might yesterday but the sun just teased us before disappearing behind the clouds.

I saw an interesting poll yesterday after I posted which I recalled this morning. Mom and I were listening to the news reports which--again--featured the stand off in Washington that could shut down the Federal government. (I caught a snippet of a story indicating the idiots may have reached a compromise.) We basically came to the conclusion--yet again--that this situation will be resolved in three ways: if either party gains supermajorities in both houses, if either party gains the presidency and a supermajority in the senate with a simple majority in the house, or if everything goes totally to hell. Why did all this bring that poll to mind. Well, it asked the old question about whether voters thought we should thoroughly clean house and vote all the bums out. I have seen similar polls in the past and have always noted that, while people are dissatisfied with the bums in general, people like their own bum. The poll cited yesterday asked the further question--what about your own representative and senator? The results show an increasing dissatisfaction over the past year with even the voters own bum. If that trend continues we might see a lot of change in the makeup of the legislature. I can only hope. (Note: just found this bit on the Political Wire with links.)

Joseph Stiglitz has written an interesting article in Vanity Fair that draws some parallels between the Great Depression and, as he calls it, our Long Slump. His thesis is a variation on a theme I read some time ago that tries to explain the origins of the Depression. He looks at the underlying weakness in the economy as the weakness of the agricultural sector. He makes a good argument. And the parallels between the shifts in our current job market with those of the Depression are also intriguing.

I have been seeing stories about the bankruptcy of Jefferson County, Alabama (Birmingham) for some time. It is a nasty brew of public corruption and corporate greed that has blown up to monumental proportions--the largest municipal bankruptcy in our history. This piece from the BBC (go figure--why don't we get these stories from our mainstream media?) puts a human face on the consequences especially for the low income citizens. Imagine being in a position where renting a port-a-potty, paying for someone to remove the waste, and buying barrels of water is cheaper than paying the sewage/water rates imposed by the local government.

2011-12-15T13:30:00.000-06:00

Good Thursday to all of you. We had rain, and more rain, and more rain yesterday. I think we still have some misty precipitation because Kuma was slightly wet when he came back in this morning. I didn't mind letting the little monster out since the temp was around 50. It won't stay there. The weather people say the temperature will fall over the course of the day. We have had the third wettest year on record with two weeks left and may easily move into the second place. Hell of a note, isn't it. We have one of the wettest years on record while Texas et al. have the driest. I saw a couple of headlines yesterday trumpeting the recent rain as '2 inches of drought.' The implication is that the drought down there is broken. Maybe--Maybe not. Let's see what happens over the next few months. The last couple of years here have been schizophrenic: wet early and late but extremely dry in between.

I saw this on the TV news this morning. They didn't exactly say it as the headline for the article does. The news readers gave the raw numbers of how many Americans were poor or near poor. The comments passed quickly and without comment but I blinked for a moment and then remarked to Mom that I thought the numbers meant that nearly half of our population falls into those two categories. Well, my quick, dirty, and without morning coffee (which was still brewing) turns out to be accurate. But what do the numbers say about the state of our society when they don't even rate a comment?? One item in the story really pisses me off--the quote from that Heritage Foundation asshole to the effect that if you have a good sized house and a wide-screen TV you are somehow not poor. I am sure a large number of people have a lot of things from more prosperous times. People may have a good sized house with a good sized mortgage from a time when they had a good job but now the house is in foreclosure and the job has disappeared. A person may have any number of things from a time when they brought in $50k or more a year but now they only earn $15K or less. Poverty in this economy is more a matter of how much money you bring in each year not how much stuff you have.

I think you are right, Lois. Manufacturers do think we are stupid. But then I don't remember all that many food poisoning outbreaks when I was a kid, when our food industry wasn't dominated by a few large factory processes with a nation wide reach, and we didn't worry much about what whether the product was as advertised on the label. However, the food producers found over time that they could increase sales by increasing the amounts of salt and sweeteners in their foods. When the Federal government increased import duties on foreign sugar the food industry scrambled for other sweeteners to replace expensive sugar and found high fructose corn syrup. So over the last three decades as we have become more and more obese the food industry has pushed foods that exacerbate that problem and covered the change with deceptive lables. I won't even go into how other aspects of our modern life (sedentary work and leisure, long commutes, lack of sleep) adds to that. It is all cumulative.

It is so nice this 'job creator' may create more jobs. I just wish I was confident his workers would survive their employment.

Andrew Nikoforuk has an interesting summary of an EPA report on the contamination of groundwater due to hydraulic fracturing outside a small Wyoming town. I would say that it puts the entire industry argument about the longevity and safety of fracking.

2011-12-14T12:24:00.001-06:00

Good morning to you all. It is unseasonably warm and the weather people expect the pattern to remain for at least another week. Everyone is wondering if we will get a white Christmas. It looks chancy at the moment.

Well, the House Repthuglicans put their extension of the payroll tax holiday with, of course, a Christmas gift to the oil industry--approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. If these guys were on the streets they would be called extortionists.

I am not surprised at this given the hysteria that has been whipped up over illegal immigration. Let's see--first we had Americans with Islamic names put on a travel watch list from which they were never able to get off. Now we have Americans with Spanish/Hispanic surnames who spend days in detention until they prove their status. They say no citizen has been unlawfully deported but I have to wonder if that is true and, if true, how long before that happens.

Evidently, that storm that produced the high winds and dramatic waves that hit Scotland also produced the largest wave ever recorded in Irish seas some 60 miles off Donegal, Ireland--a 67 ft. monster.

From high seas and winds in Ireland and Scotland to drought at in the Danube Basin. Over the last couple of years several areas have discovered the threat drought poses to hydroelectric power supplies.

Tina Dupuy at Crooks & Liars has a perfectly on target analysis of Newt Gingrich and his proposals. That this Repthuglican is now the front runner for the Republican nomination says volumes of where that once Grand Old Party has fallen.

This Crooks & Liars story had us rolling. No, we don't find the charges that Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing ten, at last count, boys funny. But there is something choice when his lawyer, in a news conference after waiving his client's right to a preliminary hearing, tells the reporters that anyone who believes his upstanding client is guilty needs to 'dial 1-800-REALITY.' The number is real and is for a---gay, anal, phone sex line.

2011-12-13T14:31:00.000-06:00

Good morning, all. Not much to say on the garden, weather or needlework so let's see what is going on in the world.

I thought that the 'extension' of the Kyoto agreements was going to be a toothless measure. This Huffington Post article reinforces that thought. I also noticed that most of the reduction in emissions that allowed the industrialized nations 'as a whole' to meet targets are attributed to economic and political conditions not likely to repeat (i.e., the collapse of the Soviet empire and the global recession).

Most of us have heard the story of the Mary Celeste, the ship that was found off the Azores in 1872 fully rigged and provisioned but no sign of the crew. Evidently that wasn't the end of the ship as this story recounts. Thirteen years and 17 owners later, she figured in a major insurance scam. Poor ship had bad luck all the way around.

We have something in our refrigerator we haven't had in a long time--real butter. One reason we decided to get it was a coupon that took the price of a pound down to near what the pound of margarine would have been. However, our recent experience buying margarine at two of our local supermarkets provided even stronger incentive. About two weeks ago Mom picked up a couple of packages of margarine and complained about an oily feel. When we looked at the container so much oil had seeped past the wrapping and the box to blur the print on the box. And the large box the individual packages had been shipped in were coated on all sides with oil. Somewhere along the line the shipment had been exposed to higher temperatures than they should have--high enough to soften and partially melt the margarine. Since then the packages have been better but still show signs of softening and partial melting. Oh, we examined the packages of butter very well but they appeared all right.

And I got a bit of an education in pancake syrups this morning. We let out supply get low so I stopped at the supermarket since we are having pancakes for supper tonight. Just looking at the product on the shelf you would think we had a marvelous choice of brands of maple syrup. Well, only two brands were actual maple syrup. The rest, from the most expensive to the least and from the major name brands to store and generic brands, were all high fructose corn syrup with coloring and (unnamed) flavorings. The real maple syrup brands were twice the price of the others. But I decided to get the real thing.

Continuing on the food theme, Blisstree posted this commentary on the large number of food recalls this nearly ended year. The 'lessons' the author says we should have learned reflect much of the thinking here. We buy local produce/product when we can. We buy the least processed product we can. In the process we have eliminated many of the sources of BPA we were once exposed to.

And then I found this OpEdNews piece evaluating aspects of the propaganda/myth of GM crops. Two of the most often repeated justifications for GM seeds are increased yield and decreased pesticide use. Evidently, according to independent studies, the fail on both counts. On these failures alone GM crops ought to have disappeared from the market place. Unfortunately, some very big companies have tied up a lot of money in developing them and want to continue making money on them. And it doesn't look like the safety issue will tip the balance. Too bad. Grist has also picked up on this topic and provides more damning details.

2011-12-12T13:32:00.000-06:00

Good Monday morning, everyone. We are supposed to have fairly warm weather for the entire week with rain but no snow. I remarked over our morning coffee that we used to hope we wouldn't have snow for Halloween and were thankful when we didn't. Now we hope we will have some snow for Christmas and are thankful when we do. I don't know that the stats say be I suspect our December has been warmer than normal and we have had the fifth latest measurable snow on record. Let's see if there is anything worth linking to or commenting on.

I have often said that what constitutes 'earmarks' and 'pork barrel spending' depends entirely on who is proposing the spending. This McClatchy article points that out very nicely. It points out why any attempt to prohibit the practices are probably doomed to failure.

Tom Englehardt, in his excellent post this morning, says we need to formulate new language to describe our political arrangements. I wonder how long it will be before companies and corporations demand not only the right to contribute to give unlimited funds to political campaigns but the right to vote. And how should we apportion the vote? Perhaps we should give each company a number of votes equal to their American workforce. Hmmm--I think I get a whiff of the old 3/5 rule where Southern States were able to count each slave as 3/5 of a person for purposes of representation in the House of Representatives. The only difference is the corporation would be voting directly and the wage-slaves have the right to find employment (if they can) elsewhere. Hmmm--maybe that would get the bastards to hire people. Although they might just find it easier to disfranchise the unemployed.

The stock markets always leave me bemused and bewildered. For months I have watched the various averages going up when any breath of 'good' news comes across our media and down when that news is proved on second look to be less than good or the spotlight shifts to a different problem area. Last week investors appeared ecstatic over the news that the Europeans had an agreement to deal with their debt crises. That is plural because each country, with few exceptions, has its own crisis hanging over it. Today, the hopium has worn off and everyone realizes that the 'agreement' was more smoke and mirrors than substance.

We just saw a piece on CNBC concerning the 'controversy' that led Lowes to pull its advertising from a Muslim show on TV because some conservative Christianist group in Florida complained. The Christianists object to Lowes 'supporting' a show that 'supports Muslim values.' The so-called expert agrees with Lowes action on the grounds that given the 'charged atmosphere' they can't communicate effectively. Problem #1: Lowes has communicated very effectively by letting the Christianists control where and with whom the company advertises. Problem #2: this was hardly a 'charged atmosphere.' We hadn't heard anything about it here. Problem #3: this reminds me all too much of the Tinky Winky controversy way back when when that idiot preacher blasted the Teletubbies because the purple, purse-wielding cartoon character supposedly fostered homosexual values. Problem #4: how many people outside the Muslim community (and the community of paranoid, bigoted Christianist community) are really watching the program?? I haven't seen the program. I don't intend to watch it. It simply doesn't interest me. For that reason I also don't watch Catholic programming, or Baptist Programming, or BET. I wonder how many Christian oriented shows Lows advertises on? Maybe the company should contact the bigots with a list and tell them that, in the interests of fairness, Lowes is pulling its advertising on those as well.

2011-12-11T06:41:00.001-06:00

Good morning to all of you out there. Let's see if there is anything worth linking to or commenting on out there.

Is anyone really surprised by this story? We are not longer the 'home of the brave and land of the free.' Instead we have traded freedom for security and, as Benjamin Franklin observed, obtained neither.

I notice the headlines are trumpeting the 'new' climate agreement as 'landmark.' I don't see it as 'new.' It is potentially new. For the most part, it appears to me, the delegates agreed to extend the Kyoto Accords for another five years. But neither of the stories I have read so far noted that the U.S. refused to ratify that treaty. The delegates hope to get a new agreement by 2020 that would be binding and have teeth. But other stories I read over the week claim that this year's emissions of greenhouse gasses set records. And that was during a year of only tepid growth at best.

John Mauldin presents a similar assessment on the news out of Europe that they have finally formulated a solution to their debt problems. They still have to hammer out the details and Britain absolutely refuses to go along. Britain is part of the EU but doesn't use the Euro currency. That may be the best decision British politicians ever made. I had a couple of thoughts on Germany's role in this. Germany can dictate terms because it is, at the moment, has the strongest economy in the area. What happens if that changes? Second thought involves the notion that the new arrangement which Mauldin says gives local politicians a way out when they have to impose austere economic measures--their hands are tied by EU regulators. I wonder how long that will last. I just had a thought--perhaps the German moves is Machiavellian with the hope of limiting their financial exposure. This BBC story reports that part of the package is designed to provide euro200 billion. Problem--what countries are strong enough to provide that money??

2011-12-10T07:45:00.001-06:00

Good morning, everyone. Nice bright sun this morning to balance temps in the mid teens. Coldest so far. But they say it will warm up over the week into the unseasonal 40s--with perhaps even a 50 late in the week. The south facing areas are clear of the snow we got Thursday night while the snow hangs on the shaded north facing areas.

Karl Deninger at the Market Ticker claims 'we no longer have a justice system.' I agree and have for a long time. I noticed how often Jon Corzine claimed that he didn't know how the sequestered funds at MG Global disappeared or where they went. The pundits said he was setting up his defense against criminal charges of embezzlement. But his ignorance leaves him open to prosecution under Sarbanes-Oxley. He and his lawyers it would seem are more confident that he won't be prosecuted under Sarbanes-Oxley and if they can preempt criminal charges he will get off scott free. How many prosecutions have been bought against mortgage originators for fraud in making loans or against services for perjury in conveying mortgages illegally or banks that illegally foreclose? The appeals court in Illinois again set aside the conviction of another man convicted of rape and murder in the 1990s even though the prosecution knew the man couldn't have committed the crime. But then our (in-)justice system has become a part of our national circus. Compared to the sensational trials of today the O.J. Simpson case was positively restrained.

2011-12-09T06:35:00.001-06:00

Good morning. We woke to a thin blanket of snow. The weather people say this is the fifth latest date for the first measurable snow fall. As usual, the traffic report show a large number of crashes as drivers re-learn how to drive in snow and ice. It is clearing now but the temperatures will stay below freezing. The blueberries have started to lose their leaves but the stems are still green and they show the beginning of new buds. The outer eaves of the lemon balm show cold stress but below those I found nice green leaves. The German thyme is as crisp and fresh as it was all summer--seems to be a very hardy plant. The roses and mum are also doing well in spite of the below freezing over night temps we have had lately.

I saw a headline with its teaser and, unfortunately, deleted the link before second thoughts came to me. According to the headline Portugal (and possibly other governments) is raiding pension funds to meet budgetary shortfalls. They speculate that the practice may move to this side of the Atlantic. Well, at the state and local level such a raiding of pension funds has been business as usual for years. Only, here the process involves governments failing to pay their contributions thereby underfunding the plans. The Federal government has taken that a bit further by giving workers a tax holiday by cutting the employee payroll tax 'temporarily.' The only senator who has called attention to the likely effect of the tax cut was Kirk of Illinois. The cut moved the time when Social Security would be drained dry up by three years. What really pricked my mind (belatedly) was the phrase that what government gives it can also take. I object to the notion that pension or health benefits are 'gifts.' Actually, those 'benefits' are deferred earnings. Workers negotiated for them as part of the compensation packages the employers agreed to. Taking them away is looting--nothing more, nothing less.

2011-12-08T06:47:00.001-06:00

Good morning to you all on this cold morning. Only about 25 degrees. Cold enough that even Kuma doesn't want to be outside more than once for a very short time. The weather people are predicting the first measurable snow of the season tonight.

Before going to on my morning trek through the internet, or those parts that interest me, I think I will rant a bit. Last night as we watched a couple of foreign news programs on PBS a commentator came on who made an observation that touched a nerve. I forget now the exact details of the story but it concerned the European efforts to reform the finances of the European Union. I think the question involved the lack of reaction on the part of the U.S. stock market to the glacial pace of the talks and the lack of results to date. The talking head wasn't surprised because Americans are more interested in Alec Baldwin's feud with American Airlines. I am one American who is totally uninterested in Alec Baldwin. In fact, I am totally disgusted with our so-called news media that focuses on creating as much controversy and drama as possible. This morning, the news reports concerned the 14-year sentence given to former Illinois governor Rod Blogojevich but most of the story involved the public's reactions. And, of course, they set up the controversy between those who feel that the sentence was too light given the extent of the corruption and those who think it was too much Blogo helped so many poor people, Blogo didn't sell drivers licenses to people who were responsible for six deaths in a horrific accident, Blogo was part of a pervasive culture of corruption which is how public business is done in Illinois. (Take your pick) But throughout the whole process from the moment Blogojevich was arrested the focus was on his flamboyant personality and his antics not on the legal and ethical issues at the heart of the affair. In both of these cases, the news media has made a self-fulfilling prophecy: that their viewers want to see the controversy and don't want the information. So what we get used to is fluff. Which is one reason I wind up turning off the (faux-)news more often. I hate digging through the crap to get the kernels of information. Well, we have the 'circuses.' I wonder if the almost one-fifth of the population getting food stamps qualifies as 'bread.'

I just turned on the news at 11 am here. And the lead again is Blogojevich and whether the sentence was appropriate. I had a bit of a thought as the reporter focused and the first interviewee keyed in on 'the apology.' The man interviewed said he just wasn't convinced by the apology. Neither was the judge. But to my mind apologies have become rather cheap. Anyone who gets caught at any misbehavior and who can't wiggle out of repercussions for it simply apologizes and expects that all will be forgiven. I am also not convinced by Blogojevich's apology. Just as I wasn't impressed by Cain's claim that he was right with his God and his wife. It is far to easy to get right with God for most of our fundamentalists--it requires nothing more than an expression of contrition. They so readily forget Christ's command after forgiveness--'go and sin no more.'

2011 has been quite a year for firsts. I linked to articles a few days ago that noted this year's drought in Northern Mexico has been the worst in at least 60 years while Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona have suffered the worst drought since record keeping began in the late 1800s. I remember linking a while ago to an account of the Eastern European drought has lowered the level of the Danube to a point where shipping has stopped. Now they say the drought is the most severe in more than 200 years. And then there is this piece of weird weather news from Scotland.

2011-12-07T06:56:00.001-06:00

Good Wednesday morning to you all. My goodness, how gloomy our skies have been of late. Yesterday the sun teased us for a brief moment before sneaking back behind clouds. We haven't had ~~any~~ much snow. I almost forgot the few light flurries yesterday. The temps were much too warm and the flakes way too few to accumulate. The plants in the outside containers are still doing well. I got the first of the seed wish books yesterday--the Baker Creek catalog. They sell a fantastic number of heirloom seeds and I have several marked for possible purchase. Gardening never really stops. If you aren't actually working in the gardens you are assessing what you did last season and planning what you want to do next season. (Hey, Hey!! We have sunshine!!

Huffington Post presents a familiar argument this morning: we would all be so much better off and more people would have jobs if only the big companies would use that mind-boggling cash reserve and hire people. Maybe--maybe not. Focusing on the cash reserves of the big multi-national companies and financial institutions ignores the other side of the problem--a consumer economy where the consumer can't consume. And it also ignores several other facts. For most of those companies, their profits don't depend as much as they once did on the U.S. markets. And those companies are more often now engaged in something other than producing tangible products or services for sale to the consuming public. Just this morning one of the big banks announced another lay in their investment division and back offices. Thanks to computerization and automation our big companies have been able to get along with far fewer workers but, contrary to the apologists for modern technology, the companies spawned by new technology never created as many jobs as were lost.

I have followed the stories, like this NY Times piece, detailing the problems of the U.S. Postal Service for some time. As usual, I have conflicting thoughts on the matter. I can't remember a time when we didn't have mail delivery six days a week. I can very well remember the time before e-mail when the only instantaneous means of communication was telephone. I can also remember a time when rural phone service was expensive and often involved party lines. On the one hand I don't much like the potential loss of mail service or the inconvenience for rural and small town people who depend on the U.S. Postal Service. They have already lost bus service and air service. On the other hand, for me, the service has become less a service and more of an annoyance. Our mail is now 90% advertising of one kind or another. And every bit of that goes directly in the trash. However, in the back of my mind, is the nagging concern about another bit of our 'infrastructure' crumbling away. And the question of whether this country is still, truly, really a 'superpower' in anything other than our possession of the most nuclear weapons in the world.

Toby Wollin at Firedoglake summarizes the Huffington Post summary of the report on the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster that has been all but forgotten by the national media. I am cynical enough that I am not at all surprised that the deaths of 29 miners as a consequence of repeated safety violations in the name of production hasn't yielded any action by our elected (mis-)representatives. They are far more interested in making our economy safe for predatory capitalism. I am not even surprised at the where number of violations. I am totally blown away by the size of the report--80,000 pages. I wonder if the verbiage is merely a means of obscuring the facts--a way of burying information in a blizzard of words.

2011-12-05T12:30:00.000-06:00

Good morning, all. Much above normal temps to start out today but falling, they say, through the day. Also some sporadic rain. No snow yet.

Hi, Kay, and I also never miss Jan's posts. Her blog is on my reading list.

Didn't have much to say yesterday. The Repthuglican circus continues. One of the clowns decided to call it quits and all of the talking heads are speculating on which of the remaining clowns will be helped most and how much. It doesn't matter to me since none of the front runners appeal to me at all.

I doubt anyone is surprised at this story. These cuts have been in the works for weeks. Some years ago relatives suggested I apply for a job with the Postal Service: good pay, good retirement, and job security. Well, at the time they weren't hiring and the ads for Postal Service jobs were posted by scammers. If the plan to close half of the processing centers comes to pass, there will be a whole lot more unemployed people.

Rick Hanauer posted a good op-ed at Bloomberg. His confession that he and others in the 1% are not the 'job creators' the Repthuglican idiots claim reflects my own thoughts. We have a consumer economy. We can set aside the argument of whether we should have such an economy for another time and simply consider the fact that, if 99% of the population can't consume, the 1% can't carry the economy.

William DeBuys posted this on Tomdspatch which should interest anyone following climate/weird weather issues. I am glad that many areas of the Southwest got rain and snow over the last month but the dry spell is no where near over. Unfortunately, in the back of my mind dwells the notion that we may be past the point of doing anything about the situation--we may have already tripped over the transition and didn't even realize it.

June Calendar at Big-70 has a comment that echoes our sentiments here. I am glad we aren't the only ones complaining about the tasteless, chemical laden crap our food industry is trying to sell us. I say 'trying' because we have gone well past the point where we ain't buying'.

To continue on the 'hell in a hand basket' theme, go to Clusterfuck Nation and read Kunstler's latest. Every time I hear some business suited idiot proclaim that business needs 'certainty' to pull the country out of the economic doldrums my cynicism starts itching. They have plenty of certainty. Not a single bankster has been prosecuted the fraud that was and is so pervasive in our financial industry has been prosecuted. And, according to 60 Minutes last night, there is plenty to prosecute. And I wonder how big the tab is really going to be in the final analysis and how much our supposedly private banks have pushed onto the public purse.

The Russian parliamentary elections have certainly turned dramatic. Putin's party got less than 50% of the vote inspire of allegations of fraud that would make an old time Chicago politician blush. The presidential elections are yet to come but, though Putin is expected to win, one has to wonder what it bodes for Russia's macho man. I wonder how one says 'vote early, vote often' in Russian.

As we listened to the report on the news this morning detailing the U.S. loss of a stealth reconnaissance drone the Iran has claimed it has recovered, I had a bit of a flash back to several stories about hacking into U.S. military systems. I wondered if somehow the drone systems had been hacked. This piece, found by way of The Agonist, quotes from an Iranian news outlet which claims that is exactly what happened. Of course we are getting information from two equally notoriously unreliable sources--the Iranians and the U.S. military.

2011-12-03T06:21:00.001-06:00

Good morning, everyone. The temps are still warmer than expected for this time of the year. Don't know how much longer that pattern will hold but I will enjoy it while it lasts. Not much longer according to the weather people.

Janinsanfran posted this. Time has done this before--presenting a perfectly innocuous and fluffy piece on the cover of the U.S. edition while putting something newsworthy on the foreign editions.

2011-12-02T07:39:00.001-06:00

Good morning, everyone. We have nice, bright sun for now after a wet night. More clouds and precipitation predicted for later and over night with possible snow over the weekend. The weather people said that November as a whole was 5 degrees above average. The plants in the gardens are still doing well though the mums and lemon balm are showing some stress from below freezing nights. The blueberries, German thyme, and roses look very good. The lawn care people came around to clean up the leaves a couple of days ago. They didn't find much on my patio. The first half of the leaves went into the compost bin and the second half I swept outside the fence gate (because I didn't have room in the compost.) Next year, if my experiment in overwintering is successful, I will use more leaves as a mulch. Didn't think of it this year because I had three packages of cedar chips.

Forbes has a good article on the Repthuglican race this morning. I don't agree with much of Ron Paul's proposals but I do think someone who hews to principle a bit refreshing. Few of them could say, as did Lillian Hellman before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, that they "cannot and will not cut my conscience to today's fashions.' They have no principles or conscience to cut. Yeah, Kay, they do make Tricky Dick look honorable.

Time leads off with the headline that the Senate approved a $662 billion defense spending bill. What is buried in the story is the fact that the bill goes another step toward creating a military/police state and the Constitution is one more step toward toilet paper status.

The economics talking heads have been enthusiastic this morning about the employment numbers just released. MSNBC posted this story. Skeptic that I am I noticed that the unemployment numbers went down because the participation rate went down. In other words, more people have left the job market. Also that a large percentage of the jobs created were in retail, restaurants and hospitality, and health care. In other words, in the areas that provide a large number of low paying jobs. And that the retail and 'hospitality' jobs are seasonal jobs. In other words, here today and gone in January. I also wonder how many are part time. The 120k jobs are nice but that doesn't even keep up with the population growth.

A couple of Indian farmers have a truly wicked sense of humor in designing their protest of allegedly corrupt tax officials. I think their 'gift' was totally appropriate.

2011-12-01T06:14:00.001-06:00

Good December to you all. Here it is the first. It seems that I was wishing you all a good November 1st just yesterday. Oh, well, 'time flies' as they say.

The evening news last night had a follow-up story to one they featured about a month ago which pitted Dr. Oz against Dr. Besser on the safety of fruit juices. Oz had just tested a limited number of samples of apple and grape juices and found a significant number of samples contained amounts of lead and arsenic that exceeded the limits allowed for tap water. Besser took vigorous issue with the results: they were too few, from a single lab, without confirming testing. And the FDA had told him that the levels found did not exceed FDA limits and that the arsenic testing did not differentiate between a harmless version of arsenic and the harmful type. Now Consumer Reports has followed up and confirmed Oz's results. Worse Besser found out that the FDA essentially lied to him--on both counts. The FDA had no guidelines covering arsenic and lead in juices and now are recommending parents limit the amount of juice kids drink. I am not really surprised about the heavy metal contamination in the juices. After all, with wide spread industrial pollution, I imagine that a lot of rural areas are affected and the plants will take up the pollutions along with water and nutrients from the soil. I have read of several of city areas that wanted to establish community gardens only to find the soil so contaminated they had to either scrape most of the soil out and replace it or use containers. The fact that concerns me is the lies from the FDA. That agency is supposed to ensure the safety of the food supply and they lie to a physician/medical reporter when he asks them for crucial information.

I notice two headlines saying Herman Cain is accusing his critics of 'character assassination.' That is funny because one would have to have character before someone could assassinate it. I see very little character in most of the Repthuglican candidates--an abundance of personality but no character.

The morning news carried a couple of repeats of the story about the former Colorado sheriff who is now locked up in the jail named for him. None of the stories gave any details beyond that little bit of irony so when I saw the link on the Political Wire I followed it. There is a lot more hilarious irony to the story. The sheriff is a Republican charged with trading drugs for sex--with a man.

2011-11-30T06:36:00.001-06:00

Hello, all, on this cold Wednesday. The temps are in the 20s but the wind chill drops that into the teens. At least the winds have died down. And the snow stayed east and north. I looked out to make sure that nothing had blown out of place and saw everything is where it belongs. The wind had the over-the-fence pot hangers swinging like pendulums with the pots inside. I have them hanging on the cross bars of the mini-greenhouse. I thought it looked like a good storage space and so it his turned out. The weather person on our local (Chicago) TV station reported that one of her regular e-mail correspondents has already figured that we have 111 days till spring. He is already tired of the cold. I look at all the moisture coming through this late in the year and figure we have worse to come.

I agree, Lois. College today is not worth the investment of time and money. But then so much of our educational system is not worth the amount of money (private and public) that has been put into it. Our local news this morning carried a snippet on a recent evaluation of Chicago's charter schools and it wasn't good. The way our Federal Secretary of Education and various politicians at all levels of government have touted charter schools you would think they were the magical road to educational success. I think the key word there is 'magical.' The students at most of those charter schools scored no better than the students in the regular public school system and those in at least half a dozen did significantly worse. No panacea there. You may be right and a system of apprenticeship programs would be more effective.

Tom Englehardt has a nicely satirical piece by Steve Fraser that touches on most of the ills of modern society dominated as it is by predatory capitalism. Englehardt's intro is as entertaining as Fraser's article. And both are absolutely right--this system is rapidly consuming our dreams, our futures, and our children. I find it amazing that most of us would find cannibalism abhorrent unless we are talking about fiscal and psychic cannibalism.

Just glanced at the list of items on my Google alert page for 'drought.' I noticed on which claims that the drought in Texas is now the worst on record since records began in 1895. That means it beats the benchmark most of us use--the Dust Bowl. And the recent rains, though welcome, missed many of the hardest hit regions and much, much more is needed to provide real relief. I couldn't read the article because it was taken down by the time I found the link. Mexico, especially northern Mexico, is suffering the worst drought in 60 years. That isn't good for two reasons: Mexico is the world's fifth largest supplier of corn and many of the early veggies for the American market come from Northern Mexico. And to make matters worse many crucial reservoirs are at 30-40% of their normal levels which means water is going to be a scarce commodity this coming season. And the lower Danube in eastern Europe is at its lowest level since 2003.

Leigh at 5 Acres and a Dream has a good post this morning that crystallizes many thoughts I have had over recent years. I grew up at a time when debt had become an 'investment' in the future that would be paid off from future financial gains. I never really fell for the notion of debt as 'wealth' that has come to dominate much of high finance. But debt is, as we have increasingly found out over the last 20 years, a drain on our futures. Debt-as-investment relies on trust: the trust that future will be more prosperous and the debtor can pay off the debt. Anyone who has that kind of trust now is either extraordinarily lucky or extraordinarily oblivious. I also grew up with the notion of insurance as a good form of protection against catastrophe: a breadwinner dying unexpectedly, a car damaged, a house destroyed, an unpredictable major medical problem. But I have questioned it more of late. We have renter's insurance and there are clauses I simply can't understand. Some seem to contradict others. And I have seen too many people who thought they had coverage for whatever disaster they encountered and discovered they did not. As far as medical insurance--I believe the pervasiveness (until a couple of years ago when so many lost benefits) has been a major factor in the increase in medical costs. The people who receive the medical services do not pay for those services directly and have no incentive to incorporate economics into their decisions. The doctors and hospitals provide services but bill the insurance companies whose deep pockets make it all too tempting to inflate the costs for a higher return. The insurance companies pay but have no real gauge of how effective or efficient the services provided really are. Disconnect on all levels. And again much depends on trust--the trust that the treatment is really worth the cost. I don't have that much trust in the medical establishment. And on the notion of retirement instruments--that also depends on trust that the money will be there when one retires. And I don't have any faith beyond when I see my next check has been deposited.

2011-11-29T06:25:00.001-06:00

Good Tuesday morning to you all. Wet this morning. The weather people say we may get 1 to 2 inches of snow but I don't really expect it. East of us will get that but the system appears to be fizzling out before it reaches us. We were surprised when the sun came out for a bit yesterday afternoon.

Oh, yeah, Kay. I think we must be founding members of the 'I'm staying home on Black Friday Club.' And I would love to see the bought congress critters get tossed out in sufficient numbers to do some good. I would love to see the so-called 'safe districts' most of them (mis-)represent suddenly become totally unsafe and up for grabs. And one piece of good news from the morning broadcast: the recall movement in Wisconsin has more than half of the signatures needed with a month and a half to go. Maybe Walker will be a half-term governor.

I don't know how often I watched news that someone (usually the Germans and the French) had come up with a solution to the sovereign debt problem and that story alone caused an orgiastic buying frenzy on the stock markets. Then suddenly some bright person discovered that the 'solution' was anything but and the markets sold off. This little piece from Zero Hedge puts a bit of light on the darker possibilities.

I am about two-thirds through Michael Lewis' Boomerang and it is a fascinating take on the financial meltdown as it manifested in Europe. It is a fascinating read and I highly recommend it. I can summarize it so far in a few short sentences. The Icelandic bankers borrowed foreign money to buy foreign assets which they then sold to each other at inflated prices giving the appearance of fantastic prosperity. The Irish bankers borrowed foreign money to buy Irish assets that they sold to each other at inflated prices or loaned to land developers who built overpriced homes and commercial property. The Greek government borrowed foreign money to support inflated government expenditures and inefficiency. And then Lewis presents the German situation. The sober German bankers, who would never have approved such loans to German customers in Germany, provided the foreign money that fueled the debt frenzy. I find it amusing that the Germans are now insisting that their frugal ways be adopted by the spendthrift peoples of the European periphery when part of the problem was the much-less-than-frugal actions of their bankers.

I found this Psychopathic Economics 101 post both apt and amusing. Is your house insured?? Against what dangers??

2011-11-28T06:38:00.001-06:00

Good morning, all. We had rain yesterday with falling temps. For the week it will be cool and wet with some snow possible. But then it is the last week of November. The rain should end later today for a bit so we should be able to get out weekly shopping done without getting wet.

I saw a snippet of this story on the morning broadcast news but no details. The reporter did say that the total (for now) was $1.2 trillion. What wasn't said was how many big FOREIGN banks got our money. That is one aspect that pisses me off. Another is the fact that these are private businesses whose risks (and costs) have been shifted from them to the private sector to the taxpayers. So a significant portion of the bailout went to foreign private businesses which simply compounds my disgust. And the Federal Reserve and the banks fought tooth and nail to keep the details secret. Once upon a time, we were told that a democracy required an educated and informed electorate. Another indication that democracy is functionally dead no matter the pronouncements of our political class. Firedoglake also points out that the Fed earmarked $7.7 Billion to rescue the financial sector or 11 times the amount of TARP. These are mind boggling numbers. And I have to ask a question that has come to mind frequently over the last four years: when is the red ink so deep that there is not enough money in the world to wipe it out? And when do the printing presses break down from a long period of excessive use?

The New York Times posted this article which reflects many of the conclusions I have come to over the last decade. They still tell us that a college degree is the way to a comfortable middle class life. But I noticed nearly ten years ago that blanket prescription had a lot of holes in it. It depends upon the subject, the school, the connections the student has, and other factors as well. For many they will never recoup the cost of their education. Furthermore, many graduates will find that the career they trained for has been eliminated by technology. The pundits used to tell us that technology created as many jobs as it erased. That was a lie. Combine that trend with government policies and globalization and you get the current split between low level jobs they used to describe as 'entry level' and upper level professional jobs with no bridge between.

The news readers tell us that Black Friday sales set records. The first question in my mind was how much was on credit and how many of those consumers will file for bankruptcy in January or February. It is amazing how many of our pundits are almost orgasmic over the sales figures as though it really signals an economic revival.

2011-11-26T06:32:00.001-06:00

Good morning, all. Well, Black Friday is gone and we now have Small Business Saturday. Then, of course, after a brief respite for Sunday (once a day of rest), we will get Cyber Monday. Lovely, we have almost wiped out Thanksgiving and in its place have three shopping holidays. Perhaps we should have expected that development given that the economy is 60+% consumer driven. I wondered this morning if we would soon see a 'Consumerist' Advent Calendar. You remember this calendars with little windows and you opened one each day leading to Christmas? Well, soon after that thought I saw the new Wal-Mart commercial which touts 'Cyber Week.'

The news talking heads are still talking about the stupid idiot who pepper sprayed others in line to get an X-box. Really??? An X-Box?? If I were starving I might do that to make sure I (or my family) got food but an X-Box?? But I am really offended by the attention this a$$ got from the media. And I can't even express my disgust with the ones who brought guns and knives.

But then insanity seems to pervade our lives. Consider this story. Corporate tax rates both too high and too low? Well, I guess a company would find it worth while to have a tax corporation charging them millions if that company can create a 57k page return and reduce the tax burden on $14 billion in profits to zero.

2011-11-25T06:36:00.001-06:00

Good morning to you all. And no I am not shopping today. I have never engaged in the Black Friday madness. If I were still giving Christmas gifts as I did ten years ago, I would probably have finished it already. But I soured on the consumerist version of Christmas long ago. However, one holiday at a time--I hope your Thanksgiving was pleasant and satisfying. Ours was. We joined my sister and her partner for dinner. Our brother and sister-in-law, nephew and his daughters joined us. It was a nice gathering: good company and good food.

Just when I think I have heard a story that illustrates how low we have fallen as a civilized society another pops up that has me shaking my head in disbelief. Like this one.

As many of you may realize, I am an extreme skeptic on anything political and I think with good reason. I always have questions in my mind when I read political articles and blog and take any pronouncements with a ton, rather than a pinch, of salt. This Burning Platform post indicates why. I never now whether those idiots are talking about real absolute cuts in the total spending or just a reduction in the increase in total spending. One would think that the automatic 'cuts' required with the failure of the (faux)-supercommittee would reduce our troops to eating dog food and fighting with broken bows from the bleating coming from Leon Panetta's mouth.

We have all said that the weather has been weird this year and the year isn't over yet. Check this out.

2011-11-24T06:35:00.001-06:00

Good morning, everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you all have a lovely day with friends and family.

2011-11-23T06:32:00.001-06:00

Good morning, all, on this day before Thanksgiving. We have a couple of errands to do today but otherwise it should be an easy day. Not that any of our days are hard or rushed. In fact, we refuse to be rushed. It makes life so much easier and controls the blood pressure.

This story sums up the mishigas of the (not-so-)supercommittee. Most had little hope that it would really succeed in the first place but are disappointed anyway. Many of us feel a strange combination of disappointment and relief: disappointment that these morons couldn't come to a compromise and relief that they didn't come to a compromise that would severely shred what is left of our social safety net while giving the wealthy another free pass. I understand the rationale for the committee. After all, a similar committee managed to reduced the number of military bases in the U.S. after congress failed to deal with the matter. But the very different result this time reveals just how broken the entire system is; and that is reflected by the comments of those who find their faith in the system seriously challenged. Phil at Phil's Favorites has some wonderfully biting comments on both the failure of the committee and on the current Repthuglican Scrooge-like attitude towards anyone not in the upper 1% or associated with a defense contractor.

2011-11-22T06:48:00.001-06:00

Good morning to you all. We did get a bit of sun yesterday--enough to tease. They say rain today but sun for the next three. Good. That covers the holiday when we will be driving over to my sister's for dinner. Hope the weather is good for your holiday.

The news said that the Republicans have another (the 11th they say though it seems they have had 1000 or more) 'debate' tonight. I am using quotation marks because the candidates don't really disagree on much of anything--except which of them should be the nominee. I saw a cute cartoon yesterday which showed a pair of Republican voters looking at three little scaly creatures (one labeled Newt). One comments: 'Great!! We have a choice between a newt, a chameleon, and a horny toad.' That about sums it up.

I am totally amused by all of the talking heads and Repthuglicans blaming Obama for the failure of the not-so-Supercommittee. He, they say, should have inserted himself directly in the process and got this thing done. Point one: that is not the job of the President. It is the job of the legislative branch of the government to propose and pass legislation, particularly budgetary bills. The President can propose and can push for his pet projects which Obama has done. Point two: even if Obama had taken a more active role there is no guarantee he would have gotten a deal. The committee was created out of an ongoing stalemate that, in the end, doomed the committee itself. Remember the debt ceiling debate? The formation of the committee did absolutely nothing to change that dynamic.

However, this story indicates that the impasse might actually accomplish what the committee was supposed to do and do it better, or at least produce deeper cuts in the deficit sooner. I noticed the 'Catch-22' in the story, however. In a recessionary economy where the consumer isn't consuming to the same heroic extent as in the recent past and business is sitting on as much of their cash as possible, government spending is the only factor keeping it from sliding from recession into depression. The cuts will probably result in a further deterioration of the economy. Damned if you do; damned if you don't. But I hope Obama keeps his pledge to veto any measure each party's partisans have been floating to reduce the impact on their pet programs and thereby evading the repercussions of their failure.

I sympathize with you completely on the effect of the do-nothing committee on the blood pressure. I think that is why I have taken to limiting my exposure to the broadcast media news. I keep wondering how those talking heads can 'report' on the clowns and keep a straight face. And I am not talking about 'ha ha' funny. It is more of an 'I can't believe that moron really said that.'

My aren't we such a shining example to the world!!! I can't say more without raising my blood pressure to dangerous levels and with out becoming totally and profanely incoherent.

2011-11-21T07:55:00.001-06:00

Good morning to you all. We have sun!! At least for a while. We are supposed to get rain later this evening.

I am a bit conflicted about snow, Kay. I don't like the notion of having to shovel out the patio or driving in the mess but I also would like a nice blanket of snow to further insulate my containers. Well, ready or not it will come and probably not in a convenient quantity.

I am not surprised about the failure of the Occupy movement to take off where you are. I haven't seen any here either. But then the Tea Party never took off in my area. I saw only one of those demonstrations here. I noticed a story on this morning's Good Morning, America that covered a 'backlash' anti-Occupy demonstration in the Northwest (sorry, I forgot exactly where). I was cynically amused by one of the signed which objected to the annoyance of the Occupy demonstration. So Americans now seem to want dissent so long as they are not in any way inconvenienced. I was also somewhat amused by the continued criticism that the Occupy movement has no real expressed demands. They have about as many specific demands as the Tea Party. What these two movements tell me is that the whole damned system is broken. In other words, specific demands make sense when a bit of tinkering will remedy problems but when the entire system is broken a bit of tinkering simply won't cure the situation. And a good many of us will be more than annoyed by that process.

I absolutely love the title on this article. That (not-so-)Supercommittee was indeed an end-run around democracy. But then, perhaps, we should get used to this tactic. After all, we saw the same thing in Greece and Italy where 'technocrat' (non-elected, non-politician economicst) governments were installed because the politicians (who depend on voters' approval) couldn't do what is being demanded of the without committing political suicide. I also saw a story over the weekend that claims that Angela Merkel was at odds with David Cameron (Germany and England, respectively) over whether a referendum on certain aspects of the EU treaties should be held. She thought not (as she also did with respect to the proposed referendum on Greek austerity). I said when the Greek drama was going on that the governments of Europe (and elsewhere) are in favor of democracy in theory but not in fact.

2011-11-20T07:20:00.001-06:00

Good morning, everyone. It was so dismal yesterday. Cloudy all day and no rain at all to show for it. Today is starting out the same way. So far, thankfully, the real cold and snow has stayed north. I am not really ready for winter. Thursday and Friday (Thanksgiving and day after) are supposed to be in the high 50s or low 60s and sunny. Time to give the plants outside a good watering.

I can only hope the fears expressed in this article comes to pass. I also am very amused to see how differently the these guys view the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street protests. I don't remember any misgivings expressed when Repthuglicans embraced the Tea Party.

This is a some pile of tires--visible from space they say. And it is smaller than a pile found in the 1990s.

2011-11-19T07:53:00.001-06:00

Good morning, everyone. Not much to say on the garden or needlework. I noticed some ice in the cedar shavings I have as mulch in the containers. Another sign that the winter is coming. We had some flurries early last but not accumulation.

CNN had this story yesterday and I notice the local news decided it was news worthy this morning. The FBI and Homeland Security are investigating, and the attack came through an internet provider in Russia which means nothing much.

2011-11-18T06:33:00.001-06:00

Good morning on this chilly Friday. We expect high winds and the weather reports carried the 'wind chill' as well as the expected temperatures which will probably stay in the 40s. I checked the plants outside yesterday and found the edges are beginning to freeze. I may need to water them later.

CNN had a teaser for a new show that details the problems of drawing voting district lines. That is a hot topic since the census. Republicans in normally Democratic states, like Illinois, are up in arms because the redistricting favors the majority Democrats while the Democrats in normally Republican states, like Texas, are howling for the mirror image complaint. The talking heads discussed the strange boundaries in Chicago where the boundaries were drawn, they claim, to protect Democratic politicians. Problem: I remember when the first of those boundaries were drawn way back in the early 1970s often by court order to remedy a situation where black votes were diluted because they were split among several white majority districts. That doesn't even take into account the Asian and Hispanic voters. I don't know which is fairer.

Another CNN piece annoyed me. They interviewed a black Republican legislator (I don't know if he was a Senator or Representative because I missed the identifier) who touted the Repthuglican position of massive cuts in spending coupled with restructuring the tax code to lower the rates so the 1% pay less. He bleated pitifully about the '47% who don't pay Federal taxes.' Well at least he specified Federal taxes as opposed to local and state taxes of which they pay a larger percentage. Problem: many don't pay because they don't earn enough to pay after the deductions are taken off. So somehow it is more reprehensible for a person who earns say $42k a year to take off the standard deduction for self, spouse, and children plus the mortgage deduction and any others they may be entitled to take and find that their net income is so low that they aren't required to pay than those companies who manage to reduce their tax bite to the point where they pay their CEO more than they return to the treasury??? By the way, the $42k is just about the average yearly income in this country. The median income? That is about $25k. Why do I bring that up. Well the median is the point at which half of the data points (in this case people and their yearly income) fall below and half below. Of that 47% who don't pay Federal taxes how many fall below that $25k line?? Also consider the fact that the 2011 poverty line for a family of four was set at just a bit over $22k.

Firedoglake has this assessment of the not-so-Supercommittee and its likely output. I find it amazing that the ratings agencies and the snews media have been so silent on this matter.

2011-11-16T06:36:00.001-06:00

Good morning to you all. There wasn't much to say yesterday. Let's see what I find today.

Well, I checked the lemon verbena yesterday. It has been going down hill rapidly over the last week. I don't know why but the root system was dying. The soil was moist so I don't think it was the watering. My books say it likes moist soil. I will have to do some research. Next year I will start with a new plant and try the process again. Everything else is still doing well.

They had a bit of a story this morning about a Target employee who has started an on-line petition against Target's plans to open at midnight on Black Friday. I totally agree but I doubt my agreement will do much. I don't shop on the Friday after Thanksgiving. In fact, I don't shop the whole weekend. Nor do I shop on Christmas Eve. I hate crowds and, having spent way too much time in retail, I seriously question the veracity of the 'sales.' And I absolutely hate how our holidays have degenerated into sales opportunities.

Another story rather irritated me. Some perky financial reporter gushed about the fact that 2 states posted unemployment rates that matched pre-recession levels and the at the others could expect to reach that mile stone by 2012. We are supposed to be happy that in five more years we might get back to about a 5% unemployment rate?? That, of course, assumes that Europe doesn't go any further down the sewer and drag us with it.

One of the last of the Munchkins from the 1939 Wizard of Oz has died at the grand old age of 93.

2011-11-14T06:34:00.001-06:00

Good morning to you all. I can hardly believe that it is already half past November. Mom just pulled out her stock of Christmas cards to see if she has enough to cover this year's list. She doesn't mail them till after December 1, but that isn't that far away. We have a bit of a warm spell. Yesterday was in the mid 60s. Today and tomorrow are forecast to be near 60. I did get the leaves swept up into my compost bin before the wind picked up.

The mainstream picked up on this story--briefly. I don't know why we should be surprised. After all these guys and gals are just following in footsteps of Boss Tweed 130 or so years ago. Isn't it nice to be able to exempt yourself from the laws others have to follow? However, as this story proves, we have to be careful about slinging around accusations. And, it seem, we can't trust the news media to get the facts straight. I don't much like Boehner but I don't want to see the man pilloried for something he didn't do.

And while they play the market with what amounts to insider information, we pay them $174K/year for a part-time gig and they produce this cockamamie do nothing notion. So the less-than-Supercommittee agrees on revenue enhancing 'targets' by the Nov. 23 deadline and then refer the details to the regular congressional committees. Those committees then have to somehow, magically produce legislation that will pass both the committees and congress with a house controlled by Repthuglican/Tea Partiers. Like that is going to happen!!!

2011-11-13T06:45:00.001-06:00

Good morning, all. We have a wind warning today. I thought I heard it pick up last night. That takes a bit out of the warmer temperatures expected today. I have to sweep another bunch of leaves but that will wait until another day when the wind is calm and everything has dried out a bit. The patio is a bit wet so we got some rain last night with more later.

We just turned off the TV and put in The Fellowship of the Ring. We will make it a Lord of the Rings day. Mom asked if I didn't want to finish off Good Morning America but I really don't. I am rather ticked off with the news media generally. I didn't see the Repthuglican debate last night but I am not surprised by the reports of what was said. We haven't even extricated ourselves from Afghanistan and Iraq and these idiots think we should go into Iran to keep them from building a nuclear weapon. And they all endorse torture. Instead of focusing on those issues the blathering idiots moved on to whether Rick Perry could recover from his gaff last Wednesday. They glided over the issues of Iran, nuclear weapons, and torture as though they were inconsequential. What does it say about us that the press lets pass the moral obscenity of a bunch of 'serious' candidates for 'leader of the free' world get a pass on advocating war and torture? I will take honest entertainment over entertainment dressed up as news any day.

The news readers did notice that the price of Thanksgiving dinner has gone up and that gas is expected to pass $4/gal (again) by spring. That, however, is hardly news to those of us who visit the grocery stores on a regular basis. Or who have watched the prices at the gas stations. This Washington Post story headline tells us that the Thanksgiving dinner has increased 13% over last year. But, of course, the government has massaged the inflation data to minimize the effect of food and energy in the calculation.

Well, China has certainly come a long way in a short time. The first cohort of only children have come of age and many don't want more than one child themselves. In some cases they don't want any. I have read some reports that indicate serious social problems from the first iteration of the one child policy: serious shortage of marriageable women, serious problems with an elder generation without many social supports. Anybody want to conduct a thought experiment where this is headed?

And considering where things are headed is exactly what this opinion piece posted this morning is all about. I like the notion of tangible assets.

I have seen stories like this one for a couple of years now. It is rather unsettling because it is so reminiscent of stories out of the 1920s and 1930s and the Nazi rise to power.

2011-11-12T06:26:00.001-06:00

Good morning, all. It is starting cold but sunny. They say, however, that clouds will increase later this afternoon. Supposed to have warmer temps--high 50s or low 60s. I got the last of my dried herbs ground yesterday. Plenty of oregano, rosemary, ginger mint, lemon balm, and lemon verbena until next season. Mom was able to smell the lemon verbena as soon as I opened the baggie. I love the smell of the herbs.

This surprised me. Since when do we expect truth in political ads? (Yeah, that is sarcasm.) I wish I could believe that this would mark a real change in politics but the ad is still running in other areas.

I notice that the MF Global scandal has, for the most part, disappeared from the broadcast media--even the financial media. I continue to follow it in comments on the blogosphere like this post at Jesse's Cafe Americain. The story confirms several of my own assessments of the American financial system. First, the vast majority of us are outsiders in a system that really only works for insiders. Second, most of it is just a vast casino and we are not the house. And, as everyone knows, the house always wins in the end. Third, the rules don't apply to the well connected movers and shakers. Bernie Madoff is only the exception that proves the point. I doubt we will see any prosecutions for the MF Global mess and very little of the missing funds (if any) will be recovered. And then there is this indication of just how classy the new management (the bankruptcy trustee) is--but then termination by e-mail or news report seems to be the norm now-a-days. (And, yes, that was also sarcasm.)

Here is one for the 'what's old is new again' file.

I rather like this article. Since Alabama passed its restrictive immigration law the field hands (mostly Hispanic and, many, illegal have disappeared. The farmers can't find Americans willing to do the work. The author notes the most commonly accepted syllogism: there are jobs available but they are dirty jobs; Americans won't take those jobs even in hard times; therefore, Americans are too soft to do those jobs. But, he also notes that there are plenty of 'dirty' jobs that Americans are very willing to take. But those jobs differ from the agricultural jobs in that they pay better and most have benefits attached. Perhaps American business, including agricultural business, does need a new business model; one that respects the workers who do the work by providing a living wage and benefits.

Something went click as I was perusing the internet news and commentary this morning. The thought crystalized when I saw this story about the Penn State scandal and this one about the disciplining of SEC employees for their parts in the Madoff scandal. In each case the miscreants got away with their crimes for so long because they are 'like us.' Sandusky and Madoff both had sterling reputations with only a few seeing and taking seriously the warning signs. However, the failure of those individuals and of the institutions that should have investigated and taken action chips away at our faith both in the possibility of individual ethics and institutional integrity. I wondered as I watched the news coverage if the rage displayed by the rioting students wasn't in part the result of loss of trust in a formerly trusted person and institution. Unfortunately, those ethical, moral, and, often, legal failures are occurring much too frequently.

Those blasted Repthuglican a$$holes in Ohio must be powered by the Energizer Bunny. They never quit.

2011-11-11T07:19:00.001-06:00

Good morning to you all on this bright, sunny but cold Friday. Temperature at about 30 degrees. Everything outside doing well so far. The blueberries have developed a red tinge but they are doing very well. I have high hopes for next year. The mums, roses, lemon balm, thyme are all looking very good. Still have a couple of blossoms on the roses and the mums are doing very nicely.

I have already turned off the tv news. They are giving way too much attention to Perry's 'brain freeze.' I have already received all the information I care to get on the Penn State child rape scandal. It is in the legal system now and that is where I leave it.

Huffington Post has a good article on unemployment benefits and the big banks. I have some experience with prepaid debit cards and unemployment because that is how I got my meager benefits the couple of months I qualified for them a while back. I don't know what company serviced the card though it wasn't JPMorgan. But I do remember the contortions I had to go through to avoid fees. I couldn't make more than four withdrawals per month and there were fees for using the wrong ATMs. I was able to avoid the whole thing by transferring all of the money at once to my bank checking account. But if I hadn't had that account somebody would have been raking in a slice of what little I got. Unfortunately, this set up is good for two of the three parties involved. States get someone else administering the program and have eliminated the cost of paper checks. The banks get a fee from the state for administering the program and get the fees from the unemployed as well. What is worse I don't know if the first person featured in the article would do any better getting a checking account because many banks are phasing out the free checking services so, if her balance dipped below what ever amount the bank set, she will be assessed a fee. Damned if you do; damned if you don't.

I don't think it is any kind of an accident that at the same time increasing numbers of this kind of report are appearing that the oil and gas industry are stepping up their ad campaigns emphasizing the environmental safety of their processes.

2011-11-10T09:24:00.000-06:00

Good morning and, oh boy!, did we get wind yesterday. Supposed to have more high winds later today. A number of the trees that had kept their leaves so far were stripped bare. When things dry out I have a nice lot of leaves to sweep up into my compost bin. I will have to press the last batch down a bit to make room. The temps reached 32 or 33 degrees last night and we expect temps a bit lower tonight. But all the outside plants are still doing well. Kuma isn't at all happy--I refused to let him out. He may have a fur coat but I don't. My quick excursion to check on the plants lasted a whole 30 seconds.

The news media has spent a good bit of time on the Rick Perry gaff on the 'debate' last night. All of it has been focused on how well this candidate would do in negotiations with foreign leaders if he can't even remember the three departments of government he would eliminate if he were elected. My problem is more with the departments he would eliminate. If I remember the Constitution, the management and regulation of interstate commerce is a mandated responsibility for the Federal government. It seems logical to me that you would need a department of commerce to do that. I don't have a problem with a 'brain freeze,' as one commentator called it. I do have a problem with a candidate who doesn't seem to know the responsibilities of the level of government to which he aspires.

Matt Browner Hamlin at Americablog brings up another point that has been in the back of my mind but which no moderator at any of the debates have bothered to ask: what about the effect of any of the various programs and proposals on people--the people who work with or depend on the programs affected to begin with. But then they may be just as blind as Joe Walsh was when he was asked by a reporter about the people who would be left without jobs if his plan to substantially reduce the Postal Service went into effect: he didn't care about government jobs only private sector jobs. These guys simply don't believe that government jobs are 'real' jobs. But no one is telling them--to their faces-that they are full of bull crap.

I read this story and had a bit of mental whip lash. I thought I remembered a story on our nightly news showing dramatic pictures of sedated rhinos being transported by helicopter upside down tethered by their feet. But, I wondered, how can they transport extinct animals and I was sure the story mentioned black rhinos. Well, I don't , thankfully, have incipient Alzheimer's. According to Wikipedia there were four subspecies of black rhinoceros and the Western subspecies was recently declared extinct. But there are three others.

I have been reading about this mess for a bit better than a year now. Anyone surprised by the filing hasn't been paying attention. Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone has another story that goes into more of the sordid history. This one has everything required of a good soap opera (except the sordid love angle): crooked politicians, greedy banks pushing credit default swaps, and screwed taxpayers.

We had a bit of a laugh here yesterday as we watched the CNBC commentators as the stock markets did their swan dive. What is so funny about a market melt down, you wonder? Well one talking head wondered why the markets were so gloomy. After all Greece was in the process of setting up a new government and replacing Papandreu. Italy was finally getting rid of Berlusconi. Both of those moves had to be good news. Just then I quipped that the traders had 'sobered up,' remembering Bushie's description of Wall Street in the aftermath of that collapse. And another of the pundits replied, as though reading my mind but want to be nicer about it, said that reality had set in. And then went on to ask, as I have been here in our living room, whether any change of government can really help the situation. For me the question is rhetorical--I doubt anything can really help. It needs time. The pundits haven't got to that stage yet; but they, at least some, are asking the question.

John McCain is, according to Reuters, again predicting the rise of a third party as Americans become more disenchanted with the current two. Well we already have other parties (Libertarian, Green, Socialist, et al.,) but none have been able to command the loyalty of enough voters to challenge the Repthuglicans and Damnocrats. We have had a few examples in our history when a large enough third party has done just that. In the 1840s and 1850s the Republican Party (now degenerated to Repthuglicans) entered the political arena to contest elections with the Whig and Democratic parties. They eventually replaced the Whigs and, thanks to a Democratic party divided along a North/South axis, put Lincoln in the White House in 1860. The populists of the late 19th century we never able to overcome internal splits (east-west/urban-rural) but did cause some concern for the Republican and Democratic organizations. The Progressives were also a bit of a challenge around the turn of the 20th century but by about 1920 the movement had dismantled and absorbed with the business oriented Progressives going to the Republicans and the more liberal and labor oriented going to the Democrats. I wouldn't mind seeing a viable third party develop; I just wouldn't want the history of the 1840s and 50s resurrected today. That was way too messy.

Several people have reposted this story, or linked to it, over the last week. I haven't commented or linked to it because it takes a bit to get through the charts. But I think I can simplify it from my own experience. As some readers may remember, I am one of those highly over-educated people who have dived into several disciplines. In the course of my academic life I have a lot of biology courses including some in microbiology. One of the first things micro students see is a lovely little bell curve describing the growth of bacteria in a fresh medium. Those look just like those Hubbert used to describe peak oil production. (And note: he correctly predicted both peak American production and peak world production. World oil production has been flat for the last 6 years inspire of the price spikes and falls.) The author notes Hubbert's criticism of our industrial society--it depends on continued growth. And growth in our economy has been following a bell curve pattern. It is approaching exponential growth for a brief time and the fall can't be far off. As pointed out, nothing in nature (no system, no population, no resource) grows at an exponential rate for very long. Only with pure numbers can one work with an exponential curve. But the numbers don't reflect physical reality. That is something our politicians either don't know or can't admit. Perhaps you are ahead of me on this one. We are in a box: our system requires continued growth for stability but we obviously aren't growing. If Greece, Italy, Spain, and other of the PIIGS can't grow how are they going to solve their debt problem? Worse, the latest info (at least some of it) shows that Germany and China are also slowing down. How are the saviors going to save themselves?

2011-11-09T15:14:00.000-06:00

Good morning, all, and it is a very good morning in spite of the leaden skies and heavy rain. Why, you wonder? Because Ohio's voters handed the Repthuglicans an big defeat. Read all about it here. Perhaps democracy isn't as dead as the Repthuglican a$$holes would like it to be. Also, the electorate rejected the "personhood" amendment to the Mississippi constitution. Christianist a$$holes pushed that one. CNN has the story here.

We had a three hour interruption in cable and internet. Finally, we seem to have everything back. We did get some dusting done (which we really needed to do) and I got my paper garden journal caught up.

Our town had some city elections yesterday. The incumbent Republican won and with my vote. Notice I used the term Republican not Repthuglican. Mom remarked that he didn't seem to have much competition as the 68% return indicates. At least our incumbent has a good and visible track record. The streets are finally getting repaired and several areas that were badly run down have been given nice facelifts. But throughout the so-called campaign the challengers simply didn't seem to put any effort into getting out the vote. No fliers, no publicized meetings, no meet-and-greets that we were aware of. Nothing that would induce us to vote for them.

Robert Reich presented a notion I can agree with: a corporate pledge of allegiance. I also like the notion that, if corporations are persons, they should be subject to a corporate death penalty for certain crimes--negligence that results in death, manufacturing defective products that result in death, producing contaminated foods that result in death, releasing pollutants that seriously impact the health of large numbers of people. And lesser crimes should result in serious economic penalties not slaps on the corporate wrists.

2011-11-08T11:07:00.000-06:00

Good morning to everyone out there. We didn't get the low 30s predicted for last night. The weather people have moved that to later in the week. Right now the temps are in the mid 50s with fog. Rainy and miserable for the most part.

Is anyone else as tired of Herman Cain as I am? The focus on sexual impropriety would be tragic if the man had any really good ideas on the economy. He doesn't. I could ignore the whole thing if it was only one woman but now we have four two of whom received settlements, one of which was equal to one year's pay. I am beginning to see a pattern. I wasn't inclined to support Cain before but I am certainly not interested in what the man is selling now.

I read something yesterday concerning Rick Perry's claims to be a lean, mean job creating machine. He proudly touts the 1 million jobs 'created' in Texas during his governorship. The article (sorry I didn't keep the link) notes that during that same time the U.S. as a whole lost 2 million and most of the jobs 'created' in Texas came from companies Perry's administration had lured in from other states. That is why the word 'created' is in Texas were actually lost in other states. In other words, Texas poached on other states. I wish someone would ask Perry how he can replicate that on a national level. Trying to lure companies back from overseas will be difficult without slashing worker's pay by half, allowing the companies to pollute the environment with impunity, and escape any responsibility for worker health and safety. I don't think that is an acceptable trade off.

2011-11-07T11:35:00.000-06:00

Good Monday morning to you all. Overcast with possible rain. And for tomorrow as well. The weather people say we may get below freezing temps overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. I have carefully checked the plants that I have still in the outside containers. They all are doing well so far. As is everything inside. I recently repotted the mints. I may do the bay soon also. We'll see.

Anyone who has visited this blog for any length of time know that I have several recurrent questions when it comes to our economic mess. One, frequently asked when massive numbers of workers were losing their jobs and those who managed to keep theirs did so by accepting lower hourly pay (or salaries), so-called furlough days, loss of benefits and other economic losses, asked when is something indistinguishable from nothing. Now, according to this story in the New York Times, Greeks may be asking the same thing about their membership in the European Union and participation in the Euro. And the big economic story this morning, as Greece goes to the back burner to simmer, involves Italy and the future of Berlusconi. The most interesting quip that came out on that issue over the weekend was that "Italy is too-big-to-fail but also too-big-to-bail." Sounds like a no-win situation.

This seems to be a day for the New York Times. Here is another article that says some interesting things about the U.S. economy and asks a question that isn't often heard today--Can politicians really create jobs? And, clearly, the politicians don't want to answer the question honestly because then we don't have any real reason to vote for any of them.

I agree with Millie at My Mom's Blog--this is the way to follow a doctor's advice.

2011-11-06T11:26:00.000-06:00

Hello, everyone. Let's see what is happening on the internet today.

The first item is the coverage one of the local TV stations gave to Bank Transfer Day. I don't know whether they wanted to blunt the news or if they wanted to appear 'fair and balanced' but they managed to give as much time to customers who weren't moving their money while generally muddling the message of the customers who were transferring their money. They did manage to get in the statistics I was reading yesterday--some 650k people transferred their money in the last month.

Well, this is the fourth earthquake in Oklahoma in the last two days and, according to report, the strongest since they started keeping records. Thankfully, no serious injuries. Update: broadcast news says they had another 4.7 after the 5.6. That makes five.

The commentators were almost orgasmic over the 80k new jobs reported this last week. However, I think this story gives a good balance to that enthusiasm. I seem to remember a report a couple of months ago claiming that as many as 1.5 million long term unemployed would exhaust their benefits in the first two months of next year. I also heard a report, not repeated since, that some 30k of those 80k new hires were people who got second jobs.

Just had a thought on the topic of contradictory information. Last week CNBC had an interview with the CEO of Starbucks who was overjoyed by the fall in coffee prices. That came just after we decided to buy two 34.5 oz cans of coffee on sale for $6.99 because all the other coffee was 33 oz for $13.99. That last is becoming the norm. Considering what I have read about the coffee harvest projection which were down thanks to weather extremes, I think our experience more accurately reflects reality. But then confirming the stories with trustworthy sources is difficult and there was mention of speculators whose influence on the markets all the way down to the consumer has been debated with no resolution. But the bottom line is, who do you trust on anything? I have no idea.

Here is another entry in the 'we bailed them out and they shafted us' file. We don't really have capitalism in any classic sense. Adam Smith and John Locke are probably spinning in their graves. We have predatory capitalism and we are the prey. I agree with the sentiment one of the bloggers expressed: I will accept the personhood of corporations when Texas executes one.

David Dayen at Firedoglake posted this this morning which highlights a movement among Federal legislators to evade the automatic 10% cuts in the Federal spending that would come if the Supercommittee fails. If you all remember, the Supercommittee was established in the legislation that expanded the debt limit--the nasty little stalemate that cost the U.S. its AAA rating with S&P. It also caused a bit of a bobble on the world stock markets. So now a couple of the Repthuglican powers in the Senate (McCain and Graham) are proposing to exempt the Defense part of the budget from the automatic cuts while unspecified Damnocrats are doing the same for "entitlements." I don't know which his worse. Greek politicians came up with a way to deny voters the right to pass judgement on their actions with regard to the bailout and the austerity demanded in return. At the same time, elected officials in this country, claiming to act in accordance with the alleged mandates from their voters, refuse to act. Either way, democracy is dying if not already dead.

2011-11-05T11:58:00.000-05:00

Good morning, all. We had a nice sunny day yesterday. We still haven't had a freeze. The lows have only fallen to the mid-thirties. Everything still in the containers are still green with the roses and mums blooming well. The blueberries are starting to get a red tinge on the leaves. Plenty of leaves remain on the taller trees and some of the hardy shrubs around the neighborhood. I should get out and sweep up the leaves, few as they are, that blew onto the patio so they can go in the compost bin.

Well the Christmas ad season has started. But I saw a cute cartoon that expresses my feelings perfectly. It showed Santa confronted by an irate Turkey who says "Get back in line, fat boy. My holiday is next!!" Maybe we should just cancel Black Friday and make it Black November?

Resilient Family presents an interesting idea. I wonder how many long term unemployed are engaged in the "System D" economy.

Andy Rooney has died at age 92 only a little over a month after leaving 60 Minutes.

MSNBC posted this story this morning. I am almost too disgusted to comment. Unfortunately, food processing companies that have multiple food safety citations against them are a dime a dozen. However, this company provided 'reconditioned' bulk, moldy applesauce that has been incorporated into school meal programs and baby food. Evidently the 'reconditioning' process didn't take care of all of the molds and their toxins resulting in several sick children and the FDA had informed the company that their process was not effective.

2011-11-03T12:51:00.000-05:00

Good morning, everyone. Cool and windy this morning. We may get some rain. But we don't have any outside work or errands to do so it does't matter to us. It was nice yesterday because we were able to leave the patio door open a crack so Cat Monster could go in and out as he wanted.

I agree with you, Kay. I was lucky when I moved here about 12 years ago because someone recommended the bank I have used since. I don't remember who made the recommendation now but I have been very happy since. I was old enough to qualify for their special senior checking account--an interest bearing account with no charge for the basic checks. That bank has given very good service--in person, on the phone, and on line. Mom moved her money to the same bank after hers had been taken over twice within about 5 years with a marked deterioration in service with each take over. And that wasn't even one of the big banks--they hadn't yet made a concerted effort to move into this area. I think everyone should deal locally--in as much of their financial/economic dealing as possible.

I remember a conversation a couple of years ago as Mom and I watched a news report concerning a number of states borrowing from the federal government to pay for the rising cost of unemployment benefits having exhausted their own funds. I asked then what they would do if the bill for the interest on those loans came due and the economy hadn't recovered. I guess we are finding out. Or rather the business owners in Wisconsin are finding out. Someone is going to have to pay the bill. The only question is who will pay.

In another entry in the 'Someone is going to have to pay but we aren't sure who and how much' file--the situation in Greece is as fluid as Herman Cain's responses to sexual harassment claims. I discounted the radio news story that cited some official who openly discussed the possibility that Greece might leave the euro. Till now that had only been whispered by bloggers. However, here is another news story on the same issue. But the author makes another point which I think Merkel, Sarkozy, et al., have missed--the Greek government can agree to anything but if the Greek people don't agree the agreements are meaningless. The question isn't how many are rioting in the streets. The real question is how many of those who aren't rioting will cooperate. MSNBC has further details. Update: recent stories indicate that Papandreu may scrap the referendum if the opposition parties can get together to form a national unity government. In other words, he is trying to cover his ass and get broad support for the bailout. With the kind of austerity that the bailout has required and will require in the future they need a unified government--not slender majority party with a bunch of snipers ready to open fire.

These were some very brazen thieves.

But then--there are thieves and there are THIEVES. As this piece from Ann Jones posting on Tomdispatch makes clear. I ought to read the book she cites but I am afraid my blood pressure wouldn't stand the stress.

2011-11-02T12:16:00.000-05:00

Good Wednesday morning to you all. We should have another 60 degree day with sun which is nice for so late in the year. Monster Cat should be able to go out at will later. So long as we don't have a hard, cold wind we should be able to leave the patio door open just wide enough for him to get through. Yesterday was also nice, as predicted. I got my little spearmint cuttings transplanted. I also noticed a whole bunch of buds on the Christmas cactus. We are looking forward to it blooming. Everything else is also doing well. Moving the verbena, rosemary, and bay to the south doorway for the sun has helped them. They are putting out new growth that is nicely thick and healthy.

As the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and the Thai floods highlighted the problems our long distance supply lines and just in time delivery manufacturing/retail economy can face, this story highlights another. Just imagine an exploding refrigerated container.

And this is why we are paying these idiots $176k a year??? They are way, way overpaid.

Bank of America's decision (following similar decisions from its largest competitors) to cancel its planed debit card fees on its customers is welcome. It does show that too-big-to-fail doesn't mean too-big-to-listen. However, winning the battle doesn't mean the war is over--as this story reminds us.

2011-11-01T12:22:00.000-05:00

Good morning to you all. The weather people say we should have another nice day before the temps drop again and the rain returns. The kids (small and not so small) had a nice evening for Trick-or-Treating. We didn't have all that many come by but the number changes year-to-year. This is largely a rental area so turn over is also variable. I think we are among the longest term tenants here. Most move on rather quickly as they find a house to buy or find a job elsewhere and move on.

We haven't had a killing frost yet so the plants I left in the containers still look nice and green with the mums and roses blooming yet. Next year I definitely have to put in more cold hardy plants for a late, cool weather garden. We had blueberry/buttermilk pancakes for supper last night using some of the blueberries we froze. Oh, I do hope my plants produce next year.

Well, it doesn't take much to get the markets upset, or to call into question the so-called solution Merkel and Sarkozy thought they had hammered out last week (the latest as these things go.) The New York Times has a piece on the new mov by Greek Prime Minister Papandreou to hold a referendum on the austerity measures and that latest rescue plan. I can well imagine that Papandreou might like some broader support for what he has agreed to on behalf of the Greek people. I also wondered if it might be a safety valve measure. Something like what happened in Ireland when the election results threw out the government that had 'negotiated' the deal to save the banks and the party that had ruled for most of the last century. But they made sure that the incoming government would be unable to undo any of the measures they took. The people got to vote but couldn't affect the arrangements already in place. I notice that the NYT piece raises a possibility that has only been whispered in the blogs: Greece might default and leave the European Union. I get the feeling in all of the political and economic unrest that political leaders are all for democracy so long as the demos (the people) do as they are told.

And then there is the latest entry in the big company going bust amid whiffs of possible fraud. And another CEO with a supposedly sterling reputation and links to Goldman Sachs. What really puzzles me is that at the same time we have a circus parade of ineffectual CEOs, some of whom are still raking in mind-boggling compensations and bonuses, at the same time we have two Republican candidates for President who are trying to sell the electorate on the notion that businessmen, by their very nature, are best suited to run the country. Think of what kind of shape we would be in if we really did have one of those idiots running the country like it were a business. Now that is a scary thought on this day after Halloween. I don't know about you all but I still have a hard time getting my mind around the notion of 'hundreds of millions of dollars' being 'missing' from any company's accounts.

To reinforce that last thought, consider poor Herman Cain and the charges of sexual harassment. Perhaps the most ineffectual effort to explain away the charge came this morning when Cain, with some difficulty, tried to recall an encounter with one of the two women. He said he made a gesture, but never touched the woman, while commenting that she was as tall as Cain's wife. My question--why was her height even a topic for conversation when they were supposed to be at work?

The news media carried a string of stories on the '7 billionth person' added to our population which came sometime yesterday. The U.N. had a series of celebration focusing on several babies around the world since it would have been impossible to determine which, in fact, was number 7 billion. The Daily Beast has a nice article on the milestone and its implications for the future. A couple of the factoids that interested me include the notion that soon India will replace China as the world's most populous state and that the world's population will, likely, exceed 8 billion by the time the babies born yesterday reach 14.

Lawrence Wechsler has an interesting post on Tomdispatch this morning. One of the factors listed in the Daily Beast article which will determine whether the teeming millions on this planet, now and in the future will live a decent life is whether government will be conducted honestly and without corruption. And the U.S. may not be all that great a model for corruption free government. Which leads me to Kay's comment on yesterday's blog. The Ugandan example Wechsler cited is rather crude corruption perpetrated most obviously on the lowest levels, the cab driver and the local cop. We don't have a lot of that type of corruption over here. But at higher levels the apparatus of government is bought and sold repeatedly and glossed over with pious statements about the 'good of the people.' I agree Kay that the 1% have bought the government and the 99% have gotten shafted. But I disagree when you say your life isn't important and so you are working for the children who are the future. Your life, my life, my mother's life, my siblings' lives are all important and if we can't expect our political representative to keep promises made to our generation how in the world can we expect them to keep the promises made to future generations? That is the biggest corruption of all!

2011-10-31T11:41:00.000-05:00

Good morning, everyone. I haven't seen much I cared to comment on for the last couple of days. What can you say when everything seems to be continuing in the same pattern with hardly a change even in the details. The stock market went up dramatically on the 'hopium' of a much ballyhooed 'solution' to the European debt/banking problem totally ignoring all of the parts of that situation that remain unaddressed. The Repthuglican Presidential Contenders Comedy Show rolls on. Herman Cain is currently the star clown and, shades of Clarence Thomas and John Edwards, et al., we now have charges of sexual harassment! The so-called 'Super Committee' continues its deliberations but a 'compromise' appears as far out of reach as ever inspire of the assurances from leaders of both parties that they are really, truly in good faith.

CNN has featured segments today on efforts by various parties to trademark 'Occupy Wall Street,' 'We are the 99%,' and other slogans associated with the new movement. Evidently two competing applications have been filed for 'Occupy Wall Street.' Over the summer a bit of a firestorm erupted among some of the blogs I follow over the attempt by a family in California to trademark 'Urban Homesteading.' I have wondered for sometime if our language is devolving into meaningless sounds. I addressed this notion in a part of a blog that disappeared when blogger froze up on me. There I considered the notions of 'natural,' 'organic,' and other such terms. They have been taken over and stretched so out of definition that you can't rely on the idea that whoever is using them means what you might think they mean. But, in a society where the dollar and bottom lines are the only things that matter, what else would you expect.

I love reading James Kunstler's weekly blog. He says much of what I have been thinking about the latest effort to shore up the European debt/banking system and does so very astringently.

Well, since it is Halloween (or Samhain for those of you who are of the modern pagan persuasion) here is a link to Ronni Bennett's blog where she has posted some pictures of some very artfully carved pumpkins.

2011-10-27T11:52:00.000-05:00

Good morning, again, to all of you out there. Hopefully, today will go better with the blogging. The weather is the same as yesterday: wet, cool, miserable. At least I don't have to worry about the containers drying out right now and I don't have to move the inside plants because they won't get any more light by the south door than they would by the north. At least we don't have snow yet.

The part of yesterday's blog that disappeared into nothingness concerned how words seem to have lost meaning in today's world of 24/7/365 advertising. The link I lost featured the misuse of the word 'artisan.' That term gives the impression of small-batch, hand-made and quality goods. But fast-food restaurants use it to describe hamburger buns and industrial chip producers use it to sell tortilla chips. But that is only the tip of the iceberg (as the old saying goes.) We have 'natural' flavors that aren't, 'organic' products that stretch the definition, and 'environmentally friendly' industries that fit the definition only if you cherry pick the factors on which you base the definition. Politics has given us the absurd notion of 'compassionate conservative,' 'job killing' referring to taxes on the top earners who may or may not (probably the latter) create jobs, and 'job creating' describes any legislation that cuts government jobs while funneling the 'savings' to pet supporters. Oh, and corporations are 'persons.'

I just had a thought as I was reading yet another story about a city discussing consolidating, closing, or in some other way cutting schools to close a big budget gap. I won't link to it because I am sure all of us have nearby schools that have had similar problems. My thought involves the history of public education in this country. Back in the early 19th century when Indiana was being settled one section of township acreage was set aside (by law) to support public schools. At the same time, Catherine Beecher (sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe) spent considerable time and energy pushing the establishment of frontier schools and the hiring, for the lower grades at least, women teachers. In addition to teaching the children of frontier settlers to read, write, and cipher, she thought women teachers (besides being cheaper than men) would also 'civilize' the uncouth children of the frontier. Later on, others pushed public education to foster literacy and numeracy as well as inculcate the values industrial employers required in workers: punctuality, sobriety, and obedience. Now-a-days, it occurred to me, when we have fewer industrial employers and fewer such jobs and more of the work is handled by computers and computerized automatons public education is a value more often given lip service than real resources. Today we don't have peasants coming from the farms of Europe or America to acculturate to the demands of an industrial workplace. Nor do our employers require the numbers of workers they once did--so they don't want to be taxed to support a system of mass education. We have been raised with the belief that education is the high road to middle class prosperity and what ever might lie beyond it. I think it is time to question that received wisdom.

Charles Hugh Smith (oftwominds) accurately describes, to my thinking anyway, the real result of the Obama Administration's new home re-fi plan: perfection of debt slavery. I would go further, however. The whole structure of our present economic system is to turn all of into debt slaves. Get the individual hooked with student loans (which almost can't be discharged in bankruptcy) then progress to a car loan, a home mortgage and consumer loans (i.e. credit cards). It wasn't all that long ago that insolvent debtors were thrown in prison. Lately some states have been trying to revive that institution (sorry, don't have the links to the stories). Even without that effort, most of us are in debt prison--the bars are simply invisible.

Jesse's Cafe Americain posted a cartoon that more than adequately sums up our current economy.

2011-10-26T10:51:00.000-05:00

Good morning to anyone out there. Thunderstorms rumbled through here last night. Only dropped a third of an inch of rain so at least we aren't too wet today. But we aren't supposed to get any sun today and the temps won't get out of the 50s till next week. Hope you don't get too much snow, Lois, and that you get some new jobs soon. And glad to see you back, Kay. Hope the situation in Kay's World is settling down.

Obama has moved from a limited new program to help a few homeowners who are underwater to a new limited new program to help some people with student loans. This article sets out the particulars of his proposed program. I don't know how many people this will help but I suspect not as many as promised. I suspect the whole aim for these programs is to kick the can down the road hoping that the economy will recover to the point where jobs that pay enough for those students and former students to begin paying off the whole bill. I don't expect that any time soon.

I had more on here but blogger froze and lost the rest. I am pissed so I will quit for today. Bye, all.

2011-10-25T11:45:00.001-05:00

Good morning, All. We should have some sun, temps near 70, and perhaps some rain today. Time to do more than think about needlework as the garden in now on autopilot till spring. I did some cross-stitch Sunday on a small table cloth that has languished since April. It is about half done. However, for now, let's see what I find on my daily trip through the internet.

Gary Weiss posted this opinion piece that expresses a number of thoughts that have been in my mind of late, both on Obama generally and on the new mortgage refinancing initiative just announced. My long deceased ex-husband used to yell at dithering drivers 'do something even if its wrong.' Unfortunately, after a pattern of ineffective, half-hearted and limited initiatives, we are so used to the programs doing so much less than advertised we are more than a little unimpressed with new ones. I don't know how many stories I have read over the last months of underwater homeowners seeking to refinance who were told by their banks that they couldn't even talk refinancing until they were delinquent in their payments. The new program won't even touch them. The homeowners who are current will have to have an immaculate credit rating. How many will be able to qualify? I agree with Weiss--few to none (i.e., bupkiss). I will probably wind up voting for Obama next time. Not because I WANT to. Rather because none of the brainless, soulless, and heartless Repthuglicans have presented me with any reason to vote for them. And I won't sit it out or vote for a third party candidate because I really, really, really don't any one of those idiots in the White House.

2011-10-24T13:39:00.000-05:00

Hello, again, everyone. Not much going on here. Enjoying the moderate weather before another cool front comes in mid week.

I like this story--a lot. I am not a technophobe or luddite--but I am not a technophile either. We depend on technology way too much and for things the technology may not be suitable for or for which the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. We habitually adopt a technology without really considering the harm it may do until that harm rises up and bites us our collective asses. Or we try to adopt a technology only to find that it really doesn't fit our lives. It took me a couple of PDAs to realize I work better with paper and pencil.

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I started this on Sunday but didn't post. If I hadn't found the above story I would simply have deleted the start and begun another post. Let's see what I find today (Monday).

A thought, as I read this article: we seem to be expecting far too much of politicians, especially our Presidents. Unfortunately, the campaign so far indicates that that will continue to be the case as each of the contenders out line what THEY WILL DO for us. As we have, or should have, found out over the last three years is that no President can do anything without cooperation from the legislators we send to Washington. The article does indicate exactly how divided both expert and political opinion are on the economic problems is and how complicated the issue is. As long at that opinion remains divided nothing will get done and, as long as hard line political positions remain in place along with an unwillingness to compromise, no one will be able to untangle the messy skein of economic problems affecting us.

The CNN news had teaser alluding to the 'image problem' the banks have and how little faith ordinary Americans have in the banking/finance system. Well, I remember reading about such image problems going back almost 200 years. Andrew Jackson killed the National Bank by refusing to re-charter it. He thought that banks should be local and that a National Bank had an unfair advantage over local banks while discriminating against local borrowers. Even local banks had an 'image problem' by the Civil War. I remember a scene in the movie Gettysburg where a Confederate general compared the British to the banks. The British would come in on the Southern side only when their help was no longer needed just as banks would only lend when the borrower was no longer in debt. A major part of the Populist and Progressive movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries involved deep dissatisfaction with two vital institutions seen as distant, unfair and unresponsive: railroads and banks. Any of that sound familiar?

I absolutely love this article at MSNBC and hope the movement grows. The only thing I disagree with is the notion that the banks are turning to customers to cover the costs of maintaining their accounts after regulations kicked in to cap overdraft and swipe fees. It isn't to maintain the accounts; it is to maintain the profits their shareholders get and the fat compensations for the top execs.

This story is annoying, frustrating, and angering on a number of levels. First, I don't think we should be giving government loan guaranties of any amount to any foreign company or to any American company for any operation in a foreign country. Second, if the company is right and there are no contract manufacturing facilities in the U.S. that can do the job that is an incredibly sad assessment of the state of U.S. manufacturing and perhaps they should have required that Fiskars establish such facilities in the U.S. And, why aren't the Repthuglican idiots in Congress rising on their hind legs about this? They are all so incensed at the Solynra deacle but handing out money to a foreign company? At least Solyndra is American and hired Americans. Fourth, I am getting extremely tired of all of the promises of companies (U.S. or foreign), and politicians (Repthuglican or Damnocrat) who excuse any harebrained expenditure on the exaggerated claims of jobs.

2011-10-24T07:03:00.001-05:00

Good morning, everyone. I thought I would show you what my gardens have become. They are definitely no longer jungles.

I put the lemon verbena (foreground) and the rosemary (background) in pots and moved them indoors. They spend the nights on the shelf by the patio door and in the mornings, on sunny days, I move them to our front (north facing) door to get the sun. I hope that will be enough to keep them healthy over the winter. Both are hardy only to the level of Florida and the Gulf coast.

I have 9 over the fence pot holders which now hang on the cross beams of my mini-greenhouse frame. I put the empty pots in them for storage. The pots--I cut the tops off 1 gal. vinegar containers and punched holes in the bottoms to make them. I have bought some pots over time but for the small ones various food containers work very well. The only problem I had was to get the plants out after the season. They were all very root bound. I may have to repot some of the plants at intervals over the season next year.

Here are two of the three large containers I have put hardy plants I hope will over winter well. I put the three miniature roses, mums and German thyme in the blue container, and lemon balm and lavender in the pink one. I made the decision to keep the lavender and lemon balm at the last minute--after I had cut the lavender back. I found some cedar shavings we had picked up some time ago--for what I forget--and put that as a mulch on these and the blueberries. Why do I have the trellis stakes in the containers? Well, I will fix them up as the frame for the plastic covers I will put in in the spring. The soil isn't frozen now. Easier.

Here is a closer view of the blue container. The mums have finally bloomed again. I think the growers must somehow force the plants to bloom simultaneously. I was very concerned when the buds remaining after the first blooming didn't open. But I decided to leave it alone and see what happened. As you can see they seem to have happily adjusted.

These are the little Top Hat blueberries. They are supposed to reach 2 ft tall and 2 ft wide. Perfect for containers. In the spring I will put them in individual pots and see how they do. I hope they do well.

Last spring my sister gave me the Christmas cactus below. It wasn't doing well and she couldn't figure out why. I wasn't at all sure I could do anything for it but, as you can see, it is happy now. It should bloom nicely.

2011-10-22T10:46:00.001-05:00

Good morning on this last Saturday of October. I can hardly believe I am writing that. We are supposed to have sunny skies today and temps in the low 60s. East of here they had frost warnings. I am not too worried about that because the three tender plants are now indoors and seem to be doing well. With clear weather I will get the last clean up chores done and the tools put away for the season. I think I need to transplant the spearmint plants also. They are doing very well inside.

I just found a thin film of ice on the covers of the trash tote and the compost bin when I emptied the remains of the coffee and grounds this morning. And the roofs across the street have a good bit of frost. The plants outside, however, are fine.

2011-10-21T12:38:00.001-05:00

Good morning on this very chilly Friday. But I think I saw clear skies so we should see the sun today. Good. The gray rainy weather of the last couple of days depressed our moods. We got the storm windows closed and the plastic up on the windows today. Last night it was cold enough that the temperature in the house dropped to 66 degrees. We put the furnace on to take the chill off but our normal winter temperature setting is 68 or 69 degrees so it hasn't had to work too hard. (Update: I may be wrong on the sun. Looking out the patio doors I see clouds moving in from the direction of Lake Michigan. Damn!!!) (2nd Update: the lake clouds have stayed north. We do have sun!!)

We just rearranged our freezers. By accident. Mom wanted to get out a bag of frozen peaches for a pie and we had to dig out everything to get at them. Since we had almost everything out we decided to reorganize. I hadn't kept count of everything I put in from the gardens. We have a full plastic shopping bag of small baggies of stewed and sauced tomatoes. Two bags of similarly packaged peppers, plus the ones we have in the small freezer for immediate use. I will have to rethink how many pepper plants I put in.

2011-10-20T13:50:00.000-05:00

Good morning to you all. We still have rain and high winds today. Those gusts were high enough yesterday to send two shelf liners I had weighted down in the greenhouse frame flying. I was afraid the weight I would find the weight (a large aquarium decoration we aren't using anymore) in pieces but it flew into one of the containers. I will pick up it all up when the weather clears. The over-the-fence hangers are still in place. They just sway a bit in the wind. The pictures of the 25 ft waves on the lake were stunning. The police had to close the jogging and bike paths because of the waves.

This story produced a feeling of deja vu. Last week the local (Chicago) news had a couple of similar stories. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposed budget included a 50% increase in water bills and canceling the exemption (i.e., free water) for non-profits. That last is already under fire from the city council and the suburbs that get their water from Chicago will probably scream because while they will get the increase they won't get any benefit out of it. The increases are earmarked for a program of sewer and waterline improvements. Some of those are 150 years old--some are still wood. Unfortunately, that isn't the total of the infrastructure needs. Some local politicians are trying to focus public attention on the problems of decaying bridges in Chicago as well. Again--deja vu. I saw the same kind of stories a bit more than 10 years ago when I lived in Missouri.

Just saw a lead into a story which cites a new poll. It claims 50% of the respondents thought Obama didn't 'deserve' to be re-elected. That doesn't say, however, that those respondents thought any of the Repthuglican wanna be candidates deserve to be elected. I don't want any of those idiots in any office.

Tom Englehardt has a good post on his tomdispatch site and asks a very good question: isn't it time to expand the notion of 'too big to fail' from the financial institutions that are most responsible for the current economic woes to the military/intelligence complex? As I read the comments on how the 'troops' have become sacrosanct I thought about the last 2 centuries of the Roman Empire. During that time, when the borders of the Empire collapsed toward the core and the economy shrank, military expenditures spiraled upward, one emperor after another came to power promising fat bonuses to their supporting troops. And several were deposed by troops disappointed by what they received. The same time period saw more military failures than successes and the troops turned against Roman citizens more often than against external enemies. Makes you wonder where we are going doesn't it?

Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By addressees a feature of the business propaganda that has annoyed me as well. Every time some reporter asks today's Big Business CEO or financial pundit or Repthuglican politician self-righteously demanding tax cuts for business, that the EPA be muzzled (if not strangled), that all undefined unnecessary regulation be eliminated the do so in the name of providing certainty for business so business will suddenly hire all those millions of people now out of work. Ronni eviscerates the whole demand for certainty. Given that the only certainty in life is uncertainty. That is why we need support systems. Unfortunately the current Repthuglican philosophy advocates dismantling any such systems in the name of 'fiscal responsibility.' They advocate 'moral hazard' for the lesser mortals but not for their aristocratic friends and now certainty for those friends but not for anyone else. And the ugly fact is that certainty won't produce jobs and they all know it.

2011-10-19T11:58:00.000-05:00

Well, we are halfway through another week in a year that is passing all too rapidly. Cold, rainy, and high winds (especially tonight into tomorrow.) Kuma is very unhappy. I let him out once earlier. He came back in wet and I haven't let him out since. He has been very vocal about his displeasure but I am not happy about the possibility of a wet cat rubbing against me. And it is time he got used to the change in seasons. He will be even more unhappy when the snow flies.

I wondered how long it would take for the fallout from the Stuxnet worm would start landing. Red Tape Chronicles says that a new worm based on much of the code from Stuxnet has surfaced. Duqu (a.k.a. Son of Stuxnet) is in an information gathering phase but like its parent it attacks command and control computers. Experts speculated last year (based on its target--Iran's nuclear program) that Stuxnet had been produced by government sponsored Israeli and American hackers. If so, Duqu is a fitting blowback. Another genie we can't but back in the bottle.

Charles Hugh Smith posted a good piece this morning that distills what I have been thinking for some while now. One of the implications of his reasoning is very uncomfortable but is not on anyone's radar (except for a few odd-balls in the blogosphere). We came to where we are by a long road over a generation or two. On the journey we changed as a society and some industries grew very big and very wealthy. The only way those industries can stay on top is to maintain the society created and keep us addicted to debt driven consumption. If we change our attitudes and habits those industries are going to hurt--mightily. But the only way we, as individuals, are going to survive is to tear down the habits and values we have developed over the last 2 generations. The Tea Party and regressive Repthuglicans claim we should 'starve the beast.' I agree but I think they are focused on the wrong beast.

2011-10-18T12:40:00.000-05:00

Good morning, everyone. Let's see what is on the internet this morning.

I saw a blip of a story on this earlier. First Arizona, now Texas. I wonder how many more states will get dust storms. Several people told interviewers they have never seen anything like this. I don't doubt. The last time Americans experienced anything like this was in the Dust Bowl years--70-odd years ago.

I was a bit amused by two interesting data points on the news over the last couple of days: September's retail sales numbers were up slightly and the largest banks saw a slight increase in credit card delinquencies. Anybody wonder if the two might be linked? And then Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism indicates that it isn't just credit card delinquencies that have ticked upward. I agree with her assessment--the so-called recovery is so close to nonexistent that calling it a recovery stretches the definition to meaninglessness.

Then there is Herman Cain who seems to think he is running for Joker In Chief. All we need--another candidate who shoots from the lip. I don't know which is more disgusting: Cain's 'joke' or the enthusiastic response to a plan that might just electrocute someone.

Here are a couple of cute cartoons that capture the problem with our current economy. Enjoy!!

2011-10-17T12:45:00.000-05:00

Good Monday morning to everyone out there. We had rain till midday yesterday but today is supposed to be sunny if a bit cool.

I found this little story about a push by some Australian banks to get more customers for their insurance, loans and credit cards. If the banks down under are so engaged you can bet that banks over here are also. I think there is something wrong with a business model that depends for its viability on perpetual growth as finance seems to do nowadays. Nothing grows forever.

Earlier this summer I was thinking about trying to get a plot in the community garden a couple of blocks away from us next season. I think I mentioned it in one of my previous blogs. I decided against it for two reasons. After the heat of July (which was murderous) the prospect of trudging four blocks carrying what ever tools I needed on a daily basis was not at all attractive. And Mom reminded me of an incident a couple of years ago where vandals destroyed the containers a couple of the occupants of other townhouses in the neighborhood had put in. Evidently such vandalism and theft is becoming a major problem in some areas.

2011-10-16T11:19:00.000-05:00

Good morning, all. Cool again and will be for the entire week, with several days even cooler. But then it is Autumn. Not much going on--just shifting from gardening to needlework but not really engaged with either yet. I have been so lazy lately.

Well, this is good news--if it holds. I think we should decide that Iraq's stability is in its own hands and get the hell out. They have problems we can't solve and they don't involve al Qaeda or terrorism. Then we should get out of the other big black hole over there--Afghanistan.

Hey, Lois. Just a thought on your last comment--unfortunately we are the fools and we are rapidly being separated from our money. Every time someone mentions changing Social Security or decides that the really can't pay for the pension plans called for in previously negotiated labor contracts. We have given our labor or our money for a future promise which someone somewhere has decided isn't really worth as much as when the promise was made.

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism has some links to stories that poke holes in the accusation that Iran was behind a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador. I nether believe nor disbelieve the accusations. I just simply do not trust the government (whether in Repthuglican or Damnocrat hands) to tell the truth. But I am an 'equal opportunity' skeptic--I don't trust Iran either.

2011-10-15T11:51:00.001-05:00

Good morning, everyone. Our roller coaster weather continues. Last weekend we had sun and 80s. This weekend we won't get out of the 50s. The seasons are definitely changing. We had wind yesterday and expect more of the same today. I haven't had to pick up the leaves on the patio yet--haven't had any. But that will come soon and I will have more in my compost bin. We plan to close up all the storm windows and put up the plastic on the windows this week. That chore has been in the back of our minds for a bit as we watched the weather patterns.

This story both surprises me and doesn't surprise me. Like so much else in our predatory capitalist system, higher education has become a mine field that can as easily plunder the people it is supposed to serve. The "for profit" education system has become a scandal that the mainstream media has only sporadically discussed. The victim in all this mess is the student who is often left with unmanageable debt (much of it not dischargeable if t is government guaranteed student loans) and either no degree or a useless degree. This scam resembles the subprime mortgage scam. Organizations whose profits demand increasing numbers of loans expanding to exploit people ill-equipped for college and inexperienced enough to be conned into believing that the debt can be repaid easily when they get good jobs with their degree. In both cases the student gets stuck and the perpetrators of the fraud get off scott free to continue the fraud with new marks.

Lois and I have exchanged a few thoughts on the electoral system. Eli at FireDogLake has a few remarks on the Occupy Wall Street movement. He links it to the fact that voters have been negated in our electoral process. The 2008 election landslide should have given Obama and the Democrats the right to legislate but the Republicans set out to negate the election results and succeeded. We have entered the era when election results , even landslide election results, an nothing except for as media talking points. But what does that say about American 'democracy?'

2011-10-14T13:49:00.000-05:00

Hello, All. We have rain today. Good thing--it means I don't have to water anything left in the gardens. I think it is time to disconnect, drain and roll up the hose for the winter shortly. I don't have many plants to water so using the large watering can will be no problem. If I need to--I haven't had to water the plants for the last two weeks.
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Good morning to you all and what is now Friday. We had a very nice, steady rain yesterday which has now cleared out. We figure that this week sometime we will lower the last storm windows that are still up and put up the plastic over the windows. We are supposed to get high winds today so I won't be opening the door for the cat. He is already mad at me. Nor will I get the last of my chores outside done. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and calm so those can wait. As you can tell I didn't have much to say yesterday. We'll see what I find today.

I agree, Lois. Finding that an experiment worked is nice. And I agree on the voting observation also. I have often wondered what good my vote did--increasingly so in recent years. I didn't really buy into the Obama slogans last time around but I trusted the other side even less. It wouldn't be so bad if the elected leaders took the votes seriously but, as you said, they don't. Your story about the storm water assessment resembles what is happening in Chicago. Emanuel promised that property taxes wouldn't go up but his budget (just published Wednesday) includes increased water bills (a real whopper), increased fees to park, increased city stickers (especially for heavier vehicles) and I don't know how many other fees. They may not get you with taxes but they will get you with 'fees,' which are taxes by another name.

I thought Herman Cain's "9-9-9" plan was somewhat simplistic but this story from Huffington Post makes me wonder about where he gets his ideas. Do we really want a tax plan stolen from a computer game?

There is so much right on the money in this opinion blog about the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations that I hardly know where to begin the comments. I have also had the feeling that those in politics and our mainstream media are not really listening to the demonstrators. They want a single unified message and they aren't getting it spoon fed to them so they simply tune out and tell us there is no message. Wrong!! The message is that there is something systemically wrong here--the system is broken.

Coley Hudgins at Resilient Family echoes that sentiment in his blog post. He is absolutely right: we can't rely on either big government or big business to pull us out of our current mess. They are both much too invested in preserving the status quo. Problem is we, individually, have to figure out how to break out of the dogma box we have been conditioned to accept from birth. Most of us really, really, really want someone to save us and reestablish what we are so comfortable with. That, perhaps, explains the wild oscillations in the electoral results of the last three cycles

Green Prophet had this interesting story about a village in Turkey which went completely off the country's electric grid. A few years ago the electric company cut them off after they couldn't pay the bill. They decided to invest in their own wind generated power which allowed them to both pay off their old debt and to pump water that freed them from the water utility as well. Sounds like a plan.

Paul Krugman, also, has a good assessment of the current political situation and the Republican Party specifically. But I think that in this world, which Krugman claims no one really saw coming, neither party's dogmas are working. This piece from Michigan Today indicates that acting on the old dogmas, as the Federal Government basically did in constructing the TARP bailout, may actually be counter productive. The banks which received the TARP funds were no more likely to lend money than were those who did not (though the whole rationale for flooding them with all that money was to give them the wherewithal to lend) and when they did the loans they made were riskier (though high risk lending was thought to be a major precipitating factor in the financial meltdown) and they shifted money into riskier investments.

2011-10-12T13:04:00.000-05:00

Hope you all are having a good Wednesday. We get to continue our pleasant late August weather in mid-October. It has stretched to a few more days than originally predicted but the next week is supposed to be cooler and wetter. I have to wash down the patio now that all of the plants have been pulled--except for those that I want to overwinter. The last ones I pulled yesterday surprised me. I forgot I had put the plants into cut-down plastic juice containers that I sank into the soil of the container. I hoped that would provide the plants with protected soil where they wouldn't have competition from nearby plants. It worked very well. The lemon balm and marigolds were in with tomatoes and both sets of plants produced nicely. Next year I think I will try the same but with the cardboard oatmeal containers instead. Those decompose over the growing season. I also need to clean and oil my tools for the winter--before I put them away till spring.

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post has some very good comments on the 2012 elections and the faith the electorate has in whether the results will change anything. Evidently we don't have much faith that things will substantially change or that anything that changes will substantially improve our economic lives. I agree totally.

I found this disgusting item at Crooks & Liars. I don't know which sickens me most: the city government calling the process of loosing 1400+ street lights for failing to pay its utility bill, replacing 200 with more efficient lights and calling the process 'lighting improvement' or the cop who offered to make sure a business was not broken into (after the owner had already had a roof-top air conditioning unit stoled after the lights on his street came down) if he got paid $650 every two weeks. A case of colossal mismanagement compounded by official misconduct and extortion.

But then Susie Madrak's piece (also at Crooks & Liars) clearly ups the ante on official misconduct and extortion. We have gone back over 100 years in time to when the police and army units regularly turned out to protect the well connected business owners from protesters, peaceful or otherwise. Often peaceful was only in the eyes of the cop or soldier and anyone anywhere near the vicinity of a protest could be clubbed into insensibility without cause or accountability. Or perhaps only 50 years ago during protests over the Vietnam War. We have really come a long way, haven't we, baby?

I am sure we all believed the statement Merkel and Sarkozy put out over the weekend that they had a plan to solve the European Union's fiscal problems (to be announced later). The markets evidently liked it a lot. Me? I am a unrepentant skeptic. Especially when I read stories like this one found by way of a link at Naked Capitalism. Why should Hungary raise warning bells? Because of its connection to a Eurozone bank which has links to other Eurozone banks which Merkel and Sarkozy have basically promised to backstop to infinity and beyond. (Too bad Buzz Lightyear can't take on this problem.) I wonder how many problems have been invisible because the country involved isn't part of the Eurozone?