Good Morning, everyone. It is a nice sunny morning now that the clouds have gone away. The week coming is supposed to be warmer, drier, and sunnier than forecast last week. Good. I have some prep work to do with the garden containers.

Well, the House passed the health care reform bill. I am glad it is done and would have been which ever way it went. I am heartily sick of all of the vitriol and venom. I don't know how it will all work out and those of you how drop by here every now and then know I am a skeptic by nature. Evidently Virginia's Attorney General has promised to sue on the grounds that the Congress lacks Constitutional authority to force people to buy health insurance. I don't think he has much of a leg to stand on here since state governments universally require people to buy auto insurance and fine them if they don't.

There are a few things about the political debate that I really resent. First, there is the tendency of some, mostly on the Republican side, to somehow equate their positions with the 'American People' thereby writing those who disagree with them out of the nation. Second, is their insistence that a majority of 'The People' agree with them. I haven't heard anyone ask me or anyone I know what we think and most of us disagree with them emphatically. Third, most of those same people claim they aren't being heard when all I have heard is their shouting, chanting, and other kinds of noise. How can they hear themselves let alone anyone else? Fourth, we have had damned few discussions of any of the issues. Instead, one party (usually Republican and/or conservative) tries to hog all of the air time and shout down his counterpart. Fellas (and Gals) shouting down the opposing side doesn't mean you have won the argument; it just shows that your parents failed to teach you any manners (or you failed to learn them). And, perhaps, you should consider that the people you are trying to steamroll have actually heard you--and aren't convinced by the few arguments you have presented.

James Kunstler at Clusterfuck Nation has, I think, an excellent take on the whole health care brouhaha. We have managed to finance, somehow (mainly through national debt), a myriad of other programs and now to say that we can't afford health care reform?? After two wars, funded largely by black magic off the books, the Dept. of Homeland (In)security, and god only knows what else, suddenly they cry about the burdens of debt we will leave the next generations. Can anyone else spell 'hypocrisy?' Like Kunstler, I don't know whether we can really afford the program but I would much rather err on the side of justice and mercy than warmongering and fear.