Well, it's Monday and we are still waiting for the sun they promised would peak out over the weekend. We had bouts of heavy rain and a bit of thunder and lightening. Thankfully nothing like what Mississippi got and we did need it. They say it has been a dry spring so far. I hope we get the sun long enough today for me to get some transplanting done. Everything outside was well protected--the rain would have pounded the plants into the ground otherwise. (Update--we do have some sun. Hope it sticks around.)

Did anyone else catch that news flash-in-the-pan, or three day wonder, about the SEC employees surfing the internet porn sites? It was in almost every news cast for about three days and now has disappeared. I wondered how many of those employees are, or were, Republicans? Republicans have this rock-bottome, set in granite, article of faith that government, by definition, can't do anything. I love the quote from one of the investigators who told an SEC executive that one of their lawyers had often spend the 8 hours of his working day surfing for porn. The executive said they couldn't fire the man because he was a top attorney working on an important case for prosecution. Yeah, right!!

I wonder what the explosion on that oil rig in the Gulf will do to the plans to drill in other areas off the east coast and Florida. It was already on shaky ground because, although the Obama Administration had opened the areas as far as Federal Government permits were concerned, the states bordering those areas were not all that anxious to give their approval. As I was watching the news stories I had an interesting mental flash--I am amazed how the Republicans always invoke the welfare of children and grandchildren when they talk about our fiscal problems but those children and grandchildren are no where to be seen when the discussion comes round to the after effects of nuclear power or oil drilling or waste generation. They are not willing to saddle the future generations with tax burdens, debt, or other financial constraints but they are willing to saddle them with the burden (and responsibility) of dealing with nuclear waste with half-lifes of hundreds of thousands of years, or environmental damage that will persist for decades (if not longer).

The Supreme Court is supposed to rule soon on the latest (third, if I remember correctly) challenge Michigan has mounted to force Chicago to close its Chicago River locks to, supposedly, protect the Great Lakes from the awful menace of the Asian Carp. You can tell from my expression that I am totally skeptical on this issue. I doubt very much that protecting the multi-billion dollar fishing industry is the major motivation any more than crushing an allegedly Al Qaeda allied Saddam Hussein was the real motive for going into Iraq. I am also skeptical about how much good closing the locks would do. After all, if carp DNA has already been found in the Great Lakes (as studies have claimed) the either the carp are already there, and closing the locks would be like closing the proverbial barn door after the proverbial horse has left the building, or the DNA was attached to skin or other cells that were shed and drifted into the Lakes which would indicate that the electrical barriers have done their job. I have a better suggestion--fish the hell out of them, no season, no limits. Dry them and grind them into fish meal for animal feed or garden additives. One of the Chicago news stations interviewed a couple of local chefs that were experimenting with recipes for carp. Can't beat them--eat them.