Hello, again. I thought I would separate any political/social/economic comments and stories from the garden stuff.

The first head has rolled in the oil spill mess: Elizabeth Birnbaum, once head of the Minerals Management Service which was supposed to be overseeing the drilling operations in the Gulf. The story I linked to said she resigned 'under pressure' while the headline for the FoxNews site claimed she was fired. I think this is a distinction without a difference. Everyone seems to be lambasting Obama for the lax oversight but how long has that lax oversight been going on? The first major hurdle, which we still have not crossed, is the belief that business can be relied upon to regulate itself. The finance industry, the mortgage industry, the insurance industry have all shown the fallacy of this notion. What is it going to take to knock the stuffing out of this notion?

Here is another story which contains no surprises but the implications of which have not been noted in the mainstream media. Many of the teaching jobs now on the chopping block would have been axed last year without the stimulus funds made available at that time. When ever the vacuous talking heads have posited 'good' news on the employment front I reminded my self of the fact that a large number of teachers had already received pink slips. I expect the unemployment and underemployment numbers to go up in September when those teachers file for unemployment benefits.