Good Morning, y'all. Clear and crisp this morning. Our highs are supposed to reach into the low 70s which will be nice. I did get the stevia cut and dried yesterday. I may get the Thai basil done today. Maybe tomorrow--I have books to get back to the library today. Thanks, Kay--yes the gardens have been fairly successful. I am getting quite a lot out of a very small space. The really nice thing about container gardening is that I don't have much of a problem with weeds. After the my veggies and flowers got well grown they took over and the weeds didn't have any space. Next year I plan to spend more time trimming my herbs. They will be bushier and more productive. We picked up a second starter tray (you know--one of those things with a clear plastic lid that functions like a mini-greenhouse) so I can start double the number of plants in my small space. They were on sale at one of our stores when they were changing out the spring stuff. I also took out the violas and most of the portulaca--both were looking a bit tired. In case you are wondering, I retain most of the soil and keep it in large bags in the shed for next year. Not much gets wasted here.

HuffingtonPost had a link to an interesting story which should come as no real surprise. Japanese researchers have published a study quantifying levels of BPA (Bis-phenol A) in the atmosphere. Like so many pollutants it is everywhere. All we can do is limit our exposure as much as possible.

And then there are stories like this one which surprises me only in that our national news media actually carried a bare mention of it. What pisses me off is that the absurdity that is Dancing With the Stars 'merited' twice as much time on the national news and about 10 minutes of the hour and a half of local news. Like BPA this pollution is ubiquitous. Nice thing about getting most of my news from news sites on the web is that I can skip such inanity and go to what is real news.

Here is a story from Crooks & Liars I fervently hope will take off. I didn't know that a civil RICO case could be filed but an attorney for homeowners in Kentucky has filed just such a class action lawsuit against Citibank and Ally. Naked Capitalism has another slant on this issue. I find the section about the Ohio Secretary of State's comments concerning a new Federal law that passed with amazing speed both houses and is awaiting President Obama's signature. Although that is troubling, the problems with the mortgage fiasco go well beyond notarization problems. They include fraudulent affidavits, back dating legal papers (a big no-no), and a host of other problems. But the assessment that the banks are trying to pull their asses out of the fire of their own making hits the bull's eye.