Good morning, all. The skies cleared up pretty much yesterday and we had sun--nice bright sun.

We didn't get any of the rain the weather people had predicted. So far, the skies are cloudy but what will happen later--who knows. It looks like tomorrow will have worse weather so I will go to the library and do my usual errands today.

Burning Platform has a nice (though long) post this morning I found via Chris Martenson's Blog. Everyone was so ecstatic last Friday over the 210+k jobs created the last week. Well, the Democratic politicians and the economic talking heads were ecstatic. Me--I am as skeptical about the economic statistics as I am about reports of scientific/medical news. How good the news is depends on which stats you want to look at and whose arguments you want to believe. By the way, Kevin Phillips (who is quoted in this article) has been rather prescient for the last 25 years in his various books. I have American Theocracy and have read it a couple of times. I also have his Boiling Point which I cringed as I read. All of the trends he saw 15 years ago destroying the middle class have only accelerated in the intervening time.

Thanks, Lois. Mom's appointment went very well. All the tests results were right where they should be. She is in the same boat you are in, Kay. She has a couple of conditions that require careful medical supervision and her medication must be carefully monitored. And we find ourselves in an interesting situation because the 'conventional' wisdom--going the cheapest route with generic forms of her medicine--simply won't do. Her endocrinologist, the doctor she saw yesterday, told her that the generics give false readings on the tests which led her previous doctor to over prescribe. But, and this is the point of being a 'medical minimalist,' she questioned the reasons for the doctor's refusal to allow the generic substitution. She got a satisfactory explanation. My sister-in-law, the one mistakenly treated for lupus, fought with her doctor and actually had to switch to another before she could get the tests that revealed the mistake. The point is to ask questions and keep asking if we aren't satisfied with the answers.

On the candle thing, Kay. I don't do anything fancy. I got into it because I simply hated the waste of burning a candle and finding a large amount of wax left over. So I started keeping the remains and melting them down for new candles. I do have a couple of candle molds--simple geometric shapes--but I don't use them and probably won't in the future. I much prefer jar candles. I have taken to braiding my own wicks because I haven't been overly happy with the ones I have found at Michaels. The biggest tricks to this are to secure the wick to the bottom of the jar and to have the patience to fill slowly in small amounts that cool before adding more to make sure you get the jar filled properly. I recently found a specially formulated adhesive to attach wick anchors to the bottom and will try a couple out next time.

Mark Morford has a blog that supports your position, Kay. Obama looks good compared to the idiots so far appearing in the Repthuglican fold. I think my major problem with the political situation today is the level of sanctimonious crap being spewed, especially from the right but also a few on the left. Unfortunately, that crap is answered from what is left of the middle with the notion of 'compromise.' I was struck by a thought that has often occurred as I listened to the President and Speaker Boehner talking to the press yesterday after the White House meeting came up empty that there is no real compromise possible in this debate. Obama said that the Damnocrats had agreed to a dollar amount of cuts above what the other side had demanded but now the argument has shifted to what should be cut. And what the so-called deficit hawks want cut are all of the programs that most benefit people in the lower half of the economic scale. We take the pain while they get the sanctimonious satisfaction. And in the end, whatever 'deal' comes out will be twisted to fit the notion of 'compromise.' Excuse me while I throw up. Morford noted the accomplishments of the Obama Administration. Yes, there have been accomplishments but, to my mind, all of those accomplishments have given more to the big banks, big pharma, big oil, and the upper 1% than to the rest of us. We bailed out the biggest banks and those banks are now deeply embroiled in the fraud of the foreclosure mess. We passed health care reform but the biggest advantage has gone to the health insurance industry. Workers got a 2.5% holiday on the social security withholding tax for one year and a continuation of the extended unemployment (without doing anything for the increasing numbers of 99ers) while extending the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy for two years.

Teagan Goddard's Political Wire has this on Paul Ryan's budget proposal released to great fanfare yesterday (while the White House meeting was tanking). Isn't it wonderful what you can do with optimistic assumptions?