Good morning to you all. We have sun today and the latest weather report indicates that we won't get much if any rain. I should get the gardens fertilized and put out my slug traps. I haven't seen any sign of slugs this year but I figure safe is better than sorry. Yesterday I cut the weakest of the sunflowers out of the pot, trimmed the fading lower leaves and added soil to the pot. They look better. Four of my tomatoes are about to top the supports I have put in so it may be time to get some more of the longer ones. I find more little tomatoes and peppers each day. The Giant Marconi pepper has one that is 3+ inches long already. The weather people predict dry and sunny conditions for the Wednesday through Saturday so that will be the perfect time to take my second cuttings of basil and the mints.

I agree, Kay. There is nothing balanced and reasonable about the gay marriage debate. But that is a condition that bleeds over into every debate in our political life. Once the issue is wrapped up into religious/moral platitudes the debate spirals into extreme unreason. Mom and I commented on the topic this morning. We thing that a large group of people in this country are so fragile in their own self-worth that they see the recognition of the human rights of 'unworthy' groups as diminishing their own rights. I simply fail to understand that position since none of their rights are being taken away. We saw (and still see to a lesser extent) similar attitudes during the civil rights movement. And then, of course, we have the political hacks who are happy to pander to such notions to shore up their own influence. One the economic front we have a similar situation: so-called free-market capitalists hold their positions with all the fervor of a revivalist preacher and with just as much rationality--which is to say none at all.

MSNBC provided this bit this morning. I looked up the normal territories for gray whale migration. Generally they follow the west coast of the U.S. from northern Alaska to South America. And I looked up the town in Israel where one a gray whale was found last year--the Mediterranean. And Rick Santorum assures us that climate change (or 'global warning' as he insists on calling the climate phenomena) is all 'junk science.'