Good morning on this really cool but sunny Tuesday.  We did not get out of the 60s F yesterday and, thanks to a brisk wind all day, I did nothing much in the gardens.  I am waiting for the temperatures outside to rise from the 45 F we got over night. Interesting change--during the summer I rushed to get things done before the temperatures rose to uncomfortable (unhealthy) levels now I wait until it gets warm enough.  I will have to water everything today but, with the drop in temperatures, may not have to water tomorrow.

I am desperately trying to ignore all of the political bullshit.  I am one of the majority in the latest polls who is very disgusted, disillusioned, disappointed, and pissed off with all sides in this fracking mess we call a political system.  And I am not looking to the next election to make things better.  I fully expect it to get worse and I am not looking forward to it.  Once upon a time we had statesmen--now now political pissants.

If it sounds like I am pessimistic I am.  Take a look at this article from Huffington Post and then tell me who has any proposals that will make any dent in the unemployment mess.  Why do Repthuglicans think reducing corporate tax rates will encourage companies to hire more workers when they are making very tidy profits with their drastically reduced work forces now and are sitting on mountains of cash?  Reducing the taxes corporations pay is simply corporate welfare not a jobs bill.  And Obama's notion of paying companies a 'bounty' for hiring new workers?  The last time that happened the companies fired with one hand and hired with the other and the government foots a nice part of the bill.

And I would say that the idiocy shown concern dealing with the employment morass is not the only thing to be pessimistic about.  I have been asking for the last couple of years (since the end of Bush's first term) what would happen when a significant portion of our people lose their faith and trust in the political institutions.  That question might be answered with hard reality sometime in the not distant future.  To that you can add another question that has occupied the back burner of my mind for the last few years: how do you deal with a person or group of people who are so self-righteously sure of their position that they are willing to use a 'nuclear option' to 'win'--even though winning means destroying themselves as well.  Is there much difference between a 'terrorist' who gains the makings of a dirty bomb and a means to deliver it and our Repthuglicans who seem to believe that defeating Obama is worth destroying the economic and social fabric of the country?  If there is a difference there isn't much of a distinction.

Food Freedom posted this article on toxic effects from genetically modified corn and soybeans.  I have seen articles for a couple of years now about the unfortunate side effects of Bt cotton in India where farmers fed the stalks after harvest to their livestock and watched the animals die.  I am not surprised to see laboratory results confirming the anecdotal reports.  And I have wondered where all that Round-up applied to fields of 'Round-up ready' went.  I guess this gives us an idea.