Good Thursday to you all.  Nothing planned today.  I brought the rosemary inside last night.  I probably didn't need to because the temps didn't reach freezing.  It has greened up nicely and shows a lot of nice new growth.  The lavender is also growing well.  All of the dead-looking branches have new growth.  I am very glad I didn't cut it back more last fall.  I may get some more reconditioning of the soils done if it gets into the high fifties that the weather people predict for today.

The Afghan authorities have not allowed U.S. investigators access to the massacre sites.  On the one hand, I really can't blame them.  I don't necessarily trust our military/government so I don't see why they should.  But, then, I can't see a U.S. court martial relying on evidence their own investigators have had not access to and can't really judge the validity of.  Can anyone else spell 'Catch-22.'  But then I don't think the Afghans would be satisfied with anything less than a public execution out of this.

Well, we had to know that this would happen: all of the business aficionados and apologists are coming out of the woodwork to 'defend' 'finely textured lean beef' (a.k.a., 'pink slime').  Some are even insisting the will eat it.  Unfortunately, none are really addressing my major objection:  my choice not to eat it is negated by their refusal to label the products containing it.  A lot of things are safe to consume but that doesn't mean I want to consume them and I definitely don't want to eat them because someone has incorporated them into something else.  I amused one of the butchers at our local meat market when I reject the 'bologna' make with turkey.  I told him that if I wanted 'bird' I would buy bird.  If not, I don't want to get it in something else.  'Pink Slime' violates two of my basic principles for the foods: as little 'processed' as possible and as close to the original as possible.

I love Katerina van den Heuvel's op-ed piece in the Washington Post this morning.  And I couldn't agree more.