Good Wednesday, All.  We expect another record setting day--the eighth if you are counting.  I am still waiting for the rain they promised us.  I think we got a bit overnight a couple of days ago but not much.  Yesterday was an easy but productive one.  I got my chives, basil, oregano, beets, radishes radishes started along and transplanted my spearmint.  As long as the weather is tolerably warm and dry I will continue the reconditioning of the big containers.  I don't intend to start anything more for the next two weeks except some succession plantings of spinach, beets, radishes, and lettuce.

Well, the good news this morning: Safeway, the second largest grocery chain, has withdrawn ground beef  containing 'pink slime' and will no longer carry such.  That is good but I have to wonder if it can be in an other products and, if so, what products.

Here is an interesting and sickening story on the chickens you may be eating.  A bit over year ago we stopped buying our meats at the supermarkets.  Primary problem: really poor quality.  Instead we found a small local meat market which had a nice supply of meats from local suppliers.  The turkey and chicken are from Amish farmers who don't use hormones, antibiotics, and free range.  Our eggs come from another year round farmer's market and the hens are cage free.  Yes, we do pay a bit more but what we buy tastes better and cooks better.  We find less gristle, less fat, and fewer bone chips.  Some of the meats we got from the supermarket were almost inedible.

Now this just might be a looming problem.  I have seen a couple of very isolated stories over the last few years about standard vaccines becoming less effective.  I know there has been a growing backlash against vaccination based on a range of complaints, many not proven.  However, I have often suspected many of the problems arise out of the very success of vaccines.  The risks now from the diseases themselves are so low that the risks from the vaccines seem so much more pronounced.  That may change if the mortality rate from whooping cough, pneumonia, and other such disease suddenly go up dramatically.

For several years I have believed that the powers that be in this country pays lip service only to the rights of free speech and petition for redress of grievances.  That is the foundation of the right of Americans to protest.  However, since early in Bush II's reign, it has become clear that those rights are exercisable only out of sight and hearing of those toward whom the protests are aimed.  Note the struggle to hold legal protests and marches in Chicago for the Nato summit.  Of course, the Emmanuel administration falls back on arguments of public safety and order to justify their stonewalling and obstruction.  They will have a new weapon in their arsenal since Obama signed this new law.  Business also had this on the same topic.