Good day on this chilly April Sunday.  I didn't get anything done outside yesterday--except looking around a bit.  Our temps didn't get into the fifties even.  Hopefully, today they will.  Instead of gardening I did a bit of dusting amid the bookshelves.  I have been in a 'de-acquisition' mode for several years now and it is time to do another round of culling among the books.  The main question I ask when looking at my books is 'How likely is it that I will want to re-read it any time soon?'  So Heinleins' Time Enough For Love,  or Rumer Godden's In This House Of Brede, or S.M. Stirling's Dies The Fire stay on the shelf.  But William Kienzle's Chameleon, Kathy Reich's Bones Are Forever, and Monica Ferris' Framed In Lace will find new homes through the local library's book sale.  I enjoyed them all and I have read them all at least twice.  But it is time to pare down.

Now for a grumble: has anyone else noticed how very useless the news on Boston has been?  I don't know how much verbiage and hot air has been expended but I have noticed how little real information was imparted.  And I have also noticed how repetitive, how maudlin, and hyped so much of it has been.  We just turned off Good Morning America.  The lead was the surviving Boston Bomber and his injuries, followed by a shooting at a pro-Marijuana rally in Denver, and whether the 'cupcake craze' might be over and, if so, what the next fad will be.  I am not terribly interested in any of that.

Somehow this doesn't really surprise me.  That officials from the Czech Republic would have to make a public announcement to make it clear that The Czech Republic is not Chechnya says something very sad about our education system.

One way or another our safety net programs are going to be privatized.  The big banks and financial firms will skim a nice profit one way or another.  I am sure that any attempts to 'reform' any of the 'entitlements' will simply increase the profits of the financial middlemen while those who are supposed to be the beneficiaries will receive fewer benefits.

Hey, Kay.  Good to see you.  I didn't send you that miserable cold and wet weather.  I really, really want warmth and sun.  Actually,  the climate scientists say these extreme weather events are more likely with global warming (or, as they prefer, climate change.)  Remember last spring with the heat wave in February followed by the severe freeze in March?  All the apple growers in Michigan and Wisconsin were hit very hard.  My lavender and thyme survived last year nicely but not the winter just past.  And don't forget the prolonged heat wave that followed last year's strange spring.  I agree--Sam presents some very interesting items on Undernews.

I wondered a couple of times during the endless and unenlightening coverage of Boston last week how  those injured by the bomb blasts would be affected financially by suddenly needing expensive medical treatment.  That is a topic none of the lames-stream media has even mentioned.  The Agonist does mention it here.  The friends of one of the injured have started an on-line fund hoping to raise at least a part of the needed money.  I noticed on the news this morning that there is an internet movement to provide the boat owner with a new boat to replace the one damaged in the capture of the surviving bomber.  But no one mentioned any efforts to raise money for the medical treatment of the injured survivors of the blast.  Sad, very sad!!