Friday.  Our overnight temps dipped into the mid 40s (F).  It is feeling too much like fall.  I am watching the predictions to plan when I should bring in some of the plants--the rosemaries, the eucalyptus, the pesto basil.  The wonderberries are starting to ripen and the lower leaves of the bee balm are turning red.  I find myself thinking more and more often of when to take out some of the plants--like the sunflowers which are pretty well spent.  I got a large handful of green beans yesterday which will be part of supper today.

I don't often agree with Sen. Rand Paul but he is right on the militarization of our police forces.  And on the erosion of our legal rights and protections.

I just had a thought on police militarization:  can we expect anything else when most of our social and political problems are couched in terms of "war."  As in "War on Drugs" and "War on Terror" and "War on Poverty."  We have militarized our thinking and the adage I quoted yesterday is just as true in the realm of philosophical or conceptual tools as in the realm of physical tools:  if all the only tool you have is a tool all your problems look like nails.

Sometimes I wonder if the ACA (a.k.a., Obamacare) was designed to fail.  This piece at Naked Capitalism supports that notion.  How much more intrusive can it get?  A damned good argument for a single payer system that cuts the insurance industry out entirely.