Thursday--

Well, here we are at the end of April and 2015 is one-quarter over.  Happy Beltane for all who celebrate that holiday.  Haven't been able to scratch the gardening itch outside much because it has been too cold to plant.  I have seen some robins exploring my patio and containers.  Good--they like bugs and I always have a few they are most welcome to.  Maybe that cardinal I saw last year will return and bring some friends.  I think the robins also like my bird bath.

Watching the news coverage of the Baltimore riots we wondered exactly what shifted a protest into a riot.  I found this this morning which is thought provoking.  Evidently a volatile mixture of angry but peaceful protestors and drunk sports fans combusted into violence.  Question: who is most responsible?  I tend to have a very low tolerance for drunks which should tell you where I come down.  And this story makes no sense at all on several counts: unidentified prisoner who was in the van with Gray but only heard him thrashing around and assumed Gray was trying to hurt himself??  What about earlier reports that Gray was not buckled in and that the ride was an intentionally "rough" one during which the cops had to lift Gray back into a sitting position on the van's bench???  Sounds like cops trying to cover their collective asses.

I really have to ask: do school administrators get a lobotomy or a prude transplant as part of their qualifications for their jobs?  I ask because of this article.  And what about the teachers?  Do the do prude training as part of their certification?  Or is there a thinking switch someone has turned off because what ever they are thinking with it isn't their brains.

Oh, yes--I can always rely on the Contrary Farmer for a thought provoking essay.  When the "Arab Spring" ignited revolutions across North Africa and the Middle East not one mainstream news source noted that Syria had suffered some three years of drought before violence erupted.  Nor do they discuss the economic conditions what have made Egypt a tinderbox.  Nor how often the religious conflicts grow out of economic troubles and then feed into political wars.

So Bernie Sanders is running for president.  He made his announcement yesterday.  I don't think he has the proverbial snowball's chance of getting (nomination or final election.)  All I really hope is that he brings the political debate back to some semblance of reality.

Canada's biggest banks are just a grubbing as ours.  This is unconscionable.