Thursday--

Puttering in the gardens today,  I got everything planted though I still need to get the tomatoes properly staked.  We have been getting greens consistently.  The mustard and mizuno are producing prolifically.  I saw flowers budding on the peas.  As usual my gardens are stuffed.  I can'g put anything more out there.  We had nasty thunderstorms come through yesterday afternoon with some small hail but nothing was harmed.  We may get some more afternoon showers but, they promise us, nothing like what we have had over the last week.

Yves posted this interesting item on her Naked Capitalism blog.  Reading it I have to wonder if we have had a coherent foreign policy since the end of the Cold War or perhaps further back.  Have we been in the process of committing national suicide for the last half-century or so?

I have thought for some time that several of our Cold War treaty arrangements are past their "sell-by dates."  This is some confirmation that my thoughts on that aren't all that far off the mark and might be right on.  The whole point of Nato (and similar treaties) is collective defense--the notion that an attack on one is an attack on all.  Evidently, those closest to potential areas of conflict in eastern Europe aren't as sold on the idea any more.