Tuesday--

Another reason why I am against "privatization" of certain public services and against so-called public-private partnerships.  Those basically make governments and private companies allies against citizens.

This story has us scratching our heads in perplexed amazement.  It isn't the number of pending requests for medical aid from the Va who are actually deceased that has us bemused.  But that the VA can't remove the names of the dead from the list--that is mind boggling.  Who screwed up their computer programming?  And why can't they get it fixed?

Wednesday--

We did our grocery shopping but little else yesterday.  It got hot and muggy very quickly and then cooled off drastically.  I watered everything when it cooled off in the afternoon but the sunflowers got an extra dose.  They dry out so quickly.  In spite of all the rain we got with that last system which has left some areas under flood water, it didn't do much good for the plants.  We have some more errands today but with the cooler temps I should be able to putter about with the plants a bit.

Thursday--

Puttering was all I did yesterday.  The errands took much more time than I had anticipated so I didn't do much.  If the weather cooperates I should be able to get something done today.

Mark Morford is on a good roll today.  I read the article he links to a few days ago and still hadn't processed it totally.  Morford's sarcasm helped.

I noticed the news stories about enraged parents protesting "swearing" minions in McDonalds' Happy Meals.  Really???  Someone can actually make sense of the nonsense sounds the characters make??  I know I couldn't the few times I have seen promos for the newest minion movie.  Then the second thing I read this morning is this piece on the Daily Sheeple about the poor embarrassed dad whose daughters asked him about the Princess Leia in slave costume.  Man up, you idiot, and learn how to deal with aspects of the popular culture you don't like without whining to the rest of us that we need another law.

Garden update: ten trays of peppermint and one of lavender drying.  After a break I need to transplant a sweet basil and a pineapple mint.

This article from the Guardian makes some valid points but at bottom I think the message is that there is no simple, one-size-fits-all solution the the problem of ensuring everyone has enough to eat.  We need a variety of strategies to address such problems.  The school gardens can be fantastic learning venues that teach science (botany, chemistry, genetics to name just a few), math (how many square feed of space does each kind of plant need, how much water, how much of what kind of fertilizer), and engineering (how does a hydroponics system work, how does one build a vertical growing space) as well as nutrition and providing children with needed exercise.  Supplying millions with adequate food is indeed a big problem but sometimes going bigger isn't the solution and creates more waste that useable goods.  Going smaller millions of times might create more good for everyone.  Of course, if everyone grows a large part of their own food I can think of several big corporations that would take a big hit on their bottom line.