Tuesday--

So--Charles Koch is against "special interests" infesting our politics.  As usual the "devil is in the details" and, also as usual, the biggest devils concern definitions.  Using their money to influence decision makers so they make another piffling $100M isn't special interests.  It is just good business. But those groups arrayed against his interests are special interests.  You know the groups: land owners who don't want to fall victim to eminent domain seizures or have their water fouled by oil spills, environmental groups who don't want to see the land, air and water polluted.

This is an interesting strategy: threaten to convert to Islam to get your church rebuilt.

Oh, the times are most definitely changing.  They are right about the availability of porn on line--even when you aren't looking for it.

Kunstler is on a roll this morning.  His description of the American scene (producing maximum alienation, loneliness, and anxiety) is right on target.  We asked ourselves as I read this piece what has changed since my childhood.  I can think of a number of things.  Most people I knew had guns--most had several--ranging from pistols to .22 squirrel poppers to deer rifles to shotguns.  I remember being knocked on my ass by the recoil of my grandfather's Springfield .45-70 rifle when I was about 11.  Grandpa and Dad were there carefully supervising us and laughing their butts off while quietly substituting the .22 for the rest of the lesson.  I also remember that every summer our entire family spent Dad's two-week vacation on the farm with his parents--at least until my late teens.  At that point I knew all my aunts, uncles and cousins--something I can't say now even with my grandnieces and nephews.  I haven't seen some in so long that I wouldn't recognize them if they came to my door. How many jobs do we have any real investment in?  I would guess not that many.  Too often the old Soviet joke is very apropos: we pretend to work; they pretend to pay us.

I do like this notion: the "right to dry."  We would have a clothesline set up if we had any room for one.  For us it is either a clothesline or the gardens.  The gardens won.