Thursday--

The wind has been high all night, as predicted.  They say the temps will not get out of the 40s.  Mom said we had rain just about the time we went to bed last night which was also expected.  I got everything likely to blow around in the shed or tied to something not likely to blow away.

The gardening catalog season has begun.  I received the first--the 2016 Pinetree catalog a couple of days ago.  Right now the notions for next year have been simmering since I started taking plants out and getting the beds covered for the winter.  I need to sit down and think about how things worked out this year and evaluate the plants I had.

This is a story that has reappeared regularly over the years since the melamine poisoning episode in 2008.  The twist this time is the phenomenon is being driven by predatory marketing claims that infant formula, especially foreign produced and imported by what ever means, can turn a baby into an infant Einstein.

Slate has a post about an interesting case before the Supreme Court originating from Florida.  When can the government freeze assets owned by a person who has not yet been convicted of a crime and is, therefore, entitled to the use of those assets? I would like to see something similar with the whole issue of "civil forfeiture."

I, like one of the people quoted in this story, have never shopped on Black Friday.  I have been stuck on the other side of the counter all too often and don't miss it one tiny bit.  The sooner the phenomenon ends the better in my opinion.  What is replacing it is only a bit less annoying because we aren't seeing as much of it--incessant ads from Halloween on.  Our TV is off for the most part nowadays.  And we are watching less and less of the news which has improved our moods tremendously.

Tom Englehardt has another good article about the corruption that is a dominant feature of the "American Way of War."