Thursday--

We actually ran the air conditioning yesterday. The humidity was stifling which was a worse problem than the heat alone. It should be cooler today and dry. We'll see.

I saw this story sketchily presented on the morning news broadcast. I had a couple of thoughts on it. First, the Repthuglican agreement to consider and vote on the Damnocrat gun control measures doesn't mean much if a 2/3 majority is required to pass it. Allowing a vote you are sure will fail looks a lot more democratic than refusing to vote at all--which is what they are doing with Presidential nominees. Second, as far as the bills themselves go they constitute another shredding of American legal rights. The "no-fly list" and the "terrorist watch list" are both sick jokes. People who have done nothing wrong get on them for any number of reasons (names mistyped, similar sounding names, etc.) and can never get off. Their right to travel is cancelled with no judicial process or review and now our politicians think being listed on such a list should cancel one's right to legally own fire arms a right supposedly protected by the constitution. I don't know how many reporters have reported that the Orlando murderer was "under investigation" wondering how he could possibly have been allowed to legally buy his guns. They don't seem to understand that "under investigation" does not mean "arrested" which does not mean "indicted" which does not mean "convicted." We have become such cowardly wusses that we don't seem to mind the erosion of our rights. Or are we such idiots that we think the abrogation of such rights only applies to "those people" and will still be available when we might need them? The only good thing about the Damnocrats' action is that they did get up on their hind legs and make a stand.

Friday--

What a whiplash pair of days we had. Wednesday was hot and humid. The temperature topped out in the low 90s. Yesterday didn't get out of the 60s. Today we should be back in the 80s with plenty of sunshine. Just some general puttering and maintenance in the gardens today. Everything is doing nicely.

Nimue Brown has an interesting and thought provoking post this morning: Contemplating Violence. Everyone seems at a loss trying to understand the motives of people like the Orlando Murderer, or the Church Murderer who is going on trial soon. A good many are trying to see what "signs" they missed (or that the FBI or other agencies missed). I wonder if they, like Nimue in the event she describes, simply didn't understand what they were seeing. And in an era of diminished expectations and failed dreams finding scapegoats is very easy.