September 3

Cool and bright today. Looks like it will be dry. I got out to do some trimming in the gardens and took out the dyers woodruff as well. I still want to get a handle on the roses and the chamomile. I put the marigolds in small pots in the wire holders on the fence. That gets them out of the way so I can more easily move things around. I say "more easily" because there is nothing easy about moving 5gal buckets full of dirt and plant.

Watching the news is painful and infuriating. The responses to the pull out in Afghanistan was bound to be messy and it was. The Republican are showing their boorish, self-serving, stupid partisanship. The only thing the want is back in power. The Democrats aren't quite as bad but they are letting their fixation on the perfect get in the way of getting the best out of the situation that can be gotten. We could have gotten out after we kicked the Taliban out, or after we killed bin Laden and had a legitimate claim to a victory. As it is we have a muddle--neither victory nor outright defeat--with a load of broken promises that probably could never have been kept. One thing I hope comes out is that we put a stake into that vampire ideology of "nation building."

I noticed that President Biden noted the toll the long mess in Afghanistan has taken on the 1% of our population who served there. Several commentators noted that all those advocating for continuation had no children in the military. That is the weakness of our current system. I think that all citizens should serve a three year tour of duty in the military (what ever service) when they turn 18, with a further three years in the reserves. No exemptions. If you are bound for college--wait til after your service. If you married young or had children young--you still serve. Women serve equally with the men.

Hurricane Ida did a job on Louisiana, Mississippi and all states between there and Maine. The best news our of New Orleans was that the levy system held but the electric grid is almost a total loss. It will take weeks to get that back and I wonder if parts of it will never be rebuilt. One of the news reporters asked one of the politicians why they didn't bury the electric lines after Katrina. Answer: too expensive. I wonder how expensive rebuilding the system to what it was before will be.

We have had a couple of new peeves lately. Over two days this week Mom received seven e-mails from politicians begging for gifts--and not a one is from our state or had declared for a national office. One was Ted "Cancun" Cruz. And no, he is not one of our senators. Then she got requests from charities she has already donated money to in the last month. She is getting rather tired of the constant pleas and is refusing to give any more. They used to be satisfied with a single yearly donation but now want monthly gifts that they will be glad to relieve you of the need to actually write a check and post it.