Good Morning, everyone. I haven't had much to say lately so I have simply read and commented on other people's sites. The gardening has shifted into the last phases of getting everything cleaned up and ready for winter and planning for next spring. I haven't been in a mood for needlework for a while so everything is hanging fire in that department.

I found this on one of the Google alerts in my e-mail this morning. Colorado appears ready to lower its minimum wage which is only $.03 (that is 3 cents) below the federal minimum. Thankfully, for Colorado minimum wage workers all the state can shave off, by law, is those 3 cents. The excuse for this proposal is that the cost of living has gone down and so the minimum, which is tied to the cost of living, should also. The same argument applied to not giving Social Security raises next year. I don't know about anyone else but I haven't seen any decrease in my cost of living. Gas prices migrate in a band that is at least $1 more than when I first started feeling pain at the pump about 3 years ago. I haven't seen any price reductions at the grocery store in spite of the stories of supermarkets cutting the prices on 'tens of thousands of items.' Those must be items we simply don't buy. But, hey, we should celebrate!! The Dow closed at just over 1000--a level it first surpassed in 2000 and which it hadn't seen for months. And look at all of those bankers getting mega bonuses. Life must be good--for someone.

We just got back from taking the car over to get a couple of things repaired. While there (we had to wait because we are now down to one car) we read through the three or more newspapers they had. One of the articles stated that the sales of canning supplies has gone up 30% as of mid September. If I remember, that was about how much the sales of seeds went up last spring. Think there might be a connection there?

Hello, again. Getting chillier here and it is wet. We are slowly getting the patio and gardens cleaned out. We don't have a lot to do all at once. I have found a few weeds that escaped me this summer but none too many or too big. I do have one note to myself that I shouldn't plant cosmos in the containers--unless they are the only plants in the container. I pulled the three I had planted and found their roots had invaded every part of the container. No wonder the peppers and lettuce I had in that container failed to thrive. When I tried to pull the cosmos I almost pulled the soil out and moved the container (with all the dirt!!) a couple of inches. The only way to get them out was to cut through the roots with the trowel. I hadn't grown cosmos before and had no idea of how they would do. They do extremely well--so no more. I would rather the poblano peppers had less competition.

MSNBC reports this morning that our national legislators are close to a deal to extend unemployment benefits. I noticed that the Republicans are crying that they need more time to study the bill. I also remember that they never needed much time to study any proposal the Bush Administration put to them. Of course most of what he put forward were half-assed wars carried off the books, tax cuts for the rich, gutting the regulatory agencies, emasculating FEMA, and bailouts for the banks. They didn't have to look very hard at those proposals did they?

And for anyone who thought the mortgage mess was behind us there is this story about trouble at FHA. But, hey, only a smidge over 500k people lost jobs last month--an 'improvement' of about 30k. Damn, what wonderful news!! I wonder how many had FHA insured mortgages.

Robert Reich has posted an excellent assessment of what the last 10 months have yielded from Washington and why so little has resulted. And why so much of that little benefits the few at the top or is totally ineffectual.

Like almost everyone else we heard the news that President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The first two time it was mentioned in the news programs we were wondering what the punchline was--it had to have been a joke, right?? Well, it wasn't. I am glad for Obama but--what does this award say about the world situation today? A Nobel Peace Prize that seems to have been awarded more on hope of what is to come than on concrete achievements paints a rather bleak picture. And if it was awarded as a slap in George W.'s face, as one report maintained, that is also rather dismal. I hope Obama can deliver on the hope.

Good Morning, All. It is overcast and cool this morning with forecasts for even cooler weather for the coming week. We may even get our first frost, at least at ground level. By then I hope to have the gardens totally cleaned out. I took the last of the green tomatoes yesterday and a couple were large enough that we had some of them fried last night. The rest of the red and green tomatoes will be done up into a salsa.

Good Morning America had a story this morning that mom saw on the AARP site concerning a woman who ate a hamburger and wound up paralyzed from the waist down (after nearly dying). The AARP story, of course, gave more details and, I will be honest, the story is frightening. Especially since I have been hearing about this strain of e coli for the last couple of years. Diane Sawyer's comments were interesting and reflect our own responses here. We had no idea of what went into ground beef. Scraps that would once have been used to make dog and cat food are now processed for human consumption. I loved one exchange between Sawyer and the show's medical expert. They noted that freezing the meat doesn't kill this particular strain of e coli. She commented that heat should do the trick and the doctor noted that the hamburger would have to be cooked to thoroughly brown and hard. 'Shoe leather?' Sawyer replied. To which the doctor agreed noting that one needed to cook the burger to the point 'most people wouldn't want to eat it.' Both the Good Morning America piece and the AARP story noted that the ground beef most of us buy comes from multiple sources. The burger that caused the illness which paralyzed that young woman featured in the stories came from three domestic suppliers and one in Uruguay. AARP further noted that the suppliers often require legal agreements from the grinders they supply to NOT test the meat for any contamination and the contamination can occur at ANY point in the supply chain. Also interesting was the doctor's recognition of the source of the spinach linked outbreak of e coli in 2008--field contamination from runoff from an animal feeding operation nearby.

Mom and I have been discussing this since she read the AARP article to me yesterday. We have decided to explore a couple of different options. First, to see if the supermarket from which we normally buy our meat will grind the cuts we select on site. Second, to check out a couple of local meat markets with the same aim. Third, shift from ground beef to finely cubed beef and pork for chili and other such dishes. Fourth, and this is one that the doctor suggested along with the first option, grind our own.

This is only the latest assault on our consumers' sensibilities. We recently bought a ham which turned out to be considerably less than satisfactory. As mom cut it up into the various slices, cubes and 'roasts' we would be using she found squishy flesh and fat that fell apart it was so water logged. It was supposed to be fully cooked and smoked but did not look like it. The salt content is off the chart. We are going to check out other sources for ham next time we want one. That follows on a batch of beans (from a jar) which were so salty that we did not need to add any salt at the dinner table (and mom doesn't cook with salt). We have gone back to doing our beans from scratch (that is, from dried beans.) Even the canned vegetables are too salty for our tastes. We are considering our options there, also.

Good Morning, Everyone. The weather has settled into another rut--cool with sunny spells alternated with clouds or rain. We are settling into our cool weather patterns--getting the windows covered with plastic, wearing sweats, etc.

I caught this little piece this morning on MSNBC. The evening news mentioned the controversy--barely--within the last couple of week. The credit card companies are right that the merchants don't want to pay the fees which seem small enough if you don't dig below the surface. I worked for a small business (and I do mean small--3 employees including the owner) a couple of years ago and that fee to the credit card company for those transactions took a lot of the profit margin. If we tried to put a dollar limit on purchases with a credit card that would make sure the purchase was large enough to ensure a profit above the fee, we were told it was illegal. Damned if you do, Damned if you don't. I can understand the credit card issuing companies wanting to cover their costs and make a bit of money on the transactions. However, how often have we read about how profitable these cards are and how many banks relied on these fees to pad their bottom lines? I would say that the characterization of some of the executives as white-collar pirates is not far off. Let me add another perspective. I use a debit card only that is tied to my checking account which carries no fees so long as I have no overdrafts. I would deeply resent it if I were charged a fee to use the money in a free checking account. If I were charged for that convenience I would go back to using checks or cash.

Here is another entry in the 'business behaving badly' file. Frankly, I am not just outraged by the cost to a small town for the clean up, or the back taxes which will probably never be collected, or the several years of difficulties the town had with this company. The waste of all that meat was absolutely criminal. But these pirates will not likely be hanged or forced to walk the plank. Damn!!!

Then there is this little story. Did anyone else notice the jobs that are going begging? All of them require at least two to four years of college level training--in those specific fields. A bachelor's degree in english or history won't cut it. How many of the however many millions of unemployed have that training. Does anyone remember the little story from Elkhart a couple of weeks ago detailing the dilemma of those who have gone in for retraining of trying to finance that retraining? For most of those who manage to get through they will be up to their eyeballs in debt, what they had before as well as what they accumulate for the training. Another damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

Tom Englehardt has provided an interesting post by Max Bivens today. The sarcasm just drips off his writing. I liked this quote: "The entire Gross Domestic Product -- the number reflecting all wealth generated in this nation for this year -- is only $14.1 trillion. So whether the sum of our money that's now their money is $3 trillion (1/5th of all wealth generated in America in a year) or $4.7 trillion (1/3rd of all wealth generated in America in a year), it still means that, for a big chunk of the year, every single one of us was working for Goldman Sachs et al." Damn, I didn't even get to spend a penny of it. Never even saw a check.

Good Morning, again. It is cool and wet today. I have to go to the library so I hope to dodge the raindrops and stay fairly dry. Needless to say--no gardening today.

I had resisted Facebook for a long time but have finally caved in and enrolled. Most of my family are on it and so are several old and dear friends. It does provide a nice way to keep up and some other nice entertainment.

I found this item that surprised both mom (who is on social security) and me (who is just shy of eligibility.) I really do think this sucks big time--to find that if you opt out of medicare because you qualify for a better health program only to find that you also must opt out of Social Security. We both thought the two were totally separate. After all you can opt for 'early' Social Security benefits at age 62 but must wait until age 65 to get Medicare. Something about this is totally screwy.

This one can be filed in the 'damned if you/damned if you don't' folder. Enrollment in Social Security is running above expected levels this year as older Americans who can enroll do so. Either they have lost jobs or they need the extra income in these nasty economic times. On the one hand the higher enrollment numbers will advance the time line for Social Security paying out more than they take in. On the other hand those who opt for social security and do not have a job are relieving the employment crunch somewhat. I don't blame those who opt for early benefits.

The Slate has an article examining the latest resurrection of 'fat taxes.' Actually they shouldn't be called 'fat taxes.' They aren't really because they are on a category of food most of us think of as junk food. Often these were already taxed because they were subject to sales taxes unlike other foods. Take a look at you checkout receipt at the supermarket and see if you state or local government follows that. You might buy potatoes, which are not taxed, and potato chips, which are. I am not really convinced by the argument that junk foods are 'engineered' to be irresistible, addicting even. They are just so readily available and convenient. But then we have whole categories of foods that are highly processed but aren't considered in the same category--he cake mix you bought along with the potatoes and potato chips for example. How do you want to categorize these foods? Or take a look at the canned vegetables on the supermarket shelves. Mom and I have and have been shocked at how much salt is in them. We recently had our first meals of beans and corn bread which were so salty we didn't have to add any salt. Mom doesn't add salt in cooking. She uses spices and herb mixtures exclusively. We add salt to taste at the table. We switched from the already prepared beans to the dried beans from then on. And we have switched to more of the frozen vegetables for the same reason. Alcohol and tobacco taxes are nicely straight forward compared to the swamp of trying to impose fat taxes.

But then there is another reason why I am somewhat leery of this kind of tax. Like all other 'sin' taxes they become a crutch for governments that impose them and those governments are not likely to take any real action to reform the behavior. In the 19th century the Czarist government knew that alcoholism was rampant but taxes on vodka and other alcoholic products provided the major support for their finances. Needless to say no real efforts were made to curb alcoholism because that would have diminished the revenues.

And then here is another bit of insanity. Since tourism brings in money why throttle the goose who should be laying the golden eggs? Thanks to Chris in Paris for the link. My first thought was to wonder if this proposal had anything to do with Chicago's fourth place finish for the 2016 Olympics--especially since one of the IOC members asked Obama about travel restrictions.

Good Morning, People. Cool after a night of rain. I don't know how much we got but we are supposed to get more today. Took out one container of tomato plants yesterday. Mom is going to make a green tomato salsa out of the fruits. We also put in all the storm windows and put the plastic over two of them. We will get the last one next week. That is almost the last of our fall rituals. We used to change out our dressers and closet but have reduced the clothing to the point where we don't have to do that any more. We haven't had to put the heat on since the overnight temperatures haven't gone below 68 degrees. Hopefully it won't for a while.

I have just about given up on watching the economic statistics. If you do you wind up with mental whiplash. Last month everyone was so overjoyed at the slight dip in the unemployment rate and touted the slight reduction in new unemployment claims. This month just the opposite. July and August had the pundits raving about the 'Cash for Clunkers' program and this month gloomily noting that auto sales were down in September compared to last year. Does anyone remember the fanfare a couple of decades ago when Saturn was touted as the future of the auto industry? Now Saturn is gone--at least according to the latest news on that front.

I just caught the first round of voting for the 2016 Olympic host city--Chicago is out of the running. I am neither sorry nor glad. The Olympics might have been a catalyst for some good changes in Chicago but its economic impact probably would not have reached me. I am surprised it was knocked out in the first round.

Good Morning, All. Bright and sunny for now but definitely chilly. Our thermometer on the patio door registered only 40 degrees and the roofs had frost on them. I hope to get out and get some more of the garden containers cleaned out before the rain comes later today. They say severe thunderstorms are possible.

I found this on MSNBC this morning which was also carried on the news last night. I know that the last sentence carried the researchers disclaimer that they did not intend to pass judgement on working mothers but that is a lot of crap. How can they not? After all where is the companion story about working fathers? I like the notion of more support for parents but I notice how they use 'parents' there not just 'mothers.'