Good Thursday, everyone.  I was surprised to see two posts I had started but not posted.  The posts have become so intermittent because I am tired of writing the same (or very similar) posts on the same old issues.  I don't know how often we have watched the news--especially the political and economic news--and wondered at the fact that the same old problem is featured and everybody is saying the same old things.  I wonder, given the results of the last election, if I am the only one who thinks most of the politicians re-elected should have been booted?  Right now the new readers are touting the agreement between two conservative senators that may lead to a 'historic' agreement on gun control.  Historic?? Really??  All it provides for is expanded background checks for gun purchasers.  The measures restricting so-called 'assault' weapons and large capacity magazines aren't going anywhere.  My problem with all sides of this issue is remains the same: nobody really addresses the real problem here.  As the old saying goes: Guns don't kill people; people kill people.  Yeah, they may do it with guns; but, they also use bats and other clubs, knives, cars, and anything else that is handy.  A couple of the bloggers I read regularly noted that there isn't any movement to restrict the sale of x-acto knives or other knives.  Nor is there a demand that we submit to background checks before buying knives.  Or, get some kind of permit to carry one.  With guns we blame the tool for the use to which some asshole puts it.  How about a smarter way to hold the assholes accountable for what they actually do and not everyone for what some asshole might do.  Sorry for the monotonous use the the same noun.  I guess that makes my earlier point.

This is an interesting little story but I don't really know what conclusions to make of it.  Our confusion was simply compounded because the amounts of lead in the rice are different in the BBC broadcast report we just saw.  Since we eat rice maybe six to eight times a month I think we will wait further developments.  At leas the BBC account addressed our question of how some of the lead got into the rice but only for that from China and Taiwan.  I would love to know how the drought several areas have experienced over the last couple years or so would have affected the levels of heavy metals in crops including rice.

Good Sunday, everyone.  We had a wonderful day yesterday.  Temperature was a bit over 70 though the weather people warn that it probably won't be repeated for a while.  The ice on the patio cement is almost gone--may be totally gone since the temperature out there was 45+ overnight.  Sometime today I need to cut paper strips and make some more pots.  We are looking at how we can arrange out pots outside to make it easier to reach in and work.  But I may not be able to do much for at least another week.  Our weather people say we will have rain off and on all week.  How much? Anybody's guess.

I agree, Susan.  The banking situation is scary.  We have had 80 years of being assured that our bank accounts are safe.  After all, our government 'insures' them--right?  Well, that account is greatly under funded.  I remember reading about the level of bank liabilities a couple of years ago and thinking there isn't enough money to cover those liabilities--world wide or in individual companies.  And yes I have also seen the stories about the various schemes to squeeze more money out of bank customers and how much fees and penalties contribute to the bank's profits.  When the publicity bites them they roll back the contentious fee/penalty and quietly apply a new one while the attention is elsewhere.  I refuse to have a credit card.  All those offers go straight in the garbage.

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I greet you now on a rainy Monday.  But the temperatures are in the mid-40s so nothing is likely to freeze again.  Right now I think I still have living blueberry bushes and tansy.  Still waiting for clear signs of life from the other plants I left out over the winter.

Hey, Kay.  Glad to see you back.  I agree on all you said.  I really hate the thought that Social Security and Medicare has become a 'bargaining chip' for our supposedly progressive President to get his 'grand bargain.'  It will be anything but grand for you, me, Mom and others like us.  Thank the powers, gods or whoever for Bernie Sanders.

I just got a plant in the mail.  I thought it would be the hibiscus I ordered but it was a pineapple sage.  I thought I had ordered seeds.  Oh, well.  It is upstairs under the grow lights until it is warm enough for it to be outside.  Next fall I will take cuttings and put them under grow lights over winter.  I wish I had done that last fall but Mom reminded me that those cuttings might not have done well since it wouldn't have had enough light.

Hope you are all having a nice Friday.  It looks like a sunny day today and our over night temperatures remained above freezing.  I hope that continues.  I so want to get out and start digging in the gardens.  Can't do that until everything thaws.  The last two containers are starting to drain.  I started some more seeds yesterday in my homemade paper pots: more stevia along with chamomile, summer savory, wonder berry, and bee balm.  Sometime over the weekend I will make some more pots.

I followed the link I found on Natural News to this article on a change the USDA (of which the Food Safety and Inspection Service is a part) in the designation of sodium benzoate, sodium propionate, and benzoic acid as (now) safe for human consumption.  First, I don't trust any of the government agencies who are supposed to protect citizens health and safety.  They are too much in bed with the industries they are supposed to regulate.  Second, I am amazed that these products are now approved when sodium is one of the several substances we are supposed to limit in our diets.  Are they going to declare it on labels?  This is a big issue in this household since Mom's doctor has strongly advised her to limit her sodium intake.  Third, do you really believe a food conglomerate like Kraft when they say they are not going to use the chemicals to disguise inferior of sub-standard meat and poultry?  I don't.

Good day to you all.  The skies are overcast and we should get rain.  However, the temperatures are now in the high 30s and we should see a 60+.  That will be nice.  The forecast even projected three 60s in a row.  My goodness.  All of my containers are now free of ice.  It won't be long and I will be able to start working the soil.  We got four new 30 gal totes to replace the worst of the old ones.  But until the soil is thoroughly thawed and drained I can't change them out.

Just had a couple of very nice encounters with seed companies I usually deal with.  Schumway sent an e-mail to say they had shipped the pineapple sage seeds that had been on back order.  And Burpee sent an e-mail telling me the supplier of the grow light system I purchased is sending a replacement for the defective bulb that came with the fixture.  I have never had a bad experience with the seed companies.  All I have yet to receive from the spring orders in the purple hibiscus plant and I expect it will come sometime between now and end of May since the usual last frost date for this area is May 15.  Just in time to set in the gardens.  The little cranberry plant is doing well and has shown some new growth as has my bay and Christmas cactus.  Just dug around in a few of  my containers.  Centers are still frozen.

Found these remarks from Bill Moyers by way of Crooks & Liars.  I think it is right on the money.

Good Thursday, All.  Supposed to be in the high 50s today.  A few more days like this and all my containers may finally be ice free.  I still have two that needs to thaw and drain.  Can't tell too much about what has survived and what hasn't out there.  The blueberries are survivors and they show a lot of new leaf buds.  Yeah!!!  One of the pyrethrum looks probably and can't tell about the others.  The tansy looks probably, also.  Can't tell about the oregano, sage and lavender yet.  Maybe by this time next week I can get in for a closer look.

I think this is a very hopeful sign.  It is absolutely ridiculous that corporation or other business, is somehow 'bad' enough to justify prosecution, executives had some responsibility for creating and/or encouraging a corporate environment of corruption.  Under our current legal system a company could get off with paying a fine that amounted to a financial pin prick (compared to the profits it made from its  corrupt behavior) and the executives who encouraged it get off without penalty.  Can anyone wonder why our financial system is such an amoral mess?

Another black eye for Walmart!  I have watched this story grow over the last week when one of the economic bloggers linked to the Bloomberg story (I think).  I saw the follow up yesterday and this morning our local morning news mentioned it in its economics segment.  Some five or so years ago we started drifting away from Walmart.  It started when we became increasingly unhappy with the low quality and excessive packaging in the meat department.   We found (at that time) better quality and comparable prices without the wasted packaging at our local supermarket.  (Note: we have since shifted over to a small local meat market which has much better meat at only marginally higher prices and much less in the packaging.  The change has been made much easier because we don't eat as much of anything as we once did.)  About that time we also noticed gaps (sometimes large ones) on the shelves and the disappearance of many products we customarily bought.  I don't think we have visited our local Walmart over the last good while without commenting on how empty the shelves are.  We don't go there often and, as often as not, we don't find what we want or the quality isn't worth the price however low.

Once upon a time I (and I think most of us) thought that our money remained our money when we entrusted it to a bank or brokerage firm or other such entity.  Evidently, we were just a bit deluded.  It becomes an unsecured loan to the bank.  And the Cyprus expropriation is not likely to be the one-off all of the politicos and their tame pundits promised and limited to Cyprus.  Check out this post.  From news stories I have read over the last couple of weeks some governments are explicitly enacting the same policy, New Zealand and Canada most recently.  I wonder how long before insurance companies will offer those wealthy enough to have deposits over the government insured levels insurance for the rest and how much it will cost.  A couple of times I have made quips about shifting to the Bank of Sealy and Mom remarked how easily that money could be stolen or destroyed in a fire or some such catastrophe. But I wonder what the real chances (not any low balled estimate) of having our bank legally steal our funds.

Another good reason to buy food grown locally and process it yourself.  Absolute safety is never achievable but I don't feel altogether comfortable trusting companies whose only loyalty is to their bottom line and consider any costs to marketing unsafe or contaminated foods a business expense.  As for the customers who die, are incapacitated, or require expensive treatment for food borne illness--they are collateral damage.

Hello to you all on what looks like a bright Wednesday though a bit on the cool side.  I need to water a whole lot of plants.  So far the new grow light is working very nicely.  All of those seedlings are growing nicely.  The peppers I thought were not going to sprout have sprouted nicely.  They had taken so long I was about to start new seeds.  I need to make some new paper pots so I can get some more seeds started.  I think those are working much better than the peat plugs.  I don't think I will use the peat plugs any more.

I found this blog on the Washington Post this morning.  I remember all of the official proclamations assuring everyone that the radiation from Fukushima would certainly not reach our territories.  That was at the same time monitors in Washington and Oregon were showing radiation spikes directly traceable to Fukushima and radiation tainted fish were showing up in our waters.  How can you tell if a politician is lying?  His/Her lips are moving.

I have a couple of thoughts about the Korean mess.  The first came this morning as the news readers noted China's concern over the brinksmanship.  They are afraid that the situation will escalate 'accidentally.'  I put that word in quotation marks because, as a character in a movie I like said, if a loaded gun discharges while you are threatening people with it, it is no accident if some one is shot.  The North Koreans are threatening people with a loaded gun and there are no accidents in the consequences.  The second thought involves some of the political pundits' comments that describe the North Korean actions as 'blackmail.'  There is only one effective way of dealing with international blackmail--change the terms of the interaction.  Right now we are trying to achieve an unattainable goal--limiting nuclear technology to those countries that have it now.  The key feature about technological genies is that once they are out of the bottle they don't go back into the bottle and no one can control where they go.  We have to find a way to live with that fact and the fact that people we don't much like or trust are going to get the technology.

This situation has appeared in a number of articles I have read for some time now.  Now the practice is increasing in Britain.  We were assured by our various pundits that the upsurge of temporary workers and workers hired 'on call' nothing to worry about because when good times (that were surely just around the corner) many of those workers would be hired permanently.  We were, and remain, skeptical.  I just saw a report on BBC that touts the 'improving' U.S. job market.  The only criterion by which the job market is improving is in the number of companies planning to hire more workers.  That doesn't mean they will actually hire more.  Or that the wages will improve.  Statistics I have seen elsewhere indicate that two-thirds or more of the jobs lost during the last several years paid well while sixty percent of the jobs created were low paying jobs.  This Alternet piece provides a tonic for irrational optimism on the jobs issue.  That does not indicate an improving job market.

I like reading the Contrary Farmer--he writes a lot of good sense.  Over the last couple of years I have read a number of stories about farmers converting a large amount of land to corn and soybean production and much of that in areas that require extensive irrigation to make bring in the crop.  Worse the aquifers that irrigate that land are dropping rapidly at the same time drought conditions continue.  The whole process reminds me of descriptions of the years just before and into the early years of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl.  Farm commodity prices fell leading farmers to convert more land to crops hoping to squeeze a small profit out of more acreage leading to lower prices.  And much of the expansion was fueled by loans.  And then the music stopped and everybody fell down.

Isn't this wonderfully craptastic!!!  When is oil not oil?  When it is from oil sands.  Which means that Exxon doesn't have to pay into the oil clean up trust fund.  By the way--the oil the Keystone XL pipeline is planned to carry--same thing.

Good day to you all and welcome to April.  I know--it is the 2nd so April has already started.  I just haven't found much I wanted to say about what is going on in our world.  It is more of the same and I have felt somewhat exhausted in the way of something new to say.

Here is an interesting article concerning resistance of crop pests to GMO plants incorporating toxin genes.  The theory behind the pyramid strategy (incorporating genes for two or more toxins into a plant's genome) is that if on is good two is better, and so on.  The results say that may be be very mistaken.  Unfortunately, Monsanto and its competitors have so much capital invested in this strategy that changing course would be expensive and difficult.  And even more unfortunately, the recently signed 'Monsanto Protection Act' will allow those companies to introduce such engineered crops without oversight and without liability.  The worst part of this is that it was attached to the continuing budget resolution at the last minute.  The best part--the whole thing will be in effect only until September when the resolution expires.  Maybe something can be done to keep it out of any budget in the future--if any, given the recent track record of our overpaid representatives.

We listened to the morning news with a sense of bewilderment.  The economic segment proclaimed a fantastic drop in gasoline prices to an average of just under $3.60/gal.  Why bewilderment?  We were out yesterday and the lowest price we saw as $3.83/gal.  That has been typical for while now.  What ever 'good' news we hear don't seem to appear at our level of the economy.