Sunday and the weather is changing. More comments on technology. Thoughts the Pink campaign might not like.

The temperature is definitely on a downward trend here.  The weather people expect frost by next weekend.  I cleared out the stems of the tomatoes and put the strawberries (pots and all) in those areas.  I have a couple of strawberry daughter plants to get moved.  As I move things around I have to do some major clean up.  I have never had so much mold growing on the cement before.  I may have to use some bleach on it and wash everything down well.  I still need to split and move the oregano and spearmint and find information on overwintering the hibiscus and pineapple sage.  I took the hummingbird feeder down earlier in the week--much to the disappointment of a couple of lonely little bees.  But the hummingbirds are gone and the bees can feed on the pineapple sage which is finally blooming.

Sorry to hear about your frustrations with Blogger, Kay.  But I have remarked frequently over the last couple of years that we have had more glitches with technology than I can remember in earlier years.  I know blogger has given me a few problems that have left me sputtering profanities.  Those have usually cleared up leaving me with no clear idea of why it happened or why it suddenly righted itself.  On a couple of occasions I have toyed with notions of trying out other services.  I did just that when they cancelled reader.  I don't like my routines being disrupted so.  As far as the information getting out goes--so much of mine is out there in different databases that I think protecting our traditional notions of  privacy is a lost cause.

An interesting story on the morning TV news that touches on our dependence on technology involved a "glitch" in the processing of the food stamps debit cards in more than a dozen states--including Illinois.  You can get more info here.  Xerox, which runs the system, is "investigating."  My philosophy on this is a version of "trust, but verify."  I "trust" that the technology will be there but I think about work arounds in case it doesn't.  We have been doing that kind of thing in response to other monkey wrenches over the last few years.  When the big banks started hiking fees, we asked ourselves what would be our response if our bank did the same.  When storms interrupted power in areas around us, we started looking at what we need to function in case of an extended power outage.  You always need a "plan B," "plan C," and sometimes a "plan D."

More on the glitch with the food stamp debit cards.  Reuters is reporting that the trouble related to a power outage which has been fixed.  I heard that on one of the news broadcasts (but only one) and that the outage took out both the primary system and its backup.  Sounds like someone needs a backup for the backup.

I have a new "What if" question to ask.  I think we have an answer to the question I asked starting back six or seven years ago: what happens in a consumer driven economy when the consumer can't or won't consume on a heroic scale any more?  With declining income, disappearing wealth, and few (if any) benefits for the middle and working classes, discretionary purchases have declined and economic "growth" has stalled.  My new question?  What is going to happen to our so-called "national treasures"--you know, the parks and monuments that "we" as a "nation" hold in common--when the states assume financial responsibility for operating and maintaining them?  We have already seen several states taking over those operations because the local economies are so heavily dependent on the tourists spending their money there.  But how long before those states decide that perhaps the Federal government should get out of the parks business?  How long before those so-called national treasures no longer belong to the "nation?"

You all may remember that I describe myself as a medical minimalist with a very skeptical attitude.  This article explains why.  There are times when the "pink" campaign to "combat" breast cancer irritates me.  First, I am disgusted by the commercialization and by that I mean all of the companies selling everything under the sun decked out with pink and promising that a (small) part of the price will go to some (usually unspecified) charity engaged in the "war" on breast cancer.  Second, I don't trust the statistics that supposedly show how far we have progressed in the "fight."  Third, I absolutely detest the no-prisoners philosophy which demands aggressive treatment and considers more time an ultimate achievement.  If you are too sick (thanks to the treatment) to enjoy that time, why bother?

Easy Saturday. Comments on technology.

Nothing much planned for the day.  I cleaned out some of the stems from plants I cut down over the last couple of days and cut down the cayenne peppers.  They say we might get rain today which I hope--I saw a couple of containers that could use some water.  I need to cut back the tansy and did part of that yesterday.  Got a pleasant surprise.  I thought one of my two foxglove plants had given up.  They didn't really like the shade they got from my overgrown tomato plants.  But I found a bit of new growth so it may decide to live after all.  But I lost both of my lavenders and my small rosemary.  I will replace them next season.

I just got the little message from Google that they are making changes on the privacy policy and how they will share your profile and pictures.  I don't put any pictures of myself or family or many of other people who might wind up in my pictures.  I have minimal information on my profile. I do not endorse anything and haven't clicked like on any products.  I can sympathize with your frustration, Kay.  We never know where what we put out there will wind up and, often--usually, have no control over it.  And the policies change without notice.  Also we have to remember that these companies are in business and will do what ever they can to increase their profits what ever it does to their users.  By the time they cure a problem the damage is done.  But that is a problem that pervades our technological lives.  We depend on these computer driven systems and greedy, insensitive service providers aren't the only problem we face.  Chicago rolled out a new automated fare payment system that has a number of glitches: multiple charges for a single fare, charging fares on other cards that happen to be in the rider's pocket, etc.  Adobe recently suffered a hacker attack that exposed customer information.  I have read about repeated attacks on banks, governments, businesses.  Computers are some what like air--you don't realize how much we depend on it until we are suffocating.  Huffington Post has a bit on the new policy here.

In a way Google's attempt to use its customers' pictures and comments in advertising isn't all that surprising.  Our economy and culture has swum in a sea of advertising for the last hundred years.  It only gets more pervasive with each year.  Think about that the next time you want to throw a brick through your TV screen because of the suffocating inundation of ads interrupting your favorite show.

So the House of Representatives is finally going to move the farm bill to conference committee.  All it took was a freak blizzard that has killed some tens of thousands of cattle.  If they (particularly the Repthuglicans) hadn't insisted on (their own) ideological purity a farm bill could have been passed and channels of aid in place already.

Ahh! Friday.

Well, it is Friday--although it doesn't mean as much as it did when I was working and looking forward to the days I wouldn't be working.  As time has passed the old markers of the week, or month, or year have faded in importance.  There isn't much difference between the days of the week when we can schedule our work as we need rather than to fit into external work schedules.  We don't have to pack laundry, housecleaning, shopping, or whatever, onto two days.  The holidays that played so much of a part really don't anymore.  Christmas?  The commercial aspects grate on me now.  Gift giving?  Well, we were turned off when we realized how competitive our relatives are--constantly looking to see how much (in dollar values) they got versus how much another got.  I had given hand made gifts for a couple of years but stopped when I realized how little they meant to the recipients.  I guess they couldn't appreciate what they couldn't put a firm dollar value on.  Thanksgiving?  Hasn't that been lost somewhere between the buying frenzies of Halloween and Christmas?  I could say much the same for most of the holidays.

What means more to me now are the seasonal changes.  Seed starting in late winter.  Prepping the containers in early spring and setting out the plants in mid spring.  Harvesting in the fall.  Cleaning up in the late fall.  And evaluating the season in the winter while planning for the next season.  That is a lot more satisfying than the commercial cycle of the year with its constant exhortations to worship frequently at the cash register.

I agree, Kay.  The "new" stuff, more often than not, is neither really new nor fun.  I find my self trying to ignore the so-called news.  All it does is raise my blood pressure and push me into swearing a blue streak.

This, however, is very interesting.  I have remarked before that, though polls reveal a deep discontent among voters with congress as a whole, most voters were willing to "throw the bums out" except their own bums.  Evidently that may be changing with this poll.  Sixty percent of respondents said "throw the bums out--including ours."

I am absolutely amazed by how little it takes to encourage enthusiasm on the stock markets and, the media they own.  The Repthuglicans offer a six week extension of the debt limit on the promise of discussions on the budget and the Dow goes up by 300+ points and the news anchors piss themselves in giddy delight.  The government is still shut down and we get to go through this brinksmanship just before the holiday commercial season.  Oh, how the retailers will love that.  What we really need is a budget--a real budget not a continuing resolution--honestly negotiated and voted on.  And maybe a return to the Gephardt rule which required that all spending bills that automatically raised the debt limit to ensure they are paid for--one way or another.

Every once in a while the situation in Afghanistan comes to the fore in the media.  The stalled negotiations with the Karzai government over the conditions governing the U.S. military presence in the country.  I think the U.S. ought to use the zero option and get all troops out.  We wouldn't have to worry about the restrictions the Afghan government wants to impose and will negate any open ended security promises.  We have spend I don't know how many trillions of dollars on George Bush's war and lost more people (our own people) than we lost during 9/11 itself.  What a piss poor return on investment!!

Tomatoes ripening on the counter. Magical thinking. Biiig jigsaw puzzle.

I picked all of the sauce tomatoes of any useable size yesterday.  A couple of dozen are ripening on the counter now.  I don't know how many I can actually use.  I threw out a couple that were already going soft without getting red at all and another this morning the was turning red but also going soft.  It has been a very strange year for the gardens--everything just shifted into a very slow gear in early summer.  Time to start pulling the plants.  The weather people expect colder temperatures next week.

My grandmother had a saying I think applies to politicians.   Whether trying to get the attention of a man or a mule the best option is often a two-by-four between the eyes.  This story suggests that perhaps we need something of that kind for our politicians.  The outrage expressed by some of those boys and girls over the Pentagon's failure to pay death benefits is just so much self-serving crap.  They were told that would happen but chose to believe it wouldn't.  Don't you just love magical thinking?  We seem to be ruled by masters of that art.  If I believe something bad won't happen, it won't.  If the bad thing hasn't happened to me, it hasn't happened at all.

This assessment of the Repthuglicans by First Read is almost on the mark.  They don't like what is going on and haven't since FDR was in office.  They resent not being able to convince the other major party of the righteousness of their views.  It isn't that they don't know what they want.  Rather they want to erase the last 80 or so years with one giant eraser.  Another case of magical thinking.  They want to go back to a "golden age" of American virtue and prudent government--which was never so golden and prudent as it is in their fevered imaginations.

Just what we need--another easy-to-cook-at-home drug.  This one sounds particularly nasty.

If you like jigsaw puzzles this might just be a challenge for you.

Now this is a good idea.  As most of you know I believe that we should all try to get as much as we can of what we need from local sources.  And I don't mean the local Wal-Mart.

Another Wednesday. More political idiocy.

Cool and sunny again.  I would say something about "hump day" but that atrocious GEICO commercial has ruined that notion for me.  Instead I will simply wish you a good day here in the middle of a beautiful fall week.

We had some errands to run yesterday.  Mom had to renew her driver's license and her car plates which went very smoothly and quickly.  And we decided to check out the new Hobby Lobby that opened up this week in town.  I have wished for a long time that the local Michaels would get some serious competition.  I bought the flowers for the new fall wreath before Hobby Lobby opened--they didn't have a firm opening date--but with what we saw yesterday, I wish I had known.  Oh well, we found a little Thanksgiving ornament to put on the wreath after Halloween and have a couple of items we plan to put on the winter wreath for Christmas/Yule.

Some things that make me scratch my head:

• The story this morning that those who heat with natural gas can expect to spend 13% more this year--but didn't we just get the "good" new that the U.S. is poised to take over Russia as the top natural gas producer this fall???
• And then there was irate John Boehner lambasting the Administration because the death benefit for soldiers who die in the line of duty aren't being paid.  It is one of the many government program on hold because the government still has neither a budget (hasn't had one in four years) nor a continuing resolution.  But, of course, the House is scrambling to restore that particular program.  I rather liked Nancy Pelosi's description (not played often enough) of the Repthuglican tactic:  releasing one hostage at a time.  One of the commentators did remark that it appears both sides are setting up the blame game for when the debt ceiling is breached.  So far most polls say that the Repthuglicans are ahead on who is getting the blame.
• A food processing company has recalled raw chicken products for contamination with some seven salmonella strains (at last count) including a couple of particularly nasty drug-resistant varieties.  People have gotten sick in, I think, 18 states and the CDC has recalled their inspectors and investigators to deal with the problem.  I guess making political points is far more important to the House of (Non)Representatives than protecting the well being of people.
• I have way too much blather about how the Repthuglicans only want to talk--to negotiate on matters of the budget.  That is a bunch of bullshit.  They had their negotiations on all of the laundry list of demands they have made.  THEY LOST.  They lost on Obamacare in the House, in the Senate and in the Supreme court.  They lost in the last election.  Now they want to pretend that somehow, because they don't like the law (and it is a law) that they weren't "consulted."  Please!!!  By what definition of the words "consult" or "negotiate" have they not been?  Winning is not a part of the definitions.  Losing doesn't negate the consultation.

Now this is an interesting idea.  I was reading one of the blogs I always follow and the author has the same problem I do--not a lot of space.  So I haven't even tried to harvest tomato seed because the plants would likely cross pollinate.  I wouldn't get the original variety.  However, the blogger decided to take cuttings.  Evidently, tomatoes root easily.  Evidently, you can do the same with peppers.

Cool Tuesday. Fall gardens. Political assholery.

The weather people have taken the rain out of the forecast till the weekend.  I should get some more done in the gardens.  I have decided to pick all of the remaining tomatoes (Amish paste and Super Sauce) and let them ripen on the kitchen counter.  Out on the patio they are ripening slowly and unevenly.  I plan to let the few small bullnose peppers ripen and take the seeds.  Otherwise I will have to order new next year.  The cypress vine, chocolate mint and grapefruit mint are history.  I pulled them over the weekend.  Next year I will put in other mint varieties to join my peppermint and spearmint.

Thanks, Kay.  We were disappointed but things like that happen.  We are considering other tours and, perhaps, some short week-end trips within the state and a couple of neighboring states.  I hear you about next year's mid-term elections.  But I don't see anyone to vote for.  If I vote, I will be voting against every damned Repthuglican I can.  The only exception will be our Republican mayor who is doing a good job at what he was elected to do.

I watched the Moyers & Company show which featured Wendell Berry and found Moyers' comments on our current political quagmire at the end right on target.  He reminisced about the time he worked for politicians in Washington and the changed attitude between those politicians and the present crop.  Then, he said, the different parties and factions fought hard and debated vigorously about issues and legislation but at the end they voted.  They then accepted the vote and moved on.  Those against the way the vote went might, if they had a case, try to bring the issue before the Supreme Court.  But, once the Court ruled, the matter was settled.  Key here is that the parties did what the public sent them to Washington to do--they governed.  They didn't engage in political sabotage or passive-aggressive delaying tactics.  For the past decade or so nothing is settled any more.  It seems to me that politicians used to have a healthy respect for the political processes and institutions--even when they didn't have control of those processes and institution or over the final outcome.  Now we have a significant group who don't respect the legitimacy of what they don't control or of outcomes with which they disagree.  Do we have democracy anymore.  I don't think so.

By the way, the entire episode is interesting.  If you want to take a look you can find it here.

I had a thought as I watched the news last night which featured a sound bite from the Stephanopolus interview with John Boehner on Sunday.  Boehner insisted that he didn't have the votes in the House to pass a "clean" continuing resolution or debt ceiling bill.  My first reaction was to ask if he meant that he really didn't have the votes or if he didn't have the Repthuglican votes to pass it without any help from Damnocrats.  That has been a widely debated issue as this article shows.  What really drives me bats is that Boehner is supposed to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives not just the Speaker of the Republicans in the House of Representatives.  And right now I don't think he is either in anything but name.

Back again. Best laid plans etc.

When I wrote that it was time for a vacation I didn't just mean that I was sick and tired of the impasse in Washington and all of the rest of the political assholery going on.  We had intended to take an 8-day bus tour.  That was derailed when Mom got sick.  I know they say you can't get flu from the flu shot but within hours of getting her shot she was flat on her back and remained that way for the next three days and was weak for another three.  She gets her shot every year and generally has a minor reaction.  This one was far more severe.  I don't get flu shots.  Haven't since I had a bad reaction to one a bit more than thirty years ago.

So we stayed home.  Mom slept a lot and then slowly got back to doing a few things around the house until this past Saturday when we did did some shopping we had planned to stock up on foods we let go down before the aborted trip and Mom got the kitchen reorganized on Sunday.  I pulled some of the nearly spent tomato plants and disposed of some of the herbs I didn't want to try to overwinter inside.  I may get some more done today if the skies remain clear.  I can handle the cool with my sweaters.  I also managed to take inventory of my seeds.  That is a prelude to a full assessment of the garden this year.

I did read the blogs and news sites--I just didn't comment.  Just when I think I can't get any more disgusted and pissed with the government by extortion and crisis--I get more disgusted and pissed.  Der Spiegel's on-line edition says everything in its headline: America is already politically bankrupt.  Anyone who still believes in the myth of the U.S. as the world's only "hyper power" are delusional.  And it is quickly becoming clear that our status as a "superpower" is hanging by a very thin and frayed thread.

Oh, how I hope this story from Firedoglake is accurate and it holds through the mid-term elections.  With the way various state legislatures have gerrymandered their districts all too many of our elected representatives worry more about challenges from their own fringes rather than any real competition from the other party.  I have thought for a while that the only way this is going to change is if there is a political tsunami that results in voters throwing their own bums out of office.  And I haven't mentioned parties because, although the Repthuglicans have more safe districts than the Damnocrats, both parties have engaged in such activities.