Wednesday.

I got the top two shelves of the greenhouse cleared and all of the plants I intend to get transplanted today and tomorrow.  That includes two intriguing strawberry varieties: Tristan and Loran.  From what I have found so far they are new cultivars from Europe designed to be edible ornamentals.  That sounds perfect for my small space--good looks and food.  They don't put out many, if any, runners.  The Tristan is already putting out blossoms--red!!  That is what drew my eye.  None of the Quinault plants from last year survived but six of the Sequoia did so I have 18 strawberries to start off.  This last winter, as I have said all too often, was brutal.  Next year I will try to give the overwintering plants more protection.

Well, I do hope this continues and yields some positive results--like more realistic pricing.  Some of the stories I have seen over the last couple of years about the costs of treatments for cancer had me shaking my head.  I have Medicare coverage but the 20% (minimum) I would have to pay for many medical procedures would bankrupt me.  I put that minimum in because we have seen that Mom pays considerably more because of the nickel and dime charges she has to pay up front and that aren't reimbursed.  We also noticed an ad for a cancer center that noted they don't accept Medicare or Medicaid.

And on a similar note I found this.  None of it was surprising and I have read it before.  Doctors order tests because they are afraid of lawsuits, because patients demand them, or because insurance pays and their medical organization profits from them.  But in my circle I have seen a willingness to refuse tests if they don't appear to be necessary and the willingness is spurred by the fact that insurance and Medicare have limits.  That is a bit problematic at times.  Mom gets a routine test that Medicare will pay for only twice a year.  If her conditions goes out of control she may need as many as four of those tests per year to get it back under control.  But getting Medicare or her supplemental insurance to pay for necessary tests that their one-size-fits-all schedule is like pulling teeth without anesthetic even if the doctor is willing to submit the bill with an explanation of its medical necessity.  And she has another complication: two doctors who don't always talk to each other.  Of course her appointments are not synchronized and sometimes they order the same tests.  She has to watch that so that the testing lab sends the results to both and so that they don't exceed the authorized number.  Sometimes the whole process is bewildering.

Ah!!! Finally someone else is asking questions I have been asking about the conflict in Ukraine--and other parts of what used to be the Soviet Union.  And Putin may indeed be more aware of 21st century geopolitical realities than our politicians.  Ain't globalization wonderful??  I had an interesting thought as I read the part about how including Russia in the G-8 (now back to G-7) hoping that its integration into the world economy would prevent aggression but that Russia had figured out how to flip that and get away with aggression.  Haven't any of our leader read Isaac Asimov's classic sci-fi novel Foundation???  Salvor Hardin tells his political enemies (inside and outside the Foundation) that it is a poor blaster that can't be aimed in "both directions."  A weapon that can be directed against an enemy can always be aimed back at you by that enemy.

Tuesday.

Grocery shopping on the agenda for today and voting in the primary here.  And getting some of the gardening done.  We stopped at two of the local garden shops to get the garden soil I need to add to my containers.  Found some unusual strawberries and picked up the sweet basil, purple basil, spearmint and peppermint.  I need to clear out the mini-greenhouse and move the seedlings upstairs out to it.  We should be getting 80s tomorrow and thursday so I think it is time to get plants out in the containers.

On the latest Supreme Court inanity--the Rude Pundit says it well:  public prayer is always coercive.  And all too often we are constrained to grit our teeth and bear it because we have been taught good manners.  Sam Smith at Undernews has a few good remarks as well.

And here we go again!!  I have yet to read a good explanation.

Our evening news here had a segment on the new public report from the Federal government on climate change.  Evidently the Obama administration wants to do something about it.  Right after that a soundbite from Mitch McConnell pooh-poohing any political action.  The Agonist has this time which tells volumes on people's reaction to the science.  I especially liked the comment.

Monday.

Very little in the gardens yet.  I have a nice small stand of foxglove and several strawberries that need to be transplanted.  But the weather is still uncooperative.  Showers for the morning and sun later.

Found this by way of Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism.  I saw the headline on NBC.com earlier but didn't read it.  I had the same reaction Yves had: "shades of Countess Bathory."

And for a tongue-in-cheek look at future (and present) job opportunities.  Makes sense.  I know that my advanced degrees haven't helped me any at all.

Sunday.

Sunny and cool today.  The weather people say we may stay in the 50s.  But they also promise us an 80 later in the coming week.

Saw this item this morning.  The author makes an uncomfortable amount of sense.  After reading about the botched Oklahoma execution I though we should bring back hanging.  At least, if the hanging was screwed up, the condemned man would not have taken 45 minutes to strangle.  And I agree with his comment that executions are more often about vengeance than about justice.

This is interesting.  I saw a headline sometime last week on a theme of how our poor aren't really poor because, after all, they can afford cell phones and flat-screne TVs.  I didn't read the article so I don't know what side of the argument that author came down on.  But the graph presented in the linked article explains that phenomenon.  Everything we need has become more expensive (food, transportation, health care, child care, education) while things we need to a lesser extent or not at all are have become less expensive.

Saturday.  Hope we get the warmer temps and sun the weather people promised.  I want to start cleaning up the mini-greenhouse.  I may put the roses out on the patio to get some sun. (Update: the roses are basking in the sun.  I also took my soil test meter out and checked the fertility and pH levels.  Need to add some fertilizer and I will definitely start using the fertilizer formulated for acid-loving plants.  The pH is just above 7 so I want to bring it down just a bit.

Since we live about an hour south east of Chicago, we have seen this repeatedly on the morning TV news.  I have been following reports of MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) since they first surfaced a while back.  I figured it was only a matter of when not if it would surface in this country as I have seen reports of it popping up in UK and other places.  One interesting comment from an epidemiologist this morning: the actual mortality rate may be much less than the 30% or so noted so far.  Those numbers reflect the death rate among those who were hospitalized with identified cases of the disease.  No one knows how many people have actually been infected and recovered with minimal or no medical treatment.  As I have said before: isn't globalization wonderful.

I saw two headlines that set my mind going in intriguing directions.  The first asked "What would America fight for?"  I think the question would be more accurate if expressed as "What would Americans fight for?"  I don't think many of us would think Ukraine is ours to fight for or that we really have anything of value involved there.  The American government might decided to get more involved but the American people will be half-hearted about it and, I think, resentful of the costs in lives and wealth.  I noticed another story (which I can't find now to link) which claimed that the number of Americans moving abroad and renouncing their citizenship is on pace to beat last years record setting pace.  True, the numbers last year were only about 3000, but it seems to indicate a softening of American identity or patriotism.  I just watched Angela Merkel talk about holding to our "principles" to which I have to ask "What principles?"  And it is evident that German multinational companies don't share what ever principles she was talking about.  I saw a news segment that listed several of their largest asking her government to tread carefully so their very lucrative business relationships in Russia aren't damaged.  That leads to the second headline "Together against Putin--for the moment."  The underlying them of that piece, as I read it, is the fragmenting of the post-WWII world order.  That world order has been fragmenting since 1989 when one of the poles of the international alignments (the Soviet Union) collapsed and fractured into a lot of nationalistic shards.  So what is my point?  Simply this--buckle up, darlings.  It is going to be a very bumpy ride and what comes out on the other side is going to be very different from what we grew up (and, in the case of my generation and earlier ones, grew old) with.

My thoughts on this bit from Sovereign Man:  what's next?  Travel permits inside the US?  I can understand  State Department warning that travel to certain areas and countries is dangerous and citizens should travel there at their own risk.  But to ban it outright with prison sentences?  What if you have family there?  You can't even send funds home to help them?  I have seen some promos for a documentary on our prison system which makes the point that "the Land of the Free" has the highest percentage of the population in prison than any other country.  Makes me wonder if this is the prelude to making all of us prisoners.

Now this is a fascinating piece of history.  Enjoy!

Friday--and the cool temps and rain continues--though they say we should get less rain, more sun, and slightly warmer temps today.  I have seen some nice growth on the beard-tongued fox glove.  Nothing yet on the hibiscus but the info I have seen says it emerges in late spring so it might be a little too early yet--as well as too cool.

I wonder if "affluenza" is the disease of our times.  First we saw that spoiled brat who got drunk and killed a couple of people while driving drunk get off with "drug rehab" in an expensive resort style "clinic" his parents had to pay for.  I'm sorry.  I'm simply not buying it.

I read this one sometime ago.  It is just as funny the second time around.

Been there, done that.  Many, many years ago a fellow grad student who was applying for adjunct positions in California where her family lived described the kind of life she would have working as an adjunct as "genteel poverty."  Since then I have learned that there is no such thing as "genteel poverty."  Though we didn't realize it at the time the job market in academia was changing and for many (if not most) of us the adjunct route was going to be permanent--not the bridge to tenured professorships we hoped for.  The signs were there but few of us put together the dots we were seeing:  the highly credentialed and enthusiastic temporary prof who was filling his fifth one-year visiting position and about ready to give up on his dream job, the number of new or soon-to-be PhD's from first tier schools with long publication records (already) applying for a job at a second (or third) tier school, the articles in the Chronicles of Higher Education detailing the travails of new PhD job seekers.  This is yet another reason I think the emphasis our political leaders place on college education for all is greatly misplaced.  What is the quality of the education when the teachers are just another type of migrant labor?

We have been entertained this morning watching the sparrows and chickadees at the feeders.  They don't seem to know whether they want to build their nests or eat.  Several flew in with materials in their beaks and had to drop that to eat.  One smart little bird dropped the straw on the perch, held it there with her foot and then picked it up when she left.

The teaser for this article said "Pipeline company says: oil spills create employment opportunities."  The article softens that considerably and quotes the company as saying the "economic effects are both good and bad."  So let's see: is it a good thing that fisherman who were productively employed before the Deepwater Horizon spill had employment cleaning up the spill when they otherwise wouldn't have been working at all?  And is it a good thing they had that income since they are still feeling the effects in reduced (and no) catches four years down the line?  The problem here is that whether the fishermen are employed catching fish or cleaning up BP's mess their employment is considered a positive for the economy.  I think the first is the only positive.  The second doesn't really produce anything and doesn't even bring the situation back to original condition.  The best description I have heard: paying the doctor who broke your leg to set it.

This is hilarious in so many way.  After we finished laughing we both had the same thoughts.  First, perhaps it isn't such a bad idea to leave the system as it is.  It might be less vulnerable to hacking than a modern system.  Second, we can't even remember the last time we saw an 8-inch floppy.  Hell, how often do you see the 5.25 inch disks.  I still have a few but I haven't used them in years.  I haven't even used the CDs.  Third, where the hell have they been spending our money?  Oh, yeah--building substandard schools in Afghanistan and lining Karzai's pockets.

Oh how jealous I am looking at the pictures posted on San'in Monogatari.  We have seen more green lately and the daffodils are blooming along with some of the dog wood and crab apple.  But I so want the spring we haven't really had yet.

As usual Charles Hugh Smith writes a lot of truth in a small post.  I saw a new book about the consequences of our involvement in Afghanistan that had a title appropriate for our political situation: No Good Men Among the Living.  We haven't had good politicians killed or driven into hiding.  Ours have, instead, sold their souls to the highest bidders and have made bad bargains in the process.

Thursday.  Welcome to May.  At least that is what the calendar says.  Looking at the temperature and the dismal, cloudy scene outside our windows one would think it was mid-March.  The temps won't rise much today and won't get into the sixties again until Saturday.

I found this item on the news this morning.  I live in an area that is criss-crossed with interstate highways.  Most people going from anywhere to anywhere will go by an interstate.  We also live near the major toll road that goes from New York (state) to Iowa.  We used to travel that toll road when we visited my sister who lives about 40 miles west of here--but haven't since they selectively raised the tolls several years ago.  Just after the politicians leased our part of the road to a private management company.  Selectively?  Well, they raised the tolls for those who pay cash for the privilege of riding on that road.  For drivers who installed the I-Pass sensors and could go through the unmanned gates they left the tolls alone.  We were pissed.  We made that trip--maybe--twice a year.  The cost of the equipment and installation was a couple hundred dollars.  To save $.50 a trip???  We decided to save even more and went by other roads.  U.S. infrastructure has deteriorated badly and I have seen little political will to really deal with it over the last 30 or so years.  About 30 years ago, during a conversation about one the conditions of a road we were on, a remark summed up the basic problem--the politicians love building roads and other structures, campaigning on how much money they have brought into the area to build them, noting how their constituents benefit from the building but they don't do much about getting the funds to keep the infrastructure repaired and renovated.  Another problem no one wants to talk about--the economic conditions over the last half-dozen years has induced Americans to cut back on driving and/or transition to hybrids, electric or highly fuel efficient vehicles which means they are buying less gas which in turn means less revenue for highway construction.

And we now have "medical homelessness."  I totally agree with one of the people quoted--why pay for what you can't use?

Interesting piece by Peter Van Buren on Tomdispatch.  I pretty much knew where it was going when Englehardt mentioned Van Buren's new book: Ghosts of Tom Joad.  I wondered how many reading that title would get the literary reference. Or the reference behind the title of the post.