Hello, again. My goodness, how this week and this month have flown. It seems like we just got finished with Christmas and New Years and now we are looking at Labor Day. The weather people have confirmed my suspicions--this is officially the coldest summer since 1942. Why do they specify 1942, you ask? That is when they moved the official weather station away from the lake front. The temperatures between the inland areas and the lake side areas can be 20 degrees or more. The gardening segment also confirmed my suspicions that the low temps have greatly delayed the tomatoes. Nothing has grown as well as I expected. I am just now getting ripe tomatoes and peppers. One pepper--on the MexiBelle. But the Chocolate Beauty is getting ready to flower and the Gypsy has a few peppers developing. Unfortunately the Poblano will produce only a few peppers. We will have to watch our farmer's markets for them and buy when they come in. I think we are harvesting about half of what we should have--if the weather had cooperated.

I found this little article in my google alerts. It is nothing really new. Senator Diane Feinstein of California has written to the Secretary of Agriculture asking for help in re-filling the state's food banks depleted by the increased demand (thanks to the economy) and the drought. What was interesting, on reflection, were my thoughts on it. Republicans, you see, are claiming that the water problems are entirely man-made. If certain people weren't so concerned about that damned inconsequential little smelt that they reduced water usage to maintain its' habitat, they would have no problem at all. I find it interesting how these guys parse their problems. Climate change cannot be caused by man because how could insignificant little us affect such a big atmosphere? But water problems are entirely our fault because we misplaced our priorities--all for a damned fish. The basic premise underlying both of these positions is the furtherance of man's rapacious, unsustainable, immediate and greedy exploitation of our world. I wonder how far up the food chain we would have to follow the effects of allowing the smelt to die out before we would discover a human activity that would be adversely affected? But these fellows cannot go beyond the smelt.

Good Morning, again, everyone. We are still in the midst of our cool, dry spell. Chances for rain aren't very good over the next week. The rain we have received has not been enough to let me dispense with the watering of our garden containers. I pulled the sugar pea plants yesterday. We won't be planting them next year. I think I have already said this. We would need much more space for many more plants to make it worth while. And space is the limiting factor here. I transplanted some of the broccoli and brussels sprouts into that space. I found that I can prune the acorn squash vines back on the trellis and plant something else under them. I have seen more bees lately so I will see if they will pollinate my squash plants. I have several zucchini and acorn squash fruits coming out. The early tomatoes are bearing nicely. I hope the late ones pick things up a bit.

I found this article at MSNBC on my way to the e-mail this morning. It focuses on what has been hinted at but rarely explicitly mentioned in all of the stories on the mortgage mess: the loan providers are not willing to help most of the homeowners who need help. Why? Because they make a tidy amount in fees. Late fees alone can total 6% of the monthly mortgage payment. Then there are a long list of other fees they can apply as well. Another article I read earlier this week (sorry, I didn't keep the list) added a different twist. Among the pool of struggling homeowners, according to that author, the banks would willingly help only about one-third: those who were stable but could only could continue to pay only if the banks gave them a bread and renegotiated the mortgage to lower interest rates and/or longer term. The other two groups included those who might be able to meet the current payments but only with draconian sacrifice and those who were so totally under water no amount of reasonable re-negotiation could salvage their situation. So what ever help these guys will 'voluntarily' give is likely to be extremely little, extremely late and reach very few at-risk homeowners.

Right next to that article, I found this one (Reuters via MSNBC). It also got a brief mention on last night's news. A recent study that reviewed some 160+ studies published over the past years 'proves' that organic foods are no more healthy than foods produced by usual commercial methods. My first question--define healthy. Commercially produced foods have residual pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. There is not way to get rid of these chemicals. They are taken up by the roots and remain in the plant. We are told they are safe but I trust those claims about as much as I do this study. My second question--what about the environmental effects of agricultural chemicals. Those chemicals stay in the environment long after they have been applied; in the soil, the air and the water. We already have 'dead' zones at the mouths of rivers around the world because of the agricultural (and other chemicals) that have been and are being dumped into the water. The cost-benefit analysis of organic foods goes well beyond the nutrients they deliver and whether those nutrients are also in commercially produced in the same amounts. Those considerations are not reflected in this study at all.

Continuing the theme of debt relief (or not) started in the second paragraph above, Robert Borosage at Huffington Post had some interesting comments on U.S.-China relations. He is absolutely right that the US press has been far more interested in Sarah Palin's resignation than anything of substance or importance. There was a brief sound bit that included the quote Borosage uses to set up his article. But no national news program featured any analysis of that speech. The ultimate irony in Borosage's description and analysis of the meetings is that both sides pay lip service to the need for change--on the other partner's part. Neither wants to make any change in their own behavior.

Good Morning, Everyone. There hasn't been much to say lately. The weather has been closer to seasonal with plenty of sun and intermittent showers. The garden has been doing nicely. The bees have finally shown up so I may be able to stop hand pollinating my squash plants and let them get on with their jobs. I finished the quilt top I showed you a few posts ago and have started another. I will get pictures up as soon as I get off my lazy butt and take some. It looks very interesting so far.

The news and the politics are boringly what they have been for a good while now. The Sotomayor nomination passed out of committee and the only real surprise was that not EVERY Republican voted against. The Blue Dog Democrats are holding health care reform hostage and again there are no real surprises. The bill that will come out, as of now, will have lost any possibility of a public option and will not likely require big business to fund employee health care. In other words--the status quo. The 47 million who don't have health insurance--thrown under the bus. But that is pretty well business as usual. If you look at the budget compromises that have passed in California and Illinois you see the same pattern. The compromises are achieved at the expense of those least able to bear the costs. But mean spiritedness has been a hallmark of modern American politics. Think of what Bush tried to do with Social Security 'reform.' He tried to convert the program into a welfare program for destitute old folks which a new effort could be launched to kill it entirely by whipping up a war between recipients on one side and the young and the rich on the other. It isn't much different with the budget battles.

This story hit the national news last night--without many details except, of course, the savings to New York City. It seems a kinder, gentler version of the old process of moving 'vagrants' out of the tourist and business districts so they won't bother the 'good' people. They just become a problem for someone else somewhere else. It is just a band-aid but I guess if we don't see what festers underneath we won't worry about gangrene.

I found a couple of very cute ideas for any of the crafty among you. Making really pretty pincushions out of found objects. Take a look at the pictures here, and here. And a big thanks to Craft Gossip for the links.

Another story that hit the national news last night and this morning, finally, is the Texas drought. It has been going on for two years and now is likely to have a serious impact on prices in the rest of the country. The losses are estimated at between $2 and $4 billion, depending on who you read. The weather forecasters expect that the rain will return in the fall but way too late for this season. Hope they are right and that they get enough to break the drought.

Rain at Rainy Day Thoughts has some appropriate thoughts concerning the 'compromise' on health reform I mentioned above. Sounds like we have been reading from the same hymnal.

Hi, all. It is another nice morning. Just a bit cool which has not been at all unusual this year. The weather people this morning noted that in a normal summer we have something like 68 days of 80+ degree weather but have, so far, had only 28. If we keep on this way we will be way short of average. And it has been dry since the very wet spring that put this year on the record books as one of the wettest years.

Let's start off with a little piece I found in my e-mail from Lion Brand yarns. The lady who posted this is a dedicated knitter and a nice sense of humor. Enjoy.

As you may know John Aravosis has had some nasty run-ins with Blue Cross/Blue Shield. He has detailed some of it lately on Americablog. Today he provided a link to a post on the DailyKos concerning a law suit filed by a New Jersey hospital against the New Jersey Blue Cross/Blue Shield affiliate. If even a fraction of the allegations against the company are proven in court, it constitutes a very good argument for some kind of public plan for health insurance. I doubt it will get to court. These companies are very good at settling and then binding everyone's tongues with non-disclosure agreements. Kay mentioned in her comments yesterday that, though something needed to be done, she wasn't sure we should trust the government to do it. Given the recent past I understand her misgivings. Problem is--I don't trust the private insurance industry bureaucrats to do a better job. And they are getting a hell of a lot more money to do it. Health care should not be an industry where the concern for profit at any cost rules all considerations. Right now--it is.

Robert Reich has posted a piece on TPMCafe today that echoes thought that have gone through my mind as I watched the stock markets rocket upward over the last week. The most frequent refrain from the mouths of the talking heads has been how profits have been up providing somewhat better than expected reports from a wide array of companies. A couple have noted that these reports come after draconian cost cutting by those same companies. And fewer yet have noted that the costs cut come overwhelmingly from labor cuts. None have noted as Reich has that such profits are not sustainable. Why? Because the companies are not bringing in any new revenue. The earnings they are reporting are not due to the equation which shows steady or slightly reduced costs off setting increased revenue. They came because revenue has held steady or only slightly decline while costs have declined far more drastically. They only way this surprising increase in profits can continue is if they bring in more revenue (aka--sell more goods) and they won't do that until the purchaser start buying more. Tell me--who is going to increase their buying if they have no job, or if they feel their job is insecure, or if they have to take large cuts in their hours or wages in order to keep their jobs?

Hello, again, everyone. Well, we are over the hump of the week. And as usual the time is going incredibly fast. We have only a little over a week before we get into August. As if we didn't know that the big box stores are already flooding the airwaves with ads for back-to-school sales and our local grocery store has a display of such goods in its main 'power' aisle. Damn, the time flies whether you are having fun or not.

I found this little article on MSNBC this morning. This illustrates my biggest bone of contention with modern society. The inability of our bureaucratic institutions, public or private, to treat individuals as individuals. The case involves a mother who breast fed her first child but who has to give her second child formula because she has had a double mastectomy in the intervening time. The IRS refuses to accept the cost of the formula as a medical expense because they consider the situation a matter of choice. Well, if this woman had choice she would be breast feeding but, because of a medical condition (aka, cancer) she no longer has that choice. What about women who simply don't produce enough milk? And I am sure there are other medical conditions that prevent women from breast feeding?

For another entry in the same category go to this site. Perhaps this provides a reason why it takes two years or more to get disability benefits. This is a system designed to create medical paupers.

John Aravosis has another entry in the 'why we desperately need a publicly funded health care system' or the 'private insurance has bureaucrats also' categories. If these shenanigans don't make you swear long and loud, you are brain dead.

Good Morning, everyone. It is a bit overcast today. They say we may get some small showers today but I am not betting on it. I will water my gardens later anyway. All of the plants I moved are adjusting nicely. The pole beans are flowering and I see a couple of fruit spikes growing. The sweet peas have more seed pods than flowers on the plants now--the first planting since the second has not yet flowered. I took the 3rd and 4th little tomatoes off of the 4th of july plant this morning. The other plants are flowering and fruiting nicely. I am a bit worried about the squash plants, though. We have seen only one bee so far this summer and squash require bees to pollinate them. I have begun to explore the possibility of hand pollinating them. Never had to do that before but I don't know were the bees are. And the yellow squash that has been blooming for two weeks now has not shown any indication of fruiting. Damn!!

Today John Aravosis continued his tale of 'An American in (the) Paris (socialized medicine system.)" I am astounded. I would not have expected that anyone could walk into an emergency eye clinic, be seen by a doctor within 20 minutes of arrival, diagnosed, and treated for a major retinal tear all in the same day and for about $170. Even if the wait to see the doctor had been the 2 hours the signs initially warned patients to expect or the 1 hour the receptionist thought likely, he still would have been finished with the initial treatment the same day. Can anyone tell me again what is so great about our 'capitalistic' system of medical (mal)treatment? What do we really get for all the money we spend except bloated insurance companies?

By the way John had an interesting earlier post that, I think, hits the nail on the head in explaining why health care reform is having such a tough slog. So far it has been a divide and conquer strategy for those who oppose the reforms. And it has been working. They paint the situation as one where the 'good' people who have worked so hard for what they have, have responsibly handled their affairs to that they can and do pay for health insurance, have jobs that pay for health insurance, manage their weight, don't smoke, don't drink and otherwise maintain a healthy lifestyle have to pay for the feckless b*****ds who don't do any of that. Has anyone else noticed the increasing number of 'news' segments that focus on the 'vices' that allegedly increase the cost of medical care or that focus on the growing number of employers that are using insurance costs as an excuse to force their employees (and in some cases, the employees' family members) to 'reform' their behavior or lose their jobs? This follows the same pattern I saw when Bush tried to 'reform' Social Security by remaking it into a welfare program for destitute elderly as a prelude to cutting it entirely. The opposing groups are dividing us and they will succeed in blocking any change.

Good Tuesday Morning to you all. It is nice and sunny and our temps are supposed to get closer to normal. I have some gardening to do. Yesterday I moved the lettuce seedlings to more appropriate places and started another dozen. I also moved two of the petunias so that the lavender and pole beans have more sun and room. Today I plan to move the violas to individual pots that can be placed in more sunny locations.

But for now, this headline from MSNBC could have referred to Illinois last week. No one wants to raise taxes in this environment so the formula has become 'cut social services+cut health care+cut education+defer (or simply not) pay some debts+borrow to the hilt=(temporarily) balanced budgets. I say 'temporarily' because I expect next year to follow the pattern of the last several years. Illinois has had a budget crisis every year since I returned to this area ten years ago. And I noticed that the news media did not make a big issue of the fact that the pols announcing the budget deal also indicated that some venders, many of those that provide state sponsored child care for the working poor, will not get paid at all. Does anyone remember the whole 'welfare to work' so-called 'reforms' that gained strength during the Reagan administration? Part of that included subsidized child care so that mothers on welfare could leave their kids for paying work. Now the programs that enabled that are on the chopping block. There was a quote from a Chinese source in the piece I directed you to yesterday to the effect that they 'could not afford' to concern themselves with equitable compensation and working conditions for their poor and/or working classes. We don't put the matter so baldly but I don't see much of a difference in the destination to which our actions are leading us. At least two states have indicated that we can't afford such concerns either.

On a---different(?)---note, take a look at this article that had both Mom and Me chuckling. It brought back memories of my childhood when, before some of the interstates opened, our family spent Dad's two week vacations with his folks. It took about 8 hours to travel between their homes and ours. We started off from home about midnight hoping to get there in time for breakfast and left for home just after breakfast hoping to get home in time to get some kind of supper before unloading the car and going to bed. Dad hated to stop for anything. Soooo, when any of us kids simply couldn't hold it any longer he pulled over to the side of the road where, hopefully the weeds or bushes were tall enough to provide a bit of privacy (more important for us girls than for the boys). Gas stations with public restrooms were not all that plentiful and rest stops were non-existent at the time. I wonder how many motorists will be forced 'back to the future.'

John Aravosis at Americablog relates the kind of tale that makes one want to swear repeatedly and loudly. He also makes the comment that has been echoing in my mind as I listen to the inane and asinine comments I have been hearing in the various debates on health care reform. All of the idiots in the anti-reform camp rely on a very few totally-ridiculous arguments that anyone with an ounce of common sense could refute. One of those arguments is that, if the reform programs go through, we will have bureaucrats inserting themselves between the patients and the doctors. Now, the last I saw the definition of 'bureaucrat' did not restrict this creature to government agencies. And, as John's story makes clear, the insurance companies have their own sub-species of bureaucrat that is already inserting themselves into the health care equation between doctor and patient. I agree with John. There is NO functional difference between the two. They simply occupy different 'habitats.'

Last night I saw something else on the news that leads me to question the education some of my fellow Americans have received--especially in the area of English word usage. The story featured a protest outside a meeting a conference titled (paraphrased, because I am not sure of the exact wording) 'the destruction of capitalism and the rise of Islam.' Many of the protesters evidently equated capitalism with democracy with America. My dears, these are not synonymous terms. They may occur in conjunction; but there is no guarantee that the political entity known as America has always been (is now or will always be) democratic and capitalistic.

To shift gears a bit, I just found this post at Subversive Stitchers, a blog I keep on my reading list. The pictures are absolutely wonderful and I am definitely going to do some research on the techniques of 'confetti art.' I also keep small pieces of fabric that would be very difficult to stitch otherwise. This might just work out for a couple of projects I have had rattling round my brain for a while.