Thursday--

Definitely chilly--30s with wind chill in the 20s.  I started a new crocheted winter cap and got about a third of it done.  The gardens are winding down and the inside crafts are picking up.

I have just seen the morning TV news segments on the Repthuglican faux-debates.  We should be honest and drop the word "debate" from the political lexicon.  Lincoln and Douglas had debates.  Nixon and Kennedy had debates.  What has passed for debate for some several cycles now is anything but debate.  In a real debate the parties would present their positions with supporting facts (which could be checked for accuracy) and reasoned argument while presenting counter facts (which could also be checked for accuracy) and reasoned argument.  What I have seen in all of the clips and quotes are a bunch of egotistical assholes who wouldn't know a reasoned argument if one hit them over the head or a real fact if it bit them in their collective asses.  If someone from the media (like the moderator, for example) tells them their facts are bogus or their numbers don't add up, they whine about how nasty and unfair the moderator is.  I think it is time to get rid of these side shows.  They don't add anything but opacity.

This piece in the Washington Post is interesting but not for the political analysis, which though interesting is not a fascinating as the linguistic knots involved.  Take a look at the author's use of the words "responsibility" and "responsiveness" and how he applies them.  Politicians are "responsible" when they support the financial austerity which benefits the bankers and investors.  They are "responsive" when they support their electorate's desire for relief from that austerity.  Why aren't the politicians who support austerity not "responsive" (to the investors and bankers) and the side opposing austerity not "responsible" (to the electorate)?  In truth, politicians from both sides are both responsive and responsible--just to two different and opposed groups.

Tuesday--

Grist had this take on the WHO declaring meat "carcinogenic" and I think it pretty well tells the story. As the author notes anything and everything can kill you under the right circumstances. Perhaps we need to chill out and be more moderate in our consumption of all foods.  That may be hard to do in a society that encourages gluttony.

Wednesday--

We have a cold stretch coming for the rest of the week. The temps started falling a bit yesterday and a gentle rain fell most of the day. I heard a couple of harder rains last night but I won't complain because we need the moisture. I haven't watered because I am still clearing all my garden containers. I am not in any real hurry and I think I am slower about it because I really am not ready to greet winter.

They keep telling us "We're #1." I guess it all depends.  Evidently not in maintaining roads and bridges. Another example of the (you're on your)own(ership) society.

Monday--

A bit tired right now. We did our regular shopping today and added a couple of stops. We didn't need much in the way of groceries but Mom's ear buds copped out on her so we picked up a new set and the new Jurassic Park DVD. I started cleaning up one of my garden tubs and found a fairly large hole in it so we thought about a replacement and decided to get a couple of round ones instead. I am glad we got two because they each hold just a bit more than half of what was in the old one. I spent a couple of hours digging the soil out, transferring it to the two pots and putting the pots in their places--their places for now. That may change next year.  Things always change next year. Hell, they change mid way through the season.

I saw this on the news this morning. We like our bacon and ham so the WHO can go fly a kite.  We don't eat a lot of it and we got away from things like bologna because it simply doesn't taste as good as it once did. At my age "carcinogenic" simply doesn't scare me and adding a few months or a year or two by foregoing simple pleasure doesn't seem like a good trade off.

Friday--

I had intended to take a day off blogging but I found this item from Naked Capitalism.  I remember an old saying that "the bigger they are the harder they fall."  Well, you can't get much bigger than global networks.  And there are so many weak points in such networks:  long supply lines subject to disruption due to weather, to labor strife, to contamination of materials (deliberate or accidental); fragile financial institutions that may fail suddenly (AIG, Lehman, MF Global); social/political conflict (embargoes, boycotts, civil war).

According to this article from the Telegraph (UK) "low-tech living is back."  I can relate to a point.  I finally bought a Nook (Barnes & Noble's e-reader.)  I was definitely not an early adopter and I am still ambivalent about it though most of my reading is either on my computer or on the Nook.  I found some books are totally annoying on the e-reader.  The formatting on some gets totally screwed up and reading the material is totally annoying.  Going back to an earlier section isn't as easy as flipping back in a physical book.  And the costs are similar.  I don't use iCloud or any other cloud storage service.  I just don't trust the technology to be secure or to be there when I want my data.  I have read too many cases of government agencies taking down the cloud server and everyone losing access.  I use a digital camera and I think it was a godsend because old-fashioned photography had become way too expensive.  The digital camera brought back an old pleasure and the computer made it easier.  I had acquired a fair number of vinyl records over my life until the market phased them out saying new and better tech had replaced them.  I also have a fair number of tape cassettes which I have hung on to.  I was overjoyed a couple of years ago when we found a combination turntable/tape player/cd player/radio that allows me to enjoy all of the media.  My life is a mix of high, medium, and low tech. I rather like it that way.

I had only recently found William Edelen's blog The Contrary Minister and loved it.  I am sorry to lose it so soon.  Thank you for the pleasure of reading your blog, Mr. Edelen.

And this story shows the dark side of high tech.  The powers-that-be have become far more intrusive with the high tech tools and that doesn't bode well for any of us.

Thursday--

I plan to get out and get some more of the gardens cleaned up.  I could have yesterday but I dusted bookshelves instead.  I still have the ornamental sweet potatoes, the mandevilla, the bee balm, and hyssop to cut down.  I am thinking about moving the foxglove and feverfew because I might not be able to get the shepherd's hook out without damaging them.  I am taking them down because I will be moving them to new spots next season.  The leaves are beginning to accumulate on the patio so I will be sweeping them up to use as mulch.

George Washington has a piece on endocrine disrupting chemicals and their links to diabetes and obesity.  This story has been gathering steam for some time.  Most people rail at the chemical companies and they do deserve our anger for some things--like being so invested in the production and use of the chemicals that they not only refuse to see the "collateral damage" they may cause but actively try to keep that knowledge from the public.  However, I think the root of the problem is in our own human nature.  We tend to see a problem and then apply a solution without thinking about what other problems the solution will cause.  That is what I mean by "collateral damage."  Often our "cures" are worse than the conditions they are designed to solve but by the time the damage is evident it is widespread and entrenched interests are dependent upon the continued use of the "cure."

Ah, the benefits of globalization!!  It seems that the only one really enjoying those benefits are our major corporations.  They seem to specialize more in tax evasion than actual production.  The article mentions the competition between countries to offer companies sweetheart deals to bring jobs and economic activity into areas where people have suffered under austerity for several years.  Perhaps we should welcome Europe to our world where our states and cities try lure companies away from other states and cities hoping they will provide a needed economic boost.  From the statistics I have seen the economic boost never amounts to what was promised and the jobs created cost the state and local governments more than the tax revenue the workers' income provide.

I don't think much of Donald Trump but there are some things he says with which I must agree.  The TPP is one of those as the author of this article points out.  Frankly, they ought to scuttle the whole thing and go with individual treaties openly negotiated without the global business interests dictating the terms.

On Paul Ryan's demands that his job as Speaker of the House not cut into his time with his family--wouldn't it be nice if every parent could make that demand of their employers.  And wouldn't it be nice if Paul Ryan supported family time for all working parents--which he doesn't.

Wednesday--

It rained a bit overnight and though it is dry enough (we didn't get much) I am taking yet another day off from cleaning up outside.  Instead I have dusted one of my several book shelves and will do at least one more today.  It is time to cull the books yet again.

I have to remind myself regularly that the "dysfunction" we see in our federal government and, perhaps by extension, our state governments isn't really a flaw but a design feature.  This article at Americablog is a good reminder of exactly who wrote the constitution and how their values have percolated down through time.  Though the author notes the privileged class of the framers he neglects to mention several another key fact.  They hated the notion of "faction" and saw political parties as the most undesirable expression of faction.  Faction pitted one "special interest" (to use the modern term) against other special interests and against the common good.  So they designed a system they hoped would allow those special interests to fight themselves to exhaustion and allow the common good (undefined, of course) to emerge from the rubble.  The system was designed for deadlock and has succeeded marvelously.

We haven't heard anything about this on our televised media and I don't know whether to be glad or infuriated.  But I do wonder, like a couple of others I have seen comment on line, why the media has been so silent, at least outside the St. Louis area.  We hear about Lamar Odom and the Kardashians or Sandy Jackson's trip to a country club prison and any number stories of lesser interest.  Though I don't live near St. Louis the story of a possibly serial arsonist targeting black churches is far too reminiscent of the bad old days.

Two stories that broke today caught my attention: Paul Ryan makes some steep demands of his party to consider putting his name in for Speaker of the House and Joe Biden has decided not to contend for the 2016 Presidential nomination.  I won't link since they are all over the news right now.  Ryan basically insists that a party that has been anything but unified somehow come together and work towards common goals.  He also insists that he will not sacrifice his time with his family to the job leading one commenter to write that he would take the job so long as he "didn't have to do the job." Good!!  Someone in the party that styles itself as pro-family actually acting on that value.  I don't like Paul Ryan much at all but I find that sentiment admirable.  As for Biden, I think too many friends and supporters didn't take his comments on the emotional demands (on himself and his family) of contending for the opportunity to do the job and his questions of whether he was up to the challenge seriously.  He dithered long enough to gracefully get out without pissing off anyone terribly.

Good!!  Now let's legalize and regulate marijuana along the lines alcohol is legal and regulated.

Tuesday--

There is so much wrong with this that I don't know where to begin.  I guess describing our officials as "vampires" is no longer a metaphor.  And as if that bit of obscenity wasn't enough, here is another from Alabama.  I have read several stories of these corporate vampires insisting that soon-to-be laid off employees train their off-shore, cheap replacements but to insist they be on-call for two years without pay pushes the definition of indecency to new lows.

Kunstler has another good analysis of our current slates of political candidates for the parties' nomination for president.  I am so totally underwhelmed.

As I read this piece by Daisy Luther I thought of a conversation we had at Walgreens this morning. We were headed to the checkouts and found one of the registers blocked by vases of flowers.  The clerk said that computer went down earlier so she put the flowers there to direct customers to a different register.  One of us wondered what they would do if all the registers went down.  Once upon a time pads of paper sales slips would be handed out, the clerks would list the items and the prices, tally the total and add on the tax, the customer would pay and leave.  Not any more.  The store would simply close.  First, there aren't any price tags on the items because the scanners would read the bar codes, bring up the item with its price and any discounts, deduct it from inventory, record the method of payment and print out the slip for the customer.  Second, the clerk may not be able to add the column accurately, figure discounts (if they remembered them), or calculate the tax.  Without the high tech point of sales software and equipment the stores would simply close losing however much money in the process.