Arizona law

Someone just sent me the MSNBC poll asking the question "Do you support Arizona's tough new law on illegal immigration?"



ABSOLUTELY!


When you stop to think of it, what’s the first thing they ask you – a natural-born American citizen – for, when you go to the doctor’s office? Your ID!

Likewise when you cash a check, get stopped for speeding, (or even jay-walking) open a bank account, buy insurance, take out a loan, or mortgage, get a library card, buy beer (at least in NY State), buy a plane ticket, walk into the courthouse!!!, visit an inmate, etc etc etc, you're required to show your id. And that’s for CITIZENS! So what’s their beef?

I answered as above, then went to look at the poll, and found that 95.7% of responders ON AN MSNBC POLL are supportive of Arizona's law!

95.7% !!!!

Yet bho (ptooie!) is determined to file suit against the state of Arizona and its governer Jan Brewer, to put a stop to the law.

It's about time he understands that it's "WE THE PEOPLE" -- not "ME THE PRES"

If you're interested, the poll is at

http://world-news.newsvine.com/_question/2010/05/12/4274124-do-you-support-arizonas-tough-new-law-on-illegal-immigration

Doom, Despair, and Agony on me

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery ...

It's not to that point yet, but it could get there if I keep thinking about the news.


Someone asked what I thought of the following article re the oil spill.


http://www.rense.com/general91/oilor.htm

All hyperbole aside, there may be something to it.



Can you say “Revelation 8:8?”



Anyway, my friend was wondering about the immense pressure at the ocean floor, over a mile down. Why does it not simply smother the well?

Right off the top of my head, remember the pressure is relative, so it’s the differential that matters. Think “bends,” and the need for divers to come up slowly from great depths in order to equalize pressure.

The pressure at the bottom is the same on everything down there. Add a unit of pressure to one side of the equation (the stuff coming out of that well) and it’s higher than the pressure of the water trying to hold it down.

I’ve read about the “volcano theory” before, and it is indeed scary. Who knows how interconnected everything down there is?

No, I'm not thinking "Journey to the Center of the Earth;" any prehistoric beasties are emerging as tar balls. But they're leaving a rather large gap down there in all that heat, that has to be filled with something. Like, maybe, Florida? I can see the price of orange juice going up a lot.

A couple of simple illustrations that happened not far from where I live:

A friend from church said one day that he had to save up for a new well, as their well had collapsed on itself, and they had no water. The water table is high right around here, and there’s no natural reason a well should suddenly do that.

I remembered that I had been by his place a couple of times shortly before that, and they were rebuilding the road (Route 79). Both times I had to wait for trucks to unload gravel fill in spots where the road bed had settled. They had huge tamper machines compacting the fill as they dumped and spread it and you could feel it for hundreds of yards in every direction. I told him to file a complaint with the DOT, and sure enough, they traced his well failure to the hydraulic pressure traveling through the ground with sufficient force to collapse the well. They paid to replace his and several neighbors’ wells.

Another incident happened north of Syracuse, back in the 60s, where they were filling sinkholes in the building of I81. After days of dumping and compacting, they were interrupted by a farmer who drove over to complain that he now had a new mound in his hay field. The pressure had followed a fault line to a weak spot, and created a bulge.

I’m wondering if our recent earthquake just outside of Toronto, and felt in this part of NY State, might even be a fore-runner of things to come as a result of pressure changes caused by this blown well.

Do you think it's time to start circling the wagons yet?

I know I’m not investing in Florida real estate real soon ... maybe California orange juice?

Busy!

It's starting to come along now; the rain has helped immensely! But it's been slow getting the rest of it planted. Of course, I'll plant some of it at intervals over the next couple of months, for a sustained harvest. I've got to replant a bunch of peas, as the rabbits have about demolished the first planting. There are some peas to pick soon, but nowhere near what there ought to be. Also have some hot peppers already, as well as some green peppers. The cukes and squash are growing nicely, and that first rain made the asparagus almost jump out of the ground! Won't be able to pick any of that for a couple of years, though.

We're seeing lots of beets and Swiss chard, onions, carrots, and the tomatoes and beans look to be right on schedule. Still have lots of time for potatoes, winter squash, and more of most everything else.

I've got most of the materials for a 3-bin compost pile, and am building some moveable fence panels to keep the critters out of my beans and peas.

On the "bummer" side, the birds and bugs got most of the cherries off my new sweet cherry tree. This would have been the first harvest, but it didn't turn out.

Will post morepix later.

Good Day's work

Had the day off today, and it's been a scorcher! But I had to get some garden in anyway, as we're supposed to get some rain tonight. Here's a shot from the southwest corner, showing about half of the garden. Click on the picture to enlarge it if you wish. I'm gradually relocating it to get it out of the shade of the big oak tree. The shady part is still good for some things -- lettuce, carrots, etc, but full-sun loving crops need to be on the far side. The tall stuff on the right is garlic, planted last fall. It's just a couple of feet east of the center of the garden, so you can get an idea just how big 8000 square feet of garden really is.
Today I planted 36 tomatoes, two dozen peppers, red onions, and moved a volunteer clump of violas that appeared in the other garlic patch. Oh, and more cucumbers and squash. Can't have enough pickles! Still have sunflowers, more radishes, some potatoes, pumpkins, pole beans, scallions, marigolds, carrots, parsnips, basil, coriander (cilantro when green, coriander when the seeds mature) chard, nasturtiums, lettuce, broccoli, kale, turnips, and other stuff. Some crops will go in later, to mature towards the fall.
Already have bush beans, beets, garlic, radishes, 50 asparagus plants, yellow and zucchini squash, carrots, gladiolus, dahlias, and a few other flowers. Gotta have flowers!
It's a bit of work, but I love it, and fresh veggies are way better than the stuff they overcharge us for at the supermarket. We eat what we can, and what we can't eat, we can! It's a pretty sight in the dead of winter to see all the jars of home-canned, home-grown GOOD food!

Someone asked about all the white garden stakes -- I recycled them from the railing around a swimming pool deck. They last forever, and they make great marker stakes!

Using Picasa3 to view and upload to here --- dunno how it works.

Miep Gies

A beautiful human being passed away in January, at age 100, and I just learned of it. Her name was Miep Gies, and I imagine it is unfamiliar to many, if not most of the people who have been touched by her life.

And that is a crying shame.

Miep Gies was the woman who hid and protected Anne Frank and her family, at the dire peril of losing her own life for it. She is the one who recovered Anne's diary, and gave it to Anne's father, Otto, after the war. Without her we would never have known Anne's story, yet she considered what she did for them to be nothing worthy of note; she was only doing what one human being should do for another.

The NY TImes did run an article about her -- you can read it at
NY TImes Gies Article
It is a good reminder of an era and an atrocity that many -- including some our own current administration seem to be determined to downplay.

Please read the article, and also do a Google search on her name. She deserves to be remembered forever, for what she did.

It's that season again

They say the ticks are going to be especally bad this summer -- just found one on the back of my knee. Maybe I'll get a flock of Guinea Hens to help keep them under control. Wonder if my Golden Retriever (Sam) will leave them alone?

What the ...!???

Hot button warning!
Was listening to a local talk radio show in the truck this morning, and a caller opened his chat by saying "I'm not going to vote [on the school budget] today, because I'm only one vote, and it wouldn't count anyway, because blahblahblah." He then proceeded to sound off on the evils of our political and educational systems, and I had to agree with him on 99% of what he was saying.

EXCEPT

That first part, where he said "I'm not going to vote ..."

To my limited cognizance, that means that he had already given up on his right to complain. He was not willing to even attempt to hold up his end of the bargain, so where did he get the right to berate the ones on the other end of the yoke?

I'm not purposely singling out this gentleman, because I know he's definitely not alone. But that's the point, isn't it? He contends that he has only one vote, and it is already rendered nil by the powers that be. His actions don't mean anything in today's world. The actions of one person carry no weight in society whatsoever.

Tell that to Rosa Parks.

Echo it to the young man who stood in front of that Chinese tank in Tienamin Square.

Neither of them are with us any more, but none of us will forget them, and their one "vote" to stand up for what they knew to be right did make a difference to the world they lived in.

Just an opinion.