Pawprints From Space

Ah Spring! Early Spring means very few flowers but one thing you can generally count on is the bright shiny face of a pansy. Can't find any ANYWHERE! Found heather supposedly hardy heather but it is only hardy to Zone 6, this in Zone 5 so it'll be dead this time next year. Bought it anyway. And some rosemary. Had to buy something.... it IS Spring after all. And Spring makes me think of Summer which makes me think of all the days gone by when hours were spent writing adventures and poems and assorted silliness. Gotta love the silliness. I miss the silliness. Speaking of silliness... have you seen the MoveOn.org chart showing the tax rate that the wealthiest will pay under the Obama plan? Quite a bit lower than they paid under Reagan (who was praised all during the campaign as the gold standard). Kinda sad to have your hero end up being harder on "those who create jobs" than the vile Democrat in office now. Hard pill to swallow, eh folks?

And on it goes... In the uproar over the AIG bonuses finger pointing has become an art form. Who knew what and when? Who added what to which bill and why? How dare they (AIG) use bailout money for bonuses (and give some to their partner banks while they were at it)!?!! And yet when the President was out and about this past week traveling hither and yon the folks asking him questions didn't mention AIG, unless they were members of the media. Could it be that the average person is more concerned about the state of their own household "economy" than AIG? Or do we all simply have burn out? I'm thinking it is a bit of both. Heard an interesting story on NPR that cast some of the blame for the mess we're in WAY back to the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Hmmm, that wasn't this Administration then was it? Lots of the same people were in Congress then though weren't they? You see, these lovely derivatives (such as credit default swaps) that sent the...

The tulips, irises, and daffodils are peeking up through the soil. Younger trees are just beginning to bud (you can see a bit a green if you look closely) the older trees seem to know better and are waiting a little bit longer. Isn't that funny? Even in the plant kingdom the elders are more cautious than the brash youth. I am a bit concerned about the flower bulbs though. While another hard frost won't hurt them, snow and ice especially would damage their leaves and stunt the flowers a bit. The leaf damage is the worst since it is the leaves as they die back later (after a good several weeks of producing chlorophyll) that feed the bulb for the following year. The weather is going to be flirting with 50 degrees from today through to next Saturday (which is the first day of Spring) but you just never know. We've had nasty weather in April. Have not yet completed research and plans for the now empty spot where once a mighty blue spruce stood. That part of the yard looks horrib...

As many of you know (assuming there are even "many" of you out there) I simply love words. I like to play with them, use big ones in sentences and watch the faces of the folks in this town freeze up as they try to figure out what the hell I just said and so forth. We over-educated folks have to have SOME fun after all. Well, heard a new one on the radio (NPR of course) the other day that made me shriek in delight (that is the only shrieking I ever do since my terror scream is more like a cross between a shout and a growl, but that's another story). Punditocracy Yup. They have a class. Or at least a classification. Those "experts" whose job it is to tell you what to think about, what to talk about at the proverbial watercolor. Yup, the agenda-setting media and politically minded folk who sally forth on all things cultural and political. Keep in mind I said 'what to think about' not 'what to think', there is a difference, a fairly significant one t...

You'll notice I titled this with a reference to "Chicago Politics" not Illinois Politics. This is partly because the media are still reporting the on-going insanity from Chicago as if that city was in fact the capitol. I say again... it is not. Now Senator Burris seems to be gathering support from Chicago which, in my opinion, ought to make anyone with half a brain suspicious. The state governmental seat is in Springfield, a good 4 to 5 hours south of the windy city. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, how about if we start reporting on statewide governmental matters from there? The Trib will still be commenting and you can gather quotes from them with those new-fangled telephone things. Or - oh hey! - the Internet! I find it interesting that the support being rolled out by the media for Senator Burris is coming from this or that pastor of this or that African-American church. That's nice. That's fine. Is it the only support though? And - I'm sorry I have to go...