I’m never going to find time to make a post for each of these links. It must be time for a link dump. All news stories this time.

Returning from a vacation to Germany in February, freelance journalist Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. Agents searched his luggage, he said, “then they told me that they were impounding my laptop.”

Traveling across American borders with electronic devices gets more interesting all the time.

Someone looks into the origins of the email about Obama that continues to make the rounds for months; the one that has convinced too many people that Obama is some kind of Muslim Manchurian candidate. Long story, but a good read.

After getting chewed out by a 10-year-old for using environmentally unfriendly lunch trays, the Houston Independent School District has agreed to go a little greener.

The school board is expected to vote Thursday to spend an extra $160,000 on about 12.5 million biodegradable trays for elementary students this coming school year. Secondary schools will follow in coming months.

After reading the first two sentences of the story, I had to ask myself why any school would need 12.5 million lunch trays per year of any sort at all, let alone biodegradable ones. I was then informed that the lunch trays I remember, some metal and some plastic, that were used, stacked up, and then washed, those lunch trays have been replaced with lunch trays that are thrown away after one use. Now, how stupid is that?

“We need to be able to stop somebody who we know is a terrorist from getting on the plane. It’s not too much to ask, to say, just tell us who you are,” Kip Hawley with TSA said.

Because, of course, terrorists are going to have ID that identifies them as such, and they will answer “yes” when asked if they are terrorists. It’s never going to be “too much to ask” until it is too much to ask and it’s far to late to regain freedom and rights. Having to show ID to travel within the borders of my own country is disgusting.

Lead in artificial turf. I important to read about. I’ll be avoiding contact with artificial turf. More here.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colleyville church Friday saying that church members involved in a traumatic exorcism that ultimately injured a young woman are protected by the First Amendment.

I’ve been wondering if the next time someone gets pushy trying to save my soul, if I could smack them up side the head and call it “an ecclesiastical dispute over religious conduct.” I doubt it. I’m pretty sure I disagree withe the Texas Supreme Court on this one, but I haven’t been keeping up with this case. Still, it leaves me feeling somewhat uneasy.

That’ll do for now. I can see my desktop again, and I can close my browser. The rest of the links I may still feel like ranting about tomorrow.

I spent hours moving a sprinkler around to get all the corners of the yard wet, and Mother Nature decides to go ahead and bring on some rain, just as I was finishing up. I had to run out in the rain to turn off the sprinkler. It came on that quickly. It’s still drizzling a little too. The front yard must be thrilled.

Also, we watched No Country For Old Men tonight. Lin and I both were left wondering how it managed to win the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. I can only guess the rest of the nominees were real stinkers. Let’s just say I am not inspired to watch any of the other nominees for Best Motion Picture, because the winner was such a boring movie. No, really … it was boring. It also felt pointless. Boring and pointless.

I did enjoy Tommy Lee Jones’ performance, but then I always do. He’s on my personal list of sexiest men alive.

Time to go fold the laundry, and then off to bed.

Operation Pepper Move has been completed and mission accomplished has been declared.

The bell pepper, cherry pepper, and the TAM jalapeño that was recently mostly devoured by a Hornworm are now living in my front flowerbed. The cucumbers have an entire large box to themselves. The Better Boy tomato has moved in with Mr. Stripey. I am happy with the outcome, and I hope they will all be happy in their new homes.

Tomorrow morning, I will begin working on Operation Pot Upgrade. Those Sugar Snack tomatoes really need larger pots.

I did discover one thing while doing all this digging. I have been over-watering. I haven’t given any of the containers any water since early Friday afternoon, and there hasn’t been a drop of rain in my yard since then either. The dirt in the pots was still very moist, and the dirt in Mr. Stripey’s box was flat out wet. The earthworms were loving it, but I have the feeling the tomatoes would like it just a little drier. Of course, now that I would like it to remain dry and hot so that dirt can dry out, they are saying it’s probably going to rain tonight and/or tomorrow. Can’t win, right?

It’s time to go get the sprinkler going in the yard. I should have gotten up this morning and watered it as planned, but sleeping in felt so good. It still needs water though, and I am not counting on Mother Nature to provide it any time in the next two days. I’ve heard reports of potential rain before, and nothing came of it. If I don’t water now, I’ll have to stand out in the yard with the hose in my hand and be a human water sprinkler, because it won’t wait until my next watering day.

Please note, I am not maintaining some perfectly green lawn here. I’m just trying to keep the stuff barely alive so we don’t end up having huge gaping spots of dead in the yard … which is what the lawn looks like it would really like to do. It looks barely alive, and that’s with me watering for a few hours twice a week and occasionally being a human sprinkler to keep it from totally frying. Sure, our lawn is pretty ugly, even when it’s healthy, damp, and green, but it’s our lawn, and I’d rather have a weedy green lawn than a dust bowl with no lawn at all.

Yup … 7 pm! Time to go get the water going and hover over my newly transplanted plants.

“If they’re forced to wear a suit that they feel they’re not fastest in, then it will affect their performance.”
–Brenden Hansen, US Olympic Hopeful

And why would a swimmer be forced to wear any particular suit? Oh, because they signed endorsement contracts with swimsuit companies! I’d say they don’t have much room to complain, seeing as no one forced them to sign contracts with companies. It would be their own fault they can’t wear any suit they like, seeing as they chose endorsements over doing as they please as an athlete. I’m not crying any tears for their troubles.

But I might watch some of the swimming events at the Olympics. The new style of suits look interesting and, well, sexy.

The whining caught my eye while reading this news story, and I just had to share.

A millionaire who inflicted years of abuse on two Indonesian housekeepers held as virtual slaves in her Long Island mansion was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison.

Varsha Sabhnani, 46, was convicted with her husband in December on a 12-count federal indictment that included forced labor, conspiracy, involuntary servitude and harboring aliens.

She’s getting jail time. Her husband will be getting jail time (3 years). They will have to pay these two women some kind of back wages. Good. These people are evil.

“I just want to say that I love my children very much,” the defendant told the court as two of her grown children looked on. “I was brought to this Earth to help people who are in need.”

Really? Like maybe helping the poor Indonesian women you treated worse than stray dogs? Sorry, but I’m not buying it, babe. I dn’t care how many letters from around the world your lawyer collected telling of your good deeds and charitable works. Charity really does begin at home … with not abusing your live-in maids.

Her statement isn’t nearly as rich as the excuse the defense presented.

The defense, which intends to appeal, contended the two women concocted the story as a way of escaping the house for more lucrative opportunities.

When I wanted to quit my job, I walked into my bosses office, told him I was finished working for them, and that was that. I didn’t have to wait until he was gone, break out of the building, and then run to a nearby Dunkin Donuts wearing nothing but rags to call the police. I didn’t have to “escape” from my employer, and no one should have to do that.

Anyway, I had been following the story when it broke a long time ago, and I was pleased to hear an update on what was happening with it.

When discussing a person’s right to own guns, the proper word is “bear” not “bare” … OK? Having the right to bare arms, which we also possess, would mean the right to wear sleeveless shirts. The right to bear arms is the right to own and use guns.

Yes, CNN used the wrong word on the graphic accompanying their story on gun ownership. If they can’t even get the language right, why should I trust them to get the news right? This is just one of the multitude of reasons I am sick to death of TV news. The levels of stupidity in the TV news industry is ridiculous.

The right to bare arms. Ugh.

A morning spent in garden centers is usually a morning well-spent. We wouldn’t have had to spend all morning in garden centers if Home Depot had an inkling of a clue that not everyone wants bug poisons that kill 150 different kinds of bugs and are equally lethal to humans and animals. It took us three tries, but we finally found Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki. It’s organic. It’s natural. It kills caterpillars dead. There may be some butterfly deaths due to my use of it, but I haven’t seen a butterfly in my yard in ages anyway. I have seen entirely too many Hornworms. Hopefully, that problem was solved as soon as I sprayed down every square inch of every leaf in my garden.

I also have bags of Dillo Dirt, compost, and shredded cedar mulch. I’ll be getting my transplanting done later when it’s at least slightly cooler than the surface of the sun outside. It’s far too hot to be out there doing anything right now. I might even wait until early morning tomorrow.

Lin came home with the things he needs to put in a water spigot in the back yard too. Maybe eventually he’ll get around to actually doing that now.

We have officially spent too much money on my silly garden at this point. I have got to get these things producing something. I’m hoping that keeping the Hornworms off the plants, replanting some of them, moving them to a slightly less sunny area, and adding some new topsoil and mulch to the boxes will help. I have noticed a slight improvement in leaf color and growth the last several days, which may just be happenstance, but I am attributing it to using my Epsom’s salt foliar spray and giving them all some slightly off milk earlier this week. The peppers even have flowers on them again. Well, except for the one that was completely eaten last night. Grrr.

The female cucumber flowers haven’t opened yet, but they look like they will do so tomorrow. I have my fox hair brush ready for pollinating! Bzzzzz … I’m a bee!

Time for pizza, and then I guess laying around being lazy until it gets cooler outdoors. I can stand working in heat, but I can’t stand working in sunlight like what we have been having. The UV index is off the charts! Yuck.

Fifteen hours ago, I spent an hour looking at and touching every leaf on every plant in my little garden. It was a bug-check. After having found four Hornworms over the last two days, I decided to get even more thorough, so I seriously looked at ever leaf on every plant looking for worms, aphids, and eggs of any sort. I found nothing at all, and my eyesight at close range is impeccable. There were no evil Hornworms anywhere in the vicinity of my garden, and there were certainly Hornworms on any of my plants.

All the same, I went to bed last night with the lingering fear that something was going to eat my entire garden over night. I even had dreams about it. One of those worms can eat its way through a small plant overnight.

I just crawled out of bed, threw on some clothes, and went to inspect my garden.

One of my jalapeño pepper plants has been decimated! Decimated! Destroyed to the point where I might as well just pull it out of its pot and throw it away. Where there had been no Hornworm before, there was now one the size of my index finger! So I inspected all the plants again, and there was another smaller one on Mr Stripy and two more of his branches have been stripped of leaves!

WTF?! Really? Where the hell are they coming from?! I’ve been completely anal about checking for the damn things more than once a day since I found the first one, so how the hell did I miss two of them. I can’t be out there 24/7 inspecting plants!

I am considering chemical alternatives. I’m sure the urge to go non-organic will pass, but if the bastards can go from non-existent to decimating an entire plant under the cover of darkness, what the hell am I supposed to do?

Color me entirely upset, disappointed, and grumpy this morning.

They had a body language expert on CNN. Yes, a body language expert on a news program. They were going to explain the body language of Hillary and Barack. Lin changed the channel before they came on. We were afraid they would also be bringing on an astrology expert next to discuss potential running mates for the candidates. Not that I think there isn’t anything to body language, because there most certainly is, but sitting around on a news program looking at photos and videos of people and explaining what they are “really thinking” is just one of the many signals that this election cycle is like none other in my life. Or ever.

I don’t like it. I don’t like any of it. Americans seem to be under the impression that past great presidents were perfect in all ways and that every tiny detail of the candidates existence from birth to the current moment, every utterance from their mouths and every word they ever scribbled, has to be gone over, analyzed, verified, talked about endlessly, or gossiped about openly. Every … little … detail. Over … and over … again. Endlessly filling 24 hours a day with the same mindless inanities spewed by an interchangeable variety of talking heads.

Would Washington have passed today’s tests? Would Lincoln? Would FDR? What about Reagan? Would anyone who has ever been the President of the United States have made it to that position, if the American public had know every intimate little detail of every moment of their lives from birth? And would they stay president long in the modern political climate, if the American public knew everything that went on while they occupied the White House? I’d say no and no. Yet many of them were great men and great leaders, and they did great things.

But they weren’t perfect. No one is. We will never find anyone who is perfect to elect to the position president. Everyone has skeletons of one kind or another, and everyone has said or done things that would outrage someone else, or things that could be misinterpreted to make it seem so. Not even the greatest human beings who have ever lived were perfect enough to be the President of the United States right now. Under the beady and piercing eye of what passes for news and journalism in the 21st century, even saints would look like Satan.

I expect any day now to see one of the bouncy, smiling female talking heads to present a report, or at least gossipy speculation, about whether Barack wears boxers or briefs, or whether Hillary and Bill sleep in separate bedrooms. For all I know, they already have and I was lucky enough to have missed it.

Ten million actual news stories or political issues to be discussed in the world right now, but what does CNN want to talk about? They want to have on their body language expert to discuss what Hillary and Barack really think about each other. Guess what? I don’t care what they really think about each other, even if this expert was far more of an expert on their subject than any of the other experts CNN has on every day. They actually don’t have to like each other. So long as they can work together, in whatever capacity that may be in the future, to achieve their mutual goals, then I say good for them, and maybe good for us too.

Millions and millions of people go to work every day and work with bosses, supervisors, and coworkers who they do not like or even actively hate, and yet those millions and millions of people still manage to work together to achieve mutual goals and to get things done to benefit the whole. It’s not impossible.

But I digress…

I don’t need to know every detail of every moment of anyone’s lives for any reason, not even to select the President of the United States. I most certainly do not need wild and off-the-cuff speculation, rumor mongering, or personal talking head opinion either … not from my news sources. If I want to read that kind of crap, I’d grab a tabloid while standing in the grocery store checkout lane and read it. Whatever that stuff is on all the 24 hour news channels, it is barely news and isn’t at all journalism. It’s disgusting, and it’s only going to get worse the closer we get to November.

A body language expert on the news. Yeah, I can’t wait to see what kind of experts they have on in October!

I’m putting a parental block on all the news channels except our local ones. Lin’s recent addiction to them is high on the list that very well make my head truly explode.

One of the millions of artsy-crafty ideas that have been running through my mind since I got out the sewing machine has lead to a late afternoon experiment. What would happen if I coated a small stuffed object with a couple of layers of Mod Podge and then sealed it with acrylic coating? I’m not exactly certain how it’s going going yet. After two coats of Mod Podge, the fabric isn’t especially stiff, and the coatings do not crack or otherwise pull off the fabric when lightly abused. Once the latest layer of clear acrylic is completely dry, like maybe in the morning, I will test to see if “accidentally” spilling a little water on it messes up the (hopefully) fully-sealed Mod Podge.

Basically what I am trying to do is find a way to add a little dust and water protection to a fabric sculpture idea I am contemplating. I know there are products designed specifically for that purpose, but I don’t own any of them, and I don’t have the cash to go buy any of them. Therefore, I must experiment with what I have. Sometimes I get really different and interesting results. Why I may even try running it over the gas burner on the stove lightly to see what happens. Of course, I’ll use really long tongs and full protective gear, because it might just go up in a huge ball of flames … or, it might give a really awesome result. Won’t know until I try!

Oh, and canvas, what canvas I have been working on for the entire year? Yup, on the back burner again. Some ideas are too cool not to be thought out and attempted when first realized. I will eventually get back to that damn canvas!

With only the application of a little Dr Pepper every few hours, and lots of projects to keep me busy, I have been able to stay awake and still feel awake without feeling either fatigued. I will now be able to go to bed tonight like a normal person and wake up tomorrow on a daytime schedule. Thank heavens.

Even though I closely examined my plants this morning, I discovered three fat hornworms chomping on various tomato plants. They are now messy green smears on the driveway.

My mother informed me she has 14 2″ long peppers on the TAM jalapeño plant I gave her when I bought them. I am now attempting to replicate her methods. I have moved them into the shade on the porch, and I will not be watering them until they wilt.

I also discovered that people are incredibly stupid. OK, I already knew that, but I do seem to discover it anew every day.

I trussed up the Sugar Snack plant that was getting long and needing staking. I watched a TV show all about growing tomatoes earlier this week, and the host built this fantastic trellis for staking his indeterminate tomatoes. He had a raised bed garden, and so he went to the bother of building a 2×4 form over the bed, but what he did to tie off his tomato plants was much better than using a stake. He put a screw in hook on the crossbar over the tomato plant and cut off a good length of hemp twine. One end of the twine was tied loosely to the base of the plant near the roots, and then he wound the remaining twine up the base stem of the plant, in between the strongest branches and tied it off on the hook overhead pulling it just snug enough to keep the plant from flopping around in the wind.

I didn’t want to build anything, and I didn’t have any proper twine, but a good quadrupled length of acrylic yarn knotted along its length and the hook on the edge of the porch that has never held up anything but a windchime served as my upper anchor. Works like a charm! Even though it’s quite windy today, that tomato plant is just gently moving, and it’s supported all along it’s height. It’s also back up on the porch where it won’t be getting 8 hours of sun a day, which I hope will help its pathetic condition as well.

All I will have to do now, when it gets taller, is take down the slip not at the top, wind the yarn around the new strongest branches, and tie it off again. Easy peasy!

When it’s not windy and the light is better on the porch, I’ll try to get a photo to show off my handiwork … and the only tomato plant that seems to love me.

The Supreme Court also decided this week that DC’s handgun ban was stupid. I also support this decision and would go further to state that DC’s law that guns kept in the home must either have a trigger lock or be kept in pieces with the ammo stored apart from the weapon is stupid.

I doubt very seriously if I ever needed to use a gun in my home I would be able to convince the person I feel the need to use it on to stand by and wait while I am putting it together, unlocking the trigger lock, and then getting the bullets and loading the thing. No point in having a gun for protection, if it isn’t going to be instantly effective. Time is never on your side in a crisis.

Since the Supreme Court decision the other day concerning the death penalty for raping children, the word “rape” has been much in the news and on the message boards and blogs. People are outraged our government won’t allow us to kill child rapists … or any rapist actually. The general consensus at my usual haunts is that all rapists should be put to death. Why? Because “victims of ALL rape have their lives destroyed,” as more than a few comments stated in various ways.

As one of those victims and as someone who has known and interacted with others who were raped at various ages and stages of life, I believe I have something to say on this subject, and I can speak from experience. My life was not destroyed. There were a few years of turmoil and some emotional and mental healing to be done that took some time, but I still have my life. My life has been and still is mine to do with as I please. It was not destroyed. It did not end the day I trusted someone I shouldn’t have trusted. In the grand scheme of my life, it was a set-back, and in many ways a life lesson. But my life destroyed? No.

Others I have spoken too who have been directly touched by rape also don’t feel their lives were destroyed. There were things t get through, problems to work out, issues to resolve, but their lives also didn’t end the day they were raped … and that includes adults and people who were children at the time. They picked themselves up. They got the help they needed. They worked on healing. They moved on, because they were still alive, and they had things to do with that life. I did the same. Life goes on so long as you are breathing and thinking.

Rape can be devastating. A person can let it destroy their lives, but as with any injury, it is in the victims power and hands to either repair the damage themselves or seek out those who can help them. If someone fell down the stairs and broke their leg, would they crawl back up the stairs to their apartment, lay down on the couch, and give up? No. Of course not. Rape is an injury with slightly more emotional damage involved than with a broken leg, but it’s an injury all the same with damage that can be repaired if the victim tries to do so.

I often wonder if the reason some rape victims give up on life and give into the idea their lives have been destroyed is because so many in society see it that way. I heard the talk around the water cooler and the rumors floating in the air. “That poor girl. She was raped, you know. How does she go on with her life?” I also had to face the various and sundry pitying looks bestowed on me by far too many people, as though I’d been tainted and ruined somehow. Some even seemed to behave as though they thought my ruin would somehow rub off on them if they touched me. There were even those that questioned why I hadn’t immediately dropped all my classes after such a life-altering event. Yes, because the very thing a person needs to do when their life is touched by something life-altering is to run away and completely alter their life.

At the time, I thought perhaps I was especially strong, especially better able to overcome major obstacles. So many other people believed that to be true. “Look at her! It only happened a week ago, and there she is sitting in the pub laughing with her friends. She is being so strong!” I wasn’t especially strong. I wasn’t especially better able to overcome major obstacles. I just didn’t take to heart everyone around me acting as though my life was over, that I was somehow damaged goods forever, and that maybe I should be sitting on the couch at my mother’s house crying and shaking instead of attending classes and hanging out with my friends. If I had given in to society’s view that my life was destroyed, then it’s quite possible my life would have been destroyed. Society needs to help victims have the strength to get back into life, to move past the event, to heal, and not rant or whisper about how the victim’s life is ruined. That’s what they want, right? For people who have been raped to go on with their lives as planned? then help them do that by not constantly going on about how they are damaged forever. It isn’t true unless the victim wants it to be true.

And how do I feel about the Supreme Court’s decision? I support it fully. Odd, I know, that so many who have never been raped would have all rapists put to death on the spot, and here I sit, a former victim, and I can honestly say I never, not once, wished my rapist dead. I wished him put away for a few years. I wished him to be reformed. I wished him to become a better person. I wished a lot of things, but I never wished him dead. Dead people don’t learn anything, and not all rapists are completely irredeemable. R. spent a few years in prison, which I am certain were less fun than my years of college, and he got out and became a somewhat productive member of society. The last I heard about him, he had not re-offended in any way or gotten into any other legal troubles, and I don’t believe he will. At least, I hope he won’t. Even if he did, I would still not want to see him put to death.

One of the major reasons I was opposed to the death penalty for child rapists as soon as Texas started talking about instituting it was obvious to me and not at all obvious to anyone else. After we, as a society, start handing out the death penalty for child rape, what will be the next crime to be determined to be too heinous to allow the perpetrator to continue living. The obvious choice is all rapes. And after that, what? Sexual molestation of children? Sexual assaults on adults? Driving while intoxicated? Doing drugs? Where exactly do we stop? As soon as the outrage over the latest heinous crime is dealt with to society’s satisfaction, the outrage turns elsewhere. Everyone finds something new and shiny to be outraged about and demand extreme justice for it rises. Next thing you know, people are being stoned in the public square for having adulterous affairs. It isn’t like that doesn’t happen elsewhere in the world, but I would hope we are better than that. I suppose only time will tell.

That, my friends, is a female cucumber flower. There are several now and hopefully more to come. As soon as these babies are open and ready to be pollinated, I’ll be taking one of my fox hair brushes to them. I demand, at the very least, two cucumbers for all my hard work and attention to these poor overheated plants.

Actually, the cucumbers are the only thing looking pretty good. I’m keeping my fingers crossed there will be enough eventually to do something with, like make pickles.

On the news this morning they were saying this is the hottest June in Austin in history … as in since they started keeping records of such things. That’s a long, long time. Hottest June ever, and that’s the year I decide to get back into gardening. Just my luck, right? I so rarely catch a break on anything, I wouldn’t even know what a break feels like. Not giving up though. Once my plants have annoyed me beyond all redemption and most of them have been moved to other locations or ripped out and shredded in frustration, I will be replanting to possibly get some early fall tomatoes. The way this heat has been, I have the feeling we’ll be able to grow plants well into November this year.

Back out to the front yard. I have a few projects to tend to, and of course, the plants need water again … and again … and again. Good thing water is still one of those utilities that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg yet, because I am using record amounts for this household. Not that this is a lot, mind you, but still, it’s a lot for us. We are usually pretty frugal with water, what with living in an area that has been under drought conditions longer than we can remember.

This summer … it is sucking. Next summer better be cooler! If we go to the trouble of building raised beds for my official garden, I will expect to have more than one salad’s worth of tomatoes a week.