Barrio Caimito (which is elevated) just got socked with a 50 mile-an-hour (or greater) gust of wind (my estimate because at my house, it knocked down large branches, while at my neighbor's it knocked down at least two trees). After I cleared the branches with a machete in order to get my car out the driveway, I went on the road to check out the barrio to see the extent of the damage (I wouldn't recommend it to anyone). The road to Barrio Tomé is impassable because trees are blocking it. I saw children being picked up at an elementary school in a driving rain not too far from where a creek was swelling up rapidly and a tree was leaning on power lines. These are NOT the conditions any parent would want their child to be in. Somebody in the government was asleep at the wheel on this one!

I'll try to get back on-line if I still have current when I finish.

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

Pulled down the ivy/honeysuckle/rose combo that was planning on shutting down the side path around the house and, after many hints from mother, harvested the garlic just beyond the patio and then testing whether the late potatoes are ready.

The garlic's a bit disappointing, it really needs a dry soil and we have the opposite with a shallow heavy soil sitting on thick clay. It grows, but it's reluctant and small. Still, I reckon it'll keep me out of the supermarket deli counter till december.

The potatoes aren't ready either. I lifted a plant just to test and was hardly overwhelmed with the bounty. So, we'll leave 'em a couple of weeks to see if things have moved on. Our drought from early May through till early august rather did for fattening things up so we'll just have ot be patient.

keep to the Fen Causeway

It took as its starting point the crazed statistic that Glenn Beck attracted several hundred thousand people to DC for his "I've got a scheme" rally. Given that most news organisations put the figure well below of a hundred grand I can only presume the article was written after a hefty dose of Fox News.

It only got worse from there. A spectacularly craptastic piece of journamalism

keep to the Fen Causeway

We have long known that Blair didn't actually care about WMD because he viewed Saddam as a dictator who was doing bad things and it was his moral duty as a robust liberal to ensure democracy could flourish in the world. So you'd think he viewed all dictators as bad people and he had a list he was gonna get. A list that might include Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who is pretty much a poster child for corrupt African leaders these days.

Oh, wait...

Independent - Blair secretly courted Robert Mugabe to boost trade

Tony Blair secretly courted Robert Mugabe in an effort to win lucrative trade deals for Britain, it has emerged in correspondence released to The Independent under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents show that the relationship between New Labour and the Zimbabwean President blossomed soon after Tony Blair took office in Downing Street.

Just weeks after the Government unveiled its ethical foreign policy in May 1997, the British PM wrote a personal letter to Mr Mugabe congratulating him on his role in unifying Africa and helping to improve relations between the continent and Britain.

As Yasmin Alibai-Brown writes of blair;-

Such degeneration befalls many of the powerful who then cast themselves as misunderstood saviours. John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the USA (1767- 1848) wrote:

"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws."

UNION CITY, Ind. -- High school science teacher John Zakelj was trying to excite his students about science and math when he hit on the idea of putting up a small wind turbine outside the classroom.

The Randolph County teacher also may have helped energize a movement to develop a sustainable form of energy and a badly needed source of revenue for school systems and small communities across Indiana.

This summer, two large wind turbines -- each generating enough electricity to power hundreds of homes -- have gone up in Union City, making it the first city in Indiana with commercial-size turbines owned by the local government and school system. The turbines will be activated soon.

Over the next 25 years, each 1-megawatt turbine is projected to pump a profit of $3 million into the budgets of both the Randolph Eastern School District and Union City government. And that's the kind of money attracting attention from other cash-strapped school administrators across the state.

That's $240,000 a year, or about 1/10th the money that the district takes in a year from property taxes.

As it seems that the push for a second stimulus is building, this seems like a project that deserves to be looked at.  

It helps to frame the argument for stimulus in terms of an investment instead of an entitlement.  Allocating funds to construct wind farms that would be turned over to community owned trust funds in each state would allow stimulus funds to have a lasting impact in reducing the operating costs of schools borne by property owners.  

Any thoughts from are resident experts?

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

Truly the end of days.

I love the smell of roast chicken in the morning!

Just me or ...?

If you never fail, you're not trying hard enough.

... the Danes are described as cruel, spewing curses continuously and speaking in a barbaric manner as though coughing out words between twisted lips.  Danish "officials, warriors, monks, and whores who have always infested our land" are accused of having sown hatred and discord among unsuspecting Swedes with cunning and lies.

Poor unsuspecting Swedes, completely at the mercy of those terrorist Danes.

LOL

If you never fail, you're not trying hard enough.

This CIA "Red Cell" report from February 2, 2010, looks at what will happen if it is internationally understood that the United States is an exporter of terrorism; 'Contrary to common belief, the American export of terrorism or terrorists is not a recent phenomenon, nor has it been associated only with Islamic radicals or people of Middle Eastern, African or South Asian ethnic origin. This dynamic belies the American belief that our free, open and integrated multicultural society lessens the allure of radicalism and terrorism for US citizens.' The report looks at a number cases of US exported terrorism, including attacks by US based or financed Jewish, Muslim and Irish-nationalism terrorists. It concludes that foreign perceptions of the US as an "Exporter of Terrorism" together with US double standards in international law, may lead to noncooperation in renditions (including the arrest of CIA officers) and the decision to not share terrorism related intelligence with the United States.