In the words of the preznit, “So what?”  Frankly, anything that makes John Hancock swallow his tongue has already cleared a pretty high bar.  What has him apoplectic this time, you ask?  This morning he is breathless over the fact that Jay Nixon’s campaign received contributions from interest groups that traditionally support Democratic candidates!  And they were able to contribute more than $1350 because republicans removed the contribution caps.  John, take a Valium or something, and get back to me when you have something.  Lotta damn gall getting indignant about legal contributions to an incoming Democrat who was elected in a landslide, while the outgoing republican executive still has some questions hanging over his head about Abramoff and DeLay.  Jay Nixon has been the Attorney General for sixteen years, and the worst they have come up with to throw at him was a few years ago when Peter Slocum had his knickers in a twist because Mr. Nixon was driving his state car home for lunch.  No indictments flowed from that particular crime spree.

If we rediscovered common sense, it would be a step in the right direction  When I was a little kid, in the 60s, both of my grandmothers had huge gardens that fed everyone who came through their door for the entire year.  I also remember asking about the miles and miles of soybeans and corn that hugged the shoulders of the two-lane blacktops that traversed the countryside.  I remember asking if we ate the corn that Junior and Florence grew on the river bottom when I was about six or so.  Whoever I asked laughed and said no, that grain went to the elevator and then went on a truck to Kansas City to be sold and made into feed for cattle.  I also saw pastures full of cattle everywhere I looked, and it struck me as absurd at that young age that other peoples food was going through such a convoluted process to get to the table.  Forty years later, that message seems to be getting across to a few others who are preaching the gospel of gardening and local foods.  

Three life sentences for police shooting  A 22-year-old Neosho man will spend every day of the rest of his life in prison after shooting and wounding two officers and engaging in a shootout with a third who was not hit.  Adam Bridgewater was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for three counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer in the first degree and three counts of armed criminal action.  “Asking for, and receiving three consecutive life sentences ensures that he will get life without parole,” Newton County Prosecutor Jake Skouby said. “He won’t get out of prison.”

Now see, this is the sort of thing that ought to give the deniers pause  Can we at least get the climate change deniers to acknowledge that it is noteworthy when we have a year that is this far out of the ordinary weather-wise, they should maybe give the other guys case another look?  

Gas prices are on the rise  After several weeks of falling gasoline prices, they have turned around and started back up, in spite of falling prices for crude oil.  Personally, I have thrown my hands in the air and given up trying to understand the vagaries of that particular market.  Can I just have an electric car now, and be done with it?