Monkeyfister

Begins tonight. Spring forward one hour.


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Labels: Daylight Saving Time

Last weekend, I bought two more Blueberry bushes, and planted them in with the other three. When they are all full-grown, they'll make a nice living, and best of all-- edible-- privacy screen.

I also received my order of more strawberries, June-bearing, this time, to get a nice flush of strawberries all at once along with the Ever-bearing berries that I already have growing. with the berry plants, I also got more Jersey Giant Asparagus crowns-- Next year, I'll have twice as much Asparagus.

Yesterday, my order of Raspberry canes came in.

via Gurney's

Huge Berries, Thornless Canes
Easy-pick, easy-prune crops with no pesky thorns to get in the way. Record-sized richly red berries ripen late June to mid July. Super-sweet eating! Self-pollinating. No. 1, 1-yr. plants. Zones 4-8.

It's been pretty rainy here, and when I started digging the holes for the canes, I realized the clay soil was holding too much water right now. So, I heeled the canes into one of the garden beds, and will move them later in the week. I intend on getting some T-bar, and fence wire to espalier the Raspberries. My hope is to keep them as orderly as possible.

To keep Raspberry root suckers from spreading out where I do not want them, I am going to use some galvanized sheet metal to line the edge of my extra-big planting holes. You can cut the bottom off of a bucket, or use a chunk of 18"-24" culvert, and accomplish the same thing. The suckers will hit the metal and grow up, instead of out.


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Labels: Gardening, Smallfruits

I think that Simon Johnson's lecture on the Doom Cycle needs more than eight minutes.

Simon Johnson on the Doom Cycle (MMBM) from Roosevelt Institute on Vimeo.

Hat Tip To: BDBlue at Corrente Wire


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Labels: Banksters, Corporatists, Corporatocracy, Kleptocracy

I was listening to my local, Public NPR station, as I do every day, when Kai Ryssdal ran this commentary by Todd Buchholz.


via Marketplace

When Franklin Roosevelt set the Social Security retirement age at 65, the average 65-year-old was dead. Life expectancy was less than 65. That's why the numbers worked. But now we're living longer.

No one would be so heartless or stupid to walk up to a 65-year-old woman at her retirement party and say, "Guess what Aunt Harriet, we know you've been counting on Social Security, but we've decided to reform. You're on your own."

Likewise, would anyone be so stupid to go up to 12-year-old Jake, who just finished his paper route and say, "Jake, we know you've been counting on Social Security all your working life, so it would be cruel to change Social Security and Medicare since you're so dependent on them."

The kid has 60-70 years to get ready. Americans must decide at what age people have enough time to save for their own retirements. I know the answer is not 65. But I also know the answer is not 12 either. We just need to agree. Then young workers can make regular deposits to buy an annuity that will cover future medical care and living expenses. If we steady our rocky federal finances, the government can match those contributions.

Personal accounts will come someday. The only question is whether we wait till the whole country looks like a crowded pawn shop, and we're just rolling the dice like Nathan Detroit trying to get lucky.

Well, first, I think that Social Security needs to be kept out of Congress' General Fund. Second, as every working American pays into the SS Fund-- and it's given that the Baby Boomers paid in nearly twice as much as previous generations in order to account for the sheer size of their generation, while continuing the regularly scheduled practice of paying for the previous generation (that was Ronald Reagan's biggest tax increase on Americans)-- it simply doesn't hold that the fund should be "going broke."

Sure, SS has been tapped repeatedly to cover General Fund layouts. It also rarely sees Payroll Tax boosts to keep it's flow, at the least, on-par with inflation. Both of those problems are easily remedied by a Law mandating SS be isolated and un-tappable for any other purpose, and that FICA withholding should keep up with inflation. Neither of those fixes should be politically untenable. We can always adjust the caps, temporarily or permanently, if hard-pressed, but that WOULD be politically difficult.

I am of GenX. I am cynical enough to expect that those in Mr. Buchholz's camp will ultimately get their way, but as long as Social Security is with us, I want it to work well for every generation, and am willing to pay my share. Especially to ensure something for those less fortunate and more infirm than me.

I've learned too much from my elders in my forty-odd years to know that I don't want a system that forces me away from helping them when they need help the most.

Individualizing Social Security will atomize American Society just that much more. Social Security is a constant reminder of our responsibility as Citizens of the UNITED States of America. I like the idea of knowing that my FICA payment is helping to keep an elderly person in his or her home, and it is equally assuring to know that my young paperkid is going to help me.

It seems a shame to have to remind Mr. Buchholz that had President Bush, and his Republican-Majority Congress gotten their way, Social Security would have been thrown to the Wall Street wolves just in time for the BIG CRASH. Most of my retirement-aged co-workers lost upwards of 40-45% of their stocks-based retirement funds. It would take some serious mental gymnastics to call loses like that "Social Security."

Privatizing the fund seems like a recipe for social INsecurity, especially when very simple and relatively cheap fixes are available.

If one has the extra money to set aside in a retirement fund, then good for them! Some might even have enough to gamble their retirement on the Wall Street casino, but please, Mr. Buchholz, do not make the rest of us act as markers on your bets. We've already seen how that could have gone.

Regarding the Todd Buchholzs of the nation... I just don't get their arguments, and after a lot of time thinking about this, and hearing plenty of reasoning, I finally have come to realize that the Social Security Privatizer Club is just a bunch of privileged, selfish and greedy assholes, with no sense of duty, responsibility, or understanding of sacrifice for the good of the country. On this score, I do question their Patriotism, and their notion of being American.

Those of you who might argue that all that money, and the Gubmint contracts would ensure ethics and responsibility I will refer to a Googgle search of "KBR + Halliburton + burn pits electrocutions water".

Given our FICA money, the Banksters would have 1.) Covered the worst of their bets with yet another derivative, 2.) Bet heavy on another bubble, 3.) lost it all, and regardless of the seeming Bullish trend, lost even more.



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Labels: Social Security

Damn, I really miss George Carlin.



Hat tips to:
Yellow Dog and Sadly, No!


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Labels: Fight War Not Wars

I grilled one of my big, 1-1/2" thick locally-grown Neola Farms Black Angus rib eye steaks today in this glorious warm weather. On the side, I sauteed some fresh, home-grown Oyster Mushrooms in some red wine. I didn't realize that the 2005 Beringer Founder's Estate Cabernet Sauvignon that I used to cook the mushrooms and onions was going to be so fantastically good to drink. I thought I was just buying a good, inexpensive Cab... I regret wasting the cup of Cab on mushrooms and onions. Beringer has quietly surprised the world, once again, with a sleeper Cab that will end up a very, very expensive vinted wine. This wine grabbed me on the first sip. I see enormous promise for aging it.

from Planet Of Wine

Beringer Founders’ Estate winemaker, Ron Schrieve, believes in “getting his boots dirty” and walking the vineyards daily during harvest to determine just the right time to pick. “I wish we got frequent-driver miles, because I’d have a million of them from running up and down the state,” he says. “But tasting grapes is the only way I can be sure I’m getting as much flavor as possible.” As each vineyard block reached the peak of maturity, the Cabernet was harvested and rushed to the winery, and Ron kept each lot separate until he assembled the final blend. After vinification, Ron aged the wines in French and American oak barrels for 12 months, helping the flavors come together and imparting sweet oak and brown spice nuances. The resulting wine has a deep color with bright cassis, green tea, black olive and sweet vanilla spice aromas that lead into a fleshy mouth that has, as Ron says, “A big Cab flavor.” Black fruit, cassis, and spice flavors are supported into a long finish by fine-grained, assertive tannins.

I agree with all of the above. It's so spicy, and the tannins are just right, at a little extra-strong. I will add that I was very impressed by the surprisingly high sugar content of this year's Cab. It really reminds me of one of this series' very best years-- 1991. It sold then (1993-4), at the same ~$8-to-9 per bottle. A year later, it was up to $18 per bottle-- in the 1990's that was damned expensive red wine. It was SO good, and had all of the exact same qualities as this 2005.

About four years ago, I was at the big wine and spirits store in Memphis, a place called Buster's, and saw some 1991 Beringer's Cab "on sale" for $180.00. I happened to be with a friend of mine, who visited me when I was still Active Duty, at Ft. Belvoir, and buying the (then 2 year-old) 1991 Cab vintage by the caseload. He offered to split the cost for a bottle, and, later, with dinner and TEH wine, we both agreed that the price for that 15 year-old bottle was more than worth it.

Much drier, but still, somehow perfectly full and perfectly balanced. It's old sweetness still was noted. It's still got a decade to it's full potential (counting the passed years since tasting it.). It was simply the best vinted California wine that either of us had ever tasted, and by this time, my buddy was a five-star CIA chef. Had I just been able to keep my lips off that 1991 Beringer's Jesus Juice, I'd be talking about all the empty bottles of old, expensive wine I have laying around. I mean-- I'd be a richer man, for sure!

Short story long-- The 2005 Beringer Founder's Estates Cabernet Sauvignon is perfectly ready to drink right now, but, I really see this being a superlatively spectacular wine in 5, 10... 15-- even 20 years. It has everything in it to age spectacularly.

Buy a case, and enjoy a bottle or two, and then set the rest on its side in a cool, dark place for some time. It will only get better, even though, right now, it's hard to imagine improving it.

This is one for the books.

Witness and Testify.


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Labels: Good Wine, Wines To Age

Most impressive!




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Labels: Nature

Exciting!

I hang out at several seed-swap and gardening forums. Eight people asked for some of my "Monkeyfister's Marvel" Tomato Seeds. I was especially impressed by some of the locations: N. Ireland; Oxfordshire, England; Toulon, France; and British Columbia.

I am excited to see how this Tomato does in so many different climates. Have any of you good readers started to sprout the seeds that I sent out to you?

it is time for me to pot-up my seedlings to the final pot before going out to the garden at the end of the month.


I am seriously looking for Comfrey, if you have seeds, or a root ball to share, I would gladly pay the shipping.



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Labels: Seed Trading, Tomatoes