I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Morning All!

Susie .. you trip sounds like it's coming together.  And it will be lots of fun!!

Athena ... our heat index is right up there with yours today.  Another scorcher today.  I'll need to water the flowers early.

Hope everyone has a great day,

Bren

we got the super duper heat.. going on week 3... yuk

Allyson thanks for the recipe.. if I find good lemons I will definitely make some.. maybe serve it in on cookie flats (we don't use our oven in the summer heat).. with whipped cream.. We need dessert at my house.

{Rosemary} Hugs, pal.

Thanks for the well wishes. DH's band rocked the house last night and two of my girlfriends came and tore up the dance floor. We are doiing the 'official' celebration on Saturday, since he is off.

Athena, Bren and all you east coast folks,  sorry it is so stinking hot. We had rain yesterday evening and it cooled everything down but back up to 92 today.

Well, to work go I. Have a great day!

Patty - doncha just love how they let us think we're training them

Good morning.  Cloudy, cool in western MA - and WARNINGS - even interrupting NPR, to let us know there are gonna be Big Boomers today: hail, winds, dangerous whatever - and I'd rather hide under the duvet ( well, cotton blanket at this time of year) then face what the Lion is.  WOW, it might as well read "don't breathe."  Sad what "we're" ( as in Pogo: "We've met the enemy and they is us.") are doing to the planet.

Hope every one has a cool, peace filled day.

I think they will settle on something, so I'm not worried about that, but the long term damage to the US's political reputation is severe unless something changes in this country. Our capacity to lead when we can't make internal decisions is called into question, IMO. I am sick of this country being held hostage by economically tone deaf people (the nicest way I could think of putting it).

THIS IS CRAZY.  CRAZY.  CRAZY.

BLUE

AUUGHGHHHHHHH...it could have been ME - pressing the WRONG button answering a PM from you - instead of REPLY - I thnk I might have pressed a Report as SPAM - AUUGHHHHHHH..

I've just written a PLEADING PLEADING PM to Moderators asking them to check and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE forgive me if my stupid fingers pressed the Spam instead of REPLY.

AUUGHHHHHHHHHHH.....CS

About letting cats outside. We got a cat from the Humane Society umpty two years ago when the children were little. He was six months old and we meant for him to be an inside cat because we live on a somewhat busy street near the corner of an even busier street. The cat has different ideas and made it clear that he wanted to be an outside cat.  One of my neighbours said he had the same dilemma and decided that he could either give the cat a short happy life outside or a long frustrated life inside. We let the cat go out - and same for the next cat who joined us a year later. Cat #1 died in the house at 18; cat #2 died in the house at 20. They seemed to learn how to manage the traffic and ended up having long and happy lives. Large critters outside obviously change the circumstances.

The answer is so stinking obvious that it pisses me off - early expiration of the Bush tax cuts, stop the wars, close tax loopholes...  As a person who has an insider's view of bond sales, I can tell you that rating agencies look at the revenue side of the equation as well as the expenditure side.  Do you really really want to hurt the poorest among us so that the wealthy aren't taxed a few extra dollars a day?  REALLY?

The problem is that the Tea Partiers are hell-bent on forcing a default.  I saw a few of them speak the other day and their agenda is pretty clear.

Don't even get me started on why a Constitutional balanced-budget amendment wouldn't work...!  GAH!

It's hard to understand from outside the US why there the obvious solution of raising revenue while reducing expenses isn't so obvious.

I think the aim is to shrink government to a nearly non-existent level.  Therefore, keep revenues flat and keep cutting expenditures, particuarly programs to aid the have-nots.

The irony of all this is that if US debt is downgraded, and it almost certainly will because nobody can agree on anything, we'll end up paying a higher interest rate.  Which means that MY taxes will be wasted on paying more interest than I needed to, all because a few vocal, hard-headed people who don't know what they're doing are holding the debt ceiling hostage!  I'm going to send them a bill for my share of the higher interest.  Talk about wasteful government spending.

Incoming?

Could something have surprised her?