>The businesses will take care of the workers if they are successful. That is no longer the case. The business model that prevails in America right now is that labor costs are the best place to gain on the profit vs costs equation. The more successful a business becomes the more likely it will be that they will reduce payroll to further inflate profits for the executive management and shareholders. Not everyone is equipped to become an MBA, nor should they need be in such a vast economic system as the United States. We need burger flippers as well as CEO's and they should and can be paid a wage that is sufficient to live on without derailing the company growth. Most companies only need a single CEO but they always need vastly more labor consistent with the size of the company. If our destiny truly lies in automated personal service delivery and outsourced skilled trades manufacturing then unwed mothers should not be pressured to have children they don't want. Republicans make most of the pro-life arguments but then argue just as fervently for Globalization. Huh? I don't think effective methods of birth control should be blackballed with trumped up allegations of danger. In fact it probably isn't out of line to suggest that if things are really so bad that ones country cannot guarantee its citizens employment consistent with their availability then maybe couples should be limited to one child only! The U.S. displays a shocking lack of ability to learn from history. After decades of a direct correlation between production and profit the U.S. began experimenting with a stock market economy which crashed badly in 1929 and the same dynamic is working again less than 100 years later. The U.S. also experimented with a free labor economy which indirectly led to a Civil War. This Red State/Blue State division is tearing our country apart and when it isn't doing that it definitely inhibits forward progress. The rest of the world is racing by with quality of life improvements for its citizens and we watch as China ascends to the place that we once held as a mover and shaker on the international stage. H

Hi Campanula and Seil! You can put it in perspective with this information. It has been written that one of the most prolific breeders in American history, Gene Boerner, raised so many seedlings, he rode on the back of a tractor which pulled him through the fields to see them all. Of course he missed many decent and probably some exceptional roses, but he raised hundreds of thousands of them to get the ones he released. I've read that only one in ten thousand seedlings were usually deemed worthy of introduction. What does that say for those who raise them on their kitchen window sill and have commercial success? John Sheridan raised his seedlings on his windowsill and Harkness released his Sheila's Perfume. I grew it own root in the desert and it was a HORSE! Vigorous, healthy, prolific bloomer with thick, strong wood. Not perfect, but what is? Yes, Ralph Moore "failed" millions of times! His seedling houses were chock full of things required to answer his "what if?" push. It took him decades to go from Ferdinand Pichard to where he achieved, literally decades. His moss roses took years. The first successful breeder bloomed for the first time in 1959. His first introduction from it came out in 1969. In the ensuing decade, he planted many hundreds of seed from crosses with that monster. It was larger than his greenhouses, flowered only once in spring and mildewed like all get out, but he kept pimping that pollen and sewing the seed. Fairy moss is smaller than many of the first seedlings were by the end of their first season, but it grows and flowers well from spring through fall and has led to many even more successful roses of all types. His species crosses and Halos required as many, if not more, to arrive at things he felt good enough for anyone to actually have in their gardens. He often would show me something, ask my opinion then state, "it's ONLY taken 35 years to get to this point". You think YOU should be discouraged because some OP seeds you germinated were awful? LOL! Your chances of succeeding are probably enhanced because you are as critical of them as you are. We have plenty of unhealthy things available. Dumping a few will help raise the health levels greatly! Dump away! I do. But, that's the fun of it. You never know what you're going to get. You can learn to make educated guesses, but just when you think you know the rules... Kim

Bravo Dotmom! Good for you. To me this friend would quickly become friend. Although I should condition that by saying that real friends *can* disagree on things, even heatedly, (sometimes it's healthy for the relationship) but I think the test of the friendship will be her response now. She will make the decision whether she'll be wanting a continued friendship or not. Stand your ground! You had a valid position and have no reason to apologize - it's HER mindset that needs to change. Although appropriate here, I despise the politically correct term "enabler". "Abuser" is more appropriate isn't it? This woman is a child abuser, plain and simple. I can't come down on the "kid" because the parent was incompetent and should not have been allowed to raise her this way. I'm so tired of all the spoiled kids you see these days but it's the parents' fault usually. This kid is taking advantage of what's being given to her. She has no incentive, no drive, no goals to try to achieve. It's how she was trained. I look at it this way, if you give a monkey a gun and the monkey shoots someone, you can't blame the monkey (or the gun). Your friend brought on her own problems and now wants sympathy and wants to blame the world for her woes. I can't deal with people like that. I'm glad you took a stand (for which I agree with you 100% btw!) I can feel sorry for these situations. Nobody likes to lose relationships, especially long-term ones. Perhaps she was saying the comment about one less cop as a frustration but regardless, your response Dottie was totally appropriate and kudos for giving it to her! Maybe she will think a bit, who knows. But it doesn't matter. If she comes around great, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Pat on the back and a hug to ya my friend! It's sad when this happens. A good friend of mine kept on with his radical oddball political diatribes and I laid down the law that I was sick of hearing it and stop with the emails and garbage. Quite a few response emails were sent and he didn't like it when I expressed a different view and cleared up the misinformation being sent. We seldom communicate anymore. But it happens and I couldn't live with myself to keep taking it and not say something. One of my favorite songs, Caledonia, has lyrics with a lot of meaning to me and the following lyrics are especially pointed in situations like this: I have moved and I've kept on moving Proved the points that I needed proving Lost the friends that I needed losing Found others on the way... Sometimes we have to sort though things. That apple was good yesterday, but rotten today. Sometimes there comes a point you just gotta toss it out to save the rest in the bag and yourself!

The buds are breaking on the Japanese larch. The sap is already flowing upward in the maples. The garden is awash with Galanthus and the Narcissus are showing buds while the jonquils are sporting in the 'fresh' breezes. Oh, and there's a dark blue Iris reticulata out - 'Djit'? Not sure. The 'I failed the winter test' list includes, so far, some Iris bucharica, my beloved old Cereus cactus who had a tip hit by frost, some yellow crocuses which rotted off at soil level. And the black Aeoniums but they were ever a chancy lot in my dappled garden. Upheaved a patch of Raoulia and moved it to a sunnier spot entirely where it may - or may not. After parting it from all the Microtis bulbs. That is one prolific orchid! Nearly as bad as Agapanthus for seeding into crevices and sneering at all attempts at removal. The place is being routinely bombed by a tribe of tui and those gaudy wood pigeons. Every time I hear that heavy wing-flap I, and the plum trees, cringe. The moment the buds break they'll be up at the top feasting on new leaves. Can pigs fly? Too right! And leave calling cards all over any vehicle parked below. Just over sixty days to daylight saving. And the persimmon will flower - and we'll have the last killer frosts and I get to wait for glorious autumn colour without fruit feasts. C'est la vie...:-((( Now it's time to clean the starling box (generations have used that nesting site) and set up some sort of Buzz Motel for the bumblebees. Since 'that idiot' brought in queens infected with Varroa bee mite it's only the most dedicated beekeepers who will be out running a miticide programme for the hives - and the pollination levels are way down. A legacy from greed and total stupidity. (Just like the rabbit 'flu virus. Some farmers think that just because they can run a flock or herd they know it all. Ha. Now we're back to using rabbitohs and that's not greatly effective when the cockies are too idle to get out and do their own pest control. Here endeth rant.)