Watermelon as Treatment for Erectile Dysfunction

Be careful when you spit the seeds.
I've seen yellow melon for sale, but never tried it.  Anyone?

Brown Recluse are here, or, This Is Global Warming

Brown Recluse have a dark violin on their head.

 Brown Recluse spider bite can lead to an open sore several inches across that lasts for up to 3 months and resulting in loss of flesh.  Fortunately, the name Recluse gives a clue, they are afraid of people and run like hell, prefer instead to hide in dark rooms, cellars, under things, behind pictures, in cardboard boxes.  The chance of being bitten is small, but the penalty is severe.  Outside they haunt woodpiles and dense bushes, leaf piles, inside sticking your hand in a stored cardboard box, or putting on clothes thrown down overnight is the most common method leading to a bite.  (not a web producing spider)

Normally brown, but it varies, cream to almost black
In my part of Kansas they were rare, they lived further east in the state.  But the last 15 years changing weather patterns favorable to them delivered these devils further into the uber red state.  The whole neighborhood has them now.    Three years ago they showed up in our house.  They come out at night, so after sundown or early in the morning we hunted and killed them as they came out of hiding.  At one point I was killing 5 to 10 every day, this went on for months.  

We finally turned the corner when we had to replace our roof last spring.  We had wooden shake shingles.  The roofers said there was an eco-system on the roof, moss, ants, centipedes, silverfish, a complete food chain for the spiders.  Following the removal of their foods supply we did a severe cleaning, move and vacuum and wash everything, and under and behind every picture, bed, chair, appliance.  Laundry or bag up all kinds of things in the closet, go through drawers.  Then in a month we did it again.   Since then a couple more times.  We feel like we have damn near beat them, still, I find one every week or two.  The bastards are still in the walls and between the floor and the basement ceiling I'm sure, but it's evident there are not many, and perhaps some of what we find now is  the normal infiltration rate of one getting in from the woods now and then.  

This morning in the soft light of dawn, I got up for a pleasant whiz, didn't turn on the light but I thought I saw something move, turned on the light and there was one, a small one, running like hell for the air conditioner vent, the bastards are smart, they know exactly where they need to go, I slapped the floor three times before I had spider gut on my hand, I'm brutal, barefoot, barehand, I kill the devils with zeal.  That was the first one I had seen in well over a week, I think this is as good as it will get.   I have some fly paper I put down in the places I see them most, the way they think and move leads all of them to the same indoor topography for some reason, a half dozen locations are where I have killed damn near all of the ones I find.  I do not want chemicals, so I do not spray inside and rarely outside, besides, spiders walk on a horn or toenail, when they eat or groom they do not normally touch themselves with it.  They can walk over a sprayed area or poison area unharmed most the time.  The best cure, remove their food supply, go after all the other bugs.

Brown Recluse Spiders in your house?  This is your house on Global Warming.

North Carolina disaffiliated from natural law

North Carolina Republicans, outlawed sea-level rise.  House bill 819 pulled a Moses.  State planners and scientists are predicting a meter rise by the end of the century, modeled on accelerating polar ice melt and ever warming temperatures.  This means NC's coastal roads and developments need to be located  to what will become the new shoreline, existing assets may need to be abandoned in the coming years.  Many states are using these same aprox. 40" rise in water level for long range planning, as are many nations around the world.
North Carolina though put a stop to sea level rise, speeches on the floor derided scientist and their computer models made by witches and people who recycle cans.  Bill 819 mandates the projection only use recent historical data to project a rise.  Historians not scientist will determine this issue.  So, the last few years the sea has risen and by wisely flat lining the near past  increase the sea has been restricted to a maximum 8 inch rise.

See, it's easy to fix global warming.  Make it illegal, fire the scientist, and move on.  Next item vagina's, who owns'em who controls'em.

Canada, not to be outdone gave termination notice Monday to all 50 scientist who study one of their only two neighbors, their largest neighbor, the ocean.  Reason given was for the last 20 years all we got out of these guys was warnings about pollution, endless documents about rising acidity and temperatures and water, loss of ice, and notices of declining fish, seal and bear populations.

Do you know of any Republicans who would raise the minimum wage?

And why would they?

Women didn't seem to care then either.

Romney fine tuning his "I'm a hostage of my own absurd wealth" routine.  

At least they have a plan for alternative energy.

THE REPUBLICANS AND THE KOCH BROTHERS HAVE A PLAN FOR MILLIONS OF GREEN JOBS!    ONLY, THEY'RE IN ASIA.

Where the hell were the editors last month?

May 22nd I wrote "It's the law, Kansas GOP gives state to the rich", you can read it a couple of blogs below this one.  I outlined how Gov. Brownback and the GOP gave the rich a tax cut that will drive a $2.5 billion shorfall in 5 years.  But according to them the state will grow and have more jobs and tax income than anytime in history.

Today, all over the state, the editors of almost every good sized town in the state is railing against the tax cut, where the hell were they a week ago, a month ago?  All predict a near collapse of state services and little if any growth from the supply side model of the Reagan era, partially written by consultants who worked for Reagan, consultants that we paid a $100k fee.

It turns out, and I honestly didn't know this, the state has a balanced budget amendment, so the GOP is correct when they say we will never reach the 2.5billion shortfall as projected.  Instead we will cut off virtually all school and university funding, hiway funding, care for the infirm, care for elderly, close state parks, public defender offices, health inspection offices, etc.

The rich, and businesses will not pay as much tax to the state, in many cases none.  But another thing I didn't know, they will not pay it to the state, but they will pay more to the federal government and to other states.  Credits for state tax lowers your federal taxes, if you own a shop here and live in New York you didn't pay New York either.  That's all trashed, now you will send more to the IRS, and pay even a higher rate in New York.  The savings for the rich is small if any at all.

So who is being helped, why did they do it?  The papers paint a picture of a deliberate trap for future governors, with the balance budget law forcing the state to chop it's own arms off and let the babies we cared about in the womb die in the crib.  Who ever the next president is will be helped a little as Kansans will lose their deductions from the state tax they paid, thus send more to the IRS helping to pay down the feds bills.  Businesses may not save any tax dollars in the end, but the hated regulators and monitors will be fired, they can go back to dumping waste oil and chemicals at the back door of the shop and cheating people out of overtime.  And the poor and needy of Kansas, they get screwed because they pay higher taxes now and their services WILL BE CUT, SOME WILL BE CUT OFF.