Monday
Monday Miscellany
Garden Store
Finally, a garden store opens in my town. For three years, I've had to piece together gardening supplies from a variety of sources, all of them somewhat "hit or miss": Local nurseries, Amazon, Walmart, TSC, seed catalogues. No more. About three months ago, I noticed an empty building with a "Garden Store" sign, but it remained empty. When I drove by it on Saturday, I noticed some merchandise in the window and an "Open" neon sign. I went in and looked around. It's not even half stocked yet, but I met one of the owners and talked about what they'll carry. It looks and sounds like they're going to stock all the stuff I could never find around here: soil supplements, cocoa shells, giant bags of vermiculite and perlite, limestone. And it's all organic. It, quite frankly, sounds like perfect store and the prices appear reasonable. I'm pretty stoked. Added bonus: it's locally owned.
Inquisition
"We should also remember that the famed University of Salamanca (one of the best and oldest in Europe), was created by an Inquisitor, and that the conversation about the rights of American Indians took place under the aegis of the Spanish Holy Inquisition. In this, we could even say that the Holy Inquisition was one of sources of modern day international human rights." That, and other Inquisition insights, can be found here.
Inflation
Dylan Grice speaks again about his grave concerns about money printing: "His key point is that inflations and hyperinflations don't just hurt money, they hurt people and the societies they live in. Inflating money is less trustworthy money, and so people doing business trust each other less. Plus, those who are farthest from the source of artificially created money suffer the most (the “Cantillon effect”). And now the social debasement is clear for all to see. The 99% blame the 1%, the 1% blame the 47%, the private sector blames the public sector, the public sector returns the sentiment ”¦ the young blame the old, everyone blame the rich ”¦ yet few question the ideas behind government or central banks ... I'd feel a whole lot better if central banks stopped playing games with money”¦.All I see is more of the same ”“ more money debasement, more unintended consequences and more social disorder. Since I worry that it will be Great Disorder, I remain very bullish on safe havens." Link.
Love from Crime
Love can sprout from a crime spree. November 5th is testimony. Twenty-six years ago today, I met my wife. In a bar. She was 18. I was 20. She wanted to drink. I had a fake i.d. (it was my older brother's previous driver's license, which he got for me by the simple expedient of going to the Secretary of State and telling him he lost his). That warranted a dance, then conversation, then a real date. Five years later, I became Catholic, we married, and then we produced seven children. All from that wicked phenomenon known as "under-age drinking." Sinister, yes, but flowers somehow bloomed from that putrid pond of filth.
Annual Appeal
It's that time of year again: The Season of Massive Amounts of Online Shopping. If you're going to buy something at Amazon, please come to TDE first, then access Amazon through the Amazon box in the upper-righthand corner. It'll earn me a kickback and cost you nothing.
