Inter-Ocean Parabolic

Does anybody remember Clearly Canadian fizzy beverages?  I drank quite a few of these back in the day:

Some readers of this blog may remember that I took part in a personal Compact not to buy anything new between February 23 and November 30 of 2007.  While I had several minor infractions, I was mostly successful.

Since I bought a new house, though, that Compact has been out the window, so to speak.  Therefore, to rein in my spending and to return to a simpler way of life, I am reentering the Compact--and I will only buy used items, excluding food, beverages and plants, between now and July 1, 2010.

I grant myself the following exemptions:

1.  Various computer peripherals  

2.  New cell phone

From the New York Times:

The unemployment rate includes only jobless people who have looked for work in the past four weeks. The underemployment rate — which also includes jobless workers who have not recently looked for work and part-timers who need full-time work — reached 17.5 percent in October. And the long-term unemployment rate — the share of the unemployed population out of work for more than six months — also continues to set records. It is now 35.6 percent.

The official job-loss data also fail to take note of 2.8 million additional jobs needed to absorb new workers who have joined the labor force during the recession. When those missing jobs are added to the official total, the economy comes up short by 10.1 million jobs.

Taken together, the numbers paint this stark picture: At no time in post-World War II America has it been more difficult to find a job, to plan for the future, or — for tens of millions of Americans — to merely get by.

For the record, I don't believe that mandating people pay huge, monopolistic corporations (insurance companies) money they can't really afford right now is a particularly good way to increase your popularity. But, apparently, the Democrats are of that opinion. Oh, they're going to help people who can't "afford" it? Well, I'm familiar with "income sensitive" plans, and I'm not buying it...

As the poet T.S. Eliot warned,

"The last temptation is the greatest treason
To do the right thing for the wrong reason."

(To give credit where it's due, I came across that reading Greg Palast.)

Starting with the boulevard strip (plants marked with an asterisk were already present when I moved in, and only the woody plants are noted):

1.  Euryops pectinatus*

2.  Euryops pectinatus*

3.  Juniperus horizontalis* (?)

4.  Magnolia grandiflora* (?)

5.  Baccharis pilularis 'Twin Peaks' (not visible)

The side strip is looking pretty sad right now, because I just chopped down the giant aster in the back:

1.  Clematis armandii 'Apple Blossom'

2.  Abelia 'Edward Goucher'

3.  Arctostaphylos manzanita 'St. Helena'

4.  Cuphea hyssopifolia*

Moving on to the front yard, starting in the back by the neighbor's car and working around to the center (you can see I've been trying to fill in the gravel, but I have a ways to go):

1.  Unidentified rose*

2.  Unidentified rose*

3.  Unidentified rose*

4.  Aucuba japonica*

5.  Cuphea ignea

6.  Callistemon citrinus*  (not visible, and dead.  Only the stump is left.)

7.  Cestrum hybrid.  (This was sold to me as C. aurantiacum, but based on the color of the berries, I think that's incorrect.)

8.  Unidentified miniature rose*

9.  Unidentified miniature rose*

10.  Unidentified miniature rose*

11.  Unidentified miniature rose*

12.  Buddleja x weyeriana

13.  Elsholtzia stauntonii (not visible)

14.  Rosa 'Sun Flare'

15.  Artemisia abrotanum

16.  Paeonia lutea var. ludlowii (Just a bare twig right now)

17.  Buxus sempervirens 'Graham Blandy'

18.  Rhus integrifolia 

19.  Rosa 'Alba Semi-Plena'

And here's a bonus picture of the yellow dahlia in front, even though it's not woody.  It's a Yellow Gem from 1914; the description that got me to buy it was that it "seems to have been shaped by a jeweler from Middle Earth."

The Market Ticker:

We must not only end "too big to fail" we must also end "too bribed to give a damn", which has permeated the entirety of Washington DC over the last three decades.

This is exactly what I mean about critical thinking. Jane is thinking critically--you know, in the good, let's actually talk about facts and substance sense. Those who hear/read a headline to the effect that "the public option is in" and start going all gung-ho, yeah, we win!, are not thinking critically. Not in the least. And if they don't start doing so, they will be duped in the end. There are a lot of things out there being called a "public option"--so you'd better make sure which one they're talking about before you go getting all excited. And so far, as Jane notes, we have no real details from Reid...and no real reason I have heard all Summer to be optimistic that they are talking about a "robust" public option.

But above all, remember the process. Reid's statement, for whatever it may be worth is, at best, only part of the on-going negotiation process--with the House, with the White House, and with the insurance companies. Remember the real options:

1. No public option.

2. Watered-down b.s. option which only mandates insurance companies get more money by mandating everybody buy insurance--from the insurance companies.

3. "Robust" public option.

4. Watered-down or robust option with state "opt-in" provision.

5. Watered-down or robust option with state "opt-out" provision.

6. Watered-down or robust option with "trigger" provision (i.e., public option never gonna happen--but don't it make you feel better to think so?).

So, there you have it. 1--We don't even know which public option Reid is suggesting states can "opt-out" of; and, 2--Whatever it is Reid is talking about, it is intended to be the Senate's high bar position, in order to get whatever we are going to get in the end below that. That's how negotiation works. The Senate says, this is the most we can do. I know, I know, you might think the House potentially having a stronger position would mean the Senate and House would compromise somewhere in between, such that the result would be above Reid's "option" and below that of the House. Unfortunately, that's not my impression of how reality is likely to work. It is my impression that the Senate will say, this is the most we can do, the insurance companies will pitch a fit, and the real negotiation will be to get somewhere between the hard bottom line of the insurance companies (i.e. status quo or some "clear skies" proposal which in fact makes pollution worse) and the Senate position. Why that should be so is both offensive and a mystery to me, but such it is. I gather it has something to do with money.

Obama has been criticized by progressives because unlike FDR, he is pragmatic rather than visionary. My sense of FDR is that he was a leader: he had a vision and he was able to rally the country to move toward that vision. He was not afraid to make sweeping changes and to call out and marginalize those that opposed him. But it seems his singular vision also led him to one of the saddest moments in US presidential history--trying to pack the Supreme Court. Although I was sympathetic to FDR's goals of trying to get his agenda enacted, the idea of the executive branch exerting that sort of pressure on a co-equal branch of the federal government was un-American and a bad, bad idea.

Obama appears much more cautious, opting for incremental change. No matter what happens, I don't see him trying to do anything analagous to packing the court. But he clearly needs to have more of a vision of what this country can be rather than constantly thinking about the limitations of the current political reality.

A leader needs to have vision to rally those around him to his cause (longer term, big picture), as well as a pragmatic streak of knowing where we are, and what the next steps are (shorter term, detailed picture). But, as I tell my trainees, it's hard to know what the next step should be if you don't know where you want to end up. As others have said, I wish Obama could channel a little more of his inner FDR and boldly stake out his vision of America, with a thriving middle class and guaranteed access to high-quality medical care.

I suppose I should be calling the White House, but even if I don't, if this is true, and we end up with that "trigger" nonsense, you can put me on record here:

I will not vote for Obama in 2012.

A "trigger" = more money for insurance companies = more money for the rich. If I wanted that, I would have voted for McCain.

So, count me out of this project.

Haha! Get it? Nothing here... Keep moving along...

On the other hand, I can recommend some tea:

This summer, I went camping in Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadows at an elevation of 8600 feet.  Riding back down to the Central Valley, I watched the forest change from conifers to a mix of conifers and broad-leaf trees.  In the middle of this transition, I began to notice a number of cedars with their bright green sprays of scale-like leaves.  Given my interest in filling my yard with woody plants, I decided I should plant a cedar somewhere on the property.  

With research, I believe I determined what those cedars on the drive down were--the incense cedar or Calocedrus decurrens.  I found one at my local nursery, but it was in a large container and too expensive, so I didn't take the leap and buy it.  Happily for my pocketbook, I came to the conclusion that the arborvitae was a nobler tree than the incense cedar, and decided to get the native western species, Thuja plicata.

I found this small T. plicata at Berkeley Horticultural.  It's the variation of the species called 'Aurea' because the leaves have a golden tinge to them.  The tag said it would grow to ten feet tall in ten years.  Because this tree could potentially reach 200 feet, I planted it in the far back corner of my lot.  I hope some day when I'm dead, it will be towering over my neighbor's deodar cedar.

In Aristocrats of the Garden, Ernest H. Wilson says of Thuja plicata, "The Giant Arborvitae ... of western North America, in the valley of the Columbia River grows 200 feet tall and has a trunk clean of branches for fully 100 feet.  The story of this tree parallels that of the Douglas Fir. It was first discovered on the shores of Nootka Sound by Née [Luis Née], who accompanied Malaspina on his voyage around the world (1789-97) but it was not introduced until 1853, when William Lobb sent seeds to Messrs. Veitch, at Exeter, England."

Dirr, in the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, says that Thuja plicata is "A beautiful conifer where properly grown ... probably better than T. occidentalis from an ornamental standpoint."  And the Hillier Guide says that T. plicata 'Aurea' is "an outstanding medium-sized tree with rich gold foliage."

Ok, so that's not my chair, and that's not my apartment. But that is what my new chair looks like.

Faithful readers of the Inter-Ocean Parabolic may remember this clematis from when it was a little twig I planted in the spring.  Since then, it has grown up the bamboo post I staked next to it, with a spurt of growth every time I gave it some liquid fish.  My idea was that the vine would go across the front of my porch, but now that it is tall enough, I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish that.

In Aristocrats of the Garden, Ernest H. Wilson says, "The new Clematis Armandi from central China with white flowers, and its form Farquhariana with pink flowers, should be especially useful in the south and on the Pacific Slope.  The three-foliolate leaves are dark polished green and the flowers each two to three inches across are freely produced in large axillary clusters.  For gardens situated where a genial climate prevails I count this Clematis among the most desirable and beautiful plants I have been privileged to introduce into cultivation."

In my edition of the Manual of Woody Plants by Michael Dirr, I hope I found a typo regarding this plant.  It says, "Clematis armandii, Armand Clematis, would be a beautiful plant if it did not flower."  I think it's supposed to say "even if it did not flower," but we'll see, because I haven't seen mine in bloom yet.

And in the Hillier Guide, it says that the 'Apple Blossom' (which I'm assuming is also the Farquhariana that Wilson mentions above), "is a superb medium-sized clematis with broad sepals that are white and shaded with pink, especially on the reverse.  It is scarce, and a poor form that is easy to propagate has appeared on the market."  I ordered mine from Forestfarm, which has a good reputation, so I hope I got the scarce, desirable form rather than the poor imitation.  I'll watch closely as it continues to grow, and post an update.

I ordered this rue plant from Mountain Valley Growers last October.  It didn't do much all winter long, but really took off this summer.   I replanted it to get it away from the sprawling wormwood plant, and it has adapted nicely.  I decided to feature it right now, because it's currently blooming, with its strange looking yellowish green flowers.

Rue has been used for centuries as a medicinal herb and flavoring for food. In his final book, If I Were to Make a Garden, Ernest H. Wilson lists R. graveolens as a common plant of early eighteenth century gardens.   And in Richard II, the gardener says to the Queen:

Poor Queen, so that thy state might be no worse
I would my skill were subject to thy curse.
Here did she fall a tear.  Here in this place
I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb-of-grace.
Rue even for ruth here shortly shall be seen
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.