You say tomato, I say we got 'em

I have tomatoes! As of April 17th, one of my tomato plants had three very small tomatoes. At this rate, I should have edible tomatoes by May. I have been bringing the plants in most nights, as the temperatures have dipped into the mid-thirties. Usually, I don't see tomatoes on my plants until July, so this method is great.

I tried putting mothballs around my garden to keep the possum, or whatever, from eating my young collards and lettuce and it seems to be working. before I put out the mothballs, I was losing one plant a night.

Why lawyers shouldn't be protected by the Geneva Convention

The title to this post is simply to note how those who engage in legal language, whether at the local, state, federal or international level, rarely state things in a clear concise way. This obfuscation is the main cause of never ending debate over the real meaning of laws and treaties and is a disservice to all.

Such is true of the Geneva Conventions, the documents which have been referenced repeatedly in relation to the questions of the status and treatment terrorists and non-uniformed fighters in recent years. However, the documents do have enough clarity to settle one question. To make this as simple as I possibly can, it is my opinion that the following Geneva Convention passage applies to these terrorists and would mean they are not given protections under the Geneva Convention.

Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:

1. Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.
   
2. Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfil the following conditions:
   1. That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
   2. That of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;
   3. That of carrying arms openly;
   4. That of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war."
   The reason that these "unlawful combatants" lack of protection is that they are a real danger to the civilian population, since armies can not distinguish them from the civilians and they hide in churches, hospitals and behind civilian hostages. They are a scourge and can and should be dealt with as such. I believe that even the politicians and lawyers who wrote the Geneva Conventions understood this, but many partisans of this age do not.
   

Sailing into the pirates

I, for one, was glad to see President Obama give the green light to the Navy to go after the pirates who held the captain of the Maersk Alabama. However, this brought about an unusual situation for me and a dilemma for the president.

The evening after the Navy Seals rescued the captain, I found myself disagreeing with Sean Hannity, of Fox News, when he said he thought that President Obama jumped too quickly to take credit for the rescue, when his approach was the natural course for a president to follow. As I am used to agreeing with most of Sean's points of view, his opinion troubled me, but I believe he is actually upset with Obama's overall approach to the security of our nation and our approach to countries such as Iran and North Korea and that he found that the notion of complimenting Obama stuck in his throat.

The same evening, I agreed with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, when she said if President Obama was right to close Guantanimo Bay and oppose long confinement of detainees without access to a court's ruling on the legality of their confinement, then the Obama must be wrong to insist on confining detainees without the same rights at Baghram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. Obama's administration has now appealed a judge's ruling that detainees at Baghram must have access to a court to test the legality of their confinement. Maddow, an Air America talk show host, is usually miles to the left of me, and I found her good for the goose, good for the gander approach to this subject refreshing. I don't agree that we have to give such rights to terrorists, but I agreed with her that the president should be consistent in his approach.

As much as I appreciate the work of the Navy Seal snipers in killing the pirates and rescuing the captain, this is a very complicated situation and is already escalating in ways which cannot be thrilling Obama. Should we attack the pirates bases on land in Somalia, which is a large country with a huge seacoast? There is virtually no government of Somalia to speak of, and the pirates are almost certainly living among the general populace.

At present, sea laws and the laws of some countries complicate the arming of these large vessels' crews. Getting cooperation to attack the pirates hideouts or arm the crews would be very difficult. But the pirates have received hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom in recent years and some of that money may be going to fund terrorists.

The best solution I have heard is similar to the air marshall plan we use on airliners. The armed sea marshalls would board random transport vessels, so the pirates would not know if a ship they were trying to hijack was protected by sea marshalls or not. I would have more than one marshall per team, so that there would be enough "firepower" to defend against pirate attacks. It may not be a perfect plan, but it should cost much less than defending so many ships with Navy vessels and crews. It might also avoid the need to attack the pirates' bases.

Of tea parties and mad hatters

I have to admit I have gotten a kick out of most of the media's approach to the tea parties which are being held around the country today (April 15th). The same reporters and networks who, in the past, have marveled at turnouts for causes they supported, are absolutely beside themselves with loathing for the tea parties. I've heard numerous references to the tea parties not being grass roots, being instead funded by the very rich, or conservative foundations, or the republican party. Not once did I see any reference to who exactly was supposedly doing the funding. Details don't seem to matter in this case, just the smear.

What a surprise that the talking heads who went so far out of their way to impugn the reputations of anyone who opposed Barack Obama last year would express disdain for Americans who actually might disagree with the economic policies of the federal government, not just this year, but in recent years. Many of those who are speaking out against the rampant spending and debt and power centralization by the federal government were also complaining about those same things last year when the president was named Bush. Most republicans have voted against the huge spending bills beginning last fall and almost all democrats have voted for them. Many republicans, democrats, independents, liberals and conservatives are concerned about the massive deficit spending and what it may do to our dollar, our country and future generations.

None of that matters for those self-appointed guardians of Obama as they make it more obvious every day that their focus is not the truth or the well being of Americans; rather it is to prop up their ideological commitments at any cost. If someone is right simply because they support one person's policies and wrong simply because they oppose the policies of that person, then it is a question of whose team you are on, not who actually happens to be right or wrong at that given moment. You can keep that approach. I reject it, whether it is the approach of liberals or conservatives. More accurately, it seems the approach of a mad hatter.

Planting a garden?

If you live in Florida, gardening began months ago, and this post is too late for you. In Pennsylvania though, this is the time to start preparing and even planting. If you've never planted your own garden, there are a few reasons you might find it worthwhile. This post will talk about those reasons and go over a few gardening tips.

Picking vegetables from your own garden can give you that feeling of accomplishment experienced only after having built something of which you can be proud. And it's true that it is difficult to find anything as juicy or tasty in the supermarkets, who sell products that have been grown to survive packing and shipping long distances. I've enjoyed the smell of tomato plants as I pick through (or weed around) them.

In our modern life, we not only don't take the time to grow our own foods, we are completely losing the knowledge and ability to grow our own foods. If things get really bad, we might regret being this vulnerable. It's not that difficult to figure out the basics, practice a little, weed a bit and, before you know it, enjoy a garden of your own.

In determining when to plant, it does matter where you live. There are a number of zones, shown on the back of seed packs and planting too early can risk frost damage or plants that don't grow well in weather too hot or cold for them. In Pennsylvania, now is a good time to start things like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in starter pots, so they can be planted outside in May. Lettuce, onions and cool weather crops like broccoli, cauliflower and spinach can be planted now and will do better than if you waited until later. Last frost in Pennsylvania can be as late as some time in May.

Most plants like a lot of sun, but some things, like lettuce, tolerate a good bit of shade. Seed packs usually tell you this kind of information. You may prefer buying little containers of plants already started, which can be more dependable than growing from seed and onion sets can be purchased about this time giving you scallions and eventually full onions. You can even plant every couple weeks to spread out when the vegetables mature.

You don't have to plant a huge plot, but don't crowd too many plants in your space if you can avoid it. Some tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, radishes, beans, squash and peppers (bell and hot) are the most popular and seem to grow best. Carrots from the garden are good, but I've found them difficult to grow and definitely don't transplant them from starter pots. Melons and pumpkins can also grow well, but take a lot of space. Pumpkins and other cooler crops should not be planted until mid-summer, so they don't take too much heat.

Beans and cucumbers may like growing on support stakes or strings, but this is a learning curve, since each plant is different, so I usually have just let them grow without support. If you are planting corn, you need a good number of plants in at least several rows, like a block of plants, to improve the pollination by bees. Without a correct approach on this, corn planting is a frustrating experience.

Soil acidity is not usually a problem, but vegetables usually like a soil ph of 6 to 7. Inexpensive soil acidity testers can be purchased if this is a problem, such as planting where evergreen needles have created a very acid soil over the years. Using compost and even composted cow manure, peat moss or good topsoil mixed in the garden can produce a soil rich in nutrients and moisture holding qualities. Fertilizing helps and the stores all have products which could be applied moderately every few weeks.

Lastly, I try to mulch, especially since weeding can be a chore that discourages many gardeners. Straw and grass clippings can be placed between and around the plants to keep the ground moist and the weeds down. Strips of black plastic can work, but I prefer the more natural approaches. A mulched garden works better, takes less weeding and helps keep gardening fun.