It was near 60 degrees on Sunday so I took Viktor for a walk around the garden. He had a lot of fun and behaved quite well. I think I’ll be able to take him outside on a semi-regular basis now. Finally found a harness/leash that he can’t wiggle out of.

Viktor

Planting season is almost here. Just a few more weeks until we can get the gardens up and running again. We have prepped 6 beds for planting so far. 6 more still to go. Plus, we intent to double the size of 4 of the beds. So 4 to dig yet.

We have quite a list of things we are planting this year. Not counting all the stuff that will come back from previous years. Like beans, tomatoes, herbs, flowers, and etc.

So far we have bought these to plant:

Scarlet Runner Beans
Cylindra Beet
Romanesco Broccoli
Long Island Improved Brussel Sprout
Michihili Chinese Cabbage
Perfection Drumhead Savoy Cabbage
Cosmic Purple Carrot
White Wonder Cucumber
Bibb Lettuce
Sugar Baby Watermelon
Small Sugar Pumpkin
Harris Model Parsnip
Sugar Ann Snap Pea
Cayenne Long Red Thin Pepper
Poblano Pepper    
White Icicle Radish
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach
Striped German Tomato     
Comfrey     
Lemon balm
German Chamomile
Mammoth Dill
Caraway
Alfalfa
Hungarian black seeded Sunflower
Borage
Heirloom Tomato (Variety)
Cilantro
Radish
Marquesa Onion
Organic Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans
Fenugreek
Snowball Califlower
Purple Top Turnips
Red Cabbage
Organic Bloomdale Spinach
Organic Dark Green Zucchini
Organic Delicata Winter Squash
Cucumbers (Variety)
Marketmore 76 Organic Cucumbers
Brussels Sprouts (From local Nursury)
Sugar Peas (From Local Nursury)
Strawberries
Camellia Sinensis (Tea plant)
Red Onions
White Onions
Yellow Onions
Shallots
Garlic

I’m sure we will end up buying more. We always do. We also have a large stock of containers now. (For when we overfill our beds and need to keep planting things.)

Viktor

Vik

Vik and Jeremy

Viktor

Viktor hanging out

Viktor - Still can't believe how fast he has grown

Badass Viking Viktor tries charging down the chipmunk hole

Viktor is now 5 months old. This was his first snow experience and he loved it.

Viktor's first snow

.

.

.

.

.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/365686/november-15-2010/tsa-full-body-scanners—jeffrey-goldberg

I want this to be a joke but, I know better.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/patriotapp/id390563133?mt=8

Want to rat your neighbors out for smoking pot? Report the nice Muslim couple down the street for “looking suspicious”? Yep, there’s an app for that.

Enter totalitarianism.
Walmart teams up with homeland security to install telescreens in 600 walmarts, in 27 states in order to broadcast homeland security public service announcements like this one:

Homeland Security Walmart Public Service Announcement

“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself–anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face…; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime…”
- George Orwell, 1984

“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”
- George Orwell, 1984

“WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”
- Big Brother Slogan
- – George Orwell, 1984

TSA makes a 4-year-old disabled boy remove his leg braces to walk through body scanner. (Even though the little boy needs the braces to walk.)

All passengers flying within or to the United States are now being screened against government watch lists.

From CNN:

CNN All Passengers Now Screened

I want to highlight a comment posted on this vidoe by user 4sanity: “So what the TSA is saying is that 1 % of flyers are going to be hassled for being potential terrorists. So in 2010, there were 620 million airline passengers in the US –> 6.2 million “terrorist” threats. And they think this “false positive rate” is acceptable. But they admit they wouldn’t have caught any of the actual terrorists because they hadn’t yet aroused suspicion. This creates nothing but a false sense of security and only alienates the flying public.”

What scares me is how many of those 6.2 million “threats” are innocent children being subjected to this bullshit.

http://www.angryalien.com/0705/rhpsbuns.asp

Anybody flying for the holidays needs these. May I suggest ladies stick these on their undies so that when your asked to remove you tampon or pad for inspection you can at least give TSA and the other passengers a laugh! ….Though, you may be marked as a terrorist for it. Its all fun and games until they lock you in a glass cage or worse, a private room alone with a couple TSA guys and no witnesses. And if you parents think they won’t quarantine you separately from your toddlers and older children, your wrong. Google it and see how many mothers were caged for HOURS alone while their young children stood by in a crowded airport and watched.

http://action.aclu.org/site/MessageViewer?dlv_id=71451&em_id=71262.1

*UPDATE*   12/24/2010

http://www.infowars.com/tennessee-fusion-center-puts-aclu-on-terror-list/

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been put on Tennessee Fusion Center’s Terror list for “terrorism events and other suspicious activity”

Yes, because its suspicious that an organization wants to help its fellow citizens keep all their constitutional  freedoms and attempt to ensure those citizens are all treated equally. Geesh, what was the ACLU thinking?! They should know by now there is an unspoken, heavily enforced, law against providing us “low life” citizens with too much information about what are rights are.

TSA Caged Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar for wearing a sari! Can we say Oops! So much for our “Blossoming” foreign relations with India.

“The Indian embassy in Washington is to issue a formal complaint to the
US State Department following the treatment of a leading Indian
Diplomat at the hands of the TSA.”

http://www.infowars.com/tsa-subjects-indian-ambassador-to-us-to-glass-cage-enhanced-groping/

Excerpt from article:

“Mr Wallace warned: ‘I must advise the Prime Minister – and the British public – that the scanners are not a “silver bullet”. You would be mistaken to think that they would counter the new threat.

‘The millimetre wave technology is harmless, quick and can be deployed overtly or covertly. But it cannot detect chemicals or light plastics.

‘They have their uses. They give a sharper image of objects – especially metallic – than the “metal arch” scanners now in use.

‘And as they scan the whole body, they would speed up security checks as there would be less need for the “pat-down” search.

‘They are also able to scan crowds at a distance. But they cannot detect everything.’ He said that the only type of scanner that might be able to pick up concealed explosives were X-ray machines – but they pose health risks and are too slow to operate.”

- Tory MP Ben Wallace

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1240193/Body-scanner-wouldnt-foiled-syringe-bomber-says-MP-worked-new-machines.html

http://www.prisonplanet.com/flight-attendants-speak-out-as-tsa-revolt-explodes.html

“The new pat down procedure, which now allows TSA agents to forcefully feel around breasts and
genitalia, is currently conducted in full view of queuing passengers and has been described by many, including New York Times reporter Joe Sharkey, as a form of humiliation to discourage others from refusing the full body scans.

The flight attendants union is also pushing for a crew pass system effectively preventing flight attendants and pilots from having to undergo the procedure.”

“According to their own designers, the scanning machines cannot even detect explosive material.”

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/lifestyle/travel/flight-attendants-union-upset-over-new-pat-down-procedures

‎”Americans who believe they can avoid being molested by the authorities
by simply not flying are going to be in for a rude awakening when
they find that body scanners and pat downs have become mandatory to
enter shopping malls, sports events, or to simply walk down the
street.”

http://www.infowars.com/tsa-style-pat-downs-hit-the-streets/

That’s right ladies and young ladies, you read correctly. A PAD. It turns out those lovely new naked body scanners, that can’t detect chemicals or plastics, can detect whether you are on your period or not. The scanners also reveal you pads, liners, tampons, menstrual cups, and etc. Which means pat downs. Very thorough pat downs. Are you at least in private when this happens? Some people are saying they were offered a private screening and others say they were not given the option.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/sanitary-towel-prompts-tsa-to-grope-sexual-assault-victim.html