Vine RIPENED tomatoes. Like candy for the uninitiated, like an addiction for those of us who remember...

I will think of you in Bloomington and other parts south.
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I suppose in my own way I've been feeling what you are talking about too. The repubs at the office are just dead quiet anymore -- no more going around pounding their chests.

I wonder about the national debt, and the falling dollar, and the fact that in our state now people are on average literally spending more than they make. When do the wheels come off this thing? Will it be a quick sudden crash, or do we have enough economic "inertia" that the decline will take a year or more?

I wonder about our morality as a society -- there is little doubt this elimination of the middle class by stealing tax money for the rich leads to the lack of economic opportunity for the lower classes, which has impacts on the education system, and crime rates and quality of life for all but the uber-wealthy.

I wonder about the idiotic war -- what does it take for people to realize that death and harm are not abstractions? Tony Snow so well describes the GOP mindset when he says "2500 is just a number". If they can't even recognize the reality of what they are doing to U.S. citizens, then they certainly can't recognize the reality of the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens. And every family over there that loses a love one to one of our bullets or bombs becomes ever more likely to join up with those who oppose us. I think if the average american could get their heads around this idea, the occupation of Iraq would stand a real chance of ending, and some sort of reparations could begin.