I can’t believe it!  A regular reader suggested that the occasional political rant would be appreciated!?  Ya gotta wonder…….?

But, of course, I’ll oblige.  But I’ll make it quick.  First off, what the hell is going on with the stock market?  The Dow is at a record high, the NASDAQ is higher than it has been since 2001.  Where is the confidence coming from?

Here’s my theory: there is no true outpouring of confidence.  Not popular confidence, anyway.  Confidence is not what we are seeing this time.  This time we are seeing the rich investing because they have no other place to put their money and, since the rich have gotten richer, they are a bigger influence than they have been in the past – proportionally.  Wall street used to manifest the confidence of Main street.  Today it manifests the disposable income of Park Place and Boardwalk.

That is what I think.

Canadian politics is finally getting interesting.  Harper is an all around pariah.  On just about every front, too.  Even the CBC are taking shots at him.  The lapdog has turned.  They have been beaten and starved for so long, the CBC has no teeth so the battle is far from fully engaged but, for the first time in a long time, the CBC is finding stories that are a negative force on the government.  They gave up that kind of criticism with the first government cuts decades ago.  They may be too weak now to even be heard.  It may be too little too late.  But it is good to see Ol’ Yeller getting it’s voice back – weak as it is.

Christy Clark (Premier of BC) is starting to look like Rocky Balboa without the juice to make a last-minute rally.  The blood is pooling at her feet.  And she is reeling and teetering from the beating – all self-inflicted punches.  The NDP will win the next election.  But with what?  What have they done, said or even tried to do in the last ten years?  It wasn’t the NDP who punched her out.  It was shadow-boxing with the shadows winning this time.  Were the NDP a vital opposition or a mute, neutered pablum of a party who simply sat back and watched the Liberals self-destruct?

It was the latter.

The latest figures indicate that the earth is warmer (climate) than it has been in 11,000 years.  The threat of climate change is no longer a threat – it is now underway.  And it seems to be underway at a quicker rate than even the most pessimistic forecaster predicted even five years ago.  Yesterday, March 10th, I got too much sun working outside for about four hours.  Got a sunburn.  March.  In Canada.  Who woulda thunk it?

I got more.  I got tons more.  I am a veritable cornucopia of political and universal opinion.  My biases runneth over.  But that should be enough.  That should satisfy my reader friend.  For a while, anyway.  To the rest of you, my sincere apologies.

Now, on to a quick local update……………

Pod of Orcas yesterday.  Five or six of them.  Heading north.  A red-headed Woodpecker of immense size (well over a foot long) on the rotten tree out the kitchen window.  Gorgeous.  Prawns seems to have left the building……..no one is catching any.  Weird.  Now is their time.  Sump’n’s wrong.  Sal and I got all our lumber for the new studio (frame) in and up the hill.  And, in one more afternoon, we’ll have all our logs up the hill, too.  Should be all set for choppin’ and stackin’ for year three’s heating supply.  It is good to get your wood supply in that far in advance – and then keep it there.  Means you burn dry wood.

And I can start on the studio soon.  Things are lookin’ up.

Sal’s putting in the garden.  Things are already starting to grow.  March in Canada?  By July we may get avocados and pineapple if we plant ’em in now.  Who knows?

State of the union?  Mixed with occasional rain, cloud and sunny periods. Maybe sleet.  Maybe not.  Winds gusting and shifting from all points of the compass, possible volcanoes and earthquakes.  Tsunami warnings.  BC Ferries are stuck in MarineSec One but we are at DefCon 2, confused and wondering.

Be careful out there, anything can happen.