Parental responsibilities and authority have well understood boundaries even though no formal written contract exists between parent and child. It is wholly non-controversial that any parent exceeding such boundaries should have their authority curtailed if not entirely rescinded. It is then a rather curious circumstance that when government, whose duties and authorities are clearly articulated in written forms (constitutions, charters, etc.), exceeds its legitimate authority it is considered nearly an act of treason to merely point out that its actions fall outside the scope of its authority.
Representative democracy (e.g. a republican form of government) is relatively insensitive to the will of the people insofar as the representatives are not obligated to act in every circumstance as would the people. This can be beneficial in tempering a mob mentality toward governance (tyranny of the majority), however that benefit can easily become a liability when rent-seeking special interests co-opt and corrupt the system (tyranny of the minority).

I admit it.  I’m chemically dependent; I can’t imagine life without sodium bicarbonate– in layman’s terms, baking soda, or soda, for these purposes. As of late, soda is basking in a Heloise comeback. Internet and magazine articles site its economical widespread benefits as often as they use the word eco-friendly, with good reason. It’s an all-in-one, magic-miracle, powder used in health, home, cooking, pest control, and cleaning applications; a product that will save you money, a lot of money, when you look at all the products it replaces. 
I requested my hairstylist treat my hair for product build-up. She put a dollop of clarifying shampoo in her hand and retreated to the backroom to add a little baking soda to it. Sure enough, my hair shines like a 2013 copper penny; if need be, I use it as a dry shampoo. A good dusting freshens our little Biscuit dog, as well as the carpet she rolls around on playing with her hedgehog. I use it religiously on grease spotted fabrics. Before treating the fabric with spot remover, I generously dust the spot with baking soda, let it sit to absorb the oil, vacuum off, and continue treatment. The same treatment can be used for pet mishaps. These few examples are but powder particles in the endless list of soda uses. Let’s take a look at a day in the life of HCO3 dependency.

Well good grief, here it is March already. As I drove through Madison I saw forsythia in full bloom, flowering almond trees nearly finished, and daffodils in total glory. But why am I so surprised; the weather has been going through four different seasons in the same month. While all of these early bloomers are presenting themselves and we are getting excited about putting out our seeds and seedlings, let’s take time to enjoy what nature is giving us at its natural time.

Lenten roses– yes, they tend to tuck their pretty flower heads under the leaves but they don’t need to shout their names to be winners in your garden. Drought resistance, deer-resistant, and evergreen, what else do they need to do to be part of your shade garden. And they can even take a good amount of sun if you keep them watered. The species don’t need to be touted any more than that, but let me tell you about some of the new cultivars that are strutting their stuff: the Gold Series. Wow… they have big, beautiful flowers that actually hold themselves up above the leaves, and they come in different colors. And if you don’t have a daphne odora you need to get one. This incredibly fragrant plant has a reputation of being difficult to grow, but I know someone who has several bushes growing in near neglect and whacked back every spring, yet they produce flowers that you can smell from yards away. And I swear that I smelled a winter honeysuckle in the parking lot where the new Goodwill store is located.

Recently, I read an article about spiritual apathy. It was written by Abbot Christopher Jamison and was adapted from his book, Finding Happiness. Jamison made some thought provoking points about the disconnect between our actions and our motivations about our actions. He describes apathy as the eighth deadly sin. The following is his description of spiritual apathy.
“The Seven Deadly sins, pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust are derived from the Eight Thoughts of the monk John Cassian. Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century removed one vice, acedia, a Greek word which can be translated as spiritual apathy. When this word disappeared from ordinary people’s vocabulary, it deprived Western culture of the ability to name and important feature of the spiritual life, namely, loss of enthusiasm for the spiritual life itself.”

“The purpose of such lists, like the seven deadly sins or eight thoughts is to provide a framework within which people can develop self-awareness. Self-awareness is different from introspection. Introspection is only looking at me, whereas self-awareness involves considering how I act with the world around me. Self-awareness is paying attention to how I relate with people and things. It involves understanding how one’s outlook affects the way one sees the world and how it affects the world itself.”

The conclusion drawn here is that a lack of self-awareness leads to apathy, which is simply not caring. When we do not consider the condition of our core, or our soul, we become complacent and careless. When our words and actions match our belief system, we exhibit care for those around us in significant and life-changing ways. 
One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou. “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of hoopla surrounding a few instances of horseflesh being sold as beef in Europe.

While I agree that public deception is not acceptable in most cases, including this one, I don’t see what the big deal is with eating a little horse.

Or a big horse, depending on what is at your disposal.

It is an accepted scientific opinion that horsemeat was a normal source of protein during human development, after all.

Do we even consider why we recoil at the thought of eating meat from a horse when most of us don’t even blink before digging into a dish of chitlins or even opossum?
(Don’t even act like you’ve never had this stuff. If you’ve lived here your whole life, chances are you have, whether you know it or not.)

Take a minute to research the process by which the eating of horseflesh became taboo and you’ll find that the stigma associated with horseflesh finds its roots dug deep into the dark soil of economic stratification and papal decrees intended to prevent the pagan practice of ritual consumption of horsemeat.

Purely culinary norms aren’t what prevents the use of horse in the kitchen; According to Viande Richelieu, a French meat retailer, horsemeat is “slightly sweet, tender and low in fat.”  Instead, a papal campaign from the 700s restricts what could otherwise be a large economic market.

When was the last time you stood beside a horse? Those suckers are big – you could get a lot of meat from just one of them!

Sure, you aren’t going to butcher your kid’s pet horse, but what about the rest of them?

Last week, we crossed the halfway mark for the legislative session.  The pace is really picking up, with the second half promising to be very intense.  The House voted on 22 bills and resolutions during the week.  Most were fairly minor issues or housekeeping measures, though we did pass two bills to restructure MARTA, which were obviously significant for folks inside the perimeter.