I surveyed the backyard plot Sunday afternoon. All was fine. The lettuce was a foot high. The cabbage were starting to develop heads. The beans were growing like crazy. I weeded for a bit and moved on to laundry, the bane of my weekend.

When I returned later in the evening, something had run amok in my garden. The lettuce had been stomped and devoured. The cabbages were missing their leaves. So were the beans. I found a hoof print in the soft dirt.

Which brings me to Monday night and a venture to a local home improvement superstore. Needless to say, the store does not stock coyote urine (which is supposed to deter the deer and other problem animals, including armadillos and javelinas - don’t think I have any of those in my backyard). The fellows working at the store got a good laugh out of my request. So I settled for some organic deer-be-gone spray that smells like mint and rotten eggs and a roll of deer netting which I wrapped around the outside of the garden. I’m not sure this is going to work, but I refuse to do nothing while Bambi has a feast at my expense.

How about you? Is anyone else gardening as a hedge against high food prices or simply for the challenge of it? Have any good deer remedies?

In my circle of friends, most folks are preoccupied with gas prices or figuring out what to do with the kids now that school’s out. Not very exciting topics. What about you? Got something to share. Feel free to do so here, and I’ll try to think of a more interesting topic later today.

I understand the need for discipline, but we don’t send our kids off to school to be plugged into the hive mind. They are there to be taught critical thinking skills - skills they will need to be successful, contributing members of society as adults. What could have been a teachable moment has been turned into something else, an attempt at censorship for one.

What do you think? Did administrators make the right call? Are they overreacting to typical youthful behavior? Is there ever any justification for censoring a newspaper in a school setting?

This is your chance to pose a question to the candidates. What do you want them to answer? Offer your suggestions here and we’ll ask them.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports:

Roughly 60 Virginia religious leaders and scholars have asked Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to oppose Dominion Virginia Power’s plans for a coal-burning power plant in Wise County.

“We do not want our energy to come from these immoral and destructive practices,” the authors wrote.

The Times-Dispatch article captures the thrust of the religious argument against the plant - namely that it violates the Judeo-Christian belief that we are stewards of creation:

Rabbi Ben Romer of Congregation Or Ami in Richmond said people have a moral and ethical responsibility to be good stewards of the Earth. Romer, a West Virginia native, said one only had to drive through that state to witness the destruction caused by mining.

People can find solutions to the problems facing the Earth, but they may not necessarily be the cheapest solutions, Romer said. The authors of the letter to Kaine said cleaner air and water would result by filling the demand for energy through conservation, efficiency and clean energy sources such as wind, solar and sustainable biomass fuels.

Read the full text of the letter here.

Christians believe that faith can move mountains. Perhaps it can save them as well.

You can read the entire story by Michael Owens and Kathy Still here.

Did the school and prosecutors (who went to court to take Barber’s gun permit) make the right call? Where is the line between sensible precautions and punishing thought or speech? As a society, we’ve crossed that line in the past (some of the post 9/11 terrorist scares and the public school zero tolerance policies adopted after the Columbine killings come to mind).

Where would you draw the line?

Meanwhile, House GOP Caucus Chairman Terry Kilgore, who was championing a decent reform bill, has indicated the House will drop its five-loan-per-year limit. That’s not a positive development either. That was the provision of the House bill that had the most potential to actually help the lower-income “customers” who are most likely to fall into an inescapable cycle of debt.

Photo of payday lending protest in Abingdon by David Crigger.

The Associated Press article gives a hint at the real motivation to scuttle compromise (at least on Saslaw’s part). It’s all about the money:

Payday lenders contributed about $310,000 to legislators in 2007, including $27,000 to Saslaw, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, an independent, nonprofit tracker of money in state politics.

I’ve differed with Terry Kilgore in print on other issues, but on the matter of payday loans, he’s been on the side of the angels. He should use his considerable clout to keep the loan limits in place. Absent a true interest rate cap (without all the additional fees tacked on), the limit is the best way to protect people from an industry that profits from the despair of others. Hang tough, Terry. Don’t compromise on this matter.

The group is asking Virginia residents who feel strongly about this matter to contact Delegate Terrie Suit, R-Virginia Beach. She is chairwoman of the General Laws Committee and seems to be the person with the most power to bring this to a vote before the end of the session.

If you are so inclined, you can e-mail Delegate Suit at deltsuit@house.state.va.us and let her know that you support a restaurant smoking ban.

The restaurant group also is suggesting that House leaders receive similar e-mails. You can contact Speaker of the House William Howell at delwhowell@house.state.va.us or House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith at delmgriffith@house.state.va.us or House Republican Caucus Chairman Terry Kilgore at deltkilgore@house.state.va.us.

The Senate passed a restaurant smoking ban. The least the House can do is put it to a full vote.

I am not passing judgment on this mine or others like it, but even proponents cannot claim that they are not making unalterable changes to creation. In the past, proponents have argued that strip-mined land can be put to beneficial use in a region with too little flat land for development. But how many golf courses and strip malls does Southwest Virginia need.

If this practice accelerates, it will change the landscape permanently. I’m not certain the change will be for the better. Some people will become very wealthy, but will the community as a whole benefit? 

Here are some of the details that I found most interesting.

1) Huckabee made a point of noting that the other candidates have ignored this region, but that he would not. “This election will be won or lost in places that others have forgotten,” he said.

2) On the economy, Huckabee struck a populist chord, noting that he wanted to be the candidate not of Wall Street Republicans, but “Wal-Mart Republicans.”

3) On his experience in Arkansas, Huckabee talked about his effort to reform schools. When he took office, the state ranked 49th in education. Now, it ranks 8th. Tennessee (which still remains near the bottom educationally) should take note.

4) On the military, he pledged not to commit troops without a clearly defined mission and the force necessary to do the job. This registered as somewhat of a slap at the management of the Iraq war, although Huckabee does not support the isolationist strategies of some other candidates.

All in all, it was pretty interesting.