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THE TITLE OF THIS ITEM TRANSLATES FROM THE AFRIKAANS AS "It's Monday ... so what is there to seriously write about?"

Which leaves Your Correspondent wondering how best to approach this point of the week in terms of weblog content which can be readably interesting for once.

Especially when the Minnwissippi saw some off-and-on snow(!!) this morning as was limited to solid surfaces such as car hoods and house roofs; the ground is a little too warm for any fresh accumulation, and said snow has, for the most part, melted. Not to mention the likelihood of milder weather making a serious return as the week progresseth.

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AS IF THE WET EARTH WASN'T WET ENOUGH TO DISRUPT THE FIELD WORK AMONG FARMERS AND PLANTERS, along comes word that some farmers are giving serious consideration to not planting corn or soybeans this year, in effect taking farmland out of production (and, in the right circumstances, entitling them to Federal payments for such ends).

Cited as reasons therefor are the high cost of diesel fuel (currently $4.27/gallon--$1.13/litre--in these parts), fertilisers and insecticides, the whole likely to translate into major losses once the crops come in.

Which is enough to leave such farmers wondering what kind of crops to plant instead, let alone collect subsidies for taking farmland out of production.

One I could think of is Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus), which, from what I read, is supposed to be more viable as a biofuel source than the cereal grains currently diverted; the Purdue University Centre for New Crops and Plants Products confirms as much.

Or, if there was a decent enough market for such, switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), itself proven by recent research as another viable biofuel source--and, like the aforementioned Jerusalem artichoke, more effective than cereal grains. (In case you need the details, see here, here, here, here, here, here and/or here.)

However, you have to wonder if existing biofuels production facilities as are designed to produce ethanol from purely cereal grains can be cost-efficently modified to produce such from Jerusalem artichokes and/or switchgrass in socioeconomically viable quantities.

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WHAT THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT WOULD SECRETLY CONSIDER AS "FAMILY VALUES:" Austrian prosecutors have laid charges against a 73-year-old man, by name of Josef Fritzl, found to have forcibly kept his daughter in the cellar of his house for 24 years, having issue of no less than seven children (an eighth died stillborn).

All of whom never saw the outside world all this time.

And it took a TV news bulletin (of all things!) to break the case; as the BBC elaborates:

The case came to light when the eldest of the children in the cellar, 19-year-old Kerstin, was seriously ill and had to be taken to hospital. 

A television appeal by medical staff for the patient's mother was seen by Elisabeth on a TV set in the cellar and she urged her father to let her go to hospital.

Police arrested Mr Fritzl shortly afterwards and took all the children into care.

"If you look at him today, you would hardly believe he was capable of doing these things. This man led a double life for 24 years," said Mr Polzer.

He said it was incredible that it had been kept secret for all that time.

Both the father and Elisabeth say no one else had access to the cellar, according to police, who are appealing to anyone with information about Mr Fritzl to contact them.

Asked why the captives had not tried to escape before, Mr Polzer said one had to consider the fact that the woman was small and weak and even the eldest boy, now 18, was "a small boy, a weak boy".

"You have to put yourself into the situation of these people," he said. "They led a completely different life to ours, they do not know what we know. These children were born into the jail, they knew nothing else."

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AND IF HIS FRAUDULENCY STILL THINKS THAT THE NEW ROUND OF SOCIOECONOMIC STIMULUS PAYMENTS WILL ACTUALLY STIMULATE CONSUMER SPENDING to the point of preventing clear and present danger of socioeconomic recession, perhaps it might have been better to have said payments loaded onto specially-issued gift cards from Wally World clearly labelled ISSUED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, not unlike certain sham cheques sold by anti-government elements a few years back in hopes of manipulating a major socioeconomic collapse.

The which Wally World would consider as just reward for Good and Loyal Service to His Fraudulency's Great Within. Targeting (and deliberately, no doubt) those in lower-income or otherwise socioeconomically-disadvantaged ZIP+4 codes which lack chequing accounts thanks to the banks' being all the more selective in the kind of customers they want.

Which brings up the idea of maybe having our Postal Service follow the lead of Royal Mail in Great Britain and issue to the "unbankable" a debit card as would be used to deposit welfare, Social Security and other social aid benefits, and would allow cash access through ATM's and local Post Offices (in the former instance, with ATM fees absorbed) ... not to mention use @ retail establishments displaying VISA or MasterCard logotypes.

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AND IF THERE ARE STILL THOSE WHO WANT THE LOWER CLASSES TO MAKE "WISE USE" OF THEIR MONEY THROUGH THRIFT as opposed to lotteries and alcohol, what would preclude their encouraging the establishment of mutual savings banks towards such ends?