Which seeds will you sow?

Another great day outside! A little warmer than yesterday, and it felt great. As promised, here are a few garden pictures.

This is the bed where I planted tomatoes and peppers. I could cram a lot more in there, but I only bought eight of each. They didn't have jalapeno plants, if you can believe that, so I got four serrano and four sweet banana peppers. I'll start seeds next year, and do some bell pepper varieties. Ken doesn't like them, but I'll happily eat them all!

On the right is the bed where I planted pole beans (foreground), yellow and green zucchini (in the middle), and cucumbers (at the far end). Do you like the trellises I made? I'll need to get some more bamboo stakes so I can make more next year. Notice the fence around the garden--I call it Stalag 13. It's eight feet high, with two feet underground. If we didn't have an eight foot high fence, the deer would be able to jump it. We still get voles burrowing underneath, but it seems to keep out the larger critters. Except for one occasion when I ambled out to the garden, tra-la tra-la, opened the gate, and saw one very fat Groundy freeze and look at me, then run frantically back and forth along the fence until he found a way out. I said, "How did you get in here?!" (He didn't answer.) We put some additional fencing along the bottom after that--he must have squeezed his fat self through one of the larger openings in the wire. Oh, and a turkey flew in there once, but was able to fly out eventually. The greater danger is slugs (ugh) or the Dreaded Verticillium Wilt. I loved getting out and planting today! It made me feel really ambitious for next year. There are four other beds like the two pictured here, so we've got plenty of room to put in a veritable cornucopia of goodies!

We have a baby plum! In fact, we have two. We planted three fruit trees a couple of years ago, and we were excited to see a couple of plums on one of them. We haven't sprayed or anything, so I don't know if we'll be able to harvest our incredible bounty (one for Ken, one for me) this year. I'll have to get a picture of the apple tree out front (which we also don't spray, although we might change that next year), where the bees have obviously been very busy. It is bursting with apples, and the deer will be quite happy this fall!

Warning: Serious talk ahead

My buddy Milwaukee Dan #1 posted a New York Times op-ed piece by Frank Rich on Facebook yesterday, and the piece perfectly articulated my recent unease with some of the things I've been reading and hearing, and my dismay at the shooting deaths around the country lately. Another buddy, Bob, wrote a great entry about the piece, and I encourage you to read both.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and entitled to voice that opinion. That should not and cannot be denied to any one of us. I'm afraid we've crossed a line, though. The line between civil disagreement and flat-out hatred. We all have the right to speak out and disagree with anyone, but we do not have the right to incite a riot. The impression I'm getting lately from bloviators like Limbaugh or Beck or O'Reilly is that they would be quite pleased to see harm come to President Obama. No, they do not come out and say "This guy needs to be killed," but their failure to tell their faithful legion to take it down a notch constitutes as implicit approval for whatever anyone might take upon themselves to do. There are unstable people out there, like the shooter at the Holocaust Museum, and the vitriol that spews from talking heads only fuels their instability and internal fire...and sometimes they explode.

Just this weekend, a Republican activist in South Carolina posted a "funny" little thing on his Facebook page about a gorilla who escaped from a zoo: "I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors--probably harmless." How is that funny? Not only is it offensive and racist, it's idiotic, because he obviously doesn't understand how evolution works. (Here's a clue, douchebag: it's not a direct line of descent. It's a matter of a common ancestor, with a genetic shift among populations. Of course, he probably doesn't believe in evolution, so I'm wasting my time.)

I'm sure there were plenty of extreme left-wing talking heads calling for Bush's head, but I honestly don't remember it being anywhere as bad as this. The op-ed piece mentioned the angry cries at McCain/Palin rallies last year, and I'm glad, because that is what the latest hatefulness reminds me of. People yelling "Terrorist! Traitor!" when Obama was mentioned...and several times, "Kill him!" I was appalled at the time and said that it needed to stop. At one memorable meeting, Senator McCain stepped up and actually defended Obama, correcting an audience member in her criticisms of Obama the "Arab." Who has the courage to speak up now and say that this has to stop? There are a few (the piece mentions Shepard Smith), but why isn't the majority of reasonable people crying for a halt to such venomous talk?

I have great faith in the ability of our Secret Service to protect our President and his family. But they shouldn't have to work quite this hard. Look at it this way: the guard at the Holocaust Museum was killed in the performance of his duties. He was protecting the people in the museum, and he died because he took that very seriously. When a nutjob who hated Jews came into the museum, this brave guard stepped up to stop him and died because he did so. That is one man. There are hundreds of Secret Service agents who are willing to give their lives to protect the President. Do the would-be killers of the President care about collateral damage? I doubt it. Why egg them on?

So why do talk show hosts and writers continue to up the level of hatred? Do they not understand that there are people out there who are at the tipping point? Even silence can be inferred as encouragement for some of these unstable people. I continue to read things in Blogtropolis that astonish me in their intense hatred of Obama. I'm still reading bullshit about how his birth certificate is false (the shooter at the Holocaust Museum was a birfer, in fact), the continued mishmash of ideologies (Is he a socialist? a fascist? an Arab? a Muslim? What?), and even worse bullshit that speculates that he's the Antichrist. For God's sake, people, get a grip. If you don't like his policies or politics, fine. Vote against him in the next election, and maybe you'll be a part of voting him out of a second term. That's how we do it here!

But please, please stop this insane, irrational hatred of the man and/or his wife. You can make your voice heard in local, state, and national elections. You can write to your legislators. You can even write your opinion on your blog. (But be logical, 'kay? "I don't like him cuz he's stoopid" is not a valid argument.) Since when did violence and an armed revolution become a viable alternative to rational discourse and casting your vote at your polling place? Does anyone really want to see rioting here like we're seeing in Iran right now? Political activism does not and should not mean the endorsement of violence, hatred, or killing, and sometimes an endorsement doesn't have to be spoken. Actions usually speak louder than words. Effecting civic change does not have to come by way of the loss of civility. Sowing the seeds of hatred by your words and deeds will only result in further discord and hate, and more violence and bloodshed.

I ask again: Which seeds will you sow?

The conscience of a nation

Plenty of hubbub (bub) this week over the release of the torture memos and the involvement of Cheney (no surprise) and Rice (I'm so disappointed, Condi) in the condoning of torture techniques.

I'm reading everything from how President Obama will eventually be prosecuted for the attacks that are now inevitable, to the GOP stating that our nation is less safe under his leadership.

Did I miss something? Were we attacked somewhere in the past 100 days or so, and I didn't catch the coverage? I can't predict the future. I don't know what will happen in the next few years. Is it possible that we might be attacked again? Yes. Is it inevitable? No. Why do so many around the world hate us so? Maybe it has something to do with the policies of the past eight years, our rampant disregard for international diplomacy, our belligerent posturing that looks as if we are nothing more than the bully of the international schoolyard, and our ready willingness to use torture on those we've kept incarcerated for years...although they've never been charged with any crime.

Maybe? Do you think?

I'll apologize ahead of time, because I'm in full outrage mode, and pardon me, but my sarcasm is showing. But you know what? I'm not really sorry for what I write here, because I mourn what we have lost in our condoning of such techniques. Some believe that we are safe and have had no more terrorist attacks because of "harsh interrogation tactics" (AKA torture). I'm cool with gathering intelligence, and interrogation of prisoners, but from everything I've read, torture does not work. At some point, you hear what the prisoner thinks you want to hear, and then you've got false intelligence. Even John McCain, who was subjected to five years of torture as a prisoner of war, says unequivocally that we are the United States of America and we do not torture.

Does anyone seriously think that someone being tortured, who hasn't broken and divulged information after, say...150 times...is going to finally spill on the 151st torture session? That's insanity, and everything I've read states that it is ineffective and counterproductive to continue such tactics.

Imagine a scenario, if you will. Someone in a position of authority takes you into custody, because there is something about you that they find suspicious. You are not charged with a crime, but you are thrown into prison and you are subjected to things like being stripped of your clothing and paraded down the hall of your prison; you are not allowed to sleep for days on end; the Bible that you had in your possession is spat upon and stepped upon. You are kept this way for years. No charge. No trial. No one to take your case or to be your advocate, and no hope of being released soon.

How would you feel about that? And how would you feel about the country that did that to you?

We have done ourselves no favors with our shameful behavior when it comes to this. I don't believe that we obtained any information that resulted in stopping possible attacks, and I don't believe that this national shame has kept our country safer. On the contrary, I believe it has resulted in the sort of hatred and contempt that could fuel further attacks, and it will be years before we can regain our status as a "beacon of hope," or a country that others wish to emulate. Do you really want to be like the bully that terrorizes everyone and beats them up because of some perceived slight?

History will show that this was a policy in our country that will be a source of shame for years to come. I love my country, but I am appalled at what took place during this time. We are better than this.

WE DO NOT TORTURE.

I'll leave it to a Fox News reporter to say it. You heard me right.