Domestic Policy

I think I've found a law enforcement theme. It's the chickenhawk dream - they're having a war on people who don't shoot back.

Today they're going after internet pirates.

Last week, thanks to the recent Supreme Court ruling, the feds raided medical marijuana suppliers. Regular pot smokers aren't slow enough - they have to go after sick pot smokers. I guess the meth addicts run too fast.

Now that the neo cons have stamped out terrorism, the Attorney General has decided to make fighting pornography a priority. I feel safer already, but Paul Reubens had better move to Canada.

Here's an idea

Let's see how Justice Souter likes the implications of his ruling on property rights.

Why not do this for everyone who likes taking away private property the benefit of those who have too much already. A new business opportunity

Happy Monday

Check out Democratic Underground for the weeks top 10 conservative idiots.

And then take the quiz

Here's the phrag last week with one flower and a gigglepuss for scale. There's an unlabeled miltonopsis and a begonia next to it.  

Friday orchid blogging. This is an unlabeled phragmipedium I bought several years ago. It hadn't done much until I found out it needs lots of water, hardly any fertilizer, and lots of sun. 

Now I'm just disgusted

Well, I've been disgusted with politicians since the Nixon administration, but it just gets worse every day.

It's very plain from the 9/11 hearings that the Bush administration had plenty of warning of the attacks and they just didn't do anything. I personally put it down to laziness, not any great plot between the Bush family and the Saudis. Or maybe his Saudi buddies said they had the situation under control.

But really, after Condoleeza Rice's appearance at the 9/11 hearings where she admitted the President had a briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack inside the United States" I've been expecting the news any day that they got a telegram a week before telling them that they'll hit the Pentagon and World Trade Center at 9:00 am Sept 11 and they'll be flying from Logan.

This editorial by Siebel Edmonds is just about that detailed.

Let me just remind everyone that the y2k problems and the Millenium bombing plot failed because there was someone leading the country who paid attention and listened to people who warned him of problems. Everyone did their jobs and everything worked. The bad guys are in jail and weren't allowed to attack us.

Apparently the only priority now is to make sure no one can retire so that Walmart will have an unending supply of greeters.

Silly General

Silly General, Young Republican Conventions aren't where young Republicans demonstrate their patriotism, they're for hooking up with disgusting lecherous old Congressmen

Go see this movie

I took my daughter to see Howl's Moving Castle today. It's not playing at a lot of theaters but it might be the best movie out right now. It's by Hayao Miyazaki, who created Spirited Away.

The animation is amazing and the dubbing is very good. It's the story of a girl who is turned into an old woman who takes refuge in a wizard's moving castle. He fights evil wizards during a war and of course it's a love story. It may be too intense for very small children, my daughter's 8 and she was scared at one point. She really loved the movie in spite of that.

You've got to see it in a theater. Waiting for video would be ok, but it's impressive on the big screen.

See the trailer here

This is a nice unlabeled phalanopsis I got for $8.00 as a left over at a garden center. It had totally finished blooming so it was a nice surprise that it had purple spots. I had no idea what it would look like.