Waterboarding

Angry passer-by pushes
would-be suicide off bridge
for selfishly tying up traffic.

You have probably heard by now that a right-wing Chicago radio personality, who did not believe waterboarding was torture, volunteered to prove it wasn’t by offering himself as a victim. He lasted between six and seven seconds, came out swearing it was torture and that he would confess to anything rather than experience it. Dick Cheney and his daughter continue to maintain that waterboarding is not torture. They (and anyone else who still believes it is not torture) can easily prove their contention by volunteering themselves. Do you suppose they could sue the lawyer(s) who told them it wasn’t torture for malpractice or something? Cheney must be getting more frightened by the day. But not to worry, his buddy, Obama, will look out for him and all the rest of the war criminals (have to look forward, you know).

It is no secret that Republicans want Obama’s economic plan to fail. They are also wishing for a terrorist attack on Obama’s watch so he can be blamed for it. Can this really be considered just politics as usual. I mean, after all, they want our nation to both be attacked by terrorists and also fail. Would this not be better and more accurately described as treason? And not only are they wishing these things, they are doing everything they can to bring these things about. How else does one explain their consistent and unanimous “no” to everything Obama tries to do to save our country.

I do not understand greed, at least in its extreme form. How, for example, could anyone not want people to have universal health care? And how could the same people not want everyone to have a decent job? They also seem to be opposed to welfare in any form, and do not want to pay their taxes even though they depend upon government for services. They want more and more tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals, including doing away with the inheritance tax, this, in spite of the fact that many of them already have far more money than they can possibly ever spend. These people are collectively known as Republicans, and they have been like this as long as I can remember. They laughingly passed themselves off as “compassionate conservatives,” an oxymoron if ever there was one.

It is planting season here at Sandhill. I have been working so hard in the garden I am so tired I can barely think of writing a blog. We garden the old-fashioned way – we work at it. Our raised beds do not lend themselves to much in the way of machinery. We do have a Mantis tiller, the greatest machine I have ever owned of any kind. However, the ads you see for this marvelous machine are quite misleading as they show someone tilling soil that has obviously already been prepared. If there are weeds and grass the tiller doesn’t work very well. This means only one thing – you must resort to the Norwegian bulldozer to prepare the bed for tilling. And, as we literally live on a hill of sand, it has to be augmented yearly. Fortunately our good friends with the Highlands Cattle provide us with manure, which is great. But even manure has its problems. You would think that creatures with four stomachs would have better digestion. I have suggested a digestive of half a bucket of wine per beast per day, but this has fallen on deaf ears. Eventually things work out, and then you hope the weather does not betray you. The last couple of years have not been very kind. This year, so far, has been great (we knock on wood, pray to the Great Mystery, and try not to sin very much).

I kill an ant
and realize my three children
have been watching.

Kato, Shuson