Day: August 30, 2006

“Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

While my neighbors—indeed, almost all of contemporary culture—may bitch and moan and rage against nature, I take comfort in the beauty of the humble dandelion.

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Weeds are mostly in the eye (and heart) of the beholder. Let me submit for your consideration the lowly dandelion. Was there ever a more beautiful yellow, a more deliciously luscious green? What a feast for the eyes!

And yet, our culture considers the dandelion to be a pest plant; not merely useless, but something to be eradicated. *sigh* Useless? Every part (excepting the seed puffball) of the dandelion is edible. The greens cleaned and steamed or boiled are not only tasty but highly nutritious. The root, after cleaning, peeling and then blanching, boiling or roasting is also highly nutritious and useful in many ways. And even the yellow bloom is nutritious and a treat for both the eye and the tastebuds in salads.

And what can I say of dandelion wine?

🙂

And, as much as our society spends to eradicate this nutritious food and lovely flowering plant, it thrives in spite of all the poisons thown its way. And have you ever attempted to pull a dandelion to get rid of the “weed”? Unless you get every last piece of the root, it’s more than likely to simply grow back.

Lilies of the field? Nah.

“Consider the dandelions how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

No matter how our society’s warped values may deem the dandelion to be an obnoxious weed, children who are as yet unpolluted by the depraved value system that would deem such a radiently bold and beautiful flower a weed, bring their mothers glad bouquets of dandelions every spring.

A tip o’ the hat to the Maniyak, who adroitly states the opposing view. 🙂

(The long time reader–all one of you–of twc will recognize this as a retread of a twc@blogspot post from May of 2005.)

Justa few quick hits.

Lisa has the Carnival of the Vanities up at Lil Duck Duck. Drop by and leave a note saying, “You’re so vain… ” eh? 🙂

Dead Guy on the Sidebar‘s a new blog run by Lady Diane. Seems “Dead Guy” was taking over at Diane’s Stuff and needed a home of its own. Drop by and play a round for me, wouldya? You might just win a crown. I’m currently in the running for the “Dead Guy in the Sidebar” dunce cap, since I royally suck at the game. 😉

Interesting article, Pope Prepares to Embrace Theory of Intelligent Design. Strangely, coming from The Guardian, it’s a rather even-handed article. MQ:

The Pope also raised the issue in the inaugural sermon of his pontificate, saying: “We are not the accidental product, without meaning, of evolution.”

Maybe this will bring back my fav troll (whose comments are now always blocked, because he resolutely fails to either make an argument or provide a real email address) to foolishly rant about “Intelligent design does too equal creationism.”

*yawn*

Christopher Hitchens: “Plame Out”—slamming the lid on the stinking corpse of Plame-Wilson lies.

Rick (The Real Ugly American) points to what is probably the definitive piece on the Qana “massacre” written by Bernice Lipkin, Just read it.

Well, I said it was a few quick hits. Maybe more later, but given the day facing me, probably not. L8R.

On the BB at TMH’s Bacon Bits and Adam’s Blog and Stuck On Stupid.

This is an Open Trackbacks Alliance post. Link to this post and track back AFTER reading the Fair Tax post below, please. I’d not ask so strongly, but your children and grandchildren will have cause to bless or curse you for the attention you give (or do not) to this issue.

More on linkfests below the post.

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Debtors’ Prison [Click image for larger view]

By now it should be no surprise to folks who read here regularly that I score somewhere between Ayn Rand and Neal Boortz (and other contemporary self-proclaimed libertarians) in viewing government as a necessary evil, as charted on The Pournelle Political Axis. Today’s Fair Tax blogburst post by Julie of Degree of Madness demonstrates an unecessary evil perpetrated by bad tax policy… bad tax policy and unecessary evil that would be a thing of the past under the Fair tax.

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Follow-up on last week’s Blogburst about the outside collection agencies the IRS is employing to collect delinquent taxes.

On August 23, this was the headline: IRS Warns Against Phony Debt Collectors.

The IRS warned taxpayers Wednesday not to be duped by scammers posing as private debt collectors the agency has hired to chase unpaid tax debts.

The program isn’t even in place yet and concerns are already being raised, and not just by this Blogburst writer.

The Internal Revenue Service designed the debt collection program to minimize that risk “because we know what it’s like out there with regard to identity theft nowadays,” said Brady Bennett, IRS Director of Collections.

The IRS designed the program to minimize the risk. Well that’s comforting. The IRS is looking out for you.

And this article addresses something I wasn’t sure about and that is whether the private collection agencies would have access to social security numbers. They will.

The IRS plans to give the collection agencies basic identifying and account information about the chosen taxpayers, including their names, addresses and Social Security numbers. The agencies do not have access to tax returns.

Also from the article:

Continue reading “Fair Tax”