THE GENTLEMAN'S "C"

DYER'S GOLDENROD

HUGE PATCH OF LARGE LEAVED ASTER...

...PANICLE OF FLOWERS...

...LARGE BASAL LEAVES

Saturday, 9:00 AM.  Wind N, very light.  The sky is clear except for a few scattered white clouds but it is quite hazy.  The humidity is still high at 86% and the barometer is still dropping, to 29.07".  It is a nice day, but it will get pretty warm.

   I usually pass on identifying most goldenrods, but I will call this one dyer's goldenrod, Solidago nemoralis,  determined by its very tight, upright panicle of flowers.  Now, this goldenrod brings up the memory of Professor Peter Solomon, an authority on the genus Solidago, who might say that I  have missed a varietal characteristic or something.  So, pardon me if I am wrong, Professor Solomon, wherever you may be.  I know I wasn't your star student in Advanced Plant Taxonomy,  but I sure deserved better  than  that Gentleman's C you gave me.

   I  posted photos of the big leaf aster, Aster macrophyllus, earlier, but this patch off of Hwy K going down to the gun range is so spectacular I couldn't pass it by.  There must be an acre of them, dominating an area that was logged a year of two ago.  Note the large basal leaves, which give the plant its latin species name.

   I haven't said much about the President's plan to attack Syria for its use of chemical weapons.  He proposes lobbing a few cruise missiles at some ill defined targets and calling it a day.
   Although not a war hawk by any means, I would normally support some sort of military action if it had a defined strategic purpose, which this idea does not.  I deem it  a "feel good" action to compensate for our inaction when we could have done something that made sense.

   We gave up all our bargaining chips when we left Iraq in haste and defeat, when we could have stayed there a winner and kept the very real threat of a hundred thousand crack troops a few miles across the borders of both Syria and Iran.  The only sensible course of action now is to gear up militarily and politically for the next crisis, undoubtedly with Iran itself rather than with its client state.    
    President Obama and his administration squandered  our overwhelming tactical and strategic advantage  by leaving Iraq with our tail between our legs, as the President "led from behind."  Let's call that kind of leadership for what it is, a retreat. The President doesn't even deserve a Gentleman's C.