Two species of Monarda

   

On May 5th in Bastrop State Park two species of Monarda flourished. The top picture, taken not far inside the park’s entrance, shows the same horsemints we have in Austin, Monarda citriodora. The yellow flowers are Texas dandelions, Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus, and toward the right you see a couple of Texas thistle “powder puffs,” Cirsium texanum. Within sight of that colony I found a group of what appeared to be spotted beebalm, Monarda punctata, with plenty of black-eyed Susans, Rudbeckia hirta, intermingled.

 

 

 

 

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It’s not just the United States that’s going mad

 

To protect children from sexual exploitation, Canada must pass the Online Harms Act, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government. “I am the parent of two young boys,” said Justice Minister Arif Virani. “I will do whatever I can to ensure their digital world is as safe as the neighborhood we live in. Children are vulnerable online. They need to be protected from online sexual exploitation, hate, and cyberbullying.”

But Virani’s bill is totally unnecessary to protect children. Its real goal is to allow judges to sentence adults to prison for life for things they’ve said and for up to a year for crimes they haven’t committed but that the government fears they might commit in the future.

As such, Trudeau and Virani’s Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) is the most shocking of all the totalitarian, illiberal, and anti-Enlightenment pieces of legislation that have been introduced in the Western world in decades.

The Liberal government’s censorship legislation, when considered in the context of Trudeau’s sweeping abuse of governmental powers during and after the Covid pandemic and new subsidies for government propaganda, sets a new watermark in rising totalitarianism in Western societies.

 

You can read the rest of Stephen Moore’s alarming article. You can also watch a 12-minute video put out by the Canadian Constitution Foundation on the same subject.

 

 

© 2024 Steven Schwartzman