Guest Plant Week: Rex's Chestnut Tree

It's Guest Plant Week, and today we look to the West, at neighbor Rex's Hhorsechestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastamon) in full bloom

The blossoms are a good 12 inches long, and are a beautiful mix of white, yellow, and fuscia. They'll give way to glossy brown nuts that make a nice table decoration, but not for human consumption, as they are toxic. Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) which love to eat the nuts, are not effected by the poison.


As we head off of LipsYard property for the week, how interesting that we find out that the United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in the war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.

Information about the operation of prison ships has emerged through a number of sources, including statements from the US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners.

The human rights organization Reprieve, claims the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations.

We're not just talking a couple dozen prisoners. By our own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001.

Yet another nasty stain on the world's impression of us brought on by the Bush Administration. It's going to take lots of "washing' to get them all out.