A Dash of Marigold

The LipsYard Garden is in full bloom. Today's featured flower is found along the front edge in several places.

Marigold (Tagetes) is found throughout North and South America. The foliage has a musky/pungent scent that repels some common insect pests.

The common name, "marigold", is derived from "Mary's Gold", and the plant is associated with the Virgin Mary in Christian stories. The marigold was regarded as the flower of the dead in pre-Hispanic Mexico, parallel to the lily in Europe, and is still widely used in the Day of the Dead celebrations.

Speaking of dead, President George W. Bush told reporters that he will be long gone before anyone makes a full assessment of his legacy. "I'll be dead when they finally figure it out. There's no such thing as short-term history, so I am very confident in telling you that I'll be long gone before somebody finally figures out the true merit and meaning of the Bush administration.''

Jane Mayer, a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of a new book -- The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals -- believes she already has sorted it out. "Seven years after al-Qaeda's attacks on America, as the Bush administration slips into history, it is clear that what began on September 11, 2001, as a battle for America's security became, and continues to be, a battle for the country's soul,''

"In looking back,'' Mayer writes, "one of the most remarkable features of this struggle is that almost from the start, and at almost every turn along the way, the Bush administration was warned that whatever the short-term benefits of its extralegal approach to fighting terrorism, it would have tragically destructive long-term consequences both for the rule of law and America's interests in the world.''

"The Bush administration invoked the fear flowing from the attacks on September 11 to institute a policy of deliberate cruelty that would have been unthinkable on September 10. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and a small handful of trusted advisers sought and obtained dubious legal opinions enabling them to circumvent American laws and traditions. In the name of protecting national security, the executive branch sanctioned coerced confessions, extrajudicial detention, and other violations of individuals' liberties that had been prohibited since the country's founding...

...When warned that these policies were unlawful and counterproductive, they ignored the experts and made decisions outside of ordinary bureaucratic channels, and often outside of the public's view. Rather than risking the possibility of congressional opposition, they classified vital interpretations of law as top secret.''

Mayer quotes Philip Zelikow, executive director of the 9/11 Commission that examined the attacks, and found another withering assessment. "The Bush administration's descent into torture will be seen as akin to Roosevelt's internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. It happened in much the same way, for many of the same reasons. Fear and anxiety were exploited by zealots and fools."