Herb Week: Steeping Basil

In the back of the LipsYard Garden grows Basil (Ocimum basilicum.) There's this small leaf variety...

...and the more recognizable large leaf plant.

Basil leaves are used in soups, stews, pasta sauce, poultry and meat dishes; flavors for vinegar, and teas.

Much has been made of Republican Sarah Palin's participation in the Vice Presidential debate with Joe Biden, but NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman picked up on a particularly "taxing" point that had been steeping in his teapot for a few days.

Palin's Kind of Patriotism
Thomas L. Friedman

Criticizing Sarah Palin is truly shooting fish in a barrel. But given the huge attention she is getting, you can’t just ignore what she has to say. And there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw. It was when she turned to Biden and declared: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”

What an awful statement. Palin defended the government’s $700 billion rescue plan. She defended the surge in Iraq, where her own son is now serving. She defended sending more troops to Afghanistan. And yet, at the same time, she declared that Americans who pay their fair share of taxes to support all those government-led endeavors should not be considered patriotic.

I only wish she had been asked: “Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.

Read the rest of Friedman's piece HERE