The little sunflower that could

I discovered this little guy a few weeks ago growing among the tentacles of the Godzilla geranium.

I have no idea how it got there, though I might have thrown a few excess seeds around after I planted some in indoor pots. A friend has suggested a bird could have dropped it. It is a little more than 2 feet tall while the ones I started in pots are almost 8 feet now. This one had to have started from a seed outdoors some time later than the ones indoors. Incidentally that geranium is more than five years old. I can't remember the first year I put it in, but it comes indoors every winter and it dies and then starts up again.

According to Dee Brown in his book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," when the Native Americans of the northern Great Plains first encountered white men they used to word "wasichu" to describe them. This at the time became the literal translation. However years later when the first Lakota saw the Atlantic Ocean they used the same word, "wasichu." At that time it became clear that the word did not mean white men, it meant something without end, something ongoing.

Now Native Americans are  protesting a pipeline planned to go through their reservation. Mind you these are people attempting to protect their own land and peacefully at that. Will we never stop killing, stealing land, breaking treaties with the people whose land this was before we got here? Is that part of "wasichu" as well? Somewhere this has to stop. (Note: an earlier version of this post reported the governor of North Dakota had give a shoot-to-kill order. That is not true.

September 1 and not a hint of termination dust on the mountains. We often see it as early as mid August.

People lined up overnight waitng for the first Krisp Kreme in Alaska to open. Are you kidding? No. Alaska Dispatch News photo and story.

John Dingell, in under 140 characters, says what all thinking Americans are feeling today:

 

John DingellVerified account‏@JohnDingell

My most sincere thoughts, prayers, and apologies to the people of Mexico today.

Drops mic ...

Why would anybody start a month's jury duty on Friday before a three-day weekend?