The Shutdown Hits Home

Friends, in his own opinion, ProfessorRoush has done an exceptional job at Garden Musings,avoiding any mention of politics here over the now 3+ years Ive blogged.Only those who know my tendency to rant over seemingly minuteissues can fathom what a struggle that has been, but Im going to make an exception today.The dam has broken. The Rubicon has been crossed. The . oh, you know what I mean.

Last night, I was at a Riley County Extension Board meeting and the local horticultural agent reported that he and the ag agent had recently seen a new weed, Tragia sp. andhad visited the plantexperts at K-State toidentify it.Now, Tragia, also known as NoseBurn,is not new, since two species have been reported in Kansas, but its fairly rare and I hadnt seen it before either.In fact, its notdescribed at kswildflower.org, my go-to Kansas native plant site. So I pulled out my iPhone and went to plants.usda.gov/, where, to my surprise, I received the following message:

My Fellow Gardeners, that is way beyondabsolutely ridiculous.This is the ultimate evidence that the bureaucrats are playing games.Im in a fortunate place in my life, not old enough for social security or medicare, notdirectly dependent on thefederal government for income, and not planning any tripspresently to anational park.So Ive been personallyunaffected by the Shutdown and as long as themilitary and senior citizens get paid, I have enough of a libertarian streak that Im happy for a respite from government.I was a little aggravated yesterday over the news of closing of the WWII memorial; I mean, the place is for walking arounddo we have tobarricade it off?But to shut down a running informationalwebsite?I understand that the information may not be immediately updated, but Im sure that I can manage without the absolutelatest information on a botanical specimen.I suppose someone might offer the feeble explanation that no one is around to make sure Server 2115 doesntoverheat and subsequently burn down Washington, but the USDA plant database isnt the only thing on those servers and I suspect that computer technicians in charge of running servers are on the critical list of personnel anyway.

Recognize that Im not pointing a specific finger here.Blame the Democratic senators or blame the Tea Party, but they are all representing the people who elected them, and we got what we asked for, stalemate, which is almost as good as not having a government. Shutting the USDA plant database down, however,is nothing but a political ploy.A pox on both their Houses.

Via: The Shutdown Hits Home