Well, this really has nothing to do with frogs or lizards. But we heard frogs the other night after it rained, and of course we see lizards quite often in this neck of the desert. Today is the fourth of July and I feel absolutely zero patriotism. Would rather live in Europe, in fact. Watched The Shock Doctrine last night in honor of the Fourth. I remember the assassination of Orlando Atelier as if it happened in my opwn backyard last week. Wait. It DID happen in my vicinity. We lived in Bethesda and regularly drove past Embassy Row. Are we headed for a Pinochet-style dictatorship? If the Teabaggers could attempt a coup, would they? I cannot discern any distinction between the members of that movement, leaders and followers alike, and Timothy McVeigh. Can people be so blind? I have had plenty of time lately to think about blind ambition and blind faith...joining groups and causes...I have no ambition and no faith. I do not join causes. I support some justice-related causes, but I never jump all the way in. It seems so childish to me to throw oneself in wholesale. Yet I see full-grown individuals diving headfirst into all kinds of cliques and causes--even in the workplace. These fools expect loyalty, fealty, and perfection from their followers and see perfection in their leaders. Yet no one or thing is perfect, except the shell of a Nautilus...So I see childishness everywhere, and it makes me wonder: Why, as a country, have we not grown up yet?