Festival of the Trees #11 offers a cornucopia of arboreal treats.  Climb on over there and root around a bit.

I and the Bird # 48 has all the birding goodies you could ask for.  And doesn’t that blog theme look familiar?

Speaking of which, I’m already thinking about changing the theme again.  Have I mentioned I’m capricious?

This really pisses me off: “Malta’s spring bird hunt is in full swing for what could be the last time before the country is taken to court accused of violating the EU Birds Directive. [. . .] Malta is the only country in the EU that allows bird hunting in spring. And according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, some hunters fire at any bird that flies past, not just the two species the government permits.”  There’s more news and even a handful of photos showing the terrible devastation this hunt causes.  It’s disheartening and not for the timid.

It looks like FARK.com still wants to own everything posted to their site regardless of copyright and ownership.  So I’ll reiterate what I said before: I’m not adding support for FARK back to my site until they get their heads out of their asses.  My content is my content.  Period.  If it’s posted to FARK, it’s there to be shared only on that site and only in the manner I say.  To add insult to injury, they now claim the right to make money on anything posted, and the right to sublicense, sell, or otherwise make money from anything they can get their hands on.  What a bunch of thieves.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone.  Congress is pursuing an update to federal hate crimes protections.  They want to extend the law to cover sexual orientation and gender.  Dubya, on the other hand, already has said he will veto the bill if that is included.  He’s such a hater, along with the rest of his morally dysfunctional, intolerant, bigoted kind.