It sure would be nice if we quit calling each other stupid.

.

Politics is an amazing poison, it causes madness; even people who have never voted will call someone else a fool for their party affiliation. Republicans are fools; Democrats are fools; Libertarians and fools, etc. Since I have an IQ somewhere on the left side of the bell curve, it hurts me dearly when smart people act dumb. Whether they come from rough or refined backgrounds, folks should not try to win friends and influence people with ad hominem attacks and embellished facts. Try showing respect.

Now, to the guys who occasionally parade around the intersection of Routes 137 and 21 in Libertyville, Illinois, over the past 2.5 years, waving the pictures of Obama sporting a Hitler moustache or wearing a turban, I have but one question; is that the best you can do? Yeah, I am the geezer driving the green GMC van who offered you a $10 donation if you could show me a voter’s registration card. It was a safe bet for me to make; I didn’t have $10 in my wallet any more than you had a voter’s card in yours.

.

No more Java for me, thank you, I have had enough.

.

(CLICK HERE for Borepatch's thoughts on Java)

I have disabled Java on my browser and I will disable it on my wife’s system when I get the chance. Each of us experienced a Trojan attack, FakeSysdef, on separate days, which MS Security Essentials failed to prevent. I am sure mine came in via Java during a website visit. While we both were hit with the same Trojan, the variation I had was very aggressive and it took me all day on Wednesday for me to fix my system.

MS Security Essentials did catch a Trojan downloader, Java/OpenConnection.NC, for me the other day, and was able to remove FakeSysdef from each of our drives although it did not prevent the attacks. Overall, Security Essentials has been a good workhorse.

In case you were wondering, both of our computers are automatically updated once a week.

EDIT:  The reason I suspect Java is because the Java icon appeared on my browser during my visit to a website just before all heck broke lose.
.

Yard and garden journal entry 6/6/2011

I believe the irises have peaked and this is as good as they will look for this year. In a week or so, the blooms will be sparse. For some reason, we are the only folks that grow irises in this area. They are not popular in these parts and I don’t know why; they are hearty and reliable perennials. The two clusters in the photos grew from single plantings set a dozen years ago.

If you want to achieve an average looking lawn, the best advice I can give you is…

NEVER do what my neighbor did and use Roundup to kill broadleaf weeds on your lawn! He thought the stuff I routinely use on my lawn was not working fast enough after I treated his lawn (at my expense), so he took over a gallon and a half of Roundup and nuked his once salvageable turf into oblivion. The sad part is that the kill zone spreads each time it rains and it is moseying over the property line onto my lawn and getting dangerously close to some of my arborvitaes.

Roundup is good for its intended purpose, which is to kill weeds and grass in areas where you want nothing to grow. Read the instructions. Never use Roundup on anything you are not intending to destroy.