THE FLOWER THAT SMILES TODAY

The flower that smiles today
Tomorrow dies;
All that we wish to stay
Tempts and then flies;
What is the world’s delight?
Lightning that mocks the night,
Brief even as bright.

Virtue, how frail it is!
Friendship, how rare!
Love, how it sells poor bliss
For proud despair!
But these, so soon they fall,
Survive their joy and all
Which ours we call.

Whilst skies are blue and bright,
Whilst flowers are gay,
Whilst eyes that change ere night
Make glad the day;
Whilst yet the calm hours creep,
Dream thou—and from thy sleep
Then wake to weep.


--Percy Bysshe Shelley

Here's the top news item today on the Guardian Unlimited.

And a correlating history lesson from The Nation.

"Despite the refusal of the Shah to rule out the possibility of Iran's developing nuclear weapons, the Ford Administration in 1975 approved the sale of up to eight nuclear reactors with fuel to Iran and, in 1976, approved the sale of lasers believed to be capable of enriching uranium. The Washington Post reported that an initially hesitant President Ford was assured by his advisors that Iran was only interested in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Ford's Defense Secretary was Donald Rumsfield, his Chief of Staff was Dick Cheney and his man in charge of nonproliferation efforts at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency was Paul Wolfowitz."

Look, it's the smoking-gun-holding-apes that run our country!