House votes to make oak the national tree
Tuesday, September 28, 2004 Posted: 8:15 PM EDT (0015 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The national bird, the bald eagle, will have a national tree, the oak, to alight on if legislation passed Tuesday by the House makes its way through Congress and is signed by the president. - CNN.com

Representatives and Senators make $158,000 a year. Is deciding that a) the US needs a National Tree and b) the National Tree should be an oak really something that they should be doing on the taxpayer's time? I realize that it probably really didn't take much of their time at all, but somebody did the research, collated the information, and wrote the bill, and it was probably an aide, who is paid by...the taxpayer. At best, they picked a very poor time to bring this up.

Guess they thought it was more of a pressing issue than, for instance, renewing the ban on assault weapons for one thing. Hey, everyone has their own priorities; maybe next they'll vote themselves another raise.

I think they'll get the squirrel vote.

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Originally posted by DorianGreyed:
_House votes to make oak the national tree _
Tuesday, September 28, 2004 Posted: 8:15 PM EDT (0015 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The national bird, the bald eagle, will have a national tree, the oak, to alight on if legislation passed Tuesday by the House makes its way through Congress and is signed by the president. - http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/28/national.tree.ap/index.html

Representatives and Senators make $158,000 a year. Is deciding that a) the US _needs_ a National Tree and b) the National Tree should be an oak _really_ something that they should be doing on the taxpayer's time? I realize that it probably really didn't take much of their time at all, but _somebody_ did the research, collated the information, and wrote the bill, and it was probably an aide, who is paid by...the taxpayer. At best, they picked a very poor time to bring this up.

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Instead of the Oak, I'd like to nominate the Ash. Before the conversion to Christianity, my ancestors held these trees to be sacred, and used to hang their human sacrifices from them. Among those sacrificed thus were the occasional ruler whose rule failed to satisfy.

Alan Moore