Jonah helpfully points out (as do others) that today is not only Earth Day, but Lenin's Birthday.

Coincidence? Yeah, that's what those watermelons want you to think.

[Update at 12:45 PM EDT]

I just realized that it's actually worse than that. The original Earth Day, in 1970 was on the centenary anniversary of his birth.

I guess I need to visit Seattle's Lenin statue to observe the festivities. (Because that _will_ be one of the places Earth Day is celebrated here.)

There's another even more relevant connection; Eath Day rose out of the paroxysms of fury surrounding that Esso oil tanker spill in 1970;
an early version of the Exxon Valdez. The rage
against oil and industry, was probably one of
the signals to the Arabs that American domestic
oil exploration would be curtailed; if not eliminated; this made their long standing plan
to blackmail the west through OPEC; This was
probably the first Arab strike against America; that recurred with Khomeini's rise in 1979.(If
one doesn't count Sirhan's assasination of RFK
as the first strike)Out of this rose ; the petrodollar recycling; the silent depression
of the late 70s & 80s,the collapse of Lebanon;
the return of the Ilkwan, which ushered in Al
Queda; two decades a similar dynamic between
the Exxon Valdez; and the Clean Act; signalled
to Saddam Hussein, it was time to play the same
card. Osama has learned from both instances in
how to cripple the West; using leftist tropes
of selfloathing