cardigrl

Honestly, I don't get it.  The New York Times had an op-ed column about the guy yesterday, and the comments are just nasty and vicious.  Not to mention most of them totally don't get it.  If Tebow was out there saying -- to take two other real-world examples --  you must adopt my belief in Islam or I will behead you; or you should be lynched because you had the nerve to allow schoolchildren to call a teddy bear Mohammed, I seriously think many of those posting comments would defend him, if their past comments are any guide.

But no.  Tebow is out there saying I am grateful that I am fast, strong, and can sort of throw a football.  And I'm grateful to the being that I believe gave me those attributes.  OK, granted he doesn't really say "sort of" in describing his throwing ability, but that's pretty much a given with him.

As the op-ed said,  "the intensity of the derision strikes me as unwarranted, in that it outdoes anything directed at, say, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, accused repeatedly of sexual assault, or other players actually convicted of burglary, gun possession and other crimes."  Unfortunately, that viewpoint was shouted down in the comments, which apparently really does consider raping women and torturing dogs to death to be more acceptable than saying you are grateful that your God gifted you with physical assets.

Something is really, really wrong with this country.

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and PLEASE don't fall for HSUS slick advertising.  It should be about the animals, and to HSUS, it seems more about making money.


 <img src="HSSP_NYTimes_OL.pdf" alt="HSUS responds to criticism:  "We never said we funded animal shelters.""> This entry was originally posted at http://cardigrl.dreamwidth.org/58742.html. (Read comments on Dreamwidth). If you would like to comment on Dreamwidth, you can use OpenID. If you'd rather use Dreamwidth, but don't have an account yet, I have plenty of Dreamwidth invites.

as they say. ;-)  I am not a fan of Sarah Palin, as I've said repeatedly.   I think she's a lightweight, who could have done much better had she applied herself to facts rather than soundbites.  She was never going to get anywhere, because the establishment on all sides has too much to lose by treating with respect a woman who does not worship at their shibboleths.  Nonetheless, I've also been amused at the way lefties trash her.  And just what they choose to trash her for.

The New York Times today ran a short column today about Sarah Palin.  Amazingly enough, the writer managed to sneak in a few positive comments along with all the usual sneering.  What I find fascinating about this is the columnist apparently JUST NOW noticed her main appeal to many:  that she takes on the established big money power structure leeching money, creativity, and promise out of America from both the left and the right.   And she's been doing it for years.

I'm wondering:  what took them so long to realize she's been saying this (and why do they have to be such asses that they can't admit that she's been saying it all along)?  And just what, oh what, do they have against people who WORK for a living?  Consider this sneer from the column: 

There was plenty of the usual Palin schtick — words that make clear that she is not speaking to everyone but to a particular strain of American: “The working men and women of this country, you got up off your couch, you came down from the deer stand, you came out of the duck blind, you got off the John Deere, and we took to the streets, and we took to the town halls, and we ended up at the ballot box.”

But when her throat was cleared at last, Ms. Palin had something considerably more substantive to say.

So tell me, just what does the New York Times find so repellent and non-substantive about encouraging people who work for a living to vote?  And since WHEN are working people just "a particular strain of American" that they can dismiss and denigrate??   I don't recall ever hearing them sneer at the get out the vote campaigns aimed at young and unemployed people they presume will vote for Democrats.  In fact, their only comments about those have been to smear anyone who gets concerned about the people voting multiple times.
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Once again, I'm catching up on old podcasts and just listened to a BBC "business news" podcast from earlier this week, in which they breathlessly warned that food prices would be going up.  After brief mentions of drought and flooding, they interviewed a Nestle executive ranting about US corn and biofuels, which he blamed for volatility in food prices.  He claimed prohibiting biofuels "would remove immediately the price pressure."  Of course, the BBC could not be bothered to talk to anyone else.  Nor could they be bothered (apparently) to ask the Nestle exec whether he might have a (cough) tiny ole conflict of interest there.

I can understand the US press buying in to that crap.  After all, they apparently believe corn and grain grow in Nestle and Cargill warehouses rather than actual fields. And they have been so busy breathlessly repeating pointless "celebrity" gossip and ginning up fake storm stories reporting about some rain in New York City, that they have ignored a massive, epic drought in the southern US breadbasket, as well as the feds intentionally flooding massive amounts of prime grain-producing ground in the rest of the US breadbasket.  And, of course, they ramble on constantly about commodity prices and futures markets, apparently in the belief that entire market is devoted entirely to gold without a clue about how the merchantile exchanges actually work.

But, somehow, I had expected a tiny bit more from the BBC.  You'd think I would know better by now.

~rolls eyes~

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Check out http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-08-04/html/2011-19755.htm if you do not believe me.

Less than a month after Obama dismissively told a farmer not to believe anything he heard about federal regulations making it difficult to, oh, I don't know.....

grow your food.

I won't even start on the rest of it, like their requirement that ranchers provide laundry facilities in federally restricted range.  There are no words adequate to describe the hypocrisy and bad faith we now know Obama showed in his little performance talking down to the farmers, all the while this was hitting.

ETA:  The link goes to US Department of Labor regulations just published at:

[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 150 (Thursday, August 4, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47256-47262]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-19755]

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Don't know if you know this song, but....


Hope it was a great one!!

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So I'm watching/reading the news over the past few days, and start seeing stories about the News of the World scandal.  And rather than being shocked! shocked! at journalists behaving badly, my first thought is:

My, doesn't Rebekah Brooks look like canon Hermione Granger would look all grown up?



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CONGRATS to the US women's team, which advanced to the Women's World Cup semi-finals!

I see there's a rumor going around that the serial comma is no more.  Well!

To quote another:  "They can have my serial comma when they pry it from my cold, withered, and dead hands."

If they're so worried about commas, why, don't, they, go, after, the, Shatner, comma?  You know what I mean. ;-)

Then they should spend a little time going after all those writers who don't know the difference between an adverb and an adjective.  Am I the only one who finds that like nails on a blackboard?   Oh dear, have I dated myself again? ;-)

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I went to Columbia, SC a few weeks ago for a conference.  Walking back to the hotel after dinner, some of us came across this door to a club.  Much hilarity ensued.
( Click for picspam... )






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First, the ABC News website has information on how to donate for tornado relief in the Midwest.  Or you can go to the Red Cross main donation page.  The zip code for Joplin, Missouri (for the Red Cross site) is 64801.  This time it's personal; Missouri has some very high-quality Cardigan breeders.

And for some lighter news follies:  There was an article in the Guardian, talking about the gifts President Obama gave to the British royalty on this trip.  They reported approvingly:


In other news, the BBC last week did an entire series on the related issues, capped by their weekend show on Farming Today This Week, titled "The annual 2 billion pound cost of tackling invasive species."  And really, how could the White House miss this, given that part of the objection to GMO's is the complete inability to contain cross-pollination contamination?

Perhaps we should consider it a fitting payback, given the massive toll of invasive species imported by lazy, English aristocrats, like the pheasants which decimated native North American bird populations when some Englishman imported them to have something easier to shoot at, and which now cause millions of dollars in crop damage.   Somehow, though, I doubt the Obamas care one whit about the problems faced by farmers in the US or anywhere else, except as photo-ops.  Or for the people of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas, for that matter.  At least judging from the photo ops from Irish pubs.  Because let's face it:  there was no serious state business being done on this trip.  It was to get money and favorable publicity.  Nothing more.  Except maybe shopping.



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 Sending good thoughts to the survivors of the latest tornado outbreaks in Alabama, Mississippi, etc.

ABC News has links to charities providing relief here.    People there are wiped out.  Imagine losing with little to no warning literally everything:  your job, your home, your car, your food.  Everything but the clothes on your back.  And for too many, family.  Please consider giving!

In news closer to home......Did I mention winter?  Or being sick of it?

I'm looking out the window at snow and high winds.  At least no tornadoes.

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"Whether they admit it or not, everyone in Washington knows how to solve these problems. What is missing is the political will to do it."   Marco Rubio, on raising the US debt limit.  He also says:


Interesting comments from him, and I doubt very much others will follow his lead.  Whether or not you agree with his particular approach to fixing the problem, as he said, Congress simply has no political will (or more to the point, courage) to do what needs to be done, which in the end is raise taxes, reduce entitlements, and stop starting wars.   Congressional Democrats,even with a super-majority in the Senate, an overwhelming majority in the House, and control of the White House,  would not even pass any budget.  And the Congressional Republicans appear to have no plan at all (which, sadly, Obama seems to think lets him off the hook entirely).  Far too easy for everyone to sit back and snipe at each other.  And everyone deserves the blame for that.  Especially the press which supports it and voters who reward it.

A book review of In the Basement of the Ivory Tower: Confessions of an Accidental Academic.  Or, "Do you have to read 'King Lear' to write a speeding ticket?"  The question is what caught my eye, given that I know very good cops who will never advance because they don't have that precious piece of paper.  Meanwhile, the boys and girls (and yes, I use those words advisedly, because they do not deserve to be called young men and women), arrested for crimes that all revolve around believing themselves above the law and better than everyone else, all are on their way to those precious pieces of paper -- all the while they whine (as have 3 people so far just this week) that they should not have to acknowledge they possessed marijuana / meth / any other number of controlled substances because it suddenly occurred to them they might lose their student loans.  Bottom line:  none of them are learning anything useful in the real world, while the cops who are supposedly too stupid for college somehow manage to write their reports just fine -- and without any distracting purple prose.  As to the purple prose, I wonder how many beta readers would have passed without comment some of the quoted passages in a fanfic.

The review contains the following:



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From The Onion:  CIA's Facebook program dramatically cut the agency's costs.

Especially like the suggestion that FB is now trying to come up with a plan to get its users to submit blood samples for ID purposes. ;-)

Although, all kidding aside, it astounds me how many kids post bragging comments about their crimes, or pictures of themselves drinking when they are on probation and not allowed to drink.   I still remember one meeting with guardians, who insisted the cops were just picking on their kid.  Right up to the point when I pulled out the printout from the kid's page, on which she b*tched about living with them and bragged about drinking, smoking dope, and beating up another kid at school.  She hadn't even flocked it.

It's like they think anyone over 25 doesn't know how to use a computer.
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Permission to cross post--and please do--to everyone, especially those you know who think PETA, like HSUS, is wonderful. Imagine a 
kill rate of almost 94%

--------------------------
According to official shelter reports filed with the Commonwealth of  Virginia (where the PETA "shelter", if you want to call it that, is 
located), PETA took in 2345 animals, of which 44 were adopted out, 2,200 were killed (euphemistic word used in report is "euthanized"), 
and 63 were transferred out of the shelter. PETA's kill rate in 2010 was 93.81%.

Copies of Official Commonwealth of Virginia reports here:

http://petakillsanimals.com/downloads/PetaKillsAnimals.pdf

Article on PETA's record here (they haven't updated the article to show the 2010 numbers yet, reports just came out)

http://www.petakillsanimals.com/

According to the combined yearly totals (since 1998), PETA has taken in 29,823 animals into their "shelter", and killed 25,840 of these for 
a kill rate of 85.1% - a rate that is most likely  among the highest in the country (even shelters in the deep South typically don't have a kill rate above 60% if that.)

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Animal Refuge Kansai has posted an appeal for donations to help the large numbers of animals made homeless by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  Many animals were injured; all were traumatized.  If you can help, please go to the link (or their homepage at http://drupal.animalrefugekansai.org/?q=en/ (for the English version)).

There is more information, and names of other groups helping, at

http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/japan-rescuers-pull-together-to-save-pets/

And if your heart can stand it, watch http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/dog-watches-over-pal-after-surviving-tsunami-video/
Reports are that both dogs in the video were rescued and are now safe.

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As you can tell from the paucity of movie notes lately, I have fallen down on my exercise resolutions.  Been spending way too much time in the car, driving to hearings and meetings.  But I have done three:

Mrs. Henderson Presents:  OK, but not really what I was expecting.  Still, good stuff.  Judi Dench doesn't do bad jobs, after all.  It's a pretty solid bet when she's one of the leads.

Maria Full of Grace:   (Yes, this won tons of awards and the lead was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in 2005 -- I'm obviously well behind) Excellent.  Not exactly bouncy happy, but it's been on the list for a really long time.  And even though it's not bouncy happy, I'm so glad I went ahead and watched it.   Excellent movie about a teenager in Colombia who ends up on a drug run to NYC.  It could have been cheap, over-the-top exploitation, but it really is good.  I'd love to make the little punks who show up in court blathering about how drugs don't hurt anybody (and about how abused, downtrodden, and exploited they think they are) watch it.

Seducing Doctor Lewis:  A goofy little film that didn't get good reviews, but I actually liked it.  It seems to me that most of the critics who panned it mainly thought that the movie wasn't ambitious enough, but sometimes they underestimate the value of a fun comedy (and there was the bizarre review that complained a beautiful actress was on the poster, but the movie had no sex scenes with her.   *rolls eyes*).  Definitely a bouncy happy movie.  And it has a few hilarious segments on cricket . . . and whether it is a sport at all.



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I don't think this police spokesman meant this quite the way it sounds, but it is yet another lesson of watching how you say things when talking to the press.  And how easily it can be to take something out of context, and how important it is to get the full quote and not rely on soundbites.

A Saint Paul, MN police spokesman on a flash mob robbery of a convenience store and the concern that having that many people involved could lead to violence, especially if people decide to step in and try to help:

"We want store employees to be witnesses to shoplifting, not victims of assault," says Skoogman.

The full quote is: 

"The inclination might be to try to stop it. We don't want people to do that. We want store employees to be witnesses to shoplifting, not victims of assault," says Skoogman.

Sounds a little better, doesn't it?  Still, if the flash mobs didn't steal stuff, the store employees would not face that choice.  Wouldn't that be even better?  Of course, and it's a little annoying that criminal activity by teenagers is accepted as unremarkable in itself.

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Or so says the SD State Vet.  In the latest example of government insanity, the SD State Vet's office contacted one of the kennel clubs who was getting ready to hold a dog agility competition to caution them that each person there would be committing a felony unless they complied with SDCL 40-14-2.

You may ask what is 40-14-2?  It's a statute intended to apply to commercial livestock, and requires anyone bringing "any animal" into the state "for any purpose except immediate slaughter" to get duplicate health certificates on each animal, file one with -- and identify your destination to -- the State Animal Industry Board so that it gets there before you do, and travel with a bill of lading for each animal.  Sounds reasonable...if you're bringing in commercial livestock for breeding.

Traveling with the family dog......not so much.

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The claim:  US Government Shuts Down 84,000 Websites "By Mistake"  after wrongfully accusing them of containing links to child porn.

Way to go, Eric Holder.

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