Veteran's Day

Hey. Google put up a Veteran's Day thingy. Way to go.

Thurpy dogs.

So I'm standing in line at the grocery store and I looked around, hoping to find a shorter line. I saw a woman standing in line holding a leash and on the other end of the leash was one of those little, furry-all-over dogs with the juvenile facial features so beloved by little old ladies, adolescent princesses and spiritless husbands. It was jumping and running a few steps back and forth on the leash, wagging its dustmop of a tail to spread dog dander, allergens, and its scent all around -- and slobbering on the floor with doggy happiness. With an advanced canine sense of smell, for dogs probably all the odors and scents in a grocery store might be kind of like a hallucinogen drugs for people. (Oh, the colors! The colors!)

Anyhow, I was moved to make a polite comment, "HEY! THERE'S A DAMN DOG IN HERE!"

I forgot I was in Portland, Oregon. People can and do ride bicycles naked in Portland. Seldom are any of the naked bike riders people one would relish seeing naked, but we nevertheless must indulge them in their need to benude themselves. They have the right. The law won't touch them. (Nor would I.) People in Oregon can and do persuade doctors and pharmacists to give them life-ending drugs. The law teaches how to do it. They have a right. (I wonder what would happen if a terminally ill patient got suicide drugs legally, and then gave them to her husband instead of herself. Would she get the death penalty?)

So this being Portland, when I mentioned the dog in the grocery store I was informed that nobody much likes it but not much can be done about it because the definition of "therapy animal" is a unclear. Evidently, a therapy animal may be equivalent to a trained service dog, in Oregon law. So self-indulgent people can drag their pets into the grocery store. I was told there's a some kind of bill being considered in Salem on the subject. So, the store felt it had to look the other way, because it sure didn't want to deal with a novel civil-rights claim by some settlement hungry sue-monkey. And his client. This being Portland, and all.

Having a pet close by is thought to be necessary to the emotional well-being of emotionally broken people.

Okay. But all my life I've seen dogs tied outside the door of stores, waiting for owners to return. I've seen some stores have watering bowls for the comfort of pets who must wait outside. It isn't a problem for the pet, because nearly everybody walking by will speak to the animal. Outdoors. Not indoors.

Maybe we can get a test case going. We need to get a bearded Progressive to drag a dead, flea-encrusted possum on a stick all around Walgreen's, claiming the right based on his so-called great emotional needs, to chase customers out of the store in revulsion. He can claim the need to do so based on the sound advice offered by his emotional counselor, a Native American shaman known as Wah-Wah-Tippito, which means Solitary Coyote in his native language (and whose birth name was Donald Scheisskopf when first born in New Jersey.) That should do it.

Hey. If you don't have a specially trained animal to guide you through the dark, or to alert to the onset of an epileptic fit, or to bring things to you in your wheelchair, or some such, you don't have a service animal. You have a pet. And if you claim the right to bring your pet into the grocery store, you have an atitude.

And if you are given a legal right to bring a dog into the grocery store because it is a comfort to you, despite it being an annoyance to others, then I should be given the legal right to smoke a cigarette after coffee in a restaurant, if I want to.

(Oh, Walt. It isn't the same thing.) Yes. It is. It is exactly the same thing.

The Nobel prize? Really?

When the French, yeah, the French, can see it, maybe there could be a chance for San Francisco after all.

Remember, it was the French president, of all people, who described our president as naive and narcisstic, when it comes to his approach to atomic threats from Iran. Yeah, the French president. (I may be wrong about this, but my impression is that the last time the French were seriously warlike was with Napoleon. Or maybe back in 1066.)

I don't think it's that the French have decided to "cowboy up." (I'm in Arizona right now, and I heard somebody say that.) I think it's that the French are thinking that they are closer to Iran than we are, and they are seeing Putin "cowboy up."

Could it be that the French are rightly concerned whether or not we could be trusted to come to the rescue, for a third time?

And that's a fair question, the answer to which I'm not at all certain I'm comfortable that I know how it should be answered, let alone how it would be answered when the time comes.

I'm back

I"m back, but not in a big way. I haven't been blogging on either of my blogs. Politics. Bleagh!

I hear you knocking . . .

Looking for me? Try here.

Memorial Day good bye to Google. . .

Has anybody noticed that I've been mad at Google all day? Well, I still am.

Memorial Day Bye Bye to Google.

Have we all noticed how Google likes to add little artistic changes to the Google logo to commemorate various days of note on the calendar? Just a cute little acknowledgement, a snowman, or something. They even commemorated something as pedestrian as Sherlock Holmes. So, what did Google do for Memorial Day?

Not a damn thing.

Hey, it wouldn't take much and the those sorry sacks at Google wouldn't even have to be sincere. They could just make some little gesture to acknowledge that today is the day set aside on the calendar to remember that many Americans have died in service to their country. Betcha they remembered to stay home from work today.

So, as of today I'm going to disengage from Google. There are other search engines. I can start using my other e-mail addresses other than Gmail. I can take my blog elsewhere.

This isn't about politics. This is about arrogance, and a flat, self-important inability to consider all those Americans who knew, or were related to, or were friends with, or loved somebody who died in their country's uniform -- those Americans who may take comfort in the thought that perhaps for a few moments this day, other Americans will remember and honor their dead.

So --Screwgle.

And I only wish I advertised, or paid for services or owned stock with Google, so I could register my disapproval a mite more effectively.

Bye-bye, Google Memorial Day

Google may be one of the best search engines there is, but it isn't the only one and it isn't the only one I use.

As of now, I'm no longer using Google to search the web. As of now, I'm looking for another way to blog. As of now, I'm going to start favoring my non-Gmail e-mail addresses.

Here's why.

Google regularly puts up all sorts of little decorative devices on the opening page -- all sorts of little artistic variations on the Google logo to mark special days on the calendar. They can remember to do it for something as relatively trivial as Sherlock Holmes. So what do we have for Memorial Day?

Not a damn thing.

Hey, it's not as if the happy band of Googlers even had to be sincere in acknowledging that many Americans have died in uniform and today is marked down as a day to remember the sacrifices of friends and relatives who died in service of their country. This isn't about politics; it's about rude, self-centered arrogance. But I'll bet the whole sorry pack of Googlers took the day off as a holiday while nevertheless ignoring those for whom Memorial Day is meaningful.

I feel bad that I don't pay Google for their services, or run advertisements on Google or own stock in Google. If I did, I could communicate to Google in a more meaningful way.

Can this be right?

Google it. The population of Mexico is a little over a hundred million. Is that right? And we have a reported twelve million illegals in the country, most of whom, I'm told, are Mexican. So, roughly ten percent of Mexico is in the United States?

Telephone tax refund ...

The IRS is going to pay back some taxes collected. A long time ago, like about 1898, the government imposed a 3% tax on long distance telephone calls. This was a temporary tax, of course. And it was okay because only rich people had telephones, and taxing the rich and not the poor is thought to be a virtue. Of course with the passage of time, we see the error of imposing a temporary tax, or permitting a tax because it is only imposed on those who can afford it. You and I have been paying the 3% tax on our long distance phone calls.

Anyway, since the government has lost lawsuits about collecting this tax, and lost more than once, it has decided it won't collect the tax anymore. And it is going to give some money back. There will be an opportunity on the 2006 tax forms to claim 3 years worth of federal taxes on your long distance calls. Oh, the other 105 years of taxes? Gone.

Boy, we sure showed IRS they can't mess around with the American public.

The evolution of dance. . . .

Take a look at this. If you start watching . . . you'll watch it to the end.

Hope this works . . .

So, why are we giving aid to Egypt and the Palestinians, when we should be giving a whole lot more support to this radical Muslim?

This idea will get me into trouble . . .

It sucks that Americans can't get jobs or own businesses in Mexico. It sucks that Canadian and Mexican doctors can't come over here and work without going through a lengthy wait, but people less qualified can just sneak across the border and get jobs. It also sucks that we've permitted millions of border jumpers to come over and stay here and we've taken advantage of their labor, but now we want to talk about sending them back, after they've become kind of a part of things here. And it sucks for all of the legal immigrants who followed all the rules and put up with considerable delay and annoyance to live here under the law, if they now see others obtaining the same benefit without being obliged to "play by the rules."

So, here's the idea that is sure to get me in trouble. Let's let the "illegals" earn amnesty and citizenship. If they work on erecting a wall across the Mexican border, we'll pay them minimum wage to do it and let them stay on this side of the wall as citizens when the wall if done.

. . . . . Sorry. I can't help it. Absurd notions just kind of come over me and make me laugh.

Big oil sucks . . . .

Big oil is sure just sucking in the cash here of late. Why, they've gone from an average of six cents a gallon of gas in profits, all the way up to nine cents a gallon in profits, in a matter of months. Greedy bastids, aren't they?

By the way, the U.S gummint gets 13% royalty on all gas pumped from our off shore wells. In addition, the federal government takes fourteen point four cents a gallon in taxes at the gasoline pump, which makes the oil company's nine cents a gallon look a little puny. And in addition to that, the state of Oregon, which was the first state in the Union to ever tax gasoline in the first place (We're number one! We're number one!!) takes forty-two point four cents a gallon in taxes at the pump. So here in Oregon, every gallon of gas you buy gives at least fifty-six cents a gallon in taxes to the politicians, and nine cents a gallon profits to the greedy capitalists.

So, what is the solution that occurs to the politicians? Why, capping the profits that greedy oil companies can make. That would mean that once this wonderful new law was in place, a gallon of gas would cost as much as nine cents a gallon less, depending on just how much profit the politicians wanted to deny to the oil companies. Hooray! Our troubles are over.

Oh, can you guess which two states take sixty cents a gallon or more in taxes? New York and California -- I sure didn't see that coming.

And can you guess which politician, state or federal, figures maybe the taxes on gasoline could be reduced a little to cut us a break? Me neither.

And hey. Remember how we were going to Iraq to steal their oil? How it was all about the oil? Well, I think I'm going to have to agree with all the moonbats who say Bush has made a mess of things. He really did. He been screwing around pursuing foolish notions like trying to get democracy started and eliminating "insurgents" and he never did get around to stealing us any of the damn oil!

So, big prices at the pump? I think we should blame politicians, state and federal. Foreign and domestic.

Those pros knows how to do prose . . .

I haven't been writing here much. But others have been writing all over the place. Why, just here, we have some writing where another hard-hitting, award winning news reporter is, as they say, BUSTED.

Choosing between the worser or the worserest . . .

And here's another good one by Mark Steyn.

After us, the deluge . . .

Ooooh, this is a good one. Really.

Portland, the city that works . . .

Jim Redden for the 3/28/06 Portland Tribune reported on the animal rights persons protesting every Saturday in front of Schumacher Fur & Outerwear Co. in downtown Portland, Oregon. Redden further reported, with quote marks, that Precinct Cmdr. Dave Bennett thinks that the company should just move away.

As it turns out according to Commissioner Randy Leonard, the Schumacher company is partly to blame for the situation because they have disregarded police advice to close the store down on Saturdays, when the protesters show up. Further, the business owners have argued with the protesters and mocked them!

Redden further reported that some of the protesters "dress up as animals and roll around on the sidewalk pretending they are being killed." Now how could a person bring themselves to mock a person dressed in an animal suit rolling around on the sidewalk?

It's likely true that if the Schumachers go away or shut down, as suggested by police, the protesters would lose further interest in protesting them. The Portland Tribune's explanation for the accompanying photo of a protester all dolled up in a goofy gloves, a skull mask and a blonde wig ??? is that Kit Collins (presumably the person so righteously costumed) hasn't missed a Saturday protest since they started and her goal is to "keep showing up until the store closes." If that's the goal, and if the protests are organized around that goal, it seems to me that there may be at least a borderline violation of the Animal Enterprise Terror Act. (Public Law 102-346 - U.S. Code Title 18, Part I, Chapter 3, section 43). The law makes violation a felony if over $10,000 in damages occur, and there have been convictions under the law. Wonder what the damages could be if a well established fur store would be forced to close, losing the considerable investment in the store location?

There have been arrests of the protesters, exactly three so far, despite the obvious disinclination of the police to make any arrests. Redden quotes Benson, "My own personal contact with the protesters and the contact had by my sergeants is that they are generally very nice people that have very strong views about selling fur." A person would, of course, have to have "strong views" to dress up in an animal suit and roll around on the sidewalk pretending to being killed. I guess one definition of "strong views" might be "poor impulse control."

According to Redden the police see this as a matter of the nice people acting within their first amendment rights. So I must suppose that in the police view, those other people acting within their first amendment rights, the Schumachers who argued with and mocked the protesters, are just not nice and for this reason, should just go away. (Covering mouth and sneezing, AH-CHOOO, equal protection of the law.)

This is really pretty repulsive on the part of the city government. I mean, the protesters don't even get sympathy from Jeff Alworth on a local progressive website (go to blueoregon.com.)


I feel sorry for the Schumachers who are doing nothing illegal - except possibly playing Christmas music loudly in response to the protesters' city-licensed use of a bullhorn to augment their supposed first amendment rights to protest until a business shuts down. The Schumachers have a considerable investment at risk. I feel sorry for the businessmen of Portland who are trying to steer businesses through the antagonism of much of the local government busybodies who are largely responsible for a "toxic" retail environment. (Dave Rogoway of Cutters Jewelry) I also feel sorry for the residents of Portland watching business after business being replaced by the ever-increasing number of "quick loan at unconscionable interest" stores. (Betcha every one of 'em you see represents a real business which once provided goods, services, and jobs but then died at that location.) Shoot, I even feel sorry for the boneheads, I mean nice people with strong views every one, who are protesting. It is pitiful, when you think about it, that a person's entire notion of self worth could be so shriveled and weak as to require dressing up like animals and rolling around on the sidewalk pretending to being killed by an electrified probe up their inconsiderable anuses.

I don't, however, feel sorry for Commissioner Leonard and Precinct Commdr. Benson.

You should all find out where they live and go shout at them every weekend without end until their neighbors and families urge them, beg them, to move away to someplace else where you won't feel like going to shout at them anymore.

I am, to be sure, merely exercising my first amendment rights, here, in making such a suggestion.

21st Century piracy . . .

Looks like attempted piracy to me, and even Aljazeera News treats it as a liklihood.

Suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia started shooting at U.S. navy ships. We shot back and then fished what was left of the suspected pirates out of the water. This hearkens back to the original internationalisation of the U.S. navy -- Islamic pirates capturing ships and enslaving or beheading the occupants of the European ships, with the European response being appeasement.

Lately, the pirates around Somalia have been raiding ships trying to bring charitable aid to the starving Somalis, who were starving well before 1991 when the warlords wiped out the government and then turned on each other. Before, the government was socialist and disposed to make decisions based on tribal or religious grounds.

Hey folks. This sort of thing has been going on for hundreds of years. I bet Columbus wasn't looking for a shorter way to China. He was looking for a safer way.

Getting away with the crime . . .

The prosecutor says that the death of Milosevic in his jail cell is a defeat for the United Nations war crimes tribunal.

So they are going to call for an autopsy to show that Milosevic was or was not poisoned. His supporters would surely think he was poisoned. Right? Because when you want to terminate somebody, you have to lock him in a cell and put him on trial for years and years, and then poison him after four years of trial. You surely couldn't just go ahead and do it, right at the very beginning, when it might mean something. That wouldn't be the United Nations way.

I figure the United Nations war crimes tribunal was screwed up as soon as the trial went into the third month. A trial shouldn't have to last for years. If it does, probably the judge, the prosecutor and defense attorney are all dealing with something other than the guilt of the defendant. They are turning a trial into a career. Self-important clowns.

The same mistake is being made with Saddam and it's too late at this point to do anything about it, now that he figures he can game the system and make speeches. What should have been done right after the taking the photographs of him, dirty and mortified and having his teeth examined, was to hand him a pistol with one cartridge and lock him in a room to himself to consider his options and reflect upon his prospects.