JUST SOME POSTS

This is a headline from Popular Science on-line: In Safety Study, Sheep on Meth Are Shocked With Tasers Man, I should have followed up with my science career! Or maybe have been a methamphetamine sheep farmer. Should have stayed in the FFA.

This is a reprint of a post I did back in November of 2007. With the political landscape of today it is even more relevant. I am reading The Columbia History of the World right now (maybe that explains the lack of whimsy - 1100 pages plus written in textbook form) I am reading now about the Roman empire/republic. I came to a passage that almost shocked me with it's relevance to my thoughts of today. Here it is: (and I quote giving all rights to the book) Rome ceded more easily to the demand for citizenship because her supply of citizen soldiers had continued to dwindle, and her mob of citizens without property, to grow. Of the attempts to reverse these changes the most famous were those of the Gracchi brothers in 133 and 123. Relyng on bourgeouis support, they advocated extension of citizenship to the allies, resettlement of small farmers on public land (hitherto rented to senators at minimal rates) resumption of colonization, and provision of grain at less than market rates to...

Back when I used to travel a LOT, I told an airline employee that I was very impressed with their company's computing power. When she looked pleased but a bit puzzled, I explained. I told her it took an amazing amount of computing power to assure that my original boarding gate was as far from security as possible, my arrival gate was as far from ground transportation/baggage as possible, or if I was catching another flight that my arrival gate and my departure gate distances were maximized. She was no longer as pleased. I am travelling this week and have more musing on the wonders of travel. I find myself even more amazed at the airlines computing power today. They still are able or maximize any distances I have to travel to, from, or between planes. However, now they are able to assure that my seat mate is larger than me. I am usually sitting with an empty seat beside me just knowing that the first person resembling King Kong that comes down the aisle will ask me to get up so ...

If you have not read the post below, you may want to. The referendum has been held. The Swiss have decided by an overwhelming margin that they are not insane. Animals will not have access to public defenders to pursue animal rights cases. Maybe there is hope for us all after all. Now if the U.S. Congress could show some signs of intelligence!

OK, there is now some doubt about whether we are the craziest society on earth. I just read a Wall Street Journal article about a referendum that will occur tomorrow - Sunday 3/7/2010. The Swiss people will be voting on whether the government needs to provide animal lawyers - public defenders for "animal rights". Now, I think animal abuse is awful. Anyone that would purposefully harm a defenseless animal should be punished legally and by society. However, Switzerland has taken this idea to a whole new level. They already have one animal public defender that operates in one of the cantons (kind of like our states, or "super"-counties). He recently prosecuted a fisherman over the abuse of a pike. This abuse occurred while a fisherman was catching the defendant (pike). The legal argument was based on the fact that the fisherman took too long to land the defendant and caused it undue suffering. The court threw the case out, but only because the court said it had no juri...

This was obviously a bad day for this soccer goalie in Germany. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqUhmHsG5P0&feature=player_embedde In some South American countries, this could get you killed! If you got the title reference, you are probably my age or close and have a good memory. Later.

I stopped by Food Lion tonight and picked up some groceries. Because it was late (and both my wife and I like it) I got some fried chicken from their deli. We have gotten it before and it is quite good, and a very good value. (OK Food Lion - free food coupons can be sent to the email attached to this blog - but stop reading here) The chicken in not as meaty as the stuff you get from KFC or other chicken places, but it is about half the price. We sat down to eat and I grabbed a breast. I bit into it and started eating. About 40 seconds later I was down to all bone. I looked at my wife and said "This chicken died of starvation, based on the meat on these bones!". I ate some of the potato salad and macaroni salad, but what I wanted was some chicken. I grabbed another piece, this one a thigh. There was no way this chicken was ambulatory. The size of the thigh was so puny that there is no way there was enough muscle mass to move the chicken around! I had the tiny little bone in ...