Pawprints From Space

With apologies to the Pop Tart whose song title I just paraphrased, the original Material Girl is back in the news: she did it again - she got a bunch of attention. Even my fave editorial guy is commenting. And he has a point (doesn't he always?). The woman went to Africa was moved by what she saw (you'd have to be frozen not to be) and is trying to adopt a child as a result. At least she is doing something. Never mind that adopting third world kids now seems to be a fashion statement, just ask Ms. Joile. This is one child who will get a chance to grow up. The rest of the world - the developed world - is pretty much ignoring the situation in various parts of Africa. It is a big continent ignoring it will not make it go away. Darfor isn't going to heal itself. The Sudan isn't going to heal itself. The desert is going to keep expanding (they have a tendency to do that). The snows on Killaminjaro are melting. And here we site, in the wealthiest nation on Earth. Pretty much...

Found this on the Web: In El Paso, Texas, two Border Patrol agents who shot a fleeing drug courier in the buttocks were found guilty March 9 of assault, weapons crimes, tampering with evidence, and deprivation of civil rights. Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean face at least 10 years in federal prison for shooting Osvaldo Andrade Davila, a Mexican citizen, as he fled back across the border when they interrupted his effort to carry a package of drugs into the US. Ramos and Compean also conspired to cover up the shooting by removing spent shell casings from the scene. The pair turned down a plea bargain for 18-month sentences. They have been suspended with pay since the February 2005 incident, and Border Patrol officials said they will now consider firing them. They shot him in the butt. Hardly a life threatening injury. Funny yes, life threatening no. As I understand it "policing your brass" that is cleaning up the spent shell casings is normal practice, hardly cover...

Don't have all the details yet, plan to do the research. Apparently two border patrol guys have been sentenced to 11 years in prison for - get this - doing their jobs. Seems they stopped an illegal guy running drugs in a van. Guy takes off running for the border to get back to Mexico (makes sense since once across they can't touch him). So in typical cop style one of them shoots at the guy. Wings him. Didn't think he'd actually hit the drug runner since he kept... running. The drug guy ends up pressing charges and our border patrol guys are tried and convicted (not sure of what, again gotta do the research) and have been sentenced to 11 years in jail. So? What is this? You can patrol the border but you can't actually shoot someone you catch with drugs? A van full of drugs mind you. We hear all this talk about border security. Apparently that is even more of a joke than we thought. Apparently the only news person talking about this is Lou Dobbs on CNN. Why isn't ...

Not too cold today but dark and rainy. Made for a depressing mess. Would much rather stay in bed on a day like this one. So would the cats apparently. There are two black cats in the household. Neither apparently understand that this is October. A month wherein they are to slink and skulk and otherwise make silly people nervous. Instead they snore and purr and look at you funny when you get up to start the day. What is wrong with you, human? Their gold-green eyes say. They know full when that when it is still dark one should not get up. Breakfast be damned. The bed is warm the comforter soft and they ain't budging. The long-haired calico on the other hand wants her breakfast, though it might have something to do with the fact that the human moved her head from the pillow and said calico was using the top of said head as her pillow. Nah, probably not.

I never thought of myself as a city girl. Being a nature nut I figured I was best cut out for the smaller towns - lots of trees, birds etc. Apparently not. After nearly 13 years in a town the size of less than 40,000 I find that I am fed up with small minds, closed minds and those who seem to have no mind at all. Of course you can find these people anywhere in the world but they tend to stand out in the smaller communities when you are not of a ... like mind. Take the issue of smoking for example. Several nonprofits in Ohio have banned together to gather signatures and get an initiative on the ballot to make the state smoke free. Never mind the smoker's rights cries I'm sure everyone expected that. It is the ranting and raving claiming that there is no link between smoking (and second hand smoke) and several kinds of cancer and heart disease - funny there is a ton of research to the contrary. Several claim that going smoke free as a state is just like stealing the property - no...

Ever notice how when the national evening news casts are crowing that gas prices have dropped and that this coming winter looks like it won't be as expensive for the average folk WHAM!! the prices at the gas pumps spike. You bet. NBC/CBS/ABC were all saying that hey gas prices were below $2 all over the country and within hours the price at the corner station went from $2.05 to $2.25. Wrong direction people! So today when the paper tells me that those of us who heat our homes with natural gas will see bills of around $119 or 12.5% less this winter, forgive me if I don't believe a word of it. They also say that the winter will be milder than average (more mild?). Uh-huh but didn't I also read today that the fields in Alaska are down again due to weather? OPEC wants to cut back on production 'cuz they aren't getting as much per barrel as they were last week etc, etc, etc. Oh yeah, I believe that my home heating costs will be better this year... sure I do. It is very i...

Okay gotta comment. Can't take it any more. While I am glad that the idiot resigned, glad that his transgressions have come to light I am annoyed that Congress can not punish him in any way. Because he resigned. He's out of office so they can't do anything. Nope, punishment is up to the civilian authorities. Really? Let's double check and make sure that the resignation also removed his right to the government health plan for the rest of his life, as well as any pension plan that they enjoy. I'll bet it doesn't. I'll bet he gets to keep that. If so, there is your punishment people - take those privileges away from him. Is it irony to discover that he is guilty of this kind of behavior when he served on the Congressional committee tasked with protecting children from online predators - people just like him? Or is it merely that he saw it as the ultimate cover? No one would suspect him because of his standing with that committee. Interesting, no? It is akin to ...

Remember that line from the movie Wall Street "Greed is good, greed works"? Yeah well Time Warner Cable must have made that the company motto. Here in Nowhere Ohio we do not have any competition to speak of for cable service. Not in the city limits at least. Outside the city there is another provider but they are pseudo satellite since no one has run coax cable out that far yet. Consequently Time Warner can do whatever the heck they want. To whit: recently the CW Network hit the air as a merger between UPN and the WB. Both of those stations were carried on our basic cable service. Not so the new CW. Nope. If you want the CW then you have to have digital cable. This means a digital capable TV set (or you can rent the adaptor from Time Warner of course) plus a higher cable bill. That is crap. That is the big bad cable company forcing the viewers to upgrade so that they can make more money. The local NBC affiliate owns the broadcast rights to the WB locally and thus when the CW ...

It is supposed to be nice this weekend and despite the fact that I haven't opened a textbook all week I intend to be outside working on what is left of the flowerbeds. Those poor, neglected weed-infested things. Good thing I have not only a green thumb but actually ten green fingers or else there would have been no flowers this year. It has truly been survival of the fittest out in the yard and sad to say most of the "fittest" have been the weeds. I have to do some clean up. There are 50 tulip bulbs to be planted. Typically Columbus Day weekend is the time when the tree colors are at their peak. They have barely gotten started around here. Those that have went straight passed red and gold and slammed into brown. Other domestic duties of the weekend include the annual airing of the rugs, hanging of the heavy drapes and generally getting ready for cooler weather. This is guaranteed to keep the warm weather around for at least a few more weeks.

The news programs are buzzing, Fox can hardly stand it, CNN can't shut up about it. Yes ladies and gentlemen Bill Clinton has a temper and some smarmy little news guy from Fox News (a network not known for fair play or even solid journalism) made him lose it. Slightly. I watched the interview. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Parameters had been set before hand as is normal and then the news guy goes off script and hits ole Bill with the Osama bin Laden question. First if I were Clinton's press secretary I'd be upset that the weasel went off script. Second I thought Bill handled it pretty well all things considered. It is about time that someone stood up to these idiots and slammed them back. I feel the same way when a actor punches out a paparatzi for jumping outta the bushes and snapping shots of the wife and kids. Little suckers had it coming. So Bill Clinton has a temper. Fox News has no class. Get over it.