Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

North American Bear Center

This is a very nice web site and a very good cause. If you’re looking for a place to send some money, the North American Bear Center would be happy to get it. I particularly like that their message is focused on helping bears survive– not on simply making them available for hunters to kill. Be sure you check out the slide shows! There are some really great pictures of bears …doing bear stuff. (And lots of cute pictures of baby bears!)

When Lying Dogs Sleep

I don’t want to be one of those people who endlessly drone on about how cute and smart their pets are.

I’m not one of those people, right?

Okay, now that we’ve established that…

Our little dog Ashley (an elderly miniature dachshund) is so gosh-darned smart! I think this is really interesting: She knows how to lie. Yes, I’m talking about falsehoods here—not tricks involving rolling over or playing dead. She actually tells lies. There’s one lie in particular that she tells all the time. She goes to the back door and pretends she wants to go outside but then, if one of us gets up to let her out, she immediately turns away from the door and trots over towards the kitchen. See…what she really wants is a treat. She lies about needing to go outside just to get one of us up and moving.

I think it’s interesting that she’s smart enough to have come up with this strategy. It pretty much never works–okay, so maybe she’s not that smart–but, still, it’s an impressive display of reasoning and planning.

Animals: not just machines with fur on the outside.

More on Pictures of Dead Deer

…and then, I promise, I’ll try to leave this topic alone for a while.

If, as the Duluth Tribune’s outdoors writer claims, hunters take no pleasure in killing then why would they feel enough pride that they’d want a photograph to immortalize the act?? That’s just sick.

Once again it comes down to only two possibilities, as far as I can see.

The hunter really does enjoy killing and he just doesn’t want to admit it.

Or, the hunter has such effective “mental blinders” on that he doesn’t even think about the actual killing part. To him (it’s usually a him), the actual killing is just a bit of unpleasantness that he puts out of his mind as quickly as possible in favor of the other things he likes about hunting, the being out in the woods with friends part. It’s also entirely possible that these people don’t understand that deer very likely feel fear and absolutely feel pain.

Whatever. It’s really quite disturbing either way.

I’ll say one thing in favor of deer hunting. At least the animals killed had some sort of natural and enjoyable lives before they were wacked. Compare the life of a deer to the life of a feedlot cow or pig. Or of a calf destined to become veal. If you eat veal and haven’t given that reality any thought, I invite you to do so.

Talk about monstrous…

My Favorite Teachers

Intolerance Is Not a ‘Value’ (washingtonpost.com): “One of my favorite teachers was a wiry little man with thick, horn-rimmed glasses who taught us fifth grade (…) He was everything a great teacher is supposed to be: unfailingly kind, considerate and dedicated (…) He was, also, we learned much later, gay. But because this was the mid-1960s in a small town, he didn’t dare live as such… “

I’ve wanted for quite a while to write about my own gay teachers but I didn’t know how to begin. This is a good beginning.

Mr. N. was one of my very favorite teachers. He was my German teacher and he taught me so well that I was basically able to test right into a German language minor when I began my university studies. He taught us about the different periods in German literary history and his treatment of the subject is the most insightful I’ve ever encountered. We read Kafka and Hesse in German when we were just 16 and 17 year-old kids and Mr. N. gave us the intellectual tools necessary for understanding these difficult works.

Mr. N. lived in our small town with his wife and kids and, as far as I know, none of us had any reason to think there was anything unusual about him.

After his kids had grown and he retired from teaching, Mr. N. left his wife and came out as a gay person. I have no doubt that Mr. N. loved his children. It seemed that he had genuine affection for his wife, too, though I have been told there was some bitterness on her part when the marriage ended. What strikes me most of all, though, is how terribly sad it is that this very talented teacher had to live a lie in order to do what he loved. Sad for him. Sad for his family. But–it was the early 70s and being an openly gay teacher wasn’t something that happened in Orono, Minnesota.

Another of my favorite teachers was Mr. L. He was my drama and speech teacher and he was also married. He didn’t live with his wife, though, and this puzzled many of us. (Hey, it was Minnesota in the early 70s. What did we know about “theater people”?) Mr. L. was kind and enthusiastic. He coached me in debate and speech competitions and, with his help, I won many contests. He gave me an opportunity to sing and act on stage and the confidence I gained from these experiences has enriched my life ever since. As I advanced in the state high school league’s speech competitions, Mr. L. would drive me to the various contests. (My mother was uninvolved in my various activities–but that’s fodder for another blog on another day.) Mr. L. was with me when I won first place at the state competition. He drove me over to another teacher’s house afterwards so we could surprise her with the trophy. On one of our speech contest trips, Mr. L. helped me pick out my prom dress. That should have tipped me off, eh? He was the first adult who ever bought me a cup of coffee. In truth, I had a bit of a crush on him. It wasn’t until the summer after high school that I learned that he was gay. My boyfriend was active in Mr. L.’s community theater group and–apparently feeling he didn’t need to maintain the pretense once we’d graduated from school–Mr. L. told him the truth.

I’ve thought a lot about why it is that the anti-gay agenda of the current administration is so very offensive to me. Certainly, it’s because of its inherent injustice. I can’t help also thinking, though, about my favorite teachers: two gay men who had to sacrifice some of their own happiness in order to teach. They were good teachers. They were good people. They deserved better than that.

More from Washington Post writer, Timothy M. Gay:
“”Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid,” Lincoln wrote in the years leading up to the Civil War. “As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ We now practically read it ‘all men are created equal, except Negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics.’ When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”

“There are a lot of Republicans troubled by their party’s exploitation of contemporary know-nothingism. You know who you are. And before your party’s degeneracy is complete, you ought to do something about it. Because camouflaging the fear and loathing of gay people as “moral values” isn’t the base alloy of hypocrisy. It’s hypocrisy itself.”

Left Behind? No, Intentionally Stayed There!

Salon.com Books | Fundamentally unsound: “The point isn’t that all these leaders are part of some kind of right-wing Illuminati. It’s simply that the seemingly wacky ideology promulgated in the Left Behind books is one that important people in America are quite comfortable with. The Left Behind series provides a narrative and a theological rationale for a whole host of perplexing conservative policies, from the White House’s craven decision to cut off aid to the United Nations Family Planning Fund to America’s surreally casual mobilization for an invasion of Baghdad — a city that is, in the Left Behind books, Satan’s headquarters.”

Well, this is pretty gosh-darned interesting, too! This is actually a Salon article from a couple of years ago. It’s referenced in one of the Establishment Clause articles I was just telling you about.

“The chosen people are suddenly the darlings of the religious right, while a bestseller promotes the idea that Jews will soon convert to Christianity — and atone for their centuries of stubbornness — en masse.”

Hm. I was talking to a woman I know about the possibility of her joining a flute choir I was involved with a while ago. That particular flute choir was affiliated with a local Baptist church and it was the practice of the group’s leader to pray before and/or after rehearsal. This didn’t particularly bother me but I was concerned that it might be offensive to my acquaintance, whom I know to be Jewish. When I mentioned it to her, she said ‘Oh no. No problem. Evangelical Christians just love me because I’m Jewish! It’s because we’re the Chosen People, you know.’

Hm.

Another Anecdote (didn’t I tell you they were the price of reading my blog?): I was chatting with a new friend about the kinds of books I like to read and I mentioned that I particularly enjoy apocalypse fiction. My friend responded that her husband really likes that too– particularly the Left Behind series. Knowing, as I did, that my friend is a serious sort of Christian, I’m pretty sure that her husband isn’t reading the Left Behind stuff for its ironic humor. I explained that no, no…the kind of apocalypse fiction I like is stuff with survivors of nuclear holocausts battling radiation sickness and scavenging for supplies, people living through pandemics that have killed 99.999% of the Earth’s population, the occasional plague of killer zombies, that sort of thing.

I could almost hear the mental gates slamming shut. Which is not to say that my friend isn’t a good person. She is a good person. In fact, it’s a testament to her goodness that she still calls me friend even though we have some very different ideas about how the world works.

Anyway. Left Behind. Very strange stuff–and particularly scary if the governmentals are basing policy on it.

Respecting An Establishment of Religion

Salon.com | Building religious tolerance: “It was the happiest of historical accidents (or coincidences) that the basic structure of our church-state relationship was fashioned under benign 18th century deistic influences. If the case had been otherwise, and if religion had become entangled with ethnic and communal identities and tensions, as well as evangelical fervor, the United States might very well look like a super-Ireland — or worse. I hate seeing this heritage heedlessly eroded or squandered by George W. Bush and his self-satisfied and sanctimonious ‘evangelical’ followers.”

Amen, brother.
[heh, heh...]

Really, what you need to do is first read Mr. Yoder’s original “False Prophets” article about the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. It’s here. (As usual, you’ll need to view an online ad if you’re not a member of Salon’s premium service. More about the premium service later…) Then come back and read this article. It’s a follow-up to the other one.

Okay, so…what does the Establishment Clause really mean? Its most straight-forward interpretation might be: the government won’t make laws about religion. Laws like “this religion’s permitted but that religion’s not permitted”. Yes. But how about laws regarding the practice of religion? There are laws regarding how Santeria practitioners manage their sacrificial animals. There are also (I believe) laws permitting the use of peyote in some Native American religious ceremonies. I suppose these laws were more a matter of defining the conditions under which these specific groups are exempted from the other laws about keeping animals and using peyote.

How about my other favorite government/religion issue, though: the displaying of religious symbols in public facilities? Clearly, a law requiring such displays would be a problem. How about a law forbidding these displays, though? One could argue that the Establishment Clause would prohibit that sort of law, too! And there doesn’t seem to be any mention in it about how much influence a religion should have over how the government is run. Hm.

Well, obviously I’m a person who knows next to nothing about Constitutional law. It’s interesting, though, isn’t it? Maybe I’ll track down more information. God knows (erm… well… somebody knows!) there’s been enough written about it!

Anyway. Salon’s premium service. I’m a member and I encourage you to become a member, too. When you’re a premium member you don’t have to see any ads. Plus, they have a pretty swell sign-up deal. I got ‘free’ subscriptions to US News & World Report and Wired magazines. And I got a ‘free’ subscription to the online version of The New Republic magazine. I don’t know whether that’s still the deal, but it’s worth it regardless. Salon pretty consistently publishes interesting stuff. Sign up. Tell them Rebecca Hartong sent you.

Keeping Death “Tasteful”

Duluth News Tribune | 11/09/2004 | Nice Bucks: “We prefer tighter shots showing the buck’s head and antlers rather than full-body shots. Photos must be tasteful. Specifically, they must not show blood or deer tongues.”

I wrote to the Tribune’s outdoors writer and their editor:

“You people are pathetic. [Okay, that was probably unnecessarily harsh.]

“No blood or deer tongues…no, no! Mustn’t upset the readers with images depicting the reality of killing animals.

“Maybe if people saw the grim reality of it, they’d be a bit less likely to want to blast away at the wildlife.”

Surprisingly, the outdoors writer replied to me very quickly. [I figured they'd just write me off as a tree-hugging crank.] Part of his reply: “In publishing deer photos, we think it is only fair to our readers not to depict deer in a way that many readers might consider distasteful as the photo lies on their table at home.”

My reply:
“Thanks for your (startlingly!) quick and courteous reply.

“I understand that you’re trying to find a compromise position between showing graphic blood-and-guts pictures that hard-core hunters might enjoy and showing nothing at all…which is what a person like me would prefer. For those of us who have put some serious thought into their anti-hunting opinions, ANY pictures of dead animals are going to be “distasteful”. My objection to the “no blood or tongues” thing is that, by printing only “prettified” images of deer hunting, it’s easy for people who don’t hunt and who haven’t given it much thought to remain blissfully ignorant of the brutality of it…I mean, it’s not like these animals just lie down peacefully and die in their sleep.

“Anyway…I do thank you for your reply. Like so many things, this is one of those deals where good people can disagree.”

Update: 11/16/04

I heard back from the Tribune’s outdoors writer. He writes, in part:
” We do kill animals. We take responsibility for that. But it always troubles me when I hear from someone who thinks we take pleasure in seeing something die or in the bloodiness of the hunt. Certainly, hunting is a complex thing, and it is important to most hunters to hunt successfully at least part of the time. But, at least among the hunters I’ve worked with and spoken to over my lifetime, any kind of bloodlust is not part of the activity. I know you may choose to believe that or not to believe it, but I wanted to address it.”

I’m not going to write back to him–not because his point isn’t interesting, but because I got the impression he’s had enough of the discussion. (He remains courteous, by the way, so no problem there.)

Anyway…I think this is one of the most disturbing things about modern hunting: the “disconnect” between the things they love about hunting–being outside in the woods, hanging out with friends, seeing nature–and the actual outcome of what it is they’re doing. If you take no pleasure in killing, why do it? WHY DO IT? You can still be out in the woods with your friends enjoying nature. There’s simply no good reason for killing animals in the process.

weeHouse

weeHouse – little prefab on the prairie

These are slick little houses, too. And they’re designed by folks in Minnesota–which is a near guarantee of quality and function. Also, they come standard with Ikea cabinetry. That’s got to count for something, eh?

Their web site, however, is not particularly well designed in my opinion. Unless you happen to accidentally pass your mouse over one of the small pictures, you wouldn’t know that a larger version of each picture will appear in the middle of the page. Web sites shouldn’t sacrifice clear functionality in favor of artsy-fartsy effects. Hmpf.

I really like the site of the house they feature, though. Out there on the prairie with no other houses in sight. Ah…bliss! Imagine sitting in that little house on a snowy winter day with a fire in the wood stove. That’d be pretty swell.

New iBook

I have a new iBook!
Neener-neener-neener!

Monday is my birthday–but Mark is going to be out of town for work then so I got my birthday present today.
Neener-neener-neener!

A new iBook. Hurray! My old one was starting to die. The display would black out if I moved the cover back or forward suddenly. I could get the display back by just closing the cover long enough for it to “go to sleep” and then opening it back up again, but…obviously, this is not desireable iBook behavior and I didn’t really want to pay for having it fixed. Of course, one could use this episode as an argument for purchasing the extended AppleCare plan. I prefer, however, to use it as an argument for getting a brand new iBook.

My new iBook has 768 mb of RAM. The machine comes with 256 built in. Rather than pay the Mac Geniuses to install it, of course I installed the extra memory myself. It’s surprising how many people feel uncomfortable doing this. Truly, it’s quite easy. I’ve been digging around in the guts of my computers ever since my first Windows 3.0 machine, though, so…it’s apparently one of those things you either are into or you’re not.

Speaking of Mac Geniuses…. (Note to people who aren’t Mac Addicts: The tech folks who work on Macs are accredited by Apple as “Mac Geniuses”. Honest, that’s what they officially call them.) Mark and I met a guy once–actually, he was our waiter at some restaurant–who told us he was a “Mac Genius”. His words were still floating in the air when I fired back, “I’ll be the judge of that!” As you can imagine, I considered this to be the very height of wit on my part. That’s why I re-tell the story at pretty much every opportunity. These little anecdotes are the price you pay for reading my blog, folks.

Anyway, so I’ve got a new iBook. Yahoo!

Steve’s Diary

New Fiction Series – “Diary” – www.ezboard.com: “People born afterwards, after all that’s happened, won’t believe how quietly we left. No protests. No real, major rioting in the streets. No nukes going off by desperate dictators – At least, nothing in the last few days we still had news. No government lies about cures on the horizon. Mankind got ill, got into bed, closed it’s eyes & faded away. Coughed once or twice, to be sure, but just faded away.”

I don’t remember whether I’ve mentioned Steve’s Diary here before. Steve is a participant on the Apocalypse Fiction Magazine “Dwellers of the Wastes” board. “Diary” is his ongoing fiction project. The premise is that the diary-writer is a survivor of a pandemic killer flu virus of some sort. He chronicles his post-apocalypse life in daily diary entries.

I highly recommend this series! It’s very well written and, even though Steve’s been at it for over a year now (!), it remains interesting and compelling reading.