Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

The Children’s Crusade

In Training to Combat Satan – washingtonpost.com
The kids were met the first day with the command to walk through the pool with their clothes on and then roll in the dirt. The first morning’s inspection was like an act of vandalism.

“The first day, we tore everything out of there,” Phillips said as he and the camp officers headed to the next cabin. “There’s a little bit of edge here.”

Phillips explained, “That’s what Satan does: He tears up your life.”

So…. Phillips is casting himself in the role of Satan? I don’t have much problem seeing that as an appropriate analogy.

These people are fucking crazy.

What kind of parent sends their kid to a place like this?? What kind of psychotic nutbar thinks this sort of thing is actually good for a child?

Just what the world needs: more religious fundamentalists with paramilitary training.

Hummingbird

A hummingbird perched in a tree outside my office window and I happened to have my video camera nearby.

A Jaguar Is More Than Just An Over-Priced British Car

The Northern Jaguar Project
Northern Jaguar Project is a bi-national organization dedicated exclusively to establishing a privately-owned reserve in northern México to provide enduring protection of the world’s northernmost breeding population of jaguars.

Here’s how out of touch I’ve become with the natural world: I didn’t even know we still had jaguars in North America. I knew we had Pumas — but I had no idea about Jaguars. Wow. Pretty cool big cats, eh? All spotty and such.

There are some really wonderful people who are trying to protect these beautiful animals and, if you’ve got a few extra bucks (or pesos) you could send their way it would really be a good thing. You can help. Helping is good. Help the jaguars. Just click on the picture above to go to the Northern Jaguar Project web site.

They’ve got more pictures of jaguars there, too.

Steve & Eddie

Don’t even try to contain your excitement! Yes!! It’s pictures of the new kittens! First a couple of action shots:

And now a couple of close-ups so you can fully appreciate the intense cuteness of their small kitteny selves. First Steve, then Eddie.

And, so Stella won’t feel slighted, here’s a new picture of her. She’s already gained a pound since she first wandered into our lives!

And, finally, a picture of Eddie in what’s bound to be a favorite location as the years go by.

Rare Population of Moral and Legal Absolutists Discovered in Herndon!

Herndon To Keep Day-Labor Center – washingtonpost.com
The Herndon Town Council voted last night to keep open its two-year-old hiring center for day laborers but to find a new manager who will ban illegal immigrants.

These people in Herndon are such fucking morons. Yeah, sure — keep the illegals out of the hiring center so they can go back to hanging around outside the 7-11 to wait for work.

Council member William B. Tirrell Sr. said “the rule of law” took priority over workers’ needs. “The law is the law is the law,” he said. “We can’t decide by whimsy what laws you’re going to enforce.”

Gee — Bill Tirrell must be one of those unbelievably rare people who always drive EXACTLY 50 miles per hour on Fairfax County Parkway and not a single bit faster! I’m impressed! He must agree with me, then, that the new heavy fines for people who drive recklessly are a good idea. After all, “The law is the law is the law. We can’t decide by whimsy what laws you’re going to enforce.”

“Breaking the law in the name of charity is simply unacceptable,” said Susan Powell, a resident.

Remember those “relative morality” tests you take in college ethics and psychology courses? The one where they ask about the morality of a poor man stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family? Susan Powell would apparently be one of those people who’d say the guy should be locked up and his family left to starve. (Because, after all, “the law is the law is the law”.) Do you think? Do you all have as hard a time as I do believing these people’s “legal absolutism” is significantly less strict when it comes to their own behavior?

I’m telling you — I think there’s something in the water up there. Or maybe there’s a UFO buried under the town that’s emitting “stupidifying rays” designed to bring the population under control for eventual enslavement. Well, I say: let the residents of Herndon serve their evil alien masters if they want, but keep them and their dangerously numbskulled ideas way the hell away from me.

National Tire & Battery

Excellent customer service deserves to be rewarded with a positive mention, no? So here’s what I’ve got for the folks at National Tire & Battery in Chantilly, Virginia: a big old thank you!

Last night when Mark got to his car in the parking ramp at the metro station, he discovered that one of his tires had gone flat. He’d apparently driven over a nail. Luckily, he had a spare but…yuck. Just about the last thing a person wants to do in the parking ramp of the metro station after a long day at the office is change a tire on the car. Blech. But he did it and made his way safely home.

Today, he drove the Rebecca-mobile to work and I took the Forester in to NTB to see if they could fix the tire. They could, indeed, and about an hour later with the old tire back on and the spare safely stowed back in its spot under the carpet in the back of the car, I was ready to go.

Me: Great! How much do I owe you?

Guy: Nothing.

Me: You’re kidding me right?

Guy: No, no kidding.

Me: Are you sure??

Guy (looking at paperwork): Yep, I’m sure. No charge.

Me: Wow! Thanks!!

I’m not sure if it was because we’ve bought tires there before or what, but… they’ll definitely get our business again. And we’ll even pay them.

Dick Resigns

Rove: Departure Unrelated to Investigations – washingtonpost.com
Karl Rove is under no illusion that leaving the White House will end the congressional investigations into his activities. “I’m Moby Dick,” he said, “and they’re after me.”

Yes, yes… I realize that I can’t possibly be the first person to write this, but I’ll do it anyway: He’s a DICK alright, but he’s no MOBY.

Another Good Example Of Why Some People Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Reproduce

Armed With Checkbooks and Excuses, First Casualties of Va. Fees Go to Court – washingtonpost.com
The labor pains were coming, so Jessica Hodges got going. The 26-year-old bank teller from Burke sped toward Inova Fairfax Hospital, but before she got there, the law got her — 57 mph in a 35 zone. Reckless driving. (…) “It’s crazy,” said an unregretful Hodges. “Having a baby’s more important. Of course I’m going to speed.”

See, now, when I rule the world and everyone is sterilized as soon as they reach puberty, THIS is the type of person who will be denied permission to have the sterilization-reversal procedure. She’s an idiot and pretty obviously doesn’t have enough sense to be entrusted with the upbringing of a child. This is the kind of person who will kill her kid in a car accident because she’ll be driving recklessly in her enthusiasm to get the baby to the pediatrician for a check-up on an ear infection.

Hmm…. choices, choices. Baby dead in a firey car crash? Or 10 minutes late for the doctor’s appointment?? Decisions, decisions…

I guess it never occurred to this blockhead that if the birth seemed that imminent, it might be a good idea to call an ambulance. Fucking moron. 57 in a 35 mph zone. I hate people. I really do.

Democrats Tiptoe Around Gay Rights

Democratic Candidates Address Gay Rights Issues – washingtonpost.com
Obama said it is less important to focus on the semantics of the word “marriage” than to focus on equal rights…

What a complete cop-out. Like it or not, words do have meanings and, while equal legal rights would certainly be a step in the right direction, gay folks won’t have complete equality until they can legally get MARRIED. Someone should ask Obama to imagine, if he can, how he might feel if black people were granted the same legal rights as white people but couldn’t become part of a legal marriage. Wouldn’t he find that offensive? Wouldn’t he then, perhaps, discover that semantics really DO matter?

Activists were even more frustrated with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who when asked whether people are born gay or choose to be, said, “It’s a choice” and later explained, “I’m not a scientist.”

No, he’s not a scientist. He’s an uninformed idiot.

You don’t have to be a scientist yourself to know that the professional organizations of people who ARE scientists and physicians (Psychiatrists, Social Workers, and Psychologists) have all concluded that homosexuality is NOT a choice.

Pft. Richardson. What a moron. You all can strike him off your list of potential candidates.

Clinton took a stance similar to Edwards’s and Obama’s, not backing marriage but saying she wanted same-sex couples to have equal rights. She also said states were making better progress on gay rights than the federal government.

That is SUCH complete bullshit. The federal government is supposed to be in the business of protecting the civil rights of ALL citizens — regardless of what state they live in. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness? Do those words ring any bells, Senator Clinton?? She and the rest of the leading candidates are so fucking spineless. They don’t want to alienate the bigot-voters so they refuse to talk about gay marriage — and they foist the whole thing off on the states with idiotic statements like:

“I’ve also been a very strong supporter of letting the states maintain their jurisdiction over marriage,” Clinton said.

Yeah, she’s especially a strong supporter because it means she doesn’t have to take a stand one way or another. You know what we call pronouncements like that? Weasel words.

Cat 1 : Bear 0

Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted): Jack, the Lion-Hearted Housecat
Notice the tiny orange dot at the base of the tree. That’s Jack, the house cat. Now, notice the large black bear at the top of the tree, peering down fearfully at the tiny orange dot.

June 4, a black bear wandered into a West Milford, New Jersey, back yard, was confronted by a 15 pound (7 kilogram) declawed house cat … and the bear promptly fled up a neighbor’s tree.

Image: Suzanne Giovanetti (AP Photo).

Which really goes a long way towards confirming something I realized when I was at the Black Bear Field Study Course in Ely, Minnesota a couple of years ago: In a lot of ways, black bears are very much like squirrels. Big big squirrels.

Anyway… check out this great photo. Though, as someone on the site where I nabbed it commented, the owners of the cat really shouldn’t be letting him run around outside — especially since he’s declawed.