Stupid, Dumb, and Ignorant...

From Jim: Was thinking about our animal control officers this morning. They have a really difficult job. They're asked to enforce the laws which pertain to the animals people keep. People come in a lot of flavors. Some that law enforcement personnel see often are 1-stupid, 2-dumb, and 3-ignorant. The first two are generally the most troublesome. Stupid folks willfully do the wrong things and won't try to fix it. Dumb people don't have the mental capacity to do better and can't learn how to fix it. Ignorant people, ah yes, ignorant people just don't know any better. If they're just plain ignorant, not stupid or dumb and ignorant, then there's hope! They can be enlightened and taught and made to be OK. When I was a cop, I was always delighted when I found an ignorant person that could be helped. Seems like lots of folks that own animals are of the stupid, or dumb, or ignorant classifications. And why not? There's just a whole big bunch of stupid, dumb, and ignorant people. Then, of course, you have to layer on the good/evil index. Think of the permutations!: Evil-stupid; Good-dumb; Ignorant-evil; Stupid-good, and so on... So back to AC officers. They get to sort through the maze of ill-doers that have animals and try to take care of the critters, use an intervention that will work, and enforce the law. They also get to deal with strays, wild critters that are a health risk-i.e. rabies, predation of domestic stock, and disputes between folks over animals that are pesky or disorderly. They also keep the license thing straight for pets. People get weird and emotional when it comes to their pets.(maybe even more so than with kids) The dynamics that emerge in family disputes certainly exist and may even be more amplified. Fido or Flicca or Fluffy is not only "property", it's family, by golly! Just because they're starved, abused, beaten, sick, frozen, fill-in-the-blank, doesn't mean Joe petowner or Jane, his significant other, won't fight to the death to protect them from the jackbooted thugs that look out for animals' welfare. The "you can't tell me what to do with my own pet" anthem can be heard playing in the background! If Joe and/or Jane are of the evil-stupid-my property/family school of human behavior, a good time is sure to be had by all. Next time you see "the Dogcatcher" give them some well earned praise. These are really hardworking, good folks who have a very difficult job. Our Butte County AC officers are among the best I've ever seen.

The Really Hard Question: Euthanize healthy horses?

From Jim: Most of us in the rescue/sanctuary arena will stipulate that there are just too many horses. This is the result of irresponsible ownership and breeding practices. A few horses are un-homed because of the economy, but most "unwanted" horses are the direct result of bad behavior by so-called horse people. OK, that is what it is. Our stupid lawmakers couldn't address that issue on their best day with a million tries. Until the horse industry decides to police itself in an effective way, 10s and 10s of thousands of horses won't have a place to call home. The most cynical of our kind look to horse slaughter as a solution. Let's inflict the maximum pain and suffering on the innocent animals as a just response to the really crappy behavior of our kind. What the Hell? It's a lot like Swift's modest proposal. We'll just eat our over-population. Slaughtering and consuming pets is just flat out wrong. No economic argument in the world can justify immoral behavior. The Nazis sure tried it and we all know how that worked out. Oh, and for those that say animals aren't people, I agree. They're even more entitled to our protection and stewardship. So, that brings us to the question of euthanizing perfectly healthy animals because we can't afford to feed and keep them. Of course, it's our choice to not be able to afford them. We have other stuff to spend our treasure on besides living things and it would be wrong to expect the irresponsible owners to have to carry their part of the load-not capitalistic enough. Remember, the vast majority of horses are here because someone decided to breed them. They are not feral creatures. Again, that is what it is. I will accept that euthanasia is a far better option than slaughter, which in my mind isn't even an option. The painless end of life for a horse beats the heck out of starvation and neglect. There's an economy to euthanasia which most can understand and some can even get OK with the morality of it. I suppose ethicists and the like can even come up with a protocol that smacks of fairness. That doesn't exactly soften the price that those of us who have to carry it out feel and pay. We ask for donations and financial assistance every way we can think of. We volunteer to do the work. In the end, the irresponsibles overwhelm us. The actions of the foolish, greedy and misguided so-called horse people are so lasting and costly that we can't keep up. If this is how it's going to be from now on, I supposed that euthanasianists will be in high demand and the rendering plants will have plenty to do. That's really a shame for the critters.

Stupid Selfish People...

From Jim: I am, of course, referring to politicians. The longer they're in office and the more seniority they accrue, the more they become isolated and ego-centered. Makes me sick! Our system-pork for my district-lobbyists-special interests-and so on drives us ever onward toward a catastrophic breakdown. Our republic has become schismatic. There is literally no middle ground, no dialogue, not a hint of compromise or accommodation. Only rancor and dyspeptic arguing, partisanship and divisiveness. The authors of the Federalist papers, our founding fathers, never ever envisioned this level of intransigence. The tone of the political discourse is now equivalent to that which occurred just prior to our civil war. A Republican wingnut called for the assassination of the president of the nation. The right wing media-Limbaugh and Fox news, etc. are as seditious as it gets. The so-called speaker of the house can't get anything done-With His Own Party! What the hell? I listen to the guy at the hardware store or in occasional social settings and the I'm overwhelmed by the ignorance of historical fact, the pervasiveness of demagoguery, the complete lack of sweet reason. Nihilism is the tone that comes through loud and clear. Let's just let the thing crash and burn because it's beyond fixing. A position like that is hard to engage in a meaningful way. So many of our country's issues are now wedge issues-sum zero contests-ideological hills to die on. Pledges and oaths are taken to battle to the bitter end, no matter what the cost or consequences. If the nation fails, so be it! Better dead than the way it is or can ever be. "Those" other guys are pure evil-the Antichrist, "They" are not of the body! History is replete with examples of where this leads. The notion that somehow it will turn out OK, because we're America is naive and dangerous. The risks are very real and the outcome may be something nightmarish beyond the ditto-heads' imagination. Can you say "Brave New World"? The "Tea Party" can't even get their historical namesake's facts right. Revisionism is the name of the game. "Well, If it wasn't that way, It should have been"! Huh? What do you do with that kind of moronic babble? Check out the Republican Party's candidates. Wow, I am so unimpressed. Not that our current "leader" has shown me much. The next election should be a peach.

Stuff I don't like...

From Jim: I like a lot of stuff, but there's some stuff I don't. In no particular order and certainly not as a complete list, here we go. I don't like our economic situation, nor do I like the idea of returning to a credit driven/consumer economy. There's plenty of useless stuff in the world without infomercials trying to peddle more, but wait, there's more. I don't like the banking and financial industries at all, not do I like the unholy marriage they have with credit rating services. The whole thing is rotten to core. Greedy, stinky rotten! I don't like cancer. It's a nasty disease that raises hell with people and drives another greedy industry that views lives as an investment opportunity. Thought we got over that around the dark ages. Maybe not. I don't like stupidity. I can handle dumb. If the bulb is low wattage, less light is expected, but if actions are from little or no thought, or founded in deliberate ignorance, I'm not OK with it. Stupid people, thoughtless, mindless, ignorant, and uninformed, really chap my hide. I don't like cruelty to living things. Don't like flies and mosquitoes. Hate colic and hoof abscesses. I think the racing industries are about gambling and I don't like them. I'm not thrilled with the oil industry, but I think some of them try to get it right. War is an atrocity. Drug and alcohol abuse is not OK. I have some real issues with organized religions. Seems they're about money and "spreading the word", not good kind actions. I hate involuntary homelessness; Same with hunger and abject poverty. I don't like winter colds. Being overweight isn't my favorite. I get my teeth cleaned, but don't like it. I can't seem to find a politician I like. I can stand a few, but I don't like them. Lima beans are awful, not bad, AWFUL. I hate em. I don't like fear. I've not known much of it, but when it's there, I don't like it. I'm not pleased with how coarse and crude and rude and ugly our society has become. Our loss of gentility and manners and politeness is irritating. Don't like it. I don't like bad drivers. They're dangerous and they make me mad. Old or young, male or female, They tighten my jaws. I really dislike disliking so much stuff.

Take Bailouts, Give Nothing...

From Jim: I'm really starting to dislike the banking industry, the financial guys, and their Republican lackeys. They are destroying the housing industry and our economy. There's an hypocrisy that stinks to high heaven. The notion that bailed out businesses have anything to do with capitalism is silly. Big profit-big risk, Baloney. These guys are as socialist as it gets. Small government is not in their lexicon. Oh, no regulations and no legal consequences for horrible behavior suits them. But they are "too big to fail". May we all live to see the day when we try that out. I find oligarchy to be the worst of all forms of government. Greed is among the most despicable of human attributes. There is a corrosive and rotting effect to the unbridled behavior of greedy, immoral, dishonest people. Our government is chock full of them, bought and paid for by corporate interests. The big money folks have not factored in the demise of the republic. Their world doesn't require an America. The slouching slide into a third world society of haves and havenots is well upon us and, probably, it's too late to reverse. The Republican party, the party of "NO", the do nothing, insincere, sell outs, who put Stalin to shame with their "Big Lies" can own a bunch of the blame. The multi-national corporations, banks, and Wall Street can have the rest. Evil succeeds when good men do nothing. We've got plenty of evil, almost no good men in congress, and a polity that is schismatically divided and apathetic. We have failed the test of our founders' Great Experiment is self government. What a damn shame.

Crooks and Cheaters AKA Financial Industry

From Jim: Don't you just love the Wall Street gang? They destroy the economy by playing fast and loose, then get bailed out with our money because they're too big to fail. They then ship our bail-out money off shore cause they're nervous about the economy they screwed up. And never mind the poor guy with the upsidedown mortgage created by foreclosures being dumped on the market and no bail-outs because of the sanctity of the contract. Their contracts weren't so sacred, that's why they could get our tax dollars and pay themselves huge bonuses. Occupy Wall Street is, in my opinion, just the very beginning of the social unrest that will come from the revolt of the middle class. The Republican party can only sell so much of their ideology to the masses. Their moneyed interests will not sustain them against an ever increasing resentment of the abuses of the super-rich. Class warfare, maybe, but the fat cats started it. I remember very well the turmoil of the 60's and the transformational social change that spun out of the disenchantment of the antiwar movement. The mainstream moved the river banks-a social meander plain is once again in front of us. With the 19 to 28 year olds bearing the brunt of this economic bust, and the old vested interests hanging on their "America", I say LOOK OUT! We have grown schismatic in our polarity. There is no viable middle ground to meet on. Politics is now defined by high contrast social and moral issues which disallow compromise and gridlock is the order of the day. LOOK OUT! Our racial divides are now canyonesque! We have a volatile issue with immigration and the citizen offspring of undocumented folks. We have a dependence on foreign oil which drives our foreign policy. We have asymmetrical wars and wars of fanatical theology. The Wahhabi Moslems and the Fundamentalist Christians are not going to make nice! Terrorism is the act of desperate people with the belief they have nothing to lose. LOOK OUT! If you are optimistic about the future of this republic, you're either misinformed, uninformed, or deluded. The trends are not forward leaning in the least.

Time on Task, The Power of Numbers...

From Jim: We have 75 equines that are permanent residents of the sanctuary, 6 live with long term foster families. That is a fair number of critters. Our vet says a week here is equivalent to a year for most horse owners. We have a population that is atypical because they're rescues and retirees. That gives us a lot of seniors and quite a few cases of abuse and neglect. We've gotten pretty good at helping equines that have been starved. We've worked out a strategy for overcoming most of the emotional damage caused by abuse. Our efforts, led by Gary, our vet, to repair physical wounds and injuries is successful, for the most part. We don't view our animals as victims. That's not true. They may have been victims, but now they're horses, donkeys, and mules, living out their lives in peace and safety. We tell their stories to visitors, not to paint them as poor sorry creatures, but the acknowledge their capacity to recover and move on with life. There's a lesson there for all of us. We live embedded in the herds. They are all around us all of the time. We see every animal at least twice, and usually more often, every day. Our observations are not casual. We take careful note of their condition and behavior. Our impressions form over time and are discussed throughout the day. I believe this constant contact with them in a near natural setting has been one of the best learning experiences in my life. The list of questions I have, and of the things I don't know about equines is still very long. That said, I feel more comfortable about my understanding of these critters than ever before. After 60 plus years of being around horses, I'm finally at the advanced learner stage. I'll always be a student, never a master.

I'm sick about Vick...

From Jim: There are times when I really wonder about out society. A man that does unspeakable things to animals and then becomes a multi-millionaire and role model because he can play a game. He claims he didn't understand that his horrific acts were wrong because of his upbringing and subcultural values. But, he's feeling much better now! He sees that torture and violence and horrible death was wrong. Really? Are you buying that? Really? I can't believe that most folks are that stupid. If they say, "Don't care what he did or who he is, he can play ball and affect the line for gambling", well at least I know you're not stupid, just immoral. If you want to do the redemption boogey, well then, where's the repentant behavior. Where's the vow of poverty and humility and service. Not there is it? What do you expect from a thug? Mike Vick is not a good guy. Never was, never will be! He's a criminal that can play football. The NFL is an institution built on the lowest moral standard-winning isn't everything, it's the only thing! Thus the Lombardi Trophy. I feel sorry for the decent folks that play the game and there's a bunch of them. Their have to share their careers with the lowlife slugs that the NFL drafts. I can't enjoy the game of professional football anymore. Gangbangers and thugs don't entertain me. I used to arrest them. That was a better use of my time. Mike Vick is an example of a society gone off the tracks. Too bad, used to love the Raiders v/s Chiefs!