Greetings Earth People! Take me to your leader...

From Jim: When we contact "other" life forms and begin to forge an understanding of each other, let's hope that we get around to our political system after they've decided not to rid the universe of us as the vermin we are. We'll have some "splainin" to do, as Dezi said. The "leader" thing might just cause our alien visitors to retire for a caucus on our future anyway. If they attempt to understand our primary elections, straw polls, and caucuses in the context of selecting leadership, we're pretty much doomed to be transmogrified into a slimy goo. If we wish to leave no doubt as to the need to expunge us from the cosmos, we should give them an opportunity to chat with the media. During the last micro-second of human existence, CNN and FOX can finger point at each other. The liberals and tea partiers can request separate death beams. We will be divided-even in death! The aliens might use this as their best rationalization for offing us in some technologically spectacular way. Or they might just squash us. In any case, their supreme council/federation/ruling order/Jedi oversight group will insist that all those who came in contact with us be subjected to a series of sterilization and synapse washing sessions. There will be no mind-melding with those who have met the mindless. This might be the best outcome we can hope for. An alien exterminator truck to finally clean up the mess we've made of things. It would be quick and decisive and not prefaced with 137,342 political ads, 3562 robo-calls, and 239 tons of junk mail. Nope, it would just be an instant of vaporization. I don't even see a choice here.

The Mighty 1/1000 of a Per Cent has Roared!

From Jim: The meaningless state of Iowa has issued the meaningless results of their meaningless caucuses. By an overwhelming victory of 8, yes that's right, 8 votes the Mittster has carried the day. Let the church bells ring out. Oops, Mormons don't have bells or crosses. Anyway, Rick Santorem, ex-senator and "family values" guy extraordinaire missed it "by this much". Maxwell Smart would have been proud! Let's pause and reflect on the huge significance of the moment. OK, about 119,000 proud Iowanian Republicans rose up and 23% of that massive assemblage "double secret probation" balloted for the Mormon guy. So did 23% for Ron Paul, librarian retro-guy, and Ricky, Father Knows Best, guy. Folks, we're talkin big numbers here-like over 25 thousand, wowsers. That's like getting all of the Palermo vote, with maybe Honcutt thrown it. It boggles the mind. Michele-ma lead belle-finished, well really was finished with a showing that wouldn't have won a class student council seat in the 5th grade. Rick, Marlboro Man, Perry vows to crusade on-I mean like a real crusade to the holy lands and stuff. This happened after reflection and prayer and the voices in his head said, "Well, don't mess with Texas y'all". Romney stated, and I'm not making this up, "On to New Hampshire". I sure hope he doesn't hold that as an original thought to be a sound bite moment. It's like the NFL player that's going to give it 110%. Really? I think we should just dispense with the rest of the primary process, declare Mitt the crown prince of the Republican Party, let him lose, as the unelectable slug that he is, and move directly to four more years of mindless grid-lock. That should give the Tea Party Malamar Rangers time to train up and launch their paramilitary insurgency against the republic they despise so much. The want their never-existed "Mericah" back and if it never existed, well, it should have. About 20% of the independent voters say they'll vote Republican this time, to"send a message to Washington". Again, Really? I thought the Iowa caucuses just did that. The independent- undecided-uninformed-dissatisfied-devout-born again-free thinking voters surely will grasp the mandate cast before them by the Iowa masses. I would suggest an Occupy Iowa event, but you can't live there.

I-O-Way...Caucases? Who the hell cares?

From Jim: The Iowa Republican Party scene is only missing floppy shoes and bulbous red noses to have the whole package. The Newtster, stung by the negative ads, which are a litany of his life choices, and which he has "born again" repented from, calls the Mittster a liar, but still more acceptable that Mr. Obama. Michele can't get even the folks in Iowa to buy her bilge water and Perry is too busy forgetting his own talking points to inspire these Mid-Americans. Then there's the Paul father and son team. Libertarians, which many in Iowa misunderstood as librarians and felt people that like books would probably be OK. Well, anyway, these simple God fearing folks will gather to cast meaningless non-binding "double secret probation" ballots at their friends' homes or down at the Grange hall. Maybe at the BPOE or such. There will be speechifying to offer up support, hoping to influence the majority "undecided" voters. All told, this process involves hundreds, maybe even thousands of participants. More people went to the meaningless Rose Bowl game. (Sorry Ducks' fans) And the national press, staring into the 24 hour news cycle abyss, has done their best to make this mean something-Iowa, not the Rose Bowl, even the national press has it's limits. Soon the "winner" will sally forth, across the land to announce the mandate given by the Iowa Juggernaut. I never think of Iowa for even 1 second, except when this nonsense is going on. I really mean, "Who the hell cares"? Well, you say, this is the ramp up for New Hampshire. I reply, "Who the hell cares about that either"? The question that has plagued the Republicans this is who is electable that can appease the Tea Party wing of the party. The answer, of course, is NO ONE! The Tea Party isn't interested an election, when there's a perfectly good violent overthrow to be had. Bring on the Brown Shirts! Why have primaries when you can have a night of broken glass? I think the Reps will get Romney. He's a nice Mormon guy, who has racism well founded in his cultest belief system-gotta love them Laminites, mark of God and all that. Can't you just hear the leering voice of Limbaugh now. Using his talent "on loan from God" to try and justify Romney's candidacy. I may chip in for some floppy shoes and a rainbow Afro or two. The really sad thing is, Iowa is iconic of what's truly gone wrong with our republic. We are no longer a people with a shared common vision. We don't have a sense of Americanism or core values as a people. The inner city minority kid and the Iowa farm boy aren't pointed in the same direction. King corn is crowned by subsidies, but poor kids are welfare brats. Self reliance can't give up reliance on government hand outs. But it's farming, you say. No, it's government welfare. Without the large West and East coast state economies kicking in billions of dollars, Iowa would be worth about $2500 lock, stock, and barrel. Their valuable black gold farm land would just grow amber waves of grain, traded on the world economy by multinational corporations. Oops, that's what they're doing and getting subsidies to boot. On to New Hampshire brave lads and lassies, on to New Hampshire!

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.