Ferrets in a Bag and the Nap at the End of the Tunnel

Yep...pretty much just random ferret photos.

Popcorn and Butterscotch

In a moment of weakness, I bought butterscotch chips at the grocery store. They are unbelievably sweet and really never should have come into my kitchen. However, I have come to the conclusion that butterscotch and salted butter popcorn should be rather tasty. If I weren't about to go to bed right now, I would test this theory, but since I am off to bed, it would be wise to avoid consuming anything else at this point in time.

Update: Confirmed.

Silly Loki!

Yeah...I guess the bed isn't really necessary...

Loki's determined...

Loki: I can fit, honest! I just have to push a little harder!

Magic Poo?

I saw Chaos peeing directly in front of the litterbox, so of course, I had to clean that up. I also had to clean him up, because his feet slid out from under him while he was urinating and he got messy too. When I came back from cleaning him to clean up the urine, I saw a perfectly formed poo on the edge of the table closest to the litter pan - fortunately, there was no urine on the table. And thank goodness for sanitizing wipes!

This is a bit of a mystery, since to date, neither ferret has managed to get up onto the table. I'm also pretty sure that I would have noticed if Chaos had pooed when I picked him up to wash him off and briefly passed him over the table on the way out of the corner. So, that leaves two possibilities: Either Loki has figured out how to get onto the table or the poo magically appeared.

Generally, I am disinclined to believe in magic poo. On the other hand, there are some plastic grocery bags on the table, a bowl of grapes, various bits of mail and my laptop. None of these seem to have been disturbed, which makes it difficult to believe that Loki climbed up onto the table, pooed and then dropped back onto the floor again. Also, he would have either had to have done it during the minute that I was out of the room cleaning up Chaos or while I was not more than 10 feet away, without me noticing.

Very strange.

Deja Vu

I was listening to Public Radio this morning and heard the plug for the upcoming Talk of the Nation (at least I think that's what it was...I was rushing to get out the door).

Paraphrasing, the snippet was something like this:

Obama says that he'll win the election.

McCain says that he'll become president.

Who will win? How will he do it?

I was struck by the possibility of both of them achieving those goals. Many say that Gore won the election and that Bush II became president.

Wal-Mart's new Marketside stores

Apparently, Walmart has decided to start a line of smaller neighborhood stores called "Marketside". If you care about whether you shop at Walmart or not, then this may be of interest to you.

The Evil Teachers' Union!

I was listening to part of the RNC on the radio and heard some guy shouting about the "liberal government" in Washington siding with the teachers' union and against the students. I'd like to take a moment to try to dispel some of the myths surrounding teachers and the union.

“School teachers only work part-time! Look, they have all summer off!”

On average, teachers work 186 days a year in the state of Oregon, of which 169 are spent teaching students. Some states require 180 school days.

A school teacher’s day looks something like this:

7:00-8:00 in school, available to students

8:00-12:00 teaching

12:00-12:30 lunch

12:30-3:00 teaching

3:00-4:00 in school, available to students

+2 hours of grading/lesson planning

That is an 11 hour day for a total of 1859 hours of work in the academic year, which divides out to 46.48 40 hour weeks of student contact per academic year. Additionally, there are the 17 days spent in teacher in-service and other duties, which add up to 136 hours if one assumes an 8 hour day; so another 3.4 40 hour work weeks. That sounds like full-time to me. Of course, that doesn’t include the time spent on required continuing education.

“School teachers are just babysitters!”

For comparison, let me also mention that my parents paid $9/day to my babysitter back in the early 90s. I have no idea what the going rate is, but we’ll go with that. If a teacher has a class of thirty and is ‘just a babysitter’, then that teacher should demand $270/day, which works out to $45,630 for 169 days. However, since a teacher also is to teach students, there is a certain value added.

“School teachers are just greedy and want too much money!”

A school teacher has gone to university for a minimum of 4 and often as many as 6 or 7 years. Generally, people who have gone to university for that long should be able to demand competitive salaries. Since teaching children is so important, it would seem logical that the people trained to do so would be very important to a society. If we want to have the best and the brightest instructing our children, then we need to provide a certain incentive for them to do so. If a person can’t make more as a teacher than as a secretary, where is the incentive? Teachers go into teaching because they enjoy teaching and want to help young people, not because they expect to become rich. However, they also need to have enough to feed their families and have health care so that they can devote their attention to doing their job, rather than to scraping to make ends meet. Also, as indicated above, teachers are professionals and should be paid professional salaries.

"Most money in the budget goes to paying teachers!"

Um, yes, the teachers need to eat. It is the teachers that make the entire enterprise possible. At minimum, a school needs students and teachers - a look at any third world country can tell us that much. We could do without the buildings and other accessories, but the teachers are absolutely necessary! This is not to say that we should stop maintaining the infrastructure, however, it is important to understand the vital role of teachers.

"The UNION!"

I would hope that teachers would be seen as allies in assuring a positive future for our children and, through them, our society. Teachers are workers just like just about everyone else. Teachers' unions are made up of teachers. A union is composed of individuals banding together to make sure that they are treated fairly and compensated for their labor. This doesn't make them evil! Also, many initiatives put forth by teachers' unions are aimed at helping further student education, so it is not only a benefit to the teachers, but also to the students.

------------------------------

Of course, I'm just preaching to the choir. Just about everyone who reads my blog on a regular basis already understands the value of education and the importance of attracting and maintaining qualified teachers.

Is the Daily Show slipping?

Is it just me, or has the Daily Show been slipping lately? It seems like there has been less intellectual comedy and more assholery lately, particularly with the conduct of the "reporters" at the DNC.

Don't get me wrong; a lot of the Daily Show is priceless. I like comedy. I'm just not much for watching people be jerks just to be jerks.

*shrugs*

Another take on the cervical cancer vaccine

This is my translation of the Dutch snippet found below:

Doctors reject standard vaccination

The introduction of the standard vaccination against cervical cancer is unreasoned.  That's what the doctors and researches write in the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (Dutch Journal of Health).

Minister Klink from the health ministry wants to institute vaccination for girls twelve and older in one year.  The scientists and doctors call it premature and unreasoned because the vaccine has never been tested on 12-year-olds.  It could be that the vaccine has different effects than it does on 15- to 26-year-olds, on whom the formula has already been tested.  Overall, the reseachers find that the research on efficacy of the formula has yet to deliver trustworthy results.

Source:
Nieuwsservice van Radio Nederland Wereldomroep
Edition: Nederlands Nieuws, 27 August 2008
http://www.wereldomroep.nl/



Artsen wijzen standaardvaccinatie af

Het invoeren van een standaardvaccinatie tegen baarmoederhalskanker heeft geen zin. Dat schrijven artsen en onderzoekers in het Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde.

Minister Klink van Volksgezondheid wil over een jaar vaccinatie voor meisjes van 12 jaar en ouder invoeren. De wetenschappers en artsen noemen dat overhaast en niet zinvol omdat het vaccin nooit is getest op 12-jarigen. Het zou kunnen dat het vaccin bij hen anders werkt dan bij de 15- tot 26-jarigen op wie het middel wel is getest. Bovendien vinden de onderzoekers dat het onderzoek naar de effectiviteit van het middel nog geen betrouwbare resultaten heeft opgeleverd.

Bron:
Nieuwsservice van Radio Nederland Wereldomroep
Editie: Nederlands Nieuws, 27 augustus 2008
http://www.wereldomroep.nl/

Loki: Not dead yet!

I took Loki in for a distemper vaccination. In the car on the way home,just a couple of blocks from the vet, he started vomiting, so I pulled a U-y and brought him back to the vet. After he got there, he started pooing blood and his skin, especially visible in the paw pads and gums turned bright red. They gave him antibiotics, Benadryl, fluids and sugar water. He was pretty out of it for about 3 hours. Since the vet didn't have anything that he would eat, I drove to Target to get some chicken baby-food, which he ate, though he needed a bit of coaxing to decide that he was hungry.

Now he seems to be doing fine, though tired, since they had me keep him awake and try to make him active the whole time. Now we're home and he's sleeping. The little butt wouldn't take his medicine, even though I mixed it with chicken baby food. I'll have to try it again tomorrow morning with Ferretone or soybean oil.

I'm absolutely exhausted! The last couple of times that I had to take a ferret in, in critical condition, they died. Needless to say, I was very concerned that I was about to lose my Loki boy too!

I'm supposed to watch him tonight and see how he is in the morning. If he has more problems overnight, I'll need to take him to the emergency animal hospital, or if he's having issues in the morning, then I can take him back to the vet.

The Queen and the Soldier

One of my favorite "local" bands covered the song "The Queen and the Soldier" by Suzanne Vega. It's a song that's haunted me ever since I heard it almost a week ago. Below is a Youtube video of Suzanne Vega singing it at a concert in Germany.



Here are the lyrics:

The Queen and the Soldier

The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door
He said, "I am not fighting for you any more"
The queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before
And slowly she let him inside.
He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill
And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill
But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will
Only first I am asking you why."
Down in the long narrow hall he was led
Into her rooms with her tapestries red
And she never once took the crown from her head
She asked him there to sit down.
He said, "I see you now, and you are so very young
But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won
And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun
And now will you tell me why?"
The young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye
She said, "You won't understand, and you may as well not try"
But her face was a child's, and he thought she would cry
But she closed herself up like a fan.
And she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread
It cuts me inside, and often I've bled"
He laid his hand then on top of her head
And he bowed her down to the ground.
"Tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel
As you are living here alone, and you are never revealed
But I won't march again on your battlefield"
And he took her to the window to see.
And the sun, it was gold, though the sky, it was gray
And she wanted more than she ever could say
But she knew how it frightened her, and she turned away
And would not look at his face again.
And he said, "I want to live as an honest man
To get all I deserve and to give all I can
And to love a young woman who I don't understand
Your highness, your ways are very strange."
But the crown, it had fallen, and she thought she would break
And she stood there, ashamed of the way her heart ached
She took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait
She would only be a moment inside.
Out in the distance her order was heard
And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word
And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred
The battle continued on

Very sad, I must say.

Snowball has gained even more!

The little fuzzy is now up to 1 lb 14 oz (1.875 lbs)!

Chaos has lymphoma.

I took Chaos in to the vet yesterday because of dehydration. The vet gave me fluids to give him twice a day subcutaneously. Poor little guy! The vet also found a bunch of hard nodules, which he says show lymphoma. He also felt some lumps in his abdomen. The vet gives Chaos weeks or months, but "not seasons or years".

Can we please protect Americans abroad?

I'm not against the death penalty per se. I know that many people are violently opposed, but that's not what I want to write about here.

I want to say that I wish that Texas had just handed that Mexican rapist/murderer over to Mexico rather than going against the Vienna Convention and executing him.

Those treaties are the only thing that protect Americans abroad...if we don't respect the treaties, how can we expect other countries to do so???

Not that I plan on doing anything that would get me arrested, but I'd like to be able to contact my consulate while abroad, thank you very much.

Snowball is gaining weight!

Snowball is up 5 whole ounces! Compared to 1 lb 7 oz (1.4 lbs) a week and a half ago, she's at 1 lb 12 oz (1.75 lbs)!

Reassuring Observation

I just watched Loki and Snowball at the moment when Snowball was screaming bloody murder. Loki's teeth and claws were not engaged, which tells me that she was just telling him to go away, rather than crying out in pain. That lets me feel better about not rushing to her rescue every time I hear her scream. It's very common for deaf ferrets to be rather vocal.

Your Prescription's Ready

Snowball is one tiny ferret. If she ducks her head down, she fits entirely in the bag.

In this corner...!

In this corner, we have Loki, weighing in at 3.4 lbs! And in this corner, Chaos and Snowball, weighing in together at 4.1 lbs!

(If anyone is interested, they are eating a blend of chicken baby-food, ground ferret-food, and water. Loki doesn't need it, but Chaos will only eat wet food, and Snowball needs to gain some weight, since she only weighs 1.4 lbs.)

Supply and Demand and Hemp and Poppy and Coca

I was just thinking that it seems very strange that a country that is ostentatiously so into supply and demand would try to handle marijuana, opium and cocaine by restricting supply.

Doesn't basic economics tell us that restricted supply leads to higher demand? Take the example of Prohibition (of alcohol), for example.

I would suggest that it would be best to leave commerical hemp production for such things as fibres and oil, and poppy for poppy seeds for muffins and stuff, and coca for tea, etc., alone.

Isn't the way to best deal with the problem to leave supply alone and to work on the demand side of things?

We should put those War on Drugs resources into addressing the causes of drug abuse. We need to have better education and better community building initiatives. Trying to restrict the production of the raw materials is akin to a game of whack-a-mole, but providing for healthy communities made up of healthy individuals is a long-term solution that will cut down on crime and other social ills.

Calculating your Gasoline Costs (calculate for gasoline sold by the gallon)

If you would like to figure out how much you are spending each time you drive somewhere, you can get a fairly accurate calculation by first determining the actual mileage that you get on your vehicle and then calculating how far places are and how much gas is used. For those who've forgotten how this works, I'm going to provide a step-by-step guide:

1) Calculate your mileage.

You can either use the published mileage for your car, or to be more accurate, calculate your actual mileage.

1a) The next time that you fill your tank, fill it until the pump auto-stop clicks.

1b) Before driving away, zero out your trip odometer.

1c) The following time that you fill your tank, fill it until the pump auto-stop clicks.

1d) Divide the number of miles on your trip odometer by the number of gallons that you pump. This number will be your miles per gallon (mpg). For example, 229.9 miles divided by 9.234 gallons equals 24.9 miles per gallon.

229.9 mi / 9.234 gal = 24.9 mpg.

2) Determine how far you drive.

One way to do this is to use a website like http://maps.google.com. Ask the site to give you directions from your home to a destination. For example, it might be 5.2 miles from your house to the mall, but remember to double it for the round trip, which would be 10.4 miles.

3) Determine how many gallons your trip takes.

You might want to try http://www.gasbuddy.com, a site that lists gas prices for many cities. Alternately, you can just check with the price at your local gas station. In our example, you might find that gas costs as little as $3.97 per gallon and as much as $4.13 per gallon, depending on where you buy it.

4) Calculate the number of gallons used on your trip.

Take your distance of travel and divide it by your mileage. In our example, it's 10.4 miles divided by 24.9 miles per gallon equals .418 gallons for your round trip to and from the mall.

10.4 mi / 24.9 mpg = .418 gal

5) Calculate the cost in gasoline of your trip.

Multiply the number of gallons used by the price of gas. In this example, the lowest this trip could cost would be .418 gallons multiplied by $3.97 equaling $1.66 for your round trip. The highest price would be .418 gallons multiplied by $4.13 equaling $1.72 for your round trip.

.418 gal * $3.97 = $1.66 per roundtrip
.418 gal * $4.13 = $1.72 per roundtrip

6) Cry

Now would be a good time to figure out how to minimize your driving.

Movie Theater Etiquette

This post is a poll on movie theater etiquette. Please respond in the comments section:

After watching a movie, which of the following is appropriate? Feel free to provide justification.

a) Be sure to remove any and all trash that you brought in, including beverage containers.

b) Leave the soda cup in the cup holder of the seat. You just paid $10 for a ticket. The theater employs a clean-up crew.

c) Dump the leftover popcorn on the floor. The movie sucked anyway.

Support refugees

Help the many displaced people both in and out of Iraq. My Iraqi friend worked for this organization for a while.

Just to give you an idea of how bad it is, many of those who were able to feel to Syria, for example, have run out of money, because the Syrian government isn't providing work visas. There was recently a piece on public radio about Iraqi prepubescent girls and young women working as strippers and prostitutes in Syria to support their families. Not only is prostitution problematic in and of itself, but keep in mind that these girls are from a society that condones honor killings, so had they been raped back home, it's quite possible that someone in their family would have killed them. These girls will be ruined in the eyes of others. It would be better to help these families financially than to force these girls into the sex trade.

Many, like my Iraqi friend, weren't even able to flee Iraq because other countries (including the United States) closed their borders to Iraqi refugees. The week before he was able to leave for Syria, Syria too closed its borders to new refugees. The Iraqis need help to make the situation more tolerable.

All you have to do is sign, and a dollar will be donated by one of the IRC supporters. I signed, and you can too!

Because of the war, 60,000 Iraqis are fleeing from the violence each month, mostly to neighboring Jordan and Syria.

Women, men, and their young children - fearing deportation - are living in hiding. They desperately need food, medicine, education, jobs and a safe place to live.

The IRC is on the ground providing lifesaving relief. And today, we can help.

For each person who signs the IRC Iraq Humanitarian Pledge, one of their supporters will donate $1 to provide additional lifesaving services to vulnerable Iraqi families caught in the crossfire of violence.

That means additional food, mattresses, clothing, and medical and housing assistance.

Further thoughts on the topic of illegal immigrants

Before the Civil War, it was legal to own slaves. But hey, a slave could buy his freedom.

Before Martin Luther King Jr., it was legal to discriminate on the basis of skin color. But hey, all Blacks had to do was move north or 'back to Africa'.

Before suffrage, it was legal to discriminate against women on the basis of gender. But hey, women could just encourage their husbands to vote the way that they would like.

It is currently legal to discriminate against an individual based on his or her place of birth. But hey, immigrants might be able to come legally if they jump through the right hoops and are willing to wait indefinitely for permission - otherwise, they can just stay in their impoverished home communities.

None of the situations listed above are just.

-------------------------------------------------

It also really bothers me when we deport people who were brought to the United States as children, have grown up loving America, often not even knowing that they are considered illegal aliens, have become educated here, and have committed no crime other than staying in the country that has raised them.

There is currently a case pending for Tope Awe, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. Below is brief summary from here:

Tope Awe, a third-year graduate student in the UW School of Pharmacy,was arrested last week and risks deportation to Nigeria.

What crime did she commit? She stayed in the United States with her family since she was three and grew up American.

...

Tope Awe is as American as any American citizen kid born and brought up here. She is a student leader and an avid contributor to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Whether being the co-chair of the African Student Association 2006-2007 school year, the co-president Multicultural Affairs Program in Pharmacy 2006-2007, or working for the Diversity Program in University Housing as the Multicultural Liaison she has been avid and insightful resource on this campus.

Even if you believe that Tope should be sent to Nigeria--a country that she does not know and does not consider her home--she should not be in jail or detention because she has commited no crime. Tope should be allowed to at least finish her education.

Edit - This blog post has been updated to add that Tope is no longer in detention. The battle is not over because this is just a temporary resolution. However, this demonstrates that gathering petitions and protesting ICE detentions of students does make a difference when it comes to some immigration judges so to all those that are fighting deportation, keep up the fight and let us know how to assist in your cause.

...

I came across this post over at Yahoo!:

About illegal immigrants and US army?

I have a friend and his shy to do this so im doing it for him. His 18 almost 19 the first time he came to US was in 1997 he was 8 i guess and he came back and forth a couple of times but he came as a visitor with a passport and a visa and he stayed here longer than he could now its his 3rd time here and his been here more than 5 years and he also finished middle school here and its finishing high school this year, he wanted to be legalized but he doesn't know if he can and also he wanted to join US army but he doesn't know if he can either.. His family own a house here and all his family work on US.

Ps: if anybody have any idea that can help we`ll be thankful


Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

He's going to have to get some sort of visa before the Army will take him. I'm not a professional on immigration, but I would assume that a workers visa would be the easiest to get. A recruiter might even be able to help him with paperwork and filing. That doesn't mean the recruiter will do it for him, or that he'll be able to pull strings and get it faster. It just means that he'll point your friend in the right direction.

Once he gets a Visa, then he can enlist and work towards full citizenship. Once in the military, immigrants can work towards full citizenship faster than civilians.

And other commenters need to chill. Just because he's an illegal immigrant doesn't mean he's a criminal. The poor kid is trying to prove to us that he wants to be here, and wants to be an American, by joining our military and risking his life in our war. He's wants to do what many of our peers and children are too cowardly to do. I say, let him enlist.

Fortunately, this response is fairly well balanced, but some of the other comments on the post are as follows:

First he is not shy...he is afraid of ICE !!!!

First talk to a recruiter...
Then he will have to return to his own Country
before he can obtain a GREEN CARD..
(Probably a Provisional 2 year Card)
After Serving 2 Years in the Armed Services
he is eligible to apply for Automatic US Citizenship...

At this point in time...you are aidding and abetting
a Crime !!!!

* 2 months ago

Source(s):
Retired Marine !!!!

And another:

he cant join the military without a green card, tell your friend that he is taking jobs from legal/citizens by willing to join the army.

And another:

Yes. Send his illegal @$$ back and have him come here legally.

You are aiding and abetting a criminal, and should go to jail.

By the way, this is EXACTLY how my in-laws feel. They came here legally 40 years ago and are now citizens.

I think that people who feel that illegal immigrants are criminals should take a moment to remember the last time that they bought something online without reporting the sales tax owed on their tax forms, jay-walked, exceeded the legal speed limit or blood-alcohol level while driving, tossed a cigarette out the window, threw away a battery in the normal trash or otherwise broke the law. How hypocritical! Illegal immigrants are illegal for arbitrary reasons that have nothing to do with any sort of violence or danger to society. (And don't tell me that illegal immigrants are violent offenders! Sure, some of them are, but so are many natural born Americans.)

Humans are humans and it is wrong to discriminate against them, just because they happen to have been born on the wrong side of an arbitrary line!

On illegal immigrants and social security

I recently got this in an email forwarded to me by my parents, forwarded to them from my uncle:

>> Subject: Social Security Changes--- Important ! ! ! ! ! !
>> SOCIAL SECURITY CHANGES
>>
>>
>>
>> It does not matter if you personally like or dislike Bush. You need to
>> sign this petition and flood his e-mail box with e-mails that tell him
>> that, even if the House passes this bill, he needs to veto it. It is
>> already impossible to live on Social Security alone. If the government
>> gives benefits to 'illegal' aliens who have never contributed, where does
>> that leave those of us who have paid into Social Security all our working
>> lives?
>> As stated below, the Senate voted this week to allow 'illegal' aliens
>> access to Social Security benefits.
>> Attached is an opportunity to sign a petition that requires citizenship
>> for eligibility to that social service.
>>
>> Instructions are below. If you don't forward the petition and just stop
>> it, we will lose all these names.
>>
>> If you do not want to sign it, please just forward it to everyone you
>> know.
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> To add your name, click on 'forward'. Address it to all of your email
>> correspondents, add your name to the list and send it on.
>>
>> When the petition hits 1,000, send it to comment@whitehouse.gov
>>
>> PETITION for President Bush:
>>
>> Dear Mr President:
>> We, the undersigned, protest the bill that the Senate voted on recently
>> which would allow illegal aliens to access our Social Security. We
>> demand that you and all Congressional representatives require citizenship
>> as a pre-requisite for social services in the United States .
>>
>> We further demand that there not be any amnesty given to illegals, NO
>> free services, no funding, no payments to and for illegal immigrants.
>>
>> We are fed up with the lack of action about this matter and are tired of
>> paying for services to illegals.

[944 signatures]

This sort of attitude bugs me.

Actually, many illegal aliens are paying into the system every day. If they work at Burger King, for example, they have either a legit Tax ID number or an illegally acquired social security number. Either way, money is taken out of every paycheck for social security. Many of these same illegal immigrants don't realize how many services are in fact available to them or are afraid of being turned into the ICE, so they often don't take advantage of social services.

These same illegal immigrants are also paying into the economy. Regardless of how they acquire their money, they are purchasing groceries, clothing and other goods just like everyone else. They pay the same sales tax as everyone else.

So, whether you like the idea of illegal immigrants or not, it's important to realize that they, as a group, are not just leeches on our society (though there are certainly those who abuse the system, just like there are many natural born Americans who do so).

And frankly, they are human beings too. It's not their fault that they were born on the wrong side of the border. Also they aren't coming with guns to systematically murder the current inhabitants as most Americans' ancestors did! I think I prefer the current pattern of immigration to that of the Europeans of the first century and a half of this country!

Les Misérables

I just finished watching Les Misérables (1998) on DVD. It was pretty good, though I wasn't overly impressed until it got to the part of the story in Paris.

I found it noteworthy that being that this movie is set in France, while it did not have Gérard Depardieu, it did have a similar looking actor Liam Neeson. Had the movie been done in French, it's almost certain that Depardieu would have had the part!

Oh...what a surprise! Further websearch finds a 5 part miniseries (2000) indeed staring Gérard Depardieu!

100 Calorie Packs...not so good...

Rating: chewy cardboard

If I eat cheesecake, I want something sweet and creamy. This ain't it.

Iraq update

In case anyone is wondering, from the perspective of my Iraqi friend in Najaf, things have gotten better.

Karen: do you feel safer this year than you have in the past?
Jassim: yes
Karen: why is that? What has changed?
Jassim: since Americans made arrangement with Sunnies powers
Jassim: things changed

Books

I've decided to just note the three most recent books I've read.

1) A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.

This is a very amusing book. It took a bit to get into, but was incredibly satisfying by the end. I also really enjoyed the political commentary interjected about the Vietnam War and the Reagan administration. Despite having been first published in 1989, the commentary on foreign affairs is eerily similar to what many are saying about the escapades of the Bush administration today.




2) War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq by Richard Engel.

This is a chronicle of an NBC reporter's experiences throughout the Iraq conflict. He is uniquely situated, since he lived in Cairo and learned Arabic and the culture of the Middle East before the war began. He arrived in Iraq before hostilities began and has been there more than anywhere else ever since. He is able to share both personal experience and make larger observations on the political / social situation of the country. His observations seem to be in line with what my Iraqi friend has told me over the last few years. I highly recommend this book as a primer into the war(s) in Iraq.



3) War for the Oaks by Emma Bull.

This is a whimsical fantasy novel set in Minneapolis. Looking back in my blog, I see that I read it back in December of 2006, so this is probably my 3rd reading of it. Although it starts out slow, the characters draw the reader in by the end of the novel, making the reader grieve for their losses and rejoice in their victories.

How is that comfortable???

Fat ferret!

OK, Loki isn't really fat, but he's much heavier than Chaos. Loki weighed in at 1.54 kg (3.4 lbs) yesterday, and Chaos at only 1.22 kg (2.7 lbs), which is down from his previous weight.

Internal Monologues

Chaos: I'm soooooooooooo tired. I need a nap. Here's good.

James: Hmm....ferret. Oh! I got a call!

violence in strike-breaking is bad

I've been listening to some old union songs.

OK...I can understand that the business owner wants his business to keep making him profits.

However, killing a striking worker is ridiculous! I hope that this doesn't still happen. Let's take a moment to think of the 'unnamed strikers', gunned down while picketing.

Regardless of where you stand on the labor union issue, please value human life over profits!

Huntington Bancshares needs to protect its employees

I was reading an article about a bank teller, who was shot in the abdomen during a bank robbery, leading to the loss of her twin fetuses. This is horrible. What makes it even worse, though, is this:

Katherin Shuffield said that she started working at the bank branch in March 2007 and that since then it had been robbed three times, including the April 22 holdup.

Both she and her husband strongly criticized the level of security at the branch, saying it was insufficient to protect the staff from the threat of violence during a robbery.

"You never get the security you deserve," she said.

I would encourage anyone with ties to Huntington Bancshares to demand that they provide more security for their branch employees!

Chaos the not so great

Well...the little man is still alive and kicking, but he's very weak. He did one short sprint up the hall and spent the rest of the time lying on the floor. The boy just has no stamina for anything except rolling around in his crinkly tube. I'm afraid that he probably won't be with us that much longer.

Naptime for the Chaos boy

I was lying on the couch, reading some articles that I need to summarize before tomorrow and Chaos decided that my foot would make a nice pillow.

He didn't seem to notice when I got up after I'd finished reading.

Loki loves his toy

So, I found this toy in the stuff that I got with Loki from his previous family. It had been in a box since January.

Well, let's just say that Loki loves this toy. I think that just about any definition of love might fit. Let's just say that he spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 hours of quality time with it this morning. That's the longest by far that I've seen him in any one location before, except for when he was asleep.

Loki's not feeling so hot

Loki: Dammit! *cough* Doesn't Mom realize that I'm not feeling well??? Why did she insist on taking me out of my cozy bed *cough* and taking me to that horrible place with all the barking dogs *cough* and whining cats, where they poke and prod? I hate that place! *cough* And then, when we get home, she pins me down and forces this cold banana flavored stuff into my mouth! *cough* It's so nasty! She's done it morning and night since then! *cough*

Walmart stops trying to get money from brain-damaged former employee

Remember Deborah Shank, the lady who worked for Wal-Mart, was in an accident and got brain damage - and then Wal-Mart wanted to get her settlement money from the trucking company, leaving her with no money for her continuing care? Well, Wal-Mart finally backed down.

Reposted from Wal-mart Watch:

WAL-MART DROPS SHANK FAMILY’S DEBT

Wal-Mart Drops Injured Worker Claim [Associated Press via CNN Money]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is dropping a controversial effort to collect over $400,000 in health care reimbursement from a former employee who is confined to a southeast Missouri nursing home since she suffered brain damage in a traffic accident.

The world’s largest retailer said Tuesday in a letter to the family of Deborah Shank it will not seek to collect money the Shanks won in an injury lawsuit against a trucking company for the accident.

Wal-Mart’s top executive for human resources, Pat Curran, wrote that Shank’s extraordinary situation had made the company re-examine its stance.

Deborah’s husband Jim Shank welcomed the news. Family lawyer Maurice Graham of St. Louis said Wal-Mart deserves credit for doing the right thing.

“It’s a good day for the Shank family,” Jim Shank said in a statement.

Wal-Mart has been roundly criticized in newspaper editorials, on cable news shows and by its union foes for its claim to the funds, which it made in a lawsuit upheld by a federal appeals court.

Insurance experts say it is increasingly common for health plans to seek reimbursement for the medical expenses they paid for someone’s treatment if the person also collects damages in an injury suit.

The practice, called “subrogation,” has increased since a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that eased it.

Wal-Mart’s Curran said the retailer was required by the rules of its plan to seek reimbursement from the Shank’s settlement. But she said the case has made Wal-Mart revise those rules to allow for flexibility in individual cases.

“Occasionally others help us step back and look at a situation in a different way. This is one of those times,” Curran wrote in the letter.

Shank, 52, lost much of her memory and ability to communicate or walk in a crash between her minivan and a tractor trailer in May 2000. Her family sued the trucking company and won $700,000. Court records show that after attorney’s fees and costs, the remaining $417,477 from the settlement went into a trust to care for Shank.

The fund now has about $270,000, the family said.

Shanks’ health insurance was through Wal-Mart, where she worked nights stocking shelves. After the Shanks won their lawsuit, Wal-Mart sued the Shank family to recover medical costs totaling about $470,000.

Wal-Mart won its case and subsequent appeals by the Shanks that went as far as the Supreme Court, which closed legal avenues this month by declining to hear the case.

During the case, the Shanks also lost one of their three sons when Jeremy, 18, was killed in Iraq last year while serving in the Army.

The case put a spotlight on the growing use of reimbursement claims by health plans, experts say.

Roger Baron, professor of law at the University of South Dakota and a specialist in health-plan law, said health plans have become “very aggressive” about subrogation since the 2006 Supreme Court decision.

“It’s free money. They want the free money,” Baron said.

Lynn Dudley, vice president for policy at the American Benefits Council in Washington D.C., said the negative publicity around the case was beginning to draw the attention of lawmakers who might want legislation to stop or limit subrogation.

“Capitol Hill is paying attention,” Dudley said.

Baron said Wal-Mart’s size _ it is the nation’s largest nongovernment employer, with over 1.3 million workers _ means that its willingness to compromise in an individual case may have a wider impact on reimbursement practices by other health plans.

“I’m so pleased to see an element of reason because so much of this subrogation has been about just blindly going after the money,” Baron said.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Caught in the Act!

I took a break from grading papers to locate a ferret.

Ferrets are simply the easiest to photograph when they're napping.

Man has to learn about his partner's death from the news

This situation is not OK! This is a really short video about a man whose life partner of 6 years died in a plane crash, but they wouldn't tell him about it. He had to find out from the news.

Eric Breidenbaugh knew something was wrong.

His partner and his partner's parents were all missing – hours overdue from a family flight aboard a small private plane.

Eric called his local airport, near Pinellas Park, Florida, to see if they had any information. They did, but they wouldn't give it to him. They said he was "not an actual family member," so they couldn't tell him whether his partner was alive or dead.

He searched the TV news, where he soon saw footage of the plane he himself had ridden in many times. That was how he found out that his life partner of six years, Joseph Bellamy, had been killed with his parents in a plane crash. (HRC)

It doesn't really matter where you fall on the moral issues of the gay marriage debate. I think that if someone has demonstrated this kind of commitment, then they should be allowed access to each other's information. Each individual should have the right to grant access to his or her information to someone who they trust, regardless of sexual orientation!



If you are interested, the Human Rights Campaign is trying to raise money to help keep this type of thing from happening to others in the future.

Exhibit A in the case of the State vs. Loki Fuzzbutt

I give you Exhibit A in the case of the State vs. Loki Fuzzbutt.

The prosecution's star witness maintains that both the purple food dish and the red water dish were on the blue mat, with their contents inside, at the time that she got into the shower. Returning from the shower, she found the food dish upside-down and the water dish at a distance of approximately 4 feet from said blue mat.

Photographic evidence shows the aftermath of this heinous crime. The suspect is seen fleeing in the bottom left corner of the photo over the blue mat, upon which the dishes had previously been located.

Investigators suspect that Mr. Fuzzbutt nosed his way under the blue mat, pushed it up against the cupboard and spilled the contents of the food dish. He then moved the water dish to a different location in order to avoid suspicion.

Mr. Fuzzbutt could not be reached for comment.

He's eating! All by himself!!!!

I woke up from my nap to the sound of a ferret eating kibble. I assumed it was Loki. Imagine my surprise, when I walked into the kitchen and found Chaos crunching away! This is such a relief! Now I know that he'll eat without me having to be there to feed him wet food! I thought I saw him eating in the cage in the car on the way back from my folks' place yesterday, but the light was bad and I was cruising down the freeway, so I didn't get a good look.

I think it was good for Chaos to be away from Loki for the couple days while we were in ND for Tom's wedding. He seems to have come out of his funk. Hopefully, he'll continue to feed himself!

Loki - Interior Designer

Loki likes to rearrange the layout of the apartment. He often repositions litter-boxes between 2 inches and two yards away from their original locations. He also redistributes his toys. If this whole cute and fuzzy house pet thing doesn't work out for him, he just might have a future in interior design.

Note: Typing in fuzzbutt.com will take you to a porn site, and not a collection of ferret pictures. Loki assumes no liability for the actual contents of fuzzbutt.com

Loki the Lush

I think it's safe to say that Loki has adapted well to his new home state.

Do we need to do this whole abortion thing again???

So, in response to my post about a ferret bed, I was asked (by a fundie) to justify some of my stickers on the side of the blog. I've decided to delete that comment there, but repost that little comment here:

Duane & Patricia said...

Hey, yeah, I was wondering how you reconcile two of your stickers to the right--
"prochild-prochoice" and "when we kill the innocent, we become the enemy"? Isn't that a contradiction?

9:27 PM, March 01, 2008

So, here's a bit of a response:

Well, this has nothing to do with the ferret bed, but I'll entertain it anyway.

Life may begin at conception, but I would argue that the little individual sperm and egg are already alive even before conception. Of course, so is every other cell in the body.

I'm pro-child. Children are great (just don't ask me to babysit). I'm also pro-choice, however, I would not characterize myself as pro-abortion. In the same way that I wouldn't call myself pro-amputation, I wouldn't make it illegal for someone to choose to have an amputation rather than suffer from a painful gangrenous death. I think that such a person should have a choice! I would expect that most people would not choose to have an amputation unless absolutely necessary.

Basically, I believe that most women would not choose to have an abortion. However, if a woman feels that she is unable to carry a baby to term due to such issues as danger to her health, incest, or rape, then I think that she should be able to make that decision. Ideally, in my mind, every woman would carry a baby to term if she is able, and then give it up for adoption if she doesn't want it / can't take care of it. On the other hand, I knew a woman who had been adopted, and she said that she would rather abort a baby than subject it to adoption. Wherever you fall on that issue, I think it is incumbent on the woman to educate herself about the options / repercussions of an abortion before making that decision. It should be her decision. However, I also would personally choose to limit abortions to only happening early in the pregnancy, before there can be argument that the fetus has any cognition / feeling.

As far as killing the innocent, this refers to killing people for no justifiable reason. In addition to being a crime against humanity, it just builds hate in those who remain and is bad for everyone. I think that there is a quantifiable difference between people who have been born, begun experiencing life; and a bundle of cells not yet capable of cognition.

Other people than me have made much better arguments about this than I am going to take the time to do now.

ferrets doing ferret things

Here we have Chaos hanging out in a pant leg, and Loki washing his face.

For better or for worse, Ahmadinejad is right.

Here's a clip from a BBC article:

Iran defiant over sanction threat

Iran's leader has called the UN report an historic victory

Iran's leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that no amount of UN sanctions will deter Tehran from its nuclear path.

"If they want to continue with that path of sanctions, we will not be harmed. They can issue resolutions for 100 years," he said in a TV interview.

His remarks came after a UN report said Iran was being more transparent - but had not given "credible assurances" that it was not building a bomb.

Tehran insists its programme is aimed purely at generating electricity.

He's right. UN resolutions don't really do anything.

Dinner in the comfort of your own crinkly-tube

James decided that rather than taking Chaos out of the tunnel to feed him, it would be easier to just transport the whole tunnel to the food dish.

An Epiphany

I just realized something! It's not that Chaos won't eat dry food. It's just that he won't eat the dry food that I'm offering him. He was more than willing to steal the dog's food, so that shows that "there's nothing wrong with the machine", to quote a previous veterinarian.

So, what I will do the next time that I get the chance, is to take Chaos to the pet store, where they have ferret food and kitten food in bulk bins and see if there are any that he'll eat.

All broadcast to be HDTV

So, the government has mandated that all TV broadcasts be in HDTV by February 17, 2009.

So, not knowing anything about these things, I can't help but wonder if it's easier to jam digital than analog. Anyone know?

Bush does something right and shows that he just might be human afterall

Apparently Bush put enough pressure on the Saudi king to get a rape victim pardoned.

(CBS/AP) A gang-rape victim who was sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her was pardoned by the Saudi king after the case sparked rare criticism from the United States, the kingdom's top ally.
...
Earlier this month, Mr. Bush expressed his anger over the sentencing.

"My first thoughts were these," Mr. Bush said. "What happens if this happens to my daughter? How would I react? And I would have been - I'd of been very emotional, of course. I'd have been angry at those who committed the crime. And I'd be angry at a state that didn't support the victim."
...

So, maybe he could apply a bit more pressure to get his friends to treat women equally with men. *sighs*

On Obama per Shelby Steele

Here is an interesting take on Obama. You'll need to follow the link to hear what he has to say.

Word for Word from American Public Media
Race vs. presidential politics

February 1, 2008
Conservative intellectual, researcher and author Shelby Steele of Stanford University's Hoover Institution has written widely on race relations in American society. Now, Steele weighs in on presidential politics. In a Jan. 23 speech at the Commonwealth Club of California, Shelby Steele discussed his new book, "A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited about Obama and Why He Can't Win."

This is the book description posted at Amazon.com:

Book Description
In Shelby Steele's beautifully wrought and thoughtprovoking new book, A Bound Man, the award-winning and bestselling author of The Content of Our Character attests that Senator Barack Obama's groundbreaking quest for the highest office in the land is fast becoming a galvanizing occasion beyond mere presidential politics, one that is forcing a national dialogue on the current state of race relations in America. Says Steele, poverty and inequality usually are the focus of such dialogues, but Obama's bid for so high an office pushes the conversation to a more abstract level where race is a politics of guilt and innocence generated by our painful racial history -- a kind of morality play between (and within) the races in which innocence is power and guilt is impotence.

Steele writes of how Obama is caught between the two classic postures that blacks have always used to make their way in the white American mainstream: bargaining and challenging. Bargainers strike a "bargain" with white America in which they say, I will not rub America's ugly history of racism in your face if you will not hold my race against me. Challengers do the opposite of bargainers. They charge whites with inherent racism and then demand that they prove themselves innocent by supporting black-friendly policies like affirmative action and diversity.

Steele maintains that Senator Obama is too constrained by these elaborate politics to find his own true political voice. Obama has the temperament, intelligence, and background -- an interracial family, a sterling education -- to guide America beyond the exhausted racial politics that now prevail. And yet he is a Promethean figure, a bound man.

Says Steele, Americans are constrained by a racial correctness so totalitarian that we are afraid even to privately ask ourselves what we think about racial matters. Like Obama, most of us find it easier to program ourselves for correctness rather than risk knowing and expressing what we truly feel. Obama emerges as a kind of Everyman in whom we can see our own struggle to accept and honor what we honestly feel about race. In A Bound Man, Steele makes clear the precise constellation of forces that bind Senator Obama, and proposes a way for him to break these bonds and find his own voice.The courage to trust in one's own careful judgment is the new racial progress, the "way out" from the forces that now bind us all.

New "The Princess Bride" cover

So, I saw this new cover and thought that it was annoying that they'd changed the font.



And then I turned the case upside down - and it blew my mind for a few minutes anyway! ;) I was kinda annoyed that the "princess" face looks nothing like the face of the actress. Just thought I'd share. Now I should get back to something more serious.

ferret update

I took the ferrets to the pet store and Chaos picked out a new toy, so I got it for them. Chaos also had surgery yesterday to remove a growth from his paw; some sort of cyst or something. Now he has three little stitches that will come out February 10th. His blood-sugar level also came in somewhere in the 20s...(70ish is low).