Animals in the News, Part One: Animal-Animals
The cynical comedian W.C. Fields famously said, “Anyone who hates children and animals can’t be all bad.” Whether Fields was serious or not is debatable since he often performed with both children and animals and he financially supported his two sons even when he didn’t have to.
The point is that children and animals aren’t all that bad even though both can be difficult at times and even if both can turn vicious. Kids aren’t the subject of this piece, though; animals of various stripes are.
In the nation’s capital, so-called Occupiers have become a problem as they have wherever they’ve moved in. Newt Gingrich advised them a while ago to get a job and take a bath but they’ve done neither. What they have done in D.C. and elsewhere is create a sanitation hazard by breeding rats.
There are various kinds of rats in Washington but here I refer to the 4-legged kind infesting Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square, not the human vermin.
In what must be a PETA-inspired decision, D.C. health officials plan to pack the rats off to neighboring Virginia rather than exterminating them which would make more sense, except to the officials. To show their concern for family values, the braindead Washingtonians are also insisting on the impossible, capturing and exporting the rodents with their little rat families.
At least that’s the interpretation of the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli who thinks the law is “crazier than fiction.” Gene Harrington, Director of the National Pest Management Association concurs saying, “Basically, federal and local government regulations have tied legal District rodent control practices in knots and made the management of such a problem much more complicated than it should be."
It’s all par for the course when governmental functionaries pretend they know what they’re doing.
There are other animal stories in the news, not ridiculous stories like that of the D.C. rats but, instead, gory and tragic. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=12166.)
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Friday, January 20, 2012
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Shutdowns and Charades in Washington
Shutdowns and Charades in Washington
What passes for a government in Washington is in chaos as lawmakers debate the budget, the deficit, and a possible government shutdown and the president, when he’s in town, takes potshots at Republicans by calling a bill providing for paying the military ”a distraction.”
The GOP House of Representatives passed another continuing resolution on Thursday to keep the government in business–for a week. The Democrat Senate still has to pass it. The president has vowed to veto it. However, since he and the family may be off again to Williamsburg this weekend on their umpteenth vacation trip, who knows?
Things couldn’t be any more farcical in a banana republic.
Are the Dems paying attention?
The budget is stalemated due to the ineptitude and cowardice of former Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid.
They could have and should have passed the 2011 federal budget in the last session of congress when Democrats controlled the House, Senate, and the presidency and it would already be law. Instead, they chose to diddle and dawdle rather than making some hard spending decisions so that Republicans would be saddled with those choices and have the shutdown albatross hung around their necks.
If Democrats haven’t noticed, the country is on the fiscal ropes. We owe $14 trillion to various people, we borrow 40 cents for every dollar we spend, we’re running a $830 billion deficit, ($113 billion more than last year at this time), and Democrats are quibbling over $12 billion in cuts? Then, adding insult to injury, our flip president flips off a citizenry struggling with a recession, unemployment, and gasoline prices well through the roof by advising motorists to “Think about a trade-in”?
May they eat their cake, too?
As far as fiscal sanity is concerned, Democrats haven’t seen nothin’ yet! If they get their panties in a wad over $12 billion, what are they going to say and do when Rep. Paul Ryan (R, WI) presents his proposals for fiscal 2012 and beyond? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4095)
What passes for a government in Washington is in chaos as lawmakers debate the budget, the deficit, and a possible government shutdown and the president, when he’s in town, takes potshots at Republicans by calling a bill providing for paying the military ”a distraction.”
The GOP House of Representatives passed another continuing resolution on Thursday to keep the government in business–for a week. The Democrat Senate still has to pass it. The president has vowed to veto it. However, since he and the family may be off again to Williamsburg this weekend on their umpteenth vacation trip, who knows?
Things couldn’t be any more farcical in a banana republic.
Are the Dems paying attention?
The budget is stalemated due to the ineptitude and cowardice of former Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid.
They could have and should have passed the 2011 federal budget in the last session of congress when Democrats controlled the House, Senate, and the presidency and it would already be law. Instead, they chose to diddle and dawdle rather than making some hard spending decisions so that Republicans would be saddled with those choices and have the shutdown albatross hung around their necks.
If Democrats haven’t noticed, the country is on the fiscal ropes. We owe $14 trillion to various people, we borrow 40 cents for every dollar we spend, we’re running a $830 billion deficit, ($113 billion more than last year at this time), and Democrats are quibbling over $12 billion in cuts? Then, adding insult to injury, our flip president flips off a citizenry struggling with a recession, unemployment, and gasoline prices well through the roof by advising motorists to “Think about a trade-in”?
May they eat their cake, too?
As far as fiscal sanity is concerned, Democrats haven’t seen nothin’ yet! If they get their panties in a wad over $12 billion, what are they going to say and do when Rep. Paul Ryan (R, WI) presents his proposals for fiscal 2012 and beyond? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4095)
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Your Governments in Action
Your Governments in Action
Anyone who thinks that governments, whether federal, state, or local, have become albatrosses around the necks of the citizenry need only consider some recent news items which prove that governments aren’t albatrosses at all. We shouldn’t insult the poor endangered albatross which was given a bad name by S.T. Coleridge two centuries ago.
Governments are much more akin to venomous vipers, blood and money-sucking leeches, and all-devouring vultures. The chief trouble with governments is that in democracies the bureaucrats and functionaries tend to forget who put them where they are, in totalitarian regimes they begin as lowlives. Sometimes in America it’s a challenge to distinguish the forgetful from the low.
Take, for example, Darby Township, PA. where township fathers have hit on a revenue-producing scheme.
It’s bad enough that Darbyites have to live in proximity to Philadelphia and have to try to survive a brutal winter in our global warming world but now, when Darbyites do the township’s job of snow removal and disinter their vehicles from a ton of the white stuff, they can’t claim the space they cleared as their own–unless they want to be fined $300 for the privilege.
Long a tradition in Darby, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3404)
Anyone who thinks that governments, whether federal, state, or local, have become albatrosses around the necks of the citizenry need only consider some recent news items which prove that governments aren’t albatrosses at all. We shouldn’t insult the poor endangered albatross which was given a bad name by S.T. Coleridge two centuries ago.
Governments are much more akin to venomous vipers, blood and money-sucking leeches, and all-devouring vultures. The chief trouble with governments is that in democracies the bureaucrats and functionaries tend to forget who put them where they are, in totalitarian regimes they begin as lowlives. Sometimes in America it’s a challenge to distinguish the forgetful from the low.
Take, for example, Darby Township, PA. where township fathers have hit on a revenue-producing scheme.
It’s bad enough that Darbyites have to live in proximity to Philadelphia and have to try to survive a brutal winter in our global warming world but now, when Darbyites do the township’s job of snow removal and disinter their vehicles from a ton of the white stuff, they can’t claim the space they cleared as their own–unless they want to be fined $300 for the privilege.
Long a tradition in Darby, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3404)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Of Birthers and Truthers, Part Two
Of Birthers and Truthers, Part Two
. . . Now that the ninth anniversary of what is easily the most godawful day in American history, September 11th, 2001, has passed without the threatened Qur’an burnings in Florida–thanks to the persuasive words and strong arms of the FBI–we can sit back and await the momentous tenth anniversary which may see a mosque overshadowing Ground Zero.
One group of people won’t be sitting back, however. The 9/11 Truthers, aka 9/11 Skeptics, aka Truth Activists, rarely sit back.
They believe in their gut that the United States government and/or President George W. Bush somehow, in some way, planned/caused/executed/allowed/consented to (choose one or more of the foregoing) the hijacking of four American airliners and flying them into the World Trade Center towers, into the Pentagon, and into the ground at Shanksville, PA.
On face value, the Truthers’ case would have to be considered the most preposterous of all conspiracy theories, the most outrageous accusations against its government by its people, a reflection of a bitterness and cynicism so complete and sinister that they could conceive of their leadership murdering 3,000 innocents to accomplish their own Machiavellian ends.
I don’t buy it but I have to admit these Truthers raise troubling and still unanswered questions about 9/11.
I started out with ingrained opinions on the Truthers but, as with the Birthers, I try to be as objective as possible, one reason being that I promised a good friend, a closet Truther, that I would strive for objectivity. . .
(Read more about Truthers at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1895)
. . . Now that the ninth anniversary of what is easily the most godawful day in American history, September 11th, 2001, has passed without the threatened Qur’an burnings in Florida–thanks to the persuasive words and strong arms of the FBI–we can sit back and await the momentous tenth anniversary which may see a mosque overshadowing Ground Zero.
One group of people won’t be sitting back, however. The 9/11 Truthers, aka 9/11 Skeptics, aka Truth Activists, rarely sit back.
They believe in their gut that the United States government and/or President George W. Bush somehow, in some way, planned/caused/executed/allowed/consented to (choose one or more of the foregoing) the hijacking of four American airliners and flying them into the World Trade Center towers, into the Pentagon, and into the ground at Shanksville, PA.
On face value, the Truthers’ case would have to be considered the most preposterous of all conspiracy theories, the most outrageous accusations against its government by its people, a reflection of a bitterness and cynicism so complete and sinister that they could conceive of their leadership murdering 3,000 innocents to accomplish their own Machiavellian ends.
I don’t buy it but I have to admit these Truthers raise troubling and still unanswered questions about 9/11.
I started out with ingrained opinions on the Truthers but, as with the Birthers, I try to be as objective as possible, one reason being that I promised a good friend, a closet Truther, that I would strive for objectivity. . .
(Read more about Truthers at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1895)
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Oink, Oink
Oink, Oink, A Parable for Our Times
This is an oldie but a goodie. It’s a little parable on the inherent dangers of dependence on government largesse which in itself is a contradiction since governments really have no money to dispense, throw away, or use to buy votes. All funds that governments possess come from the people they govern or mis-govern:
HOW TO CATCH WILD PIGS
"You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming.
When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate on the last side.
The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again.
You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught.
Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."
I was wearing a T-shirt one day that read in part, “Freedom Isn’t Free” and my 10 year old grandaughter sassily said, “That doesn’t make any sense!” . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1832)
This is an oldie but a goodie. It’s a little parable on the inherent dangers of dependence on government largesse which in itself is a contradiction since governments really have no money to dispense, throw away, or use to buy votes. All funds that governments possess come from the people they govern or mis-govern:
HOW TO CATCH WILD PIGS
"You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming.
When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate on the last side.
The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again.
You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught.
Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."
I was wearing a T-shirt one day that read in part, “Freedom Isn’t Free” and my 10 year old grandaughter sassily said, “That doesn’t make any sense!” . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1832)
Thursday, April 15, 2010
TEA Party Poll
TEA Party Poll
Just as a ham sandwich can be indicted with a little effort, any poll can be skewed depending on the pre-conceived notions of the poll takers, the wording of the questions, the tone of the questioners, etc.
With that in mind, when a political poll is conducted by CBS News and the New York Times it’s immediately suspect. When the subject of that poll is the participants in the TEA Party phenomenon now sweeping the nation, one should always take the results with a hefty grain of salt.
Nevertheless, the results are interesting even given the decidedly leftist nature of the pollsters.
Based on 1580 respondents in a random telephone sample. of whom 56% were TEA Party supporters, the poll was conducted April 5th-12th. Some of the highlights: . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1632)
Just as a ham sandwich can be indicted with a little effort, any poll can be skewed depending on the pre-conceived notions of the poll takers, the wording of the questions, the tone of the questioners, etc.
With that in mind, when a political poll is conducted by CBS News and the New York Times it’s immediately suspect. When the subject of that poll is the participants in the TEA Party phenomenon now sweeping the nation, one should always take the results with a hefty grain of salt.
Nevertheless, the results are interesting even given the decidedly leftist nature of the pollsters.
Based on 1580 respondents in a random telephone sample. of whom 56% were TEA Party supporters, the poll was conducted April 5th-12th. Some of the highlights: . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1632)
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The Real News Behind the News
The Real News Behind the News
We all know that the mass media and government today, especially today with government’s new role as nanny to the nation, spoon feed to the public what they think we can handle, what they want us to know, and hide what they want hidden.
However, thanks to a long-awaited technological breakthrough by Professor Klem Kadiddlehopper at the University of Hard Knocks, Burbank, we now have heretofore un-explained explanations of all the crap news we’ve been fed lately.
Incredibly, Burbank’s Professor Emeritus has succeeded in delving into the minds and mental processes of newsmakers and can reveal their true, unexpurgated thoughts. It’s a tad scary but very revelatory breakthrough.
The prof’s methodology and formularies are being kept secret for now but Kadiddlehopper has agreed to release some of his findings on what’s behind recent news, which we will call the “K-view:“
News Story: Pelosi Won’t Give Public a Week to Review Text of Health-Care Bill Before House Votes on It: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50229.
K-View: Damn, we don’t read major, or minor, legislation before we vote on it! Why should the public have a chance to read it? Those dimwits put us, ME, in power so why question what we do? Let them just eat cake, shut up, and act like the sheep we know they are: (thought by Nancy Pelosi)
News Story: Congressmen Say They Didn’t Have Chance to Read Full 1,200-Page Climate Change Bill Before Vote: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50234.
K-View: What the hell is wrong with these people? They’re actually voting to make our country a second or third-rate power! And they didn’t “have a chance to read” this pile of sh*t? (thought by Rep. John Boehner)
Boehner is such a scaredy cat. . . .
(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com)
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