Forced neutering in LA-la land

Bob Barr reports on the new pet-neutering law in LA. It doesn’t matter if you have a purebred…if you aren’t a commercial breeder or do shows, it’s got to be fixed. And they’re talking bout RFID implantation to aid enforcement.

Linked by Stephen Gordon at Third Party Watch. Note particularly the comments by David Gaines:

My many years in the Libertarian Party taught me that your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.

Lying sack of shit. As far as I can see, it taught him NOTHING.

I SO feel for Stephen

Tomorrow the Clintonette is going to speak at Harkness Chapel at 11:15, 2 buildings down. It will be a zoo around here. The last time we had people of Chelsea’s social caste wandering around campus, classes were cancelled for 2 days. So there is a precedent for just closing up and staying home. I’m sure glad I’m not working.

Hope – beginnings – endings

Last night, I was cleaning my office, and found the shawm reeds I’d been looking for at just about that time last Thursday. I really felt like I’d turned the clock back, and from this point on I can live a normal life (not counting a dinged-up wife…who was watching Lost, which had something going about weird time anomalies, adding a surreal counterpoint to my realization).

Alas, other things are cycling too. Rusty called: a friend is taking her to the hospital because her mother is fading fast. I’m going to miss the old bat, and it so did not have to happen.

And today would have been my 4th wedding anniversary, had my shoes not been tossed in ‘96. It would have been a 16 years as long as the past 7 have been short. And it’s also Carol Paul’s (Ron’s wife) 18th birthday today. They just celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary. So I wonder when James Kirchick is going to accuse Ron of robbing the cradle.

Buy a clue, Duh!bya

On one issue particularly worrisome to American consumers, there are indications that paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline is not out of the question once the summer driving season arrives. Asked about that, Bush said “That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that. … I know it’s high now.”

With Bernanke’s wonderful “stimulus”, we’ll be getting $4 gas even with steady supply and demand.

Bach ohne Peruke

Welcome to the New Manly Bach, based on his skull rather than portraits done in his old age. Yeah, this is the guy who fathered all those kids. Funny how the penultimate version looks so much like Paul Hindemith.

Massholes disarm toll takers

Gun-toting toll collectors have been stripped of their sidearms by Mass Pike brass after secretly carrying them for decades without formal training, the Herald has learned.“I didn’t want to have a wild west show out there,” said Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Executive Director Alan LeBovidge, who ordered the practice stopped. “I could find nothing to show that the employees had state police training that would make them qualified to carry guns.”

So there’s been a “wild west show” out there anywhere in the past decades? Not to mention “the wild west” would be a vast improvement on Boston’s crime rate.

I really hope the union has the stone to fight this. It shouldn’t be hard; since the issue is vulnerability to robbery through carrying money, the union would be protecting its members by refusing to collect tolls.

Another push poll from WND

Not that I take these things seriously…but look at the questions:

In a head-to-head November contest, how will you vote if it’s McCain vs. Obama?
McCain, because he’s the lesser of 2 evils 43.74% (1129)
I might have a meltdown. I simply can’t believe these two jokers would be the top choices 18.52% (478)
I’d write in someone else 12.90% (333)
There’s no way I’d vote for either under any circumstance 8.06% (208)
I’d vote for Nader or the Constitution Party candidate 6.94% (179)
I’ll stay at home and not vote 3.64% (94)
McCain, because I love him 2.48% (64)
Obama, because he’s the lesser of 2 evils 1.59% (41)
Other 1.47% (38)
Obama, because I love him 0.66% (17)

Apparently, Farah thinks the Libertarians aren’t running anyone. It would have been so easy to made it “vote for a 3rd party candidate”. As it was, I had to vote “other”.

Planned Parenthood: take the money and run

Actor: I want to specify that abortion to help a minority group, would that be possible?
Planned Parenthood: Absolutely.
Actor: Like the black community for example?
Planned Parenthood: Certainly.
Actor: The abortion – I can give money specifically for a black baby, that would be the purpose?
Planned Parenthood: Absolutely. If you wanted to designate that your gift be used to help an African-American woman in need, then we would certainly make sure that the gift was earmarked for that purpose.
Actor: Great, because I really faced trouble with affirmative action, and I don’t want my kids to be disadvantaged against black kids. I just had a baby; I want to put it in his name.
Planned Parenthood: Yes, absolutely.
Actor: And we don’t, you know we just think, the less black kids out there the better.
Planned Parenthood: (Laughs) Understandable, understandable.
Actor: Right. I want to protect my son, so he can get into college.
Planned Parenthood: All right. Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I’ve had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I’m excited, and want to make sure I don’t leave anything out.

OK, this was Idaho, which has “that reputation”. But there were 7 other states where they did this sting, with similar results. I know, money is money. But given the racist roots of Planned Parenthood, you’d think they’d be more sensitive to this, even if it mean possibly offending a donor.

YARTHS: South Middleton PA

(for those of you who don’t read Mental Militia / ex-Claire files, that’s “Yet Another Reason To Home School”)

The parents of a student in Pennsylvania’s South Middleton School District are warning other parents of the dangers after their workout-oriented son was suspended for 10 days and half the soccer season for taking vitamins at school.

He checked the student handbook and thought he was OK. But no…

A letter from the school’s lawyer, Philip Spare, said the policy was clear to him, since it prohibits “any pill, capsule, powder, liquid, inhalant, fascimile, drug paraphernalia, or other substance of whatever form or texture, which may adversely affect the health, safety, or welfare of any student…”

“My girlfriend’s back and you’re gonna be in trouble…”

I brought Rusty home Monday.

My first job was to get her personal effects out of the wreck. I got to see by naked daylight just how bad it was. They got hit in the front passenger side, which explains why Ada Vanhorn got the worst of it. As Rusty said, the airbags “looked like used elephant condoms.” All of the piecey-parts from the road had been put into the passenger compartment, and had to be sifted through to find the glasses. Rusty’s were intact, but Ma’s frames were broken (possibly by the detached back door sitting on the back seat).

She called my cell and was ready for me. But it seems there were a million things to do before they could let her go. So she sent me off on some errands. I’d left the keys in the wreck…but that included her house keys and dog tags, so I had to get them. Then I was supposed to get an accident report from the Staties…but no, you have to send to Columbus. I had passed home and was on my way back when she called for me. She was pretty irritable by then. It didn’t help that I refused to go through the drive-through for cigarettes. We stopped at the drug store to get her scrips filled. She’d called and found out that she did NOT have prescription coverage on our insurance, and I found that incredible. Yet it was so; HR had simply neglected to put her in. The pain meds were no problem, but the injectable blood thinner at $50/day was scratched as Rusty wasn’t going to shoot herself in the stomach anyway…she’s on low dose aspirin and fish oil and seems fine. I did think better and buy some ciggies in the drug store; a good thing, as when I came back she was hobbling toward the door with her walker.

She’s having a fine time online with that favorite Scorpio idea of restitution. The perp (she has a name, but silence seems best for legal reasons) was only carrying state minimum liability ($12.5K/person), which isn’t enough. She’s having lots of visitors; Ike did the chores in the snow last night, Jeanie Jones and Ike’s wife Evelyn brought food over today. She had a hard night last night but got her first bath this morning, and the incision looks fine to us. It’s not fun; I have a new-found appreciation for just how much she does around the house