Ontario has banned pit bulls and their relatives, and says all puppies must be destroyed or sent to research labs. The above quote is from one Dalton McGuinty, the premier ofOntario, who goes on to add: “…just so you know where the majority of the public stands on this issue”. Says Dog Politics: ” We …
Mount St. Helens is Erupting
I certainly didn’t know it until I read this piece in the New York Times a couple of days ago. It has been erupting quietly for the past 15 months. A column of hardened but still hot lava is being pushed up the main tube into the crater at the rate of a cubic yard …
Dec 1 Doom, Gloom, Derb, & China News
John Derbyshire’s November Diary has plenty of China- themed worries for your delectation. Will a war break out in northeast Asia? Would we have the will to face it? Do Russia, Korea, Japan think we do? John also comments on this story of an environmental disaster, which they are handling the way they did SARS: …
Getting Ready..
Things are getting close– I leave, if all goes well, for Turkish Kurdistan (can’t call it Kurdistan over there but I guess I can here) early Tuesday morning. I am going to put a whole lot of stuff in today, but may not be able to do much more before I leave. Doubtless will have …
Read The Whole Thing
Steve’s funny catchphrase makes a good title for this one. Reid, trawling the LA Times again for good tidbits, pulled up this story by Naomi S. Baron, professor of linguistics at American University in Washington. She begins: “A FEW YEARS BACK, I asked my undergraduates to read Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone. The class was discussing …
One More for Meng
Robinson Jeffers – “The House Dog’s Grave” I’ve changed my ways a little; I cannot nowRun with you in the evenings along the shore,Except in a kind of dream; and you, if you dream a moment,You see me there. So leave awhile the paw-marks on the front doorWhere I used to scratch to go out …
Meng the Whippet (1992-2005)
Thank you, Steve, for taking the time to share Kipling’s poem. Exactly right; but of course you (and he and probably everyone else here) know why in Heaven we keep dogs, despite the high cost. Meng gave us everything he had for thirteen years. He chased (and caught!) and flushed game for me and several …
In Memoriam: Matt’s Dog “Meng”
Kipling’s “The Power of the Dog”: There is sorrow enough in the natural wayFrom men and women to fill our day;And when we are certain of sorrow in store,Why do we always arrange for more?Brothers and sisters, I bid you bewareOf giving your heart to a dog to tear. Buy a pup and your money …
ID Humor
Scientist, writer, and artist John McLoughlin (who should be better known– I am a great fan of his science fiction novel The Helix and the Sword, as are Odious and Peculiar) has sent me two irreverent little pieces on Intelligent Design. The first I reprint in full: “from the Institute for Science and Stork Research: …
Typos
Please be indulgent of spacing, double and missing letters etc for the present–it’s my #$%^&* keyboard, which is almost unmanageable (only on my posts). Reid tried to fix one of my posts below and lost half of it. So did I, and had to rewrite it THREE TIMES. This too shall pass…