They’re Killing Pigeons Again

Tyrants end up killing pigeons; I don’t know why, but they do. Franco almost made the traditional old- fashioned competition “thief” pouters of southern Spain, like the Rafenos I keep, extinct. The Taliban’s mere sixteen “Commandments”, including ones against sorcery and NOT growing beards, include one, the fourth,”To prevent keeping pigeons and playing with birds. …

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Malcolm dissents

Malcolm Brooks, author of Painted Horses and a capital- F Friend of Q, was so appalled by an Adam Gopnik anti- gun rant in the New Yorker that he wrote the furious and sometimes even funny riposte below. Turns out he was “baited” with an old essay, but the truth remains. Apparently no one at …

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In support of Daniel Richards

I hate to see the pressure that California Game & Fish Commission President Daniel W. Richards is under for participating in a hunt he had every right to undertake. Although hunting mountain lions is illegal in California, Richards traveled to Idaho for a successful lion hunt. Richards is not only a hunter, but reportedly is …

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Some “Country” Music Videos: Nostalgia and Chills…

Not all “country” music is unsophisticated or even American. Here I give you a bunch of stuff I have been working through and following. Let us start with Tom Russell’s classic “US Steel”— a straight- up traditional country lament complete with sweet pedal steel, but set in Pennsylvania rather than on the border or even …

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Breeder Issues

No; though there will be fun stuff today, I will not stop beating this drum, because it needs saying/ beating. Jess from DesertWindhounds, in a comment at Retrieverman’s on why “can’t we just all get along?” “Tell you what. When I stop getting harassed by total strangers for my breeding decisions, we’ll all get along. …

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Modern Fears

From Schneier on Security: the winning entry in contest he suggested, a litany of modern fears, in the style of the late great Edward Gorey: The Gashlycrumb Terrors, by Laura A is for anthrax, so deadly and white. B is for burglars who break in at night. C is for cars that, with minds of …

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Pigeon Slander

Apparently there is to be a “reality” show about pigeon racing starring Mike Tyson. While he might not be the perfect spokesman I’d pick, the once- great Audubon Magazine sees this show as an opportunity to link the Horror of Tyson to the Horror of a sport of which the only characteristic is that some …

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More Idiots– and a Brave Dog

They always exceed your direst fears. The Lady with the Black Dogs sent me this link to a story about how Tesco, the huge British supermarket chain that buys most of New Zealand’s lamb, will no longer allow shepherds to use herding dogs. You couldn’t make it up: “The supermarket chain has told its major …

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