Going to the Dogs IV

The rain we had yesterday knocked off our Internet connection, so I didn’t get to post anything. Our satellite Internet service is almost as slow as dial-up, and only half as reliable. Unfortunately, ATT doesn’t have DSL out here in the sticks yet.

You’re probably getting tired of seeing our furry kids, but this is the last one, so bear with me.

Lowest on the pack’s totem pole is Cricket, a 11-month-old Maltese. As you can see, she thinks “cute” trumps everything, but she has a lot to learn. Sassy tried that, and eventually learned that life was much better when you paid heed to your humans.

Like Sassy, Cricket is as stubborn as a rock when it comes to housebreaking. Well, I say it’s stubbornness, but I’m beginning to believe she’s mentally challenged. Heck, she’s a dog so I don’t have to be politically correct…I think she’s just dumb!

When you take her outside, she stands around and stares at you like she has no clue what to do. Then suddenly, her bladder tells her brain why she’s there, and everything is fine, she assumes the position and does what comes naturally. But in the meantime, you’ve both stood around for ten minutes getting cold, wet, bored and frustrated. About the time you feel like drop-kicking her over the fence, she looks at you with those big, black marble eyes, that black nose, and that little pink tongue, and she thinks: Gotcha!...cute wins again.

Arachnophobia anyone?

This is Charlotte…well, she’s actually Charlotte 4 or 5, since we’ve had one like her near the house for the last several years.

She’s a Black and Yellow Garden Spider, and a welcome resident in our yard. Besides her beutiful coloration, she’s harmless to humans, bothers no one, doesn’t try to get in the house and does a fine job of catching garden insects, especially grasshoppers. These big spiders…about 3” toe to toe…usually live in our Cannas, but this one built her web across the garage window and has been there since May.

Recently, she attached three egg sacs to the glass, where they will stay until they hatch in spring. As thousands of tiny spiders leave the sac, they will spin a tiny web and disperse with the wind. With luck, a few will stick around.

Joe the Plumber

Here’s a great economics lesson that reminds me of the old “Grasshopper and the Ant” story. Thanks, “RaceBuicks”

Barack Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come and fix it.Joe drives to Obama's house, which is located in a very nice neighborhood and where it's clear that all the residents make more than $250,000 per year.

Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the room that contains the leaky pipe under a sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama, who is standing near the door, that it's an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes.Obama asks Joe how much it will cost.Joe immediately says, "$9,500.""$9,500?" Obama asks, stunned. "But you said it's an easy repair!""Yes, but what I do is charge a lot more to my clients who make more than $250,000 per year so I can fix the plumbing of everybody who makes less than that for free," explains Joe. "It's always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied government to pass this philosophy as law, and it did pass earlier this year, so now all plumbers have to do business this way. It's known as 'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act of 2008.' Surprised you haven't heard of it, senator."

In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there's no way he's paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves.Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book looking for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses listed have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe's price, Obama does nothing.

The leak under Obama's sink goes unrepaired for the next several days. A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there's a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with him to return.

Joe goes back to Obama's house, looks at the leaky pipe, and says "Let's see – this will cost you about $21,000.""A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!" Obama quickly fires back.Joe explains the reason for the dramatic increase. "Well, because of the 'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act,' a lot of rich people are learning how to fix their own plumbing, so there are fewer of you paying for all the free plumbing I'm doing for the people who make less than $250,000. As a result, the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers rises every day."Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work from the group of people who get it for free has skyrocketed, and there's a long waiting list of those who need repairs. This has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, and they're not being replaced – nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they won't make any money. I'm hurting now too – all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won't pay their fair share."Obama tries to straighten out the plumber: "Of course you're hurting, Joe! Don't you get it? If all the rich people learn how to fix their own plumbing and you refuse to charge the poorer people for your services, you'll be broke, and then what will you do?"Joe immediately replies, "Run for president, apparently."

Lost in the Fifties

We were sitting at our computers tonight and listening to oldies music Judy had recorded on her Windows Media Player. A song came on that I didn’t recognize, but she was singing along and knew all the words. Now, I love old music, and I pride myself on my ability to identify within a year or two when a song was recorded. However, that song drew a complete blank. When I asked what year it was recorded, she said it was 1968. I shouldn’t have been surprised, because while I can recall nearly every pop song written between 1955 and 1965, I remember almost nothing from the late 60’s and early 70’s. When the protest music came into vogue, I turned off the entire pop music world. That was also the time of the British bands, and I never could get into their music. I guess I’m one of the few people who can barely tolerate the Beatles. Some of their songs are good, but I prefer them done by someone else.

There was no talk radio during those years, so I’m not sure what I listened to. I suppose I might have switched to country music, since it was free of the drug-influenced anti-everything agenda.

Once they lost me, I never again developed an interest in pop music, and until a few oldies stations began playing 50’s stuff, my music listening was limited to cassettes by my favorite artists. Today, I mostly listen to talk radio, with Rush Limbaugh being my favorite. Thankfully, we have an oldies AM station in Dallas, and Sirius has a couple of channels that play my kind of music. The Dallas station call sign is KAAM, and they have a great Saturday night call-in show hosted by ‘Cruisin’ Al Taylor’. In winter, I have to listen on the Internet since they reduce their power after dark.

If anyone else enjoys American rock and roll from the pre-Beatles era, you can listen from 6PM until midnight central time on: http://www.kaamradio.com/. They have a sister station in Colorado Springs that streams the same show on: http://www.1530kcmn.com/, but they don’t broadcast the first hour of the show.

Going to the Dogs III

Our youngest Shar-Pei, and the pack’s alpha female, is Bonnie. She is three years old, and somewhat small for a Shar-Pei. I’ve never been around a dog that was so affectionate and so in need of affection. She wants to be touching her people all the time, and loves to “hold paws”, while getting her head petted. At night, she will hop on the bed and lay her head against you, as if saying goodnight.

She is also extremely gentle, and somewhat shy around strangers, but she runs a tight ship with the other dogs. If we scold one of them, she runs up and adds her two cents to the discussion, then comes to us to be praised for her efforts.

Thank God the election is over!

In 1994, when Republicans swept into power by capturing both houses of Congress, Peter Jennings claimed that the voters were throwing a tantrum. What he really meant was the media had been politically defeated. This time, the media won. The reason the voters went along? Apparently it was a mass guilt trip that could only be cured by affirmative action at the highest level. It certainly wasn’t because they voted for the best candidate. Granted, McCain was a weak nominee, but his resume was so far superior to Obama, it wasn’t even a contest. It couldn’t have been policy, because in those two years, Obama changed nearly every position he originally held.

Obama could never have won without the full backing of the mainstream media. Not only did they promote everything he said, no matter which direction he swerved, but they failed to look into his life history and to report on his numerous, known, flaws. Their agenda was obvious when they eagerly jumped in and learned more about the lives of both Sarah Palin and Joe the plumber in 48 hours, than they did about Obama in two years.

We pretty much know who the winners are in this election, but the losers are numerous too. Besides McCain, the Republican Party is a big loser. The lack of conservative pre-election support, both financial and organizational, and the defection of party members at all levels, was a spit directly in the eye of the party leaders…all of them. Party leadership, from Bush on down, couldn’t comprehend the truth that it’s impossible to out-democrat the Democrats…but they kept trying.

While Texas remained loyal to the GOP, effects of their spineless drifting were apparent here too. An extremely conservative friend voted a straight Democrat ticket because he wanted the Republican Party destroyed. He’d rather reorganize from the ashes than continue trying to influence the current rudderless leadership. I’ll also mention that he is a conservative atheist, and tired of so many Republicans wearing their religion on their sleeve, instead of in their hearts. Like me, he is also strict constitutionalist, and both parties have strayed too far from the Constitution to win our support. Yes, I voted a straight Republican ticket, but I had to hold my nose while doing so, since there wasn’t a viable alternative.

Another big loser is the mainstream media. Their customer base has dwindled for years, and their latest failure to live up to their constitutional responsibilities has only accelerated their demise. Unless Congress intervenes to prop up the liberal media with taxpayer funding, they will continue to slide until they become irrelevant.

The Constitution will be a loser once judges who believe it's a living document begin to twist and alter its words and meanings.

The biggest immediate loser will be the American taxpayer. All forms of taxation will increase when the Bush tax cuts end, and the Democrats will be quick to find new ways to get their fingers in your wallets. But, I guess that's the patriotic thing to do.

The Clintons are losers, unless BO made a deal to nominate Hillary to the Supreme Court, and maybe even push for Bill to head the UN. I hope he didn't, because it's time for the Clinton clan to leave with the Bush family.

I’d say it’s a relief to know that the incessant hammering of George W. Bush will begin to fade, but I know it won’t. In the minds of the Democrats and the mainstream media, Bush will continue to be the root of every problem in the world until the very last day of the Obama administration.

Elections or fall foliage?

I was tempted to write a scathing entry about the election tomorrow, but if you haven't made up your mind by now, there is nothing I can say that can have any effect. Besides, Texas will go for McCain in a landslide. I only hope people will vote with their common sense instead of their feelings.

Without further political pontification, I'll mention our rare autumn foliage spectacular. While our native oak and hickory trees will never match the sartorial splendor of some northern species in fall, when conditions are right we can enjoy a mini-display of color, and this is one of those years. We had some good rains this fall, and an early freeze, and that's caused some trees to turn a bright red, while others are taking on a soft yellow, or orange. One shrub variety I don't recognize has turned a deep red...almost purple. Our mild show might be laughed at in New England or the Rocky Mountains, but we'll take what we can get.

One more thing political...gas dropped to $1.98 a gallon in East Texas today. I wonder if Congress will investigate the obscene drop in prices? It must be price fixing, not the free market working.