Stray Cat Laws

(Petaluma, California) Realizing that just about anything can be voted into existence in a democracy, this story shouldn't be surprising. The Petaluma City Council passed an ordinance to ban stray cats from certain locations, notably city parks, while allowing them to roam freely in the rest of the city. Since cats cannot read, compliance with the ordinance will be the responsibility of "stray cat caretakers" licensed by the city.

To me, this seems to be the wrong way to captain a ship. The City Council is encouraging the growth of the stray cat population by not taking action to rid the city of the problem. Apparently, there are a lot of cat lovers in Petaluma. Personally, I've always considered stray cats to be no different than stray dogs, rats, or other vermin which cause damage to property and carry disease. In fact, cats have an additional nasty feature. They climb trees and devastate the songbird population by eating the hatchlings.

I also wonder what kind of qualifications must a person have to become a Licensed Stray Cat Caretaker.

It should be noted that individual communities handle their stray cat problem in varieties of ways. For example, Dearborn, Michigan, kills the strays they collect, while Toledo, Ohio, provides their strays with taxpayer-funded stray cat health care. Presumably, healthy stray cats are robust and capable of defending their turf against invading non-indigenous strays.

I couldn't make this stuff up.

Vermont Law Changes

It's nice to see some loosening in the mandated behavioral restrictions in the Socialist Republic State of Vermont.

Yesterday, buying yourself and your date a drink in a nightclub was prohibited. Today, the one-drink limit law has been replaced with a two-drink limit. The limit is not on how much a person may consume, the number of drinks purchased at one time is limited.

Yesterday, it was illegal to carry a drink onto the dance floor in a nightclub. Today, it's allowed. This law was changed because women were having their drinks drugged while they danced.

For balance, the nanny-staters jacked up the tax on heating oil, instituted tax credits for socialized housing, and toughened the penalties for harassing wildlife while snowmobiling.

Hepatitis A Spike in Massachusetts

(Boston, Massachusetts) Restaurant workers at three different establishments in the Boston area have tested positive for the highly contagious hepatitis A virus. A waitress at J.J. Grimsby's in Stoneham joins possible hepatitis A exposures at an Arlington Friendly's and a Boston Quiznos. Public health clinics have been set up to administer immune globulin to patrons of the restaurants who may have been infected.

Anus Bleaching

The New York Observer has the report. Besides not being able to answer why it's being done, I don't have any idea of what conceivable benefit there could be. And, along with being absolutely bizarre, it's got to be dangerous! (via Attu)

Crime Stoppers Most Wanted 'Swimsuit Edition'

(Cleveland, Ohio) The local Crime Stoppers chapter issued their Most Wanted List identifying several attractive female fugitives.

"As we were putting this poster together, we found there were some rather attractive young ladies on this one ... and in the office we got to talking, and all of a sudden it became what we call our swimsuit edition," said Sgt. Dave Rutt, of Cleveland police.

Just think, after they do their stint in the slammer, they can go on a publicity tour.

Missing Toddler Found With Family Dog

(Bethlehem, Indiana) A 2-year-old girl, Daisy Smith, wandered off into the woods along with the family dog sometime before 7pm last evening and search parties spent the night looking for them. At 7am this morning, Indiana Conservation Officer Andy Crozier found Daisy and the very protective family dog, a 1-year-old Black Lab named Thunder, on the bank of the Ohio River.

Although infrequent, it's nice to read good news.

Korean Censorship

In its attempt to keep the video footage of the Kim Sun-il beheading from being seen in South Korea, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) has been aggressively censoring the images from the Internet. According to Robert Koehler at the Marmot's Hole, the government and ISPs have blocked access to blog service providers Blogspot and Typepad in a rather "ham-fisted" manner.

Jeff in Korea expresses outrage at the censorship and implores President Roh to "Tear down this wall!" In Jeff's words from Pusan,

On the night of June 24, 2004, the Korean government, without any real warning and without discretion, began raising a cyber wall around Korea, isolating residents and preventing them from accessing outside information. One by one, throughout the following days, internet domains fell under the hammer of the South Korean dictatorial regime.

It appears that some citizens have been arrested and taken into custody for hosting, posting, or distributing the video.

Kevin at Incestuous Amplification appears to be taking the censorship in stride as typical for the South Korean government. He's going on hiatus for a while.

In summary, there's no question that the censorship is occurring, however, among the many Korea bloggers, reactions are mixed. Personally, I think the issue should get more international exposure. The authorities need to be reminded that democratic countries don't arbitrarily take away free speech without protest from the rest of the world.

Canadian Elections

The Liberal Party won the most seats in the House of Commons in yesterday's national election, garnering 36.7% popular support. The Conservatives collected 29.6% and the New Democratic Party received 15.7%. The results are viewed as a mandate for Paul Martin and Liberal Party policies. The only provinces where conservative politics prevailed were in Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.

Personally, it comes as no surprise that the population of Canada continues to believe in utopian promises espoused in Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic Provinces. It's obvious to even a casual political observer that the country has chosen a radical leftist path. Hopefully, enough conservative voices speak out to prevent the country from declining further into the chaos and unworkability of full-blown socialism.

One thing that I'm really interested in knowing is the impact on the election due to voters eating their ballots. The Edible Ballot Society encourages people to eat their ballots as a protest against the current political system and, apparently, it's considered a problem by the government since they have a law prohibiting the practice. Actually, the law was intended to prevent people from rigging elections by destroying other people's ballots, but Elections Canada has extended the reach of the law to encompass ballot eaters. And, people have been prosecuted. This makes sense when you consider that the liberals don't want people to eat their ballots because the constituency that would eat their ballots are the same howl-at-the-moon wingnuts who exclusively vote liberal. As a conservative, I say it's their right. Let them eat ballots!

Teacher Arrested For Sex With Boy, 14

(Tampa, Florida) In a breach of trust, a Greco Middle School teacher, Debra Beasley LaFave, 23, was arrested and charged for performing oral sex on a 14-year-old boy twice in the past month. This story is disgusting, but, for the sake of complete honesty, a lascivious pinch of my brain kind of wishes that years ago there was a teacher like her in my middle school. Of course, I would have had to have everything explained to me. As I recall, my entire knowledge base at that time consisted of what I learned from National Geographic magazine.

[Update] For those interested, a fairly comprehensive profile of Debra LaFave has been compiled by Kevin Aylward at Wizbang.


[Update 11/22/05]

Debra Lafave pleads guilty and gets no jail.

Al-Jazeera Reports Hostage Shot Dead

Missing since an ambush in April, U.S. Army Specialist Keith "Matt" Maupin has been reported by Arab TV Channel Al-Jazeera to have been shot dead by his captors. Al-Jazeera broadcast a grainy video which continues to be analyzed. Due to poor quality and camera angle, the Department of Defense cannot confirm who is depicted on the tape and continues to classify Maupin as "captured."

According to Maj. Mark Magalski, a spokesman for the 633rd QM Ballation, based in Cincinnati, stated that Maupin was promoted in absentia on May 1 from private first class to the rank of specialist.

Al-Jazeera also received a statement from a group called The Sharp Sword against the Enemies of God and His Prophet which said Maupin was killed in protest of US policies in Iraq and of the deaths of "martyrs" in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

Kevin Aylward at Wizbang links up to a heart wrenching letter sent by 6th-grader Jacob Kelch to the family of Matt Maupin. Take a look.

Another Al-Jazeera broadcast identifies Corp. Wassef Ali Hassoun, a U.S. Marine, being held hostage under threat of beheading. A group called Islamic Response wants Iraqi prisoners released.

[Update - 6/30/04, 0630EDT] The Ohio News Network is reporting that local residents in SPC Maupin's home town of Batavia, Ohio, have seen the Al-Jazeera videotape and don't believe the person executed was Maupin because he is built physically different. They are holding vigils and praying with yellow ribbons throughout Batavia for Maupin's safe return and for the memory of Sgt. Kaiser, a local soldier who was just killed.

Man Killed by Potato Gun

(Cable, Ohio) Kyle Thompson, 21, was killed when a potato gun he was playing with exploded. It's suspected that too much gunpowder was used or a potato got stuck in the gun. Three others were injured, Judd Coffey, 31, Jason Anderson, 22, and Robert Kiser, 48.

"They were playing with this so-called potato gun, which is essentially a pipe bomb," [Champaign County Coroner] Richards said. "The metallic tubing exploded, essentially causing shrapnel to go flying everywhere."

I don't want to make light of death and misery, but this incident is a prime example of the fact that there is no way to protect people from themselves. There are risks in life and no amount of anti-gun or anti-pipe bomb legislation would have prevented this type of occurrence. People sometimes do dumb things and sometimes there are terrible results.

Law Requires Fire Retardant Cigarettes

(Albany, NY) Effective today, smokers in New York will need the lung power of a skin diver to keep their cigarettes lit. A new law specifies that all cigarettes be made of special paper that doesn't burn very well. Consequently, smokers will see their butts self-extinguish unless they're sucked on continuously.

The law was proposed and passed to reduce the risk of fires caused by people falling asleep while smoking and setting their mattresses ablaze. However, some believe that the total number of bedroom fires will not be affected since it's one of the few places where a person can legally smoke a cigarette in the State of New York.

Iraq Sovereignty Returned

Out of the blue, a little over an hour ago, the United States and Coalition Forces transferred sovereignty for the nation of Iraq to the Iraqi people. It occurred two days earlier than scheduled.

[Update - 0340am EDT] Prime Minister Iyad Allawi will lead an interim government having full sovereignty, according to a UN Security Council resolution on the handover earlier this month. Effective 10:26am Baghdad time, Iraq ceased being occupied by foreign powers. The continued presence of coalition forces is per the request of the interim Iraqi regime.

Some slants are less than upbeat. As an example, MSNBC is reporting that the handover is a symbolic formality done in a sneaky manner.

[Update - 0445am EDT] FOX News reports that Ambassador Paul Bremer has departed Iraq.

Prince Charles Favors Coffee Cure For Cancer

Prince Charles, the future King of England, has angered the medical community by promoting a controversial cancer treatment of daily coffee enemas and drinking gallons of fruit juice. It's called the Gerson Therapy after Max Gerson who used the therapy to cure his migraines. Medical professionals consider the cure to be without basis and possibly dangerous.

The main clinic for the Gerson Institute is in Tijuana, Mexico, where treatment is available for $4,900 a week and usually lasts three weeks. The treatment cannot be legally administered in the U.S.

I personally have always suspected that there was something off center about Prince Charles. His blanket rejection of accumulated medical knowledge for a trendy alternative treatment doesn't make a lot of sense and it seems to support my suspicion.

Green Party National Convention

The Green Party membership nominated David Cobb and Pat LaMarche as party candidates for president and vice president at the national convention yesterday in Milwaukee. I watched a portion on C-Span and noticed the following:

There were no more than 300 people in attendance. Half looked embarrassed to be there when the camera panned the room.

The speakers were uninspired and uninspiring.

All whooping and hollering seemed to come from no more than a handful of members. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they had stopped for a couple cold ones on the way in.

Speakers included:

Agha Saeed - American-Muslim Alliance National Chairman (Mr. Saeed could best be described as a Muslim Michael Moore. He compared Attorney General Ashcroft to Stalin. I did not believe one word he said.)

Medea Benjamin - Code Pink Founder (She began by stating that Rush Limbaugh spreads hate and then introduced Pat LaMarche as VP candidate.)

Anita Rio - Green Party Diversity Committee Co-Chairman

Sundiata Tellum - Green Party Black Caucus Co-Chairman and former Sierra Club functionary in Dallas

Kara Mullen - Green Party Fundraising Director, who passed the hat for donations to the party (Actually, it was a paper garbage bag and, before adjourning, she was thrilled to announce that they had collected $8,674.)

Adam Benedetto - Green Party Convention Director

Efia Nwangaza - Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate from South Carolina (If I didn't know she was a Green Party member, I would have thought she represented the Anti-Slavery Party. She essentially spoke of nothing but slavery and reparations.)

Pat LaMarche - Green Party Vice Presidential candidate (Exuded an image which makes me confident that she could do a good job running a bowling league.)

David Cobb - Green Party Presidential candidate (Cobb spent his time on discussing end-of-world, oppression, sexism, racism, and Bush lied themes.)

I didn't catch a reading of the party platform, but I was able to glean elements discussed by the speakers. It was fairly typical end-of-the-world environmentalism salted heavily with oppressed-peoples-unite socialism.

Unexpectedly strong emphasis was directed toward reparations for slavery, abolishing the death penalty, and "BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!" With these issues so important, it seems the party no longer sees the environment as their primary focus.

In summary, everything about the convention was without flair, without enthusiasm, and, seemingly, without adequate planning. I got the distinct impression that it was being put together while it was occurring. The Green Party message was muddled, yet strongly flavored with socialism.

As a caveat, I must mention that I didn't view the total event. I may have missed something salient.

[Update] It appears my estimate of attendees was wrong. According to this report, there were 408 delegates who voted for David Cobb as nominee for president out of a total of about 750 votes cast. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also provides this description of the event.

The daylong proceedings Saturday comprised many of the theatrics not seen in mainstream political parties, including outright denunciations of the United States, literature praising Communist dictator Fidel Castro and even a ballot cast for the late Socialist Eugene Debs.

The convention hall stage didn't even have an actual American flag.

Therefore, I guess it wouldn't be inaccurate to say the Green Party is proudly anti-American and pro-Communist.

It's also reported that the Greens formally rejected the idea of endorsing Ralph Nader for president.

Stealthy Retail Growth

I challenge anyone to read a sampling of newspapers in America, Europe, and the Far East and not find a story about Wal-Mart. The big box discount retailer is always in the news, garnering both good and bad press. The good press, usually driven by the local population, hails new job openings and increased availability of a multitude of products at affordable prices. The bad press, usually driven by national union and environmental advocates, disparages Wal-Mart for the lack of union representation, for the demise of locally owned shops because they can't compete against Wal-Mart, and for the litany of customary environmentalist complaints against anything that's associated with civilization. Simply put, through widespread condemnation and commendation, Wal-Mart is newsworthy.

The overwhelmingly massive amount of news coverage on Wal-Mart is also noteworthy. It literally sucks away any reasonable press interest in the success being achieved by other companies. Pretty much ignored is the recent growth and handsome return being realized by Home Depot, Kroger, Target, Costco, Walgreen, and others. With the spotlight on Wal-Mart, the success of others in the retail industry go largely unnoticed by the media and the general public. And, without the heat of the spotlight, other companies also benefit from not being thrust into contentious and expensive negotiations on a variety of state, local, and community issues. Others see additional benefit by being able to piggyback onto Wal-Mart's success in some locations while avoiding those locations that prove to be too expensive or too difficult.

In the United States, a country where it's estimated that the activist-to-issue ratio is approaching 1:1, it's no small favor that Wal-Mart is doing for the retail business world. Strategic planners are well aware that a measure of stealth during expansion and growth can forestall potential collateral costs. If a store can be up and running before the local moonbats have organized, total startup costs will be minimized. With Wal-Mart shining so brightly and fielding all the complaints, the exciting growth of other companies can be hidden in plain view. For this, Wal-Mart deserves a Thank You card.

Car Color Tells Driver's Personality

(London) According to a survey of 130,000 insurance claims performed by the Churchill Co., the color of the car a person owns is an indication of the personality of the driver.

"We think about color all the time, from what we wear to how we feel. This emotional influence transfers to how we drive," psychologist Donna Dawson told Britain's Sun [newspaper].

Ranked by most likely to crash, the analysis of the relationship of car color to driver personality resulted in the following:

Rank - Car Color/Personality
1) BLACK - rebels
2) SILVER - cool and aloof
3) GREEN - prone to hysterics
4) YELLOW - idealistic lovers of novelty
5) BLUE - introspective and cautious
6) GRAY - calm, sober and dedicated with tendencies to slip out of personality
7) RED - energetic and quick-thinking
8) PINK - gentle and loving
9) WHITE - status-seeking extroverts
10) CREAM - self-contained and in control

Read into these results whatever you want. I personally don't give it much credence since I knew a guy who owned a pink Continental and there's no way that anyone would characterize him as gentle and loving. So, I'd say the results of the analysis are not to be relied upon.


[Update 09/15/06]

Astute analyst Charles Hill at Dustbury indicates that the drivers' astrological sign must also be considered in the formula which predicts likely insurance claims. For example, someone born under the sign of Virgo is more likely to be involved in an accident than all others. Consequently, a Virgo with a black car should not be ferrying kids to school.

It's not clear how the car color/astrological sign combination calculates out mathematically. Maybe one is more important than the other and mixing them produces an exponential result. Who know? My take is that one has to be a little loony with plenty of free time to come up with these hypotheses.

I'd personally like to see the research data on the risk of pedestrians being run over, correlated to car color and the astrological signs of the driver and the pedestrian. Now, that would be fun, eh?

Nude Photo

(Cleveland, Ohio) Over 2,700 people showed up at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland for a nude group photograph. They disrobed sometime after meeting at 4AM while the temperature was in the 50s. And quite nippy, I presume.

Lewinsky Upset With Clinton

(London) Monica Lewinsky expressed scorn at Bill Clinton's explanation of their relationship.

"I really didn't expect him to go into detail about our relationship" in the book, the 30-year-old Miss Lewinsky told the Daily Mail newspaper.

"But if he had and he'd done it honestly, I wouldn't have minded. ... I did, though, at least expect him to correct the false statements he made when he was trying to protect the presidency.

"Instead, he talked about it as though I had laid it all out there for the taking. I was the buffet, and he just couldn't resist the dessert," she was quoted as saying.

[ ... ]

She said she had spent the past several years trying to "move on" and build a life.

"It has been so difficult because of so many of the lies that he has told about me and about what happened."

So she's saying that Bill Clinton lied. Imagine that.

Why Brits Can't Spell

It's surely been troubling for centuries that the people in the nations of the British Commonwealth spell words incorrectly. I have wondered why on many occasions. But, the wondering is over thanks to Andy Duncan. In a few succinct paragraphs, Andy provides an explanation. Here's a portion:

According to the story, when printing really got going around the King James period of the 1600s, just after the time of Shakespeare, there were two sets of British printers on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Back here in Olde Englande, on the hearty isle of yore, a powerful printing trade guild quickly established itself around the innovative technology of printing presses, with all the accoutrements of force-backed monopoly and its usual bean-feast of consumer exploitation.

As these guild printers were paid by the letter they sought every single possible intellectual excuse as to why every word should be spelt with as many letters as possible. Hence, the ridiculous 'through'. The printing guilds would take Greek derivations, or Latin derivations, or French derivations, or whatever derivation, as gospel, dependent upon whichever one gave them the longest possible 'correct' spelling.

Meanwhile, on your side of the Atlantic, in Newe Englande, British printers worked in a competitive free market with no guild and no force-backed monopoly, though still working on the basis of cost per letter printed. However, instead of trying to lengthen words, to maximise their charges to an obliged public, this competitive pressure made the Colonial printers try to find ways to shorten the 'correct' spellings of words, so as to reduce their prices, so as to make themselves more attractive to the burgeoning American marketplace. Hence, 'thru'.

And so, the relationship between the US and Britain, which is historically based upon the throwing off of an unwelcome force-based yoke, has been stamped ever since throughout the two printed languages right there in front of our eyes - so next time some subject of Her Majesty complains to you about your incorrect spelling of the word 'colour', ward them off with a forty minute libertarian rant about the oppression of Great Britain in Virginia, in the 1650s. Most excellent.

In a nutshell, British printers were doing unionized piecework (more letters, more pay) while the American printers had to deal with free market competition (fewer letters, less cost). It makes a lot of sense and explains why the Brits (and Aussies) say "Crikey!" and the Americans say the shorter "Gosh!"

To be fair, it must be noted that not everyone agrees with Andy's explanation. In fact, Andy even states that he has no evidence to support his story but it's sounds good enough to be believable.