Moo-Mac and the Bulldog

When Moo-Mac got older and occasionally got out, usually because the "Doat", a beautiful Nubian goat, led him through the fence somewhere and on to an excellent adventure, to get him home we had to get a rope around his neck and lead him back with difficulty. He was way to big and strong for the "Davis" technique.
One day I was talking to my father-in-law, a former dairy farmer in England, about Moo-Mac and he said matter of factly "Put a bulldog on his nose - always works and easy to lead them." A bulldog? On his nose? How the hell do you get a bulldog to grab a steer's nose and lead him around? John looked at me with something between pity and resignation and said " You know, the ring in their nose - called a bulldog. Just snap a rope on it and they follow you anywhere." No doubt good advice, but we froze Moo-Mac before we got to "put a bulldog on his nose". Tasty too.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agnescao/452911489/

How to Steer a Calf

The calf got out ----- again. This time we got a call from the Stones Home Center at the corner: "Your calf is walking around the parking lot." So Sally and I ran down to the parking lot (half a block away) and tried to circle around and slowly "drive" baby Moo-Mac back home. He just ran around us - playing - if calves play. We were afraid he would run onto US 27 and end up roadkill so we kept trying to "contain" him. Hot and frustrated, we doggedly pursued him, but never got close. Along came old Mr. Davis, probably 80ish, and asked if we needed some help getting the calf back home (he knew where the calf lived - seemed like everyone in town knew). We were grateful for the offer but I thought "If we couldn't catch Moo-Mac how is this old boy going to do it"? Well, never underestimate a country boy, old or not! Davis told us to walk away from the calf and just call him to get his attention. He walked around behind him as if he were going to his truck and suddenly grabbed the calf's tail. Moo-Mac took off with Davis skidding behind and as he was dragged along he steered the calf down the street, up the driveway, through the gate and into the pasture. Slick as a whistle. The secret? Use the tail like a rudder: pull right - the calf goes left; pull left - the calf goes right; just hang on and he goes straight.

So, the next time your calf gets loose, use the "Davis" technique. Works like a charm.

Photo: saintlouisconservative.blogspot.com/2009/07/m...

The "Doat" and the Great Escape

We got back from a very long drive from Bradenton to Havana about midnight. The answering machine was flashing with a message: " Mr. Search? This is the Havana Police (you could hear in his voice the unspoken "again"). We found your cow and goat wandering around down town (again). They're OK. Please call us in the morning." Here's how the scene unfolded: sometime after dark someone reported a "cow and a large dog loose in town". The Police knew exactly who they were and who they belonged to. The had found out on earlier "jailbreaks" that if they just put them back in the pasture they'd be out again in no time so they took them to a neighboring farmer to hold. When the squad car pulled up to the escapees, Doat would climb into the back seat and sit down. She loved to ride in cars. Moo-Mac waited while they put a rope around his neck, tied it to the bumper, and walked them to the farm, Doat watching from the back seat like a Queen. The next morning after hearing the story we went to the neighbor to collect our jailbirds. Moo-Mac was happily munching hay in a small paddock and Doat was resting in a clean horse box trailer. Doat jumped in the back of the Pinto wagon and Moo-Mac walked regally home. We fixed the fence - again- and they were content to stay at home until the next time we went out of town. We finally solved the problem: gave the goat back to the friend that gave her to us, and ate Moo-Mac.

Photo of Holstein: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=dimitra%27s+face&m=text

Photo of "Doat":http://www.flickr.com/photos/24777260@N02/2413440035/

I Don't Understand

I sat on the side of the road, unable to drive for the tears in my eyes. NPR was broadcasting the Ft. Hood ceremony for the murdered soldiers. The Chaplin was better than any I have heard. The generals and the President said exactly the right things and set exactly the right tone. And yet ---- and yet. I don't understand why they said these troops "gave their lives" for their country and service. They didn't give anything. Their lives were taken by a madman who murdered them. I don't understand if the metaphor for being killed at home by a madman is supposed to make me better understand their sacrifice. I don't understand if we say that they were taken before their time by a madman that murdered them that we somehow diminish their lives, or their commitment to their principles and country. It doesn't diminish my sorrow or my grief or my anger at the taker. These wonderful people didn't sign up to be murdered in their home base. They would have given their lives in service if asked, there is no doubt about that. They weren't asked.
I don't understand the final words of the Chaplin when he asked God to bless the families and the country with the strength to persevere and to understand and to not hate. I don't understand why a God would give the families the strength to do that but not step in and save the fallen, so unjustly murdered. I never will.

Photo: chile.usembassy.gov/press2009_memorial_day.html

Muslim Killer and Muslim Innocents

Many soldiers killed by an insane psychologist. Insane? He would have to be to do something like that. Oh, and he was a Muslim too. So now crazies all over the country are threatening mosques and individuals. Question: if he had been a Baptist would the crazies bomb churches? Of course not. We would never consider blaming innocent members of a group like that because of one sick stupid act by a Christian. So why blame every Muslim in the world for this sick stupid act? People seem to be hard-wired to hate anyone different from us. Different race, different religion, different language, different sexuality and even different sex. How the hell we ever got this far is beyond me. Probably extinction will be the ultimate answer for the “human” problem.

Photo: http://media.www.trumanindex.com/media/storage/paper607/news/2005/01/27/Indepth/Muslims.Jews.Hindus.Find.Ways.To.Pray.In.Kirksville-842625.shtml

Being Black is Dangerous

This is a comment on the death penalty. I started out years ago supporting it believing in the safety of the criminal justice system. Over the years I have seen over and over innocent men, almost all black, being incarcerated and then years later exonerated. We don't know how many innocent people have been executed or how many remain behind bars. We do know that hundreds have been railroaded and victimized because they were black and therefore easier to convict. What a travesty.

Imagine being innocent of a murder and being convicted and incarcerated. I have to call that torture. In America. Torture. Legal.

Would it be better to be innocent and executed? Ahh. That I don't know. In this country executions often take 15, 2o or more years to be carried out. That surely is torture as well.

America has the highest rate of incarceration (1) in the world and the US is currently fifth in the world for executions (2). What the hell is going on here? Blacks are far more likely to get the death penalty than whites. Why? I think I know the answer to that but my opinion is informed by emotion and many but diffuse sources.

What to do? Get rid of the death penalty. Period. It costs more to execute people than incarcerate them. And a fringe benefit would be the survival of innocents and hopefully the ultimate exoneration of them. Better yet why not a system that doesn't allow the conviction of innocents. Currently prosecutors cannot be themselves prosecuted for wrongful prosecution. Now don't go off half-cocked here. If honest mistakes are made in the prosecution of an innocent there should be no penalty for the prosecutor. That tastes bad but I can understand it. Today a case was discussed on NPR that outlined the purposeful framing of, you got it, black men. Police and prosecutors were in on the frame, got convictions and moved on with their lives. Two men spent 25 years in prison before being exonerated by the "discovery"of evidence hidden by the police and prosecutor that absolutely showed that they were framed. The supreme court is now going to decide if the prosecutors and police can be sued for this. Sued? Charge the bastards and jail them. Immunity for framing? Crap.

1 http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0818/p02s01-usju.html
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment
3 http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-death-row-inmates-executed-1976
4 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120069519
Photo: www.deadanarchists.org/Pentecost/murder.html

Iroquois Brothers?

Probably. They claimed Iroquois ancestry and have features that are consistent with this claim. Their eyes are typical of some groups of Native Americans and they along with their sisters have the "look" of native Americans. There are some stories told by these brothers that ring true. They told that the family had a deep association with the Owl, and that Owl was their spirit guide. In fact when the older brother was dying in a rural hospital a great horned owl sat for 2 days in a tree outside his window, and the morning after he died an owl visited his brother's house and his sisters house, both many blocks from the hospital. Owl sat outside the houses for a time, and then left. This had never happened before, and never happened again.
The younger brother told the tale of Bird. Bird favors those that honor him by leaving a feather directly in their path. To honor Bird one must pick up the feather and wear it somewhere prominent so it can be seen and admired by any who looks at it. This in turn pleases Bird and brings his good luck to the wearer.
Their father was a healer with special skills using certain plants. He could cure some conditions easily, but died without passing on any of his knowledge, gained he said, from his father.
The brothers had three sisters, two with distinctive Native American traits and one without them. The middle sister claimed that she could hear "the high winds" and very accurately predict the weather by hearing how fast they blew and by what directions they moved. Now we know that the high winds she heard are the upper atmosphere steering currents that move much of the weather around the globe. She heard them as a child and throughout her life. Experts will tell you that humans cannot hear the jet stream, but she could. Another clue to her aboriginal roots. She is on the right in the photo below the brothers picture.
These siblings are my ancestors. The oldest, the man with the cowboy hat was my father and the rest my aunts and uncle. Their names in order of age from oldest to youngest are Hal, Ray, Greta, YuYu and Effie. They are all dead now, hopefully joined in some place peaceful and quiet. But if not, they at least lead good lives and kept true to their roots.

FRAUD!!!!! FAKE!!!!

Thanks to my nephew Dan for getting me on this track. The link in not obvious. In 1969 I walked into my first real class of 90 students as a full time teacher. I had spent the better part of 10 years in college preparing and had studied on the cutting edge of many areas of biology. Still, I knew in my bones that I was unprepared and just one question away from being revealed as a fraud. Throughout my full time teaching career which spanned nearly 40 years the fear of discovery was never far below the surface. "If they only know how little I really know......"

This phenomenon is called the "fraud hypothesis" and is present in almost everyone at some level. Research over the years indicates that many people perceive themselves as barely prepared for the task and "If only I had a little more time I could get really ready." Seems to be a normal human trait. The reality is that "they" don't care how little or how much you know as long as you know what they want or need to know and can guide their learning it.

I had a professor in college many years ago who was also my mentor and friend. I once told him that I had let both of us down by not doing enough. He told me that when we evaluate ourselves we factor in all the things we know we didn't do, or did badly, or repeated to get right, but when someone else does it they only see the outcome. And he was pleased with the outcome. Basically he told me to get over it and get on with it. I did. Sort of.

Years later when I taught my first anatomy and physiology class I thought "God, if they only knew how little I really know about this they would walk." I had prepared exhaustively for every concept and knew as much as was humanly possible, but still, but still someone might figure out the fraud. Once again I pulled it off.

Another thing this wise man taught me was to say "I don't know" when you don't. My students will affirm that I do that regularly. Hey, you can't know everything, and if you think you do, you really are a fraud.

Photo: www.investitec.com/fraud_investigation.htm

Hate Crimes and the Law

Why do we need a separate law for every hate crime? I don't really get it. Before today it wasn't a federal crime to hate a person because of their sexual orientation. In the past,the Civil Rights Act was used to prosecute some who openly "hated" GLBT by doing violence . Now there is a specific statute that makes hatred of these and others a federal crime. Good. I think people that do these things should be prosecuted. By "these things" I mean openly act against someone because they are part of a group identified as deserving hate by someone. Take Matthew and Sean and James for example. Minding their own business when they were singled out for punishment for being gay. All were killed. Matthew was tortured first. James was dragged to death behind a pickup. Sean was beaten to death.

The part I don't get is this: Why do we need to list the categories of people you can't openly hate? Why can't we just have laws that protect us all from acts of hatred? Couldn't we define the acts that constitute hatred and then go after anyone that committed those acts?

I suspect that the hate crimes history has it's beginnings with religious hatred and racial hatred. But it doesn't make sense to me to be convicted "hate crime purp" for beating up a Jew and calling her a "dirty Jew", while beating up a Dodger fan and calling her a "Dirty Dodger fan" isn't . Or is it? Help me out here people.

Today the President will sign the Defense Appropriations bill which includes the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Look at the kind of crap that was used to try to kill the act:

"Vision America President Dr. Rick Scarborough commented: "We are urging Senators to join DeMint (R, SC) in filibustering this pernicious -- one might almost say 'toxic' -- legislation. As Values Voter leaders, we are saying this vicious assault on the Church and the First Amendment must not and will not be allowed to succeed." "

So, the true haters are unveiled.

Photos:lefteyeonthemedia.wordpress.com/.../

unfinishedlivesblog.com/.../special-comments/

blog.gayrightswatch.com/2007/05/

The True Haters Unveiled

Today the President will sign the Defense Appropriations bill which includes the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Look at the kind of crap that was used to try to kill the act:

"Vision America President Dr. Rick Scarborough commented: "We are urging Senators to join DeMint (R, SC) in filibustering this pernicious -- one might almost say 'toxic' -- legislation. As Values Voter leaders, we are saying this vicious assault on the Church and the First Amendment must not and will not be allowed to succeed." " (Ha you asshole, it passed.)
So, the true haters are unveiled.

One more reason to keep the religions of the world out of the political arena. Defining killing a gay man or woman as a "vicious assault on the Church and the First Amendment " is about as twisted as you can get. And seriously in conflict with the teachings of Jesus. Look it up Christians.

We can all be thankful that enough Representatives and Senators had the balls or ovaries to pass this legislation. Too bad it had to be added to a "must pass" appropriations act. Better late than never, better done than not.

Photo: blogs.pitch.com/plog/2008/08/god_hates_everyo...
Quote: http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/7861710682.html