And Now For Something Completely Cute

For some time, despite the frequently expressed opinions of the majority, our house has been without a cat.  As the paterfamilias and chief of the clan, I had to rectify this situation, so we went to check out the cats at The A.N.N.A. Shelter.   (If you are looking for a cat or dog in Erie, please check out their website.  They post available pets, and they keep their site up to date, so you can have a good idea who may be ready for adoption.)

Picking a cat is quite a challenge when you have 6 people trying to choose one cat out of about 30 that are available.  We knew we wanted a short haired cat, with claws, and preferably younger, so it could adapt to all of us.  But there were still a lot of very cute and friendly kitties to choose from.  It would have been easy for the clan to split into warring factions, each with their favorite, and a real cat fight could have occurred.

However, we spent at least an hour playing with all the kitties, and soon some favorites emerged.   Which is to say, some of the cats decided that they liked us all, and some of the other cats had better taste in people.   Finally, we were down to two possible kitties:  A 1 year old Siamese, and a 5 month old grey tabby with a white patch.  Their colors clashed, so we couldn’t have them both.

Fortunately, the tabby was everyone’s first or second choice, and he liked all of us, so when I decided that he was the one, I did not lose a portion of my constituency.

So anyhow, here is Atticus (formerly Graham), at the shelter:

 

Here he is again, thanking one of his supporters and waiting for his adoption to be finalized:

He is really an incredible cuddly little fellow.  When he takes a nap, it is usually on one of us, and he usually remembers to keep his claws in when he plays with us.  He does make it more difficult to knit or tie your shoes in peace, though, and he enjoys walking on the computer while your are trying to type.  But at 2 lbs., 12 oz., he doesn’t usually succeed in typing anything, yet…

What I Learned From the Protesters

As I was driving by the library, I saw about 25 anti-war protesters in front of Rep. Mike Kelly’s office.  They had the usual variety of anti-war signs, and they were protesting a possible war with Iran.  Being the inquisitive person that I am, I decided to stop and ask them about their protest.  Besides, I thought something may have happened while I was at work.

The first protester had a quote from Albert Einstein on her sign that said “You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.” I asked her if something had happened recently that triggered the protest.  She said that Rep. Mike Kelly had not said anything particularly notable, but that he was in favor of taking a hard line against Iran.  However, some in the Obama administration felt the same way, so Rep. Kelly was not a particular target of their protest.  Also, one of the protesters mentioned that Friday afternoon was a good day for a protest, because the Bayfront Parkway was busy at that time and more people would see them.  But there was no particular reason to have the protest on that day or in that place.

Another protester had a sign that said “Stop Lying About Iran.”  I asked this female protester what the particular lies were that people were spreading.  Her response was that people were lying about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  First of all, she assured me, he was not at all interested in developing nuclear weapons.  Iran is regularly inspected for weapons and she is sure that they are only using nuclear material for peaceful uses.  Secondly, she told me that Ahmadinejad never said anything about wiping out the Jews.  Apparently his words were being misinterpreted and he doesn’t really hate Jews.  In fact, she told me, the Jews in Iran are so well treated that they don’t want to leave.

I asked her if she knew what they do to homosexuals in Iran.  She had no idea that they kill homosexuals there.  I also asked her if she knew what they did to Christians and other religious minorities.  Again, she had no idea what is going on inside the country.  She probably had no idea what their religious police do to woman like her who do not cover enough of their bodies.

At about this time, one of the protesters got out her camera and started taping me.  If I see me on YouTube, I might post the link.  Or not, depending on what they do to me.

The next protester had a sign that said “How Is The War Economy Working Out For You?”  I asked this protester how much he believed we were spending each year on wars.  He said, “Trillions.”  Another nearby protester or two agreed with him, and one of them said, “F#%$-ing Trillions.”  I was scribbling a few notes, so he asked me to write that down.  I then asked what the size of the US budget was for the year, and none of them had any idea, except that they were sure that money for health care and teachers was being cut.

[For those who like numbers, the real numbers are that President Obama requested $712 billion for all military activity last year, of which $159 billion was for "overseas contingency operations" like Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a lot, but it is not anywhere near trillions.  The total projected federal spending for 2011 was $3.708 trillion.  And we have almost never actually cut spending, ever, at the federal level.]

At this point, Corbin Fowler made the comment that I was not a disinterested person.  I never claimed to be anything but curious about what they believed.  He also made some comment about my shoes, and something about Pat Boone, who I just learned is still alive.  Apparently there is something about wearing $50.00 black leather shoes from Kohl’s that caused me to remind him of Pat Boone, or makes me a member of the 1%, or something.  If you didn’t understand that last sentence, it is because his words made no sense to me either. If anyone wants to explain his reasoning to me, I’m all ears.

At this point, I was about 1/2 of the way through the line.  Next I passed the woman dressed up as Mike Kelly.   I didn’t bother to ask about the “Make Love, Not War” sign.   His sentiment was clear, even if it wrongly assumed that the two activities are mutually exclusive.  Pharaoh would disagree, as he regarded fruitful lovemaking as an act of war, against him, that needed to be suppressed.

So what did I learn from the protesters?  I learned that these particular protesters were rather clueless.

Ellen Goodman Gets the Vapors (Or, Why Siri Can’t Find an Abortion Clinic)

Poor Ellen Goodman.  After years of having to look stuff up in the phone book, and then a few years of being able to look for things online, Siri, the ultimate electronic adviser, comes along.  Instead of being thankful, she is worried, and has come out of retirement to write  this column.

Siri can do many things for her.  For example, if she wants to find the nearest Chinese restaurant, Siri will find it for her.  If she needs to hide the body of the next man who crosses her, Siri will advise her of the location of the nearest landfill.  However, when she asked it to find birth control, it responded that it “could not find any birth control clinics.”  (Hint for Ellen:  There is an aisle at any Rite-Aid, CVS, or Wal-Mart where you can find lots of stuff.  Or you could ask your doctor.)  Worse yet, if she wants to find out where to get an abortion, Siri usually won’t tell her.  In fact, it might refer her to a crisis pregnancy center, where they might, horror of horrors, show her an ultrasound of the baby, beating heart and all, and try to persuade her to keep the child.  (This is all theoretical, of course.  Ms. Goodman is 70 years old.  But some younger, more impressionable female might take Siri’s advice and end up keeping her baby.)

To the professionally outraged, there are obvious reasons for Siri’s political incorrectness and anti-choice slant.  Obviously, Steve Jobs and the programmers of Siri are part of a cabal of right-wing fundamentalists.  No doubt he answers directly to the Koch brothers, James Dobson, and the Pope.  Siri behaves this way because it wants to impose a right-wing lifestyle upon us, and make us all like the Duggars.  Either that, or Siri just has a terribly unfortunate defect that must be fixed, now.

However, just a few minutes of thinking should enable a reasonably intelligent person to figure out why Siri can’t find abortion clinics.  But thinking is hard, and a few minutes is a long time, so I will do Ms. Goodman’s thinking for her.

Abortion is not a word that people like to use.  Pro-abortion activists call themselves “pro-choice.”  Even abortionists don’t like to use the word.  For example, our local abortion clinic was called “American Women’s Services.”  What exactly are “women’s services?”  Does that include the free delivery of chocolate?    When this clinic closed, and the owner went to New Jersey and Maryland to perform the late term abortions that got him arrested for murder, his clinic didn’t even have a name.

If you look at other names for places that perform abortions, you will find similar use of euphemism.  You (or Siri)  would never guess that the “West Philadelphia Women’s Medical Society” performed abortions.  It sounds like a doctors’ association, not a place where illegal and late-term abortions were performed by unlicensed workers in unsanitary conditions.  Heck, even Planned Parenthood doesn’t sound like a place where you can get an abortion.

If Ms. Goodman wants Siri to figure out how to advise women how to terminate their pregnancies, then perhaps she should tell her pro-abortion friends to stop using euphemisms and put “abortion” in the name of their businesses.

Or, she could remember that Steve Jobs was adopted, after an unplanned pregnancy, and she could pause before urging Siri to potentially aid in the elimination of the next Steve Jobs.

Western PA Democrats Need to Stop Whining

If you believe local Democrats, the newly drawn 3rd district is an example of egregious gerrymandering, and it is the worst thing that has ever happened to Erie, and it is a terrible outrage that must be corrected.  Splitting Erie County is a particularly terrible thing to do, especially since the district now extends into Butler County, which is the home of our incumbent congressman, Mike Kelly.

Now let’s compare the rhetoric to the actual map of the district, before and after redistricting.  Here is a map of PA districts for the last 10 years:

In this map, Erie County is the only county that is not carved up.  Warren County looks like dragon claws are clutching it.  Crawford County, for some strange reason, has Titusville carved out of it.  Mercer County is mostly in the third district, except for a tiny chunk in the southwest corner that belongs to the 4th district.  Venango County is split up between the 3rd and the 5th , and Armstrong County is split between the 3rd and the oddly shaped 12th.  Butler County is about 80% in the 3rd, and the remaining 20% is in the 4th district.  As you can see, these lines were not drawn with any respect for county lines, and the district is rather funny-looking.  However, it looks positively square compared to the 12th and 18th districts.

Here is a map of the new PA districts:

The 3rd district is no uglier than before, and in fact, it keeps Crawford, Mercer, Butler, and Armstrong Counties intact.  Erie County is divided, but Warren and Venango Counties are not.  It also includes most of Lawrence County and part of Clarion County.  Yes, this district is more Republican than before, but it also keeps more counties intact.  Meanwhile, the neighboring 12th and 18th districts are still ugly, but not as bad as before.

So why are Democrats complaining?  They say that splitting Erie County will reduce Erie’s influence, and that is probably true.  But we deserve that.  Our population has been stagnant for decades, and redistricting reflects that, and there is nothing we can do about it except have more babies who grow up and stay in Erie.  Really, the charge of gerrymandering is silly, since all the districts in Western now look less gerrymandered than they did before.  Yes, the maps are drawn in a way that favors Republicans, but that is what Republicans do when they are in the majority and get to draw the maps.  Democrats would have done the same thing if they had won the 2010 elections.

In my opinion, the Democrats are whining because they want an issue to fire up their base.  The problem is, their charge is not true for Western PA, so they have to make it up.  And they are assuming that their followers in Western PA are too stpid to actually look at a map.  They might be right about that.  Besides, this is the map that PA Democrats proposed.  Remember, the Democrats are supposedly against gerrymandering:

This map totally butchers Western and Central PA.  Incidentally, it looks like it redistricts our congressman right out of our district, or at least puts him on the very edge.

If PA Democrats were a bit smarter, they would focus on where the real gerrymandering was, over in eastern PA.  In the Republican map, the 6th, 7th and 13th districts look like a newly hatched nest of vipers.  This plan only passed the State Senate by 26-24, as many Republicans didn’t like it.

If the Democrats had accepted the western PA map, while proposing some needed changes in Eastern PA, they might have taken the moral high ground, and they might have raised a public outcry that could have led to some compromises.  However, their own plan was also rather partisan, so they gave up any claim to the moral high ground.

 

Congratulations, Jack Stull !!!!

The off year elections were generally not very exciting, and turnout in most places was low.  However, there was one bright spot for my family.

Jack Stull, my stepfather, decided to run for Waterford Township Supervisor.  (For my non-local readers, Waterford Township is a rural township south of Erie with a population of about 3000.)   It was too late to get on the Republican or Democratic ballot line, and I don’t think he is happy with either party right now, so he collected enough signatures to get on the Constitution Party line on the ballot.

Usually a third party candidate doesn’t have a chance, but Jack has lived in Waterford all his life, and he knows EVERYONE.  He made sure to get out and talk to everyone too.  The Republican and the Democrat did not work nearly that hard.  Apparently the Republican was complacent, and the Democrat, well, let’s just say that Democrats are rather outnumbered in that township.  The Erie Times-News runs a short article about all of the local races, and the Democratic candidate didn’t even bother to answer a few questions for the newspaper.

Jack also made several large signs out of plywood and 2 x 4′s.  No cheap plastic signs with the metal frames for him.  These signs were sturdy, and were painted in bright yellow and green, and were placed strategically.  Everyone, even the most apathetic voters, knew he was running.  He also sent out a few hundred letters, explaining his stance on a local issue.

There are only two polling places in Waterford Township.  On election day, he and a few local family members worked the polls, and made sure that everyone was invited to vote for him.

On Election Night, I called my mom and asked jokingly how things were going at campaign headquarters.  I figured that he might come in second, just because the Democrat was apparently not trying.  My mom said they were just about to go to the polling stations to see how the counting was going.

A few minutes later she called back.  “We won!! By 23 votes!”  I told her not to celebrate too hard.

Jack had received 264 votes.  His Republican opponent got 241 votes, and the Democrat got 128 votes.

After the election, Jack had put a “Thank You” over his signs, and he left them up for the rest of the week.  On Sunday, I was down to visit, and he was busy retrieving his signs.

“Raymond,” he said, “If you want to run for office some time, we’ll just paint these signs a new color.”

Leave the Pronouns Alone, Ms. Bono, and Walk Away Slowly

In recent cultural news, Chaz Bono was eliminated from “Dancing With the Stars.” I don’t watch the show, but apparently the judges said that she “danced like a penguin,” compared her to an Ewok, and the general impression was that she stunk at dancing.  She was only put there to generate some controversy and hence, more viewers, not because of any talent or potential talent that she might have had.

I don’t really care that she got on “Dancing With the Stars” with a female partner in the first place.  After all, the shortage of men to dance with is an eternal problem, one noted by Elizabeth Bennet, who rebuked Mr. Darcy when she said, “Gentlemen were scarce, and more than one lady was forced to stand up with her sister.”  So the idea of a woman dancing with a woman is not novel.

I definitely don’t blame Chastity Bono for changing her name to Chaz.  If you want to name a daughter after one of the Puritan virtues, try “Faith,” “Hope,” “Charity,” or even “Patience” or “Silence.”  “Chastity” is just a bad idea for a name.  No one gets credit for living up to that virtue, but if you have that name and don’t live up to the virtue, prepare to hear about it forever.   You can also expect to have a terrible junior high school experience with a name like that.

I also hardly care that a transgender person got on DWTS.   Saint Paul predicted that women would behave badly in this and similar ways, as a result of their own sins and as a response to the sins of men in the surrounding culture.  With a 50% divorce rate, we are just about guaranteed to have all sorts of sexual confusions in our culture, and some of them will get on TV.  I know the producers of DWTS were trying to shock people like me when they picked Chaz Bono, but they failed.  Yawn….

There are two things I do care about, and those are the pronouns that are used to refer to her.  [Warning: I am about to say something terribly shocking and politically incorrect.]

CHAZ BONO IS A WOMAN.  SHE IS A SURGICALLY ALTERED WOMAN, AND MOST LIKELY A CONFUSED WOMAN, BUT SHE IS STILL A WOMAN.  And when we write about her, we need to be honest and say “she” and “her,” not “he” and “him.”

If you disagree, think about this.  Let’s say that Chaz Bono committed a crime.  Perhaps (speaking completely hypothetically, of course) she throttled one of the judges who gave her the boot, but in the process of throttling said judge, she was slightly injured and left some of her blood and skin at the scene of the crime.  If the police reached the crime scene and did a DNA test on the tissue sample, they would look for a female suspect.  Chaz Bono’s plastic surgeon would have created an extra challenge for the investigators, but the DNA would not be lying.

I know some of my readers are liberals who don’t care about the cold hard facts of present-day biology, and who think that gender is whatever you decide to be.  For those readers, please read the articles about Chaz  here and here, and listen to the way she expresses concerns about her weight and appearance.   She doesn’t sound one bit like a guy.   Chris Christie, Rush Limbaugh, or Michael Moore would not talk that way about their appearance.  For men, weight is a practical issue, and that is why we rarely ask, “Does this shirt make me look fat?”  We probably already know the answer.  But if we do ask, our wives can answer the question honestly, without fear, and we can put on a bigger shirt.  Apparently the surgery did not solve her body image problems, and one has to wonder if she, like many others who have had plastic surgery, would have been happier skipping the surgery, and seeing a counselor.  But that is a secondary point.  The main point is that the surgery and subsequent hormonal treatments did not cure her of being female.  And because the surgery did not ultimately change her, clear thinking people everywhere need to refer to Ms. Bono as “she.”

I recognize that this is a minority position that will face strong opposition, and I propose that this position be called “BC”, for “Biological Correctness.”  BC is only one of many necessary antidotes to Political Correctness.

Come and Get Me, Copper!!!

The Thin Skinned One is firing up his campaign, and He wants to make sure that everyone knows the Truth about Him.  Because, if people only knew what He was doing, they would re-elect Him in a landslide.  But He hasn’t had time between vacations to get His point across by making speeches, so He needs your help.

To help share the Truth about Him, of course we must combat the disinformation spread by those nasty lying Rethuglicans, like Ed Koch and State Senator Ruben Diaz.  We must stop attacks on him by racists such as Herman Cain, Michelle Malkin and Nikki Haley.  We must “Get the facts” and “Fight the Smears.”  In fact, if you find someone saying something bad about our President, you are invited to “Report an Attack” by going to AttackWatch.Com.  This site is paid for by Obama For America.

I tried this, and I ratted out my co-worker.  Maybe if the secret police take him away I can give his job to my nephew.  I reported that he called Obama a “commie b*st*rd” who was probably born in Kenya.  (I have a lot of co-workers, and at least one of them believes this.  I am merely reporting what I hear.)

I thought they would pay me for this valuable information.   I mean, this guy has long hair (what is left of it) and a ponytail, and he looks like he smoked a lot of pot in the 60′s.  He  should be a natural to vote for Obama, but the Dems lost him somewhere between Hope and Change.  This is valuable information.  If He lost this guy, He might lose the Jewish vote in NY-9 next.  But instead of a reward, all I got was a quick thank you and then I was sent to a site asking me to donate to the Obama campaign.

I didn’t donate, and now they suspect me of disloyalty.  Actually, they know, because someone (I don’t know exactly who, but I have a short list of suspects) decided to rat ME out, and they wrote this about me:

“Keep an eye on that bookstoysgames blog.  My dad has said that you attended a racist church for 20 years.  He doesn’t think you are a secret Muslim, but he is sure that you think more about your golf game than about what is going on in church, because otherwise you might have noticed that your pastor was a black supremacist, anti-semite, and general raving lunatic before it became a campaign issue and you dumped him like a crazy ex-girlfriend.  He also is critical of your speeches at times, and he strongly suspects Michelle wears the pants in the family. He also hopes that the voters retire you in 2012, so you can join the PGA Seniors Tour, because you spend more time on the golf course than Tiger Woods.”

So here I am, in an undisclosed location, waiting for the secret police to knock on my door.  All I have to say is, “Come and get me, Copper!”