Guidelines for napping

So. . . looks like 90 minutes it is.

A Letter from a Shelter Manager - anonymous in North Carolina

Our society needs a huge "Wake-up" call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all, view from the inside if you will.

First off, all of you breeders/sellers should be made to work in the "back" of an animal shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don't even know.

That puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it's not a cute little puppy anymore. So how would you feel if you knew that there's about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are "owner surrenders" or "strays", that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.

The most common excuses I hear are; "We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat)." Really? Where are you moving too that doesn't allow pets? Or they say "The dog got bigger than we thought it would". How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? "We don't have time for her". Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! "She's tearing up our yard". How about making her a part of your family? They always tell me "We just don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know she'll get adopted, she's a good dog".

Odds are your pet won't get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you, your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn't full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a walk. If I don't, your pet won't get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the "Bully" breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don't get adopted. It doesn't matter how 'sweet' or 'well behaved' they are.

If your dog doesn't get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn't full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of execution, but not for long . Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don't have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.

Here's a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being "put-down".
First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their tails. Until they get to "The Room", every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it's strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They will find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the "pink stuff". Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrained and jerk. I've seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don't just "go to sleep", sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves.

When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? You'll never know and it probably won't even cross your mind. It was just an animal and you can always buy another one, right?

I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can't get the pictures out of your head I deal with everyday on the way home from work.

I hate my job, I hate that it exists & I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter.
Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes.
My point to all of this DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!

Hate me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say "I saw this and it made me want to adopt". THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT.

The absentee landlord fights back—guest blog by Richard

I have permission to use this letter to point out a problem many homeowners face when their neighborhood changes, and they run into a wall of bureaucracy and red tape. Richard (I’ve left off the details for his privacy) writes his local paper a letter:

August 23, 2013

Editor
Statesboro Herald
1 Proctor Street.
Statesboro, GA 30458

cc: City Council
re: zoning decision

The City Council has made a decision about the zoning of the three properties on the corner of Herty and Fair Road, as is their right. I understand the concerns of the residents of this area, though I don’t’ agree with their reasoning. There are too many examples of businesses placed on locations near or on the edge of residential neighborhoods that have had no negative effects on the neighborhoods. Be that as it may, I accept the decision of the Council with disappointment, but without anger .

I do have major concerns about the kind of publicity and reasoning that have been published by the Herald and brought up in Council discussion.

It was pointed out that the owners of the property are “absentee landlords,”  implying that we/they bought the properties as an investment, implying something nefarious on our parts. Notwithstanding the fact that any landlord who does not live on the premises is “absentee,”  this absentee landlord is seventy nine years old, and I lived in the Catherine Ave. house for thirty five of those seventy nine years I think it is clear that I did not have a desire to sell it for commercial use when I bought it. The first thirty of those years were quite wonderful for my wife, myself, and our six children, but the last five were quite difficult. People were parking in my yard for graduation, ball games and other events. My yard had become a shortcut to the campus, and anything left in the yard (including the blueberries and blackberries, pears and peaches growing at the edge of the property) was subject to misappropriation (call it theft).

My neuropathy had become enough of a problem that, after my children moved away for college, graduate school, military service and marriage, I was having difficulty maintaining the property. (If it were not for a young parolee from some kind of incarceration who dropped by one day and asked if he could mow my lawn or wash my car, and continued to come by once or twice a week to help me for four of the last five years, my place would have become a real mess. I was glad for him to get a job at Claxton Poultry, but it created difficulties for me.) Finally, I decided to try to sell the property, but as family housing, it was unmarketable. After finding another house further from the property, I rented the place to students and became an “absentee landlord”

One of the “absentee landlords,” identified as a corporation, is not a landlord at all, it is the Salvation Army. Before buying the location, they polled the entire neighborhood to see if there was any opposition to their object to build a Salvation Army facility. Finding little opposition, even when they held a public meeting to get response, with the encouragement of city officials they bought the property. When a building permit was requested, a meeting was held, THEN, the objectors from the neighborhood showed up, the permit was disapproved, and for sixteen years they have been stuck with an unusable and unmarketable piece of land.

At this time, thanks to the procrastination of the city council, postponing their decision till after the “renting period” had expired seems almost deliberate. Judging from the cheering from the members of the Council and the unanimous vote of all members, including those who had voiced support up to the moment, it was a decision that appeared to have been made at the first meeting, or before, and then postponed for no reason except public relations. As a result, I have missed the period wherein student rentals are available (August 1) so that the robust rental market mentioned in the resolution printed in the Herald and part of the negative resolution passed by the council no longer exists, at least for me and Dr. Hood.

I am pretty sure that the current Council recognizes the inevitability of this area becoming commercial, as did Marvin Pittman, or his agents who submitted the original plat to the city wherein all of the properties concerned were zoned commercial. I am not sure when this zoning was changed, or when it will be changed back, but it is as inevitable as death and taxes.
As for me, I am very concerned about getting it rented, because, if I can’t, I may end up losing it to a foreclosed mortgage.

Thank you for your time
Richard

The debt limit

Obama insists it’s no big deal. Easy for him to say—he’s a millionaire.

Video game violence—don’t buy it

"Many people, especially children, think that whatever they see in the media is real. If in the name of entertainment violence is glorified, anti-social behavior is approved of, and human sexuality is trivialized, this is a sin both of those in the media who are responsible and also of those supervisory authorities that ought to put a stop to it." (YOUCAT)

Sounds good, but who is supervising the adults sucked in by the same sin and supporting it financially? Look what hit the shelves and homes this week. Grand Theft Auto 5.

"Grand Theft Auto V," the latest installment in Rockstar Games' hit video game series, reaped an eye-popping $800 million in worldwide retail sales on its first day of release Tuesday, heading for $1 billion.

“ “For better or worse,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the decision, “our society has long regarded many depictions of killing and maiming as suitable features of popular entertainment.” As such, Rockstar, the developer of Grand Theft Auto V, the latest entry in the long-running series, which was released today, could include a prolonged interactive depiction of torture without fear of censorship. Nevertheless, the “24”-esque scene, which requires players to rotate the game controller’s sticks in order to tug out the victim’s teeth with pliers, has inspired debate—not only over its artistic merit but also over whether such distressing interactions have any place in video games. “ (New Yorker)

Where in the world are the adults? How many more mentally ill shooters will be inspired?

        

Gluten free Halloween treats

I would never go to this much trouble, but isn’t it cute.

Is Obamacare because of costs or loss?

Outraged about cost of medical care? Don't be. It was 5% of consumer income in 1901 and is 6% today. And look at the change in life expectancy. What has increased is the amount of our income that goes to entertainment/reading: 3% in 1901 a...nd 7% in 2003. More than health care. Food costs have been reduced tremendously in percent of income. 40% on food down to 13%. The biggest increase has been in transportation. What I can't tell from the graph (because it is consumer income), is how much we contribute to these categories through our taxes--artificially low food prices because of agricultural support, and the various government health programs and research.

http://visualeconomics.creditloan.com/100-years-of-consumer-spending/

Obamacare isn't about insuring the poor or pre-existing coverage. The employer deduction and the employee tax free benefit amounts to a "loss" to the government that is twice that of the mortgage deduction loss. It's the biggest "loophole" in the system, and the way the government controls both business and labor through tax laws. Both Republicans and Democrats think that's their money--and they want us to pay up! That said, the money that employers use to purchase health insurance comes out of workers’ wages. We would all be better off if we were just allowed to purchase the insurance we want (without employer involvement) and health care were tax neutral, but that will never happen.

Who’s reckless now?

"Wrong and reckless leadership all over the map." No, Obama wasn't describing himself, but Gov. Romney who called Russia a "geo-political foe" just about a year ago.  Putin has since proved Romney right, and Obama recklessly wrong.  Romney reminded Obama that attacking him wasn't an agenda.  (Neither is attacking Bush or the GOP, but it seems to work for keeping his supporters.) And Romney went on to say he opposed direct U.S. military involvement in the efforts to topple Syrian President Bashir Assad, which at the time was also Obama's position (although we can't be sure).
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/22/neck-and-neck-at-end-obama-and-romney-seek-foreign-policy-edge-in-final/

Happy Birthday, U.S. Constitution

Somebody should check the spelling on posters.

Obama, Biden and Boehner sitting on their bottoms looking for a new idiom

While Obama opened his address by calling the victims of the mass shooting "patriots" and vowing to get to the bottom of what happened, he quickly pivoted to his remarks about congressional Republicans (on Sept. 16, day of the shooting).

Biden says he's confident the nation will get to the bottom of the situation. (Sept. 16, day of the shooting)

“We still do not know who did this or why. And people shouldn't jump to conclusions before we have all the facts. But make no mistake -- we will get to the bottom of this“ said Obama about the Boston Marathon bombings.   Then the bottom turned out to be 2 Muslim brothers who were planning terrorism, but the T-word was not used.

"I think our committees in the coming days and weeks are going to get to the bottom of this so we’ll have real facts at our disposal to determine whether it is true, and if it was true, why the information wasn’t shared,"  John Boehner

“If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon. “I think [Martin's parents] are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and were going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”  Then the bottom turned out to be a troubled teen who attacked Zimmerman first.

Obama: “We need to get to the bottom of Benghazi.” President Obama says he will “cooperate in any way that ...

"The Congress has the responsibility to get to the truth," said the [John Boehner] Ohio Republican, “whether it's Benghazi, the IRS scandal, the whole situation with The Associated Press, our committees are going to do their job to get to the bottom [of this]."

President Obama is pledging to work with Congress to get to the bottom of the IRS scandal. May 13, 2013  Follow up 3 months later finds no group targeted (41) by IRS had been contacted by investigators from DoJ  Aug. 13, 2013.

House Speaker John Boehner tells Newsmax that Congress will “get to the bottom” of the unfolding Fast and Furious scandal following new revelations about Attorney General Eric Holder’s involvement in the case.  Oct. 2011

Obama never said he would get to the bottom of the Ft. Hood shootings, probably because they knew who the murderer was.  But instead he warned the American people against “jumping to conclusions.” Terrorism was renamed “workplace violence.”

Tonight many families are suffering

Cardiovascular Benefits of olive oil

This is just part of an article on the benefits of olive oil that was in WHFoods website (the newsletter article was shorter, but couldn’t find it on the website).

“Many different cardiovascular problems—including gradual blocking of the arteries and blood vessels (called atherosclerosis)—have their origin in two unwanted circumstances. The first of these circumstances is called oxidative stress. Oxidative stress means too much damage (or risk of damage) from the presence of overly reactive oxygen-containing molecules. One of the best ways to help avoid oxidative stress is to consume a diet that is rich in antioxidant nutrients. The second of these circumstances is ongoing (chronic) and undesirable low-level inflammation. Undesirable and chronic inflammation can result from a variety of factors, including unbalanced metabolism, unbalanced lifestyle, unwanted exposure to environmental contaminants, and other factors. One of the best ways to help avoid chronic and unwanted inflammation is to consume a diet that is rich in anti-inflammatory nutrients. Any food that is rich in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients is a natural candidate for lowering our risk of heart problems, because it contains the exactly right combination of nutrients to lower our risk of oxidative stress and chronic, unwanted inflammation. Many foods contain valuable amounts of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds, but few foods are as rich in these compounds as extra virgin olive oil, and this fact alone accounts for many of the research-based benefits of this culinary oil for health of our cardiovascular system.

In terms of antioxidant protection for our blood vessels, olive oil has been shown to lower risk of lipid peroxidation (oxygen damage to fat) in our bloodstream. Many of the fat-containing molecules in our blood—including molecules like LDL—need to be protected from oxygen damage. Oxygen damage to molecules like LDL significantly increases our risk of numerous cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis. Protection of the LDL molecules in our blood from oxygen damage is a major benefit provided by olive oil and its polyphenols. Equally important is protection against oxygen damage to the cells that line our blood vessels. Once again, it's the polyphenols in olive oil that have been shown to provide us with that protection.

One process we don't want to see in our blood vessels is too much clumping together of blood cells called platelets. While we want to see blood platelets clump together under circumstances like an open wound, where their clumping together acts to seal off the wound, we don't want this process to occur in an ongoing way when there is no acute emergency. Several of the polyphenols found in olive oil—including hydroxytyrosol, oleuropein and luteolin—appear to be especially helpful in keeping our blood platelets in check and avoiding problems of too much clumping (called platelet aggregation). There are also two messaging molecules (called plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 and factor VII) that are capable of triggering too much clumping together of the platelets, and the polyphenols in olive oil can help stop overproduction of these molecules.

Olive oil is one of the few widely used culinary oils that contains about 75% of its fat in the form of oleic acid (a monounsaturated, omega-9 fatty acid). Research has long been clear about the benefits of oleic acid for proper balance of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol in the body. When diets low in monounsaturated are made high in monounsaturated fat (by replacing other oils with olive oil), research study participants tend to experience a significant decrease in their total blood cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and LDL:HDL ratio. Those are exactly the results we want for heart health. In addition to these cholesterol-balancing effects of olive oil and its high oleic acid content, however, comes a new twist: recent research studies have shown that olive oil and its oleic acid may be important factors for lowering blood pressure. Researchers believe that the plentiful amount of oleic acid in olive oil gets absorbed into the body, finds its way into cell membranes, changes signaling patterns at a cell membrane level (specifically, altering G-protein associated cascades) and thereby lowers blood pressure.

Interestingly, a recent laboratory animal study adds one note of caution for anyone wanting to bring the unique cardiovascular benefits of olive oil into their diet. This study found that cardiovascular benefits from olive oil and its polyphenols were not realized when the laboratory animals consumed too many calories and too much total food. This result suggests that olive oil—outstanding as it is in polyphenol protection of our cardiovascular system—needs to be integrated into an overall healthy diet in order to provide its expected benefits.”

For anyone seeking the truth about the Tea Party—guest blogger Kay

As a supporter of the Sauk Valley Tea Party [Illinois], I know the liberal media has steered you wrong. The majority of the active members are people like you, retired and concerned about the future of the country. Our group focuses on education and we have people like Congressmen Manzullo, Schilling, radio hosts like Dan Proft, local leaders like the owner of Jimmy Johns in Dixon, representatives from a state-wide organization to point out facts of Common Core Curriculum.

The nation-wide Tea Party is comprised of people of all races, ages, and ethnic backgrounds. (And I'm quoting this from a statistic of a few yours ago.) I protested Pelosi Care in D.C., when it was staged to be voted by the Democratically controlled house. The "tea party" people at that protest included families with young children, all ages and races and even Democrats. Anyway, the point is: I was next to the security and as the security guards shifted around, their number one comment was: This group is the best group. . . never any problems occur with the Tea Party people, they are well organized and very respectful.

I hope you find peace with yourself in your quest for the truth.

Monday Memories—Caribou Coffee

For many years I had my morning coffee at Caribou on Lane Ave., and then would walk indoors at the Lane Avenue shopping center, then head for work at the Sisson Hall Veterinary Medicine Library. Now all are gone. Caribou has become Peet's, the enclosed mall disappeared—well, it was remodeled but now you have to walk outside, and the veterinary medicine library was torn down.

Ohio State fan on game day in Caribou on Lane Avenue, Oct. 2007

"Going out" for coffee is something I've done for about 60 years--starting probably when I worked the counter at Zickuhr's Pharmcy in my home town, Mt. Morris, Illinois. That's when it was $.10 a cup and I'd get a dime tip (or even a quarter occasionally) and all the town's gossip for free. It is still a social event, at least for me. No matter what McDonald's or Caribou or Cup 'o Joe's I enter, I see a group of regulars solving the day's problems. That's why I have a special blog about coffee shops. So you see, I've been on the other side of the counter too.

Friday Family Photo—the Ford Explorer

In the fall of 1999 we bought a 2000 2 dr. Ford Explorer, forest green, shift, good gas mileage.  It has been a great car and still looks good. There was a recall on the original tires very early, so we're still on those replacements after 14 years. The bumper got bumped about 5 years ago and developed some rust, so we had that replaced.  Because it's basically a truck, it's not comfortable for my back when I’m a passenger, but the step ladder fits in the back, so we keep it for the art shows and our kids hauling things. This week our daughter borrowed it while her husband was in Cleveland with their car, so we had to make some adjustments in our schedule.  We could probably manage with 1 car, but this is just too convenient and useful. (This is not our Explorer in the photo—it’s pulling a boat.)

Why you can’t reason with ignorance

I contribute to Huffington Post political FB page. I don’t call people names, slander the president or make biased statements.  I just contribute sourced statements.  Like this one about why the food stamp program is expanding as unemployment drops and so mean old Republicans want poor people to starve by cutting back. All you have to do is check a reasonable source like the USDA or a non-profit that works with the poor—left or right—and you see that recruiting of low income people was expanded with ARRA money--the money that was going to get people back to work in 2009 was used in part to add more people to SNAP (the new name for food stamps).  I even pointed out that the N in SNAP stands for nutrition, and that EBT cards can be used at fast food restaurants.  For that easily researched information I was told I was stupid and uninformed.  My posts are always researched and reasonable, and the left calls me a troll, stupid, tea bagger, racist, homophobe, etc.  That’s the level of political discourse.

Just say no, Doctor.

I've often wondered about this--why do pharmaceutical companies advertise to us, the consumer, as if we know what the doctor needs to prescribe.  It seems it's not that old.  Claritin was the first in 1997, according to the University of Illinois LAS newsletter (May 2013).

http://www.las.illinois.edu/news/2013/rosenberg/

Worked as planned

Divots on the golf course and pivots on the economy

"Because Obama speaks with such authority, it often takes several repetitions before I realize that what he’s saying is total nonsense." Caroline Baum, Bloomberg, on his "growing the economy" meme, A User’s Guide to Obama’s Inside-Out Economics, Aug. 7, 2013

He's pivoted again; it's back to the economy. The rich have recovered; the low income not so much. Five years and Obama can't fix it. The recession has been over since June 2009. Truman had a recession, Eisenhower had several, Nixon got a recession, so did Carter, so did Reagan, so did both Bushes, and all were brief and the economy quickly recovered. But then, they didn't try to take over health care and pay back and bail out unions and bankers. You have to go all the way back to FDR's mishandling of the Depression in the 30s, extending it a decade, to find a record this poor.

          

NSA snoops

Fourteen NSA documents were declassified on Tuesday in response to a May 2011 ACLU lawsuit. The documents were made public under the Freedom of Information Act and related to the government's interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which ambiguously grants the FBI permission to obtain "any tangible things" without evidence or probable cause for the sake of national security.

ACLU National Security Project staff attorney Alex Abdo: "These documents show that the NSA repeatedly violated court-imposed limits on its surveillance powers, and they confirm that the agency simply cannot be trusted with such sweeping authority."