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Eight Miles High - the Inspirational Quote

Posted by Arik on Saturday, January 31, 2009 10:41:07 PM
"Actually, those investments (food stamps and unemployment insurance) bring a bigger return than the tax cuts,” [Pelousy] said, adding: “but tax cuts where we have them – to the middle class – we think will give us our biggest return.”
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Good Times, Bad Times

Posted by Arik on Friday, January 30, 2009 9:23:47 PM
Well, we've had Lily, our new dog, for almost two weeks now, and it's not gone as well as we had hoped. 
 
She is a good dog, for the most part.  She adores my wife, dancing around everytime she sees her, almost tripping her from trying to climb up her legs.  Me, she is still afraid of, which is not a real problem.  The problem is that she apparently doesn't much care for the kids. Brenna, she can deal with most of the time, but Jake she can't seem to handle, pretty much at all.  I knew going in there would be acclimatizing problems, but she seems to be getting worse, not better. 
 
My wife was angry with me because I wouldn't get up in the middle of the night when Lily was barking in the kitchen. I told her that if she'd listen to me and let Lily sleep in our room, no one would have to get up.  Last night was the first time, and she stayed in one spot all night.  No one had to get up at all.  If more people would listen to me, the world would run a whole lot smoother.
 
On Wednesday, she climbed the stairs all by herself, and she has taken to sniffing around the house a lot. 
 
Unfortunately, as much as I love having her around, I have to think of my kids first, and she is worrying us as to how she will treat them.  She seems to go off on them at strange times.  The woman who runs the rescue called my wife to see how we were doing, and my wife talked with her for a while.  She said that she had a couple of dogs that she thought would do very well with young kids and that we should go see them in the morning.  They DO have a return policy, as rescue dogs may have trouble adapting, and the potential is there to pick a dog that will not adapt to your home. So, I think Lily is going to have to go back to the rescue. 
 
I hate to do this.  I hate to admit failure, for one thing, and for another, I feel like I'm breaking a promise to Lily.  The bright side of this is that the people at the rescue really love these dogs. They take care of them in their homes, and treat them as if they were their own.  Also, I know Lily will be adopted out to a home that will be better suited to her. She will have a happy life in a good place.  She has started to come out of her shell, and the time she spent with us can inly make the transition to a new home easier.  I still feel pretty horrible, though. 
Tags: dogs  
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My Letter to Senator George Voinovich (R-OH)

Posted by Arik on Thursday, January 29, 2009 4:39:00 PM
I sent this letter a few minutes ago.
 

Senator Voinovich,
    In recent days, I have been learning more and more about the so-called "Economic Stimulus Plan" that is currently working its way through congress. From what I understand, this bill is working it's way toward the 900 billion dollar mark, and may, in fact, cost more than a trillion dollars in the end, before any interest is added to the astronomic amount of debt it will create.
    That this bill creates a huge amount of debt, with neither guarantee, nor likelihood, of actually succeeding in "stimualting the economy, but rather of lengthening the collapse, is bad enough.  Worse is that billions of dollars appear to be headed toward such apparently unrelated ventures as rewarding illegal immigrants for their law-breaking, funding the murder of the unborn, and political payback to such outlaw organizations as ACORN. 
    While the new President claims to be seeking "bi-partisan support," it is clear that there is little to no bipartisanship in the authoring of this legislation.  What he is seeking is a sharing of blame for its inevitable failure, not a sharing of credit for its unlikely success.
    This is NOT a bill to stimulate our economy, this is a bill that seeks to crush the Republican party and decimate our Constitution.  The nation is indeed in peril, but not from a sluggish economy. Our economy will rebound and grow again, as it always has, if it is not hit with staggering costs and regulations.  In true Democrat fashion, they are trying to throw money at a problem that they, themselves, caused by throwing money at other problems. This hasn't worked with our public schools here in Ohio, nor has it worked in any other circumstance that I have found.  It merely creates more problems.
    I urge you to not just vote against this bill, but to fight it and urge your colleagues to do the same.  This bill constitutes a clear and present danger to our nation and to our way of life.  If it must pass, let the perpetrators take the fall. Let the Republican Party have no part in this disaster.

Arik M. Iczkowski

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Carrot Juice Is Murder!

Posted by Arik on Monday, January 26, 2009 5:43:37 PM
Once again, the fascists at PETA (which means People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, NOT, as I found out, People Enjoying Tasty Animals),  have come up with a new scheme to help wreck the economy and turn the people of our nation into gibbering idiots.  They have started a campaign to rename what we people with an IQ over room temperature call "Fish."  Their are, as we know, many different species of fish, some big, some small, some tropical, some arctic, some poisonous, some really, really tasty.  They want us all to adopt the term "sea-kittens."  I know, it sounds like a joke, and if you look at their website, it LOOKS like a joke, but these Froot Loops are stone cold serious. 
 
I, myself, fight for another cause.  There is a group in our society that is regularly tortured, torn limb from limb, chopped into bits and sometimes boiled alive.   These victims of our cruel society are unable to speak for themselves, are not even able to flee the culinary genocide befalling them under the kitchen knives of this nation.  I am speaking, of course, of Veggie-Americans. 
 
Vegetables have no one to fight for them, therefore, I must take up their cause.  The cruel, heartless bastards at PETA are trying to perpetuate the botanical slaughter by turning us all into vegetarians, even our pets.  If you pick a tomato, does it not die? If you peel it, does it not bleed? Hell, yes, it does.  Why should the Flora of our nation have different rights than the Fauna? Are we not all equal in God's eyes? 
 
Prominent Biologist/Physicist/Cult Leader/Nutcase L. Ron Hubbard has conclusively proven that that our gardens are full of living, breathing, FEELING organisms.  To deny them their Inalienable Rights to Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness (at least as far as something rooted to the ground can pursue ANYTHING), is as Un-American as Apple Pie (shudder).  Fermented Malt Beverages? I'd sooner drink Fermented Human Beverages, which is pretty gross, any way you look at it.  Vegetarianism is an affront to the Almighty, almost as bad as atheism, except much more fruity.
 
What am I going to do? I'll tell you what I am going to do.  I am going to picket Farmers' Markets nationwide. I'm going to boycott Chrissie Hynde's restaurant.  I am going to write letters to my Congresspeople, urging them to stop this senseless brutality. Most importantly, I am going to sing protest songs.  Every movement has to have protest songs. You can't have a good cause without having a song to go with it, it's just not done.  Where would the sixties have been if the people didn't have a song to hum? NOWHERE, that's where. So, we'll have protest songs.
 
Those of you who want to join with me in my Jicama Jihad, we will meet on the Harvest Moon, in the Produce Section of our local grocery.  We will have a Sit-In amongst our injured brothers: the Wilted Lettuce, The Bruised Tomatoes, The Cverripe Bananas.  We will sing our songs and hold hands and sway while we're doing it, and then maybe we'll chant or meditate or something new-agey like that. Then, when we have secured the freedom of our vegetable friends, we'll go to the meat department and pick up some steaks and chicken, and go barbeque them in front of some PETA members house.  And maybe we'll try to rename "kittens" as Land-Fish," and serve them up with lemon pepper and a side of melted butter. Bon Appetit!
Tags: Satire   PETA  
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It's a Great Day

Posted by Arik on Thursday, January 22, 2009 8:37:46 PM
All right, here we go.
 
Have you ever had one of those days?  I'm working on my twenty-second this year.  This has been a crappy day. This day has been so crappy it stands out against an all-star field of crappy days.  Even the best day so far, the day I got my new dog, had some pretty crappy elements to it.  That day, as we were leaving to go get her, I was carrying my son to the car, and no sooner did I get out the front door than I slipped on a patch of ice and fell over.  I learned something about myself that day.  I had always wondered what I would do if I fell while I was carrying one of my kids.  I mean, instinct says to throw your arms out and try to break your fall. I've done this while carrying groceries and other things, and usually that stuff goes flying and ends up several yards from where I am.  Well, to my great relief, I squeezed him tight and tried to get under him.  He just bumped his head a little on the ground, which, in my family, is probably the least safest body part to smack on something.
 
But I digress.
 
My story has its beginning last winter, actually.  Last winter, not once, but twice, I had a flat tire on my way home from work.  Both times happened to be during a blizzard.  The first time, I was 10 miles from hom, and had to change it in a gas station parking lot, with the snow coming down like in a movie.  The second, I actually made it into my driveway, and, not having to go to work the next night, left it for the next day, in the hope that it wouldn't be snowing then.  Of course, this meant I had to change the tire the next day not only in a blizzard, but with an extra six inches of snow on the ground.  Smart.
 
So, anyway, moving forward in time, this past Saturday I pulled out of the driveway on my way to work, and heard a rumbling sound, and the car was driving pretty rough. This has happened enough that I knew what I was going to see when I got out.  My driver's side front tire was flat as a pancake.  I managed to pull back into my driveway. 
 
Now, I am somewhat mechanically inclined.  I work in a lab that last July put in a million-and-a-half dollar automation system, and I am able to keep it semi-operational, which is about thirty percent more operational than it was apparently designed to be.  I am also fairly proficient at maintain and troubleshooting the several hundred thousand dollars worth of analyzers we have lying around. I fix things. That's kind of what I do.  However, put me in front of a five hundred dollar, third-hand Oldsmobile from the mid-nineties, and I look almost as lost as Barney Frank trying to read the Times' Business section. I can't even change the spark plugs on this thing, though that is due in large part to the design requiring an arm with two elbows to actually reach them.  I can, however, change a tire.  But this is Ohio in the middle of January, which is pretty much exactly what AAA was invented for. And I am NOT going to change a tire when my wife has a perfectly good vehicle that she's not going to be using. Fortunately, I had an extra tire from the car I killed last winter, so I just had AAA change it while I was at work. Problem solved. 
 
So, today. Today, the kids got up at seven-thirty.  This might not seem so bad to some parents, but since we both work evenings, our kids stay up later than most others their age, and they usually sleep until nine or nine-thirty.  Not today.  My wife got up with them, but knowing I had to be up at eight, I couldn't get back to sleep, and eventually gave up trying. 
 
I got up and threw on some clothes and left for class. I am a non-traditional student at world famous Kent State University (motto: Capitalizing on Tragedy Since 1970), and I am studying computer science.  My first class is "Social and Ethical Issues in Computing."  This class has the opportunity to be quite entertaining, as it is a discussion class, and there is about a fifty-three percent chance the professor is insane. He has an unusal way of stating things, and he is, like me, a font of useless information, and unusual trivia, which is awesome.  Example: Google "Wizard of Oz" and "McKinley." (Or just click on my handy dandy link). See, that's pretty cool, isn't it? Even if it has little to no bearing on your life or anything else, it is pretty cool.
 
Well, before I ever got to my class, in fact, before I got fifty feet out of my driveway, I hear that old familiar rumbling sound, and the car is driving rough.  I would tell you what I said, but Townhall censors that kind of language.  I got out and looked at my tire, and it was alright. Hmmm. I went to the other side. Flat as a pancake.  Lovely.  Fortunately, once again, I had an extra vehicle just a-waiting for me, that my wife wasn't going to be using, and so I made my class on time. 
 
Afterward, I thought, "Why not stop at the gas station, and get some 'Fix-a-flat,' and see if that will work." Five bucks is better than a call to AAA, or changing the tire myslef.  So I did (after stopping at the meat market, where I saw a pretty funny t-shirt: "Friends don't let friends buy grocery store meat").  guess what, it worked! Hooray me!  Now all I had to do was go back to the gas station and bring it up to pressure. 
 
I pulled into the gas station, right next to the air hose, which was taped up with bright yellow crime scene-style tape: "Out of Order." Drat. But there's another gas station a few miles away, surely I could get it filled there.  I pulled right up to the shiny air hose/vacuum combination (I've never seen that before. Apparently blow and suck ARE the same thing) and dropped my quarters into the machine, cursing the guy who thought up "pay air-hoses." I pushed the "Air" button. Nothing. I beat the change box rather viciously, stopping short of actual property damage. Wouldn't do to get arrested.  So, I went to the Speedway right across the street. More yellow crime-scene tape.
 
To make a long story short (too late), I stopped at two more crime-scene-taped air pump before pulling into my sixth and final stop, forty five minutes and a whole lot of temper after I started.  Did I get more yellow tape?  Nope. At this station (also a vacuum/air hose combo), the vacuum hose was present, but the air hose was on vacation, probably in Florida, where all the smart Ohioans have gone.  Resigned and needing to get home so I can leave for work, I think that maybe I can spend another five bucks and finish the job with more "Fix-a-flat."  I went into the gas station and bought another can. Only three-fifty. A bargain.
 
I went out to my car, shook the can up, attached the little hose to the valve, pushed the button...and got a face full of foam for my efforts. The valve on the can was broke, and everything came out the back end.  Dripping with foam, I carried the can back into the store, where they gave me another can. I went back to my car and tried to hook the can up, and the little ring that screws on to the valve was cracked and wouldn't hold. Meanwhile, my attempt let all the air that was in the tire back out.  So. I went BACK into the store, where they gave me ANOTHER can (of a different brand this time), which actually worked, but only brought the tire back to where it had been at the beginning of my trip. I made it home just in time to get ready and leave for work.  And work, as we all know, is a sure cure for a really crappy day, isn't it?
 
At work, I learned something else.  If you keep a bottle of Coke in the trunk of your car until it freezes, don't open it until it's fully thawed, not even to try and "vent" it.  I believe this is what physicists call "Inflation Theory."  What I know for sure is: it has to be a violation of the laws of physics that twenty-four cubic feet of Coke can fit into a twenty-four-ounce bottle. And if it's not a violation, it should be.  I do know that it expanded at pretty close to the speed of light, all over me and the surrounding area. And there were still twelve ounces left in the bottle. 
 
So, when I say it's been a pretty crappy day, I mean: It's been a pretty crappy day.
 
And, Dear Lord help me, there are still a couple of hours left.
Tags: rant  
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Joe Biden's Inaugural Address

Posted by Arik on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 4:43:41 PM

Eleven score and thirteen years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great economic crisis, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met at a great crossroads of that crisis. We have come to choose a direction at that crossroads, as a final testing place for those who here gave their wealth that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not choose -- we can not opt -- we can not decide -- this direction. The brave men, wealthy and poor, who traded here, have chosen it, far above our poor power to add or subtract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who traded here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored ex-wealthy we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these poor shall not have gone broke in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

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Hair of the Dog

Posted by Arik on Sunday, January 18, 2009 11:07:10 PM
Well, our new dog, Lily, is now ensconced in our home, though she is going to take a while to get comfortable.  When I set her in the middle of the living room floor, she looked confused for a second, then wander into the dining room, then the kitchen and promptly rolled over and put her feet in the air.  Though I had to leave for work just minutes after dropping her off, I've been getting periodic reports on her. She is a pretty horribly damaged dog, but so was my Mollie, and I know we can do the same for Lily that we did for her.
 
How did Lily get so damaged? Well, the people we got her from estimate she is about two-and-a-half years old, all but, essentially, the last five or so weeks were spent in a two-foot by two-foot cage, having no name, no family and no purpose other than to have litters of pups.  When she was all used up as far as breeding, there were only two things that might happen to her: go to a rescue organization or get a bullet in the head.  Fortunately, she was lucky.  The breeder called the rescue people, Ron's Rescued Rascals, who we found through Petfinder.com and Adopt-a-pet.com. Whether she was lucky in getting us remains to be seen, but I hope she will accept us, in time. 
 
There is a dirty little secret in the animal world, and it is the puppy mill. What is a puppy mill? It is a dog breeding facility where the conditions are terrible: the hygiene is poor to non-existent, there is little or no veterinary care provided, conditions are overcrowded, and little to no concern is given to the welfare of the breeding dogs, in general. According to the couple who rescued Lily, there is no provision for the dogs to even get some exercise.  They are just left in their cages dayin and day out, until they are of no more use to the breeder. 
 
Though there are many diverse groups running puppy mills across the nation, I was rather surprised to find that one of the major groups involved, especially here in Ohio, is the Amish.  I know a lot of people make fun of the Amish, or think them quaint or an oddity, but I generally have a great deal of respect for them.  There is something humbling to me about a group of people who have such a devout faith in God, and whose belief is mirrored by the life they choose to live.  Living as close as we do to Amish country, we occasionally drive down, and have bough tsome furniture. The strength of their faith is mirrored in the quality of the work they produce.  But, really, that's just an aside. There are many reputable dog breeders, Amish or otherwise, that do not engage in the practices found at puppy mills. I was just surprised to hear it.
 
I have found that Ohio is one of the worst states in the nation regarding puppy mill laws, leaving breeders basically unregulated. I'm not an animal rights wacko, I will never be a member of PETA, unless that stands for "People Eating Tasty Animals." I don't believe there is anything morally repugnant about using animals for pets, work or food.  I just happen to think they shouldn't be tortured while they are alive. Our state legislature has repeatedly refused to pass a law that would require a few minimum standards to be implemented.  These include: veterinary care, a place and time to exercise, better hygiene, licensing and inspections of the facilities, and less crowded living conditions.
 
There have been puppy mill laws passed recently in Virginia and Pennsylvania.  The Pennsylvania law has the unfortunate condition that facilities with less than 25 dogs are not affected.  This has led to breeders dumping a lot of dogs, and will, I suspect, lead to more operations, each with less dogs per facility. However, the new laws, if not perfect, are a step in the right direction.
 
According to the Humane Society of the United States, Ohio is the second worst offender, with Missouri leading the way by a wide margin. Our farmers give adequate care to their horses, make sure that their cattle, pigs and other livestock are properly fed and maintained; Why should dogs be treated differently, especially when they are engaged in the activity of, essentially, producing pets for people?  Is proper space and care and a place to play too much to ask?  When these dogs are done breeding, they could easily be put into loving homes, if the breeder bothered to give them basic care and a little socialization. Instead, they use the dogs as puppy factories, and discard them as soon as they can't use them anymore. I suspect most dog owners would be horrified to find out where their beloved pet had come from if they knew how the mother and father of that dog had been treated.  I'm fairly horrified that a person could do what was done to both of my dogs, my big girl Mollie, and my new girl Lily.  If they could see Lily now, and how she shakes at the slightest noise, they might never buy from a petshop again.
 
I'm not very big on government intervention in a lot of areas, but this seems to be an area that a little legislation could go a long way toward stopping a lot of suffering.  If you are a dog, or an animal lover, I urge you to check out the laws in your state, and contact your representatives to help put an end to the torture.
 
Before I leave, I have to share one more story that I heard from the woman who saved Lily.  She saves a number of different breeds, and runs a network of foster homes around the area to help rescue dogs from many unfortunate circumstances.  She told me she had a call  from a breeder about a cocker spaniel that he wanted to get rid of, because it had cherry eye, a condition which is treatable.  She scrambled to find a place to put it and called then breeder back to let him know she would take it.  Unfortunately, by the time she got back to him, the breeder had taken the dog out back and shot it.  A little veterinary care could have prevented the problem or easily fixed it when it occurred, yet the easy solution was to just dump the dog like a used napkin.  That just doesn't seem right to me. Does it to you?
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U.S. OUT OF THE U.N. NOW!!!

Posted by Arik on Friday, January 16, 2009 11:22:04 PM
I'll tell you right now: I have no use for the United Nations.  The idea that the member nations are in anyway united is a joke in itself, but the fact is that the U.N. is a bloated, corrupt bureaucracy that seems to have little to do but bash the U.S. and Israel.
 
The U.S. currently pays dues and fees amounting to 22% and 25% of the U.N budget and Peacekeeping fuding, repectively. Why don't we take a look at what OUR tax money is doing for us.
 
Just recently, there was a nifty little piece of news, the United Nations Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is partnering with the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO).  This may sound like a great thing: sort of a Save the Whales, except with little Muslim kids instead of large aquatic mammals.  Of course, in the international community, nothing is as it seems.  The IIRO is a front for funding terrorist networks, including Al-Qaeda, particularly in the Phillipines and Indonesia.  How nice.  Think of the catchy slogans: Donate to Unicef, Kill an Indonesian. Or: UNICEF: Blowing Up Filipinos Since 1945.
 
Also this year, the U.N. showed how their eforts at establishing schools works.  While soundly condemning the Israelis for taking out a school in Gaza, they conveniently ignore the fact the Palestinian political party/ terrorist organization/ Jew annihilation society Hamas was using the school as a place to hide their "Freedom Fighters" along with weapons used to kill Israelis. Hint to Hamas: your children would be in MUCH less danger if you didn't insist on using them as body armor.
 
The U.N also, rightly, was in favor of the First Gulf War, and the Liberation of Kuwait.  Of course, they then proved how easily they can turn victory into defeat by failing to let the U.S.-led military force finish the job.  This, of course, led to the Second Gulf War, better known as the War in Iraq.  This was necessitated by the fact that the U.N. is an ineffectual organization, which has the power to punish violations of its resolutions only by passing a more sternly worded resolution. This led to the U.S. Congress voting to use our military to take out the trash.  Of course, we now know that most of the democRats only voted to allow the use of military force because they were sure that military force would never be used. In other words, they were "for it before they were against it."
 
After the Gulf War, the U.N instituted an Oil for Food program for humanitarian reasons, which of course means something different than what it sounds like.  In this case, it means that Saddam Hussein and the people administering the program made about Ten Billion (that's Billion, with a B) Dollars in "humanitarian aid."  This was used in part to buy the weapons and armor used against our forces in the ongoing war.  This proves a key point that liberals don't appear to be bright enough to understand: Treaties and Ceasefires with power-mad dictators and death-cult terrorists don't bring peace, they just give the enemy time to reload.
 
In other peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts, the United Nations went into Somalia, with as always, the best of intentions. This ended up as, of course, a U.S-led military venture, Operation Restore Hope, which led to 8 U.S. military deaths, over 42 Million dollars wasted, and Bill Clinton's embarassing tail-between-the-legs retreat from Mogadishu.  All that, and what do we get? Somali Pirates. I believe that Gordon Gee would call that a great victory, but most of us sane people would call it a disaster.
 
Add to that the fact that U.N officials won't even bother to follow PARKING LAWS, and under diplomatic immunity don't have to worry about making child support payments, alimony payments, or other little inconveniences like standing trial for murder, and you can see why I don't much care for the U.N. 
 
Funding terrorists, fronting for dictators, incompetent administration, ineffectual resolutions, pervasive anti-American attitude. What's not to love?
 
 
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Puppy Love

Posted by Arik on Monday, January 12, 2009 11:09:52 PM
After our dog died last in November 2007, my wife was hesitant to get another.  Mollie had been a part of our lives for almost eleven years, and it is still almost inconceivable to me that she is gone.  After a suitable mourning period, I began to pester my wife to get another dog.  After a long while (too long if you ask me), she finally relented, and said we could start looking. As Mollie had been a fairly large dog, and since she seemed to be constantly shedding the equivalent of a poodle, my wife decided she wanted a smaller dog, that didn't shed. She grew up with a schnauzer, and I basically wanted four legs and fur, so we decided that that would be about the size we would get, and the breed, if possible.
 
Now, I don't believe life is empty without a dog, I simply feel it is insuficiently full.  I didn't know how badly I needed a dog until we found Mollie, and since then her absence has been almost as profound as her presence; When we traveled and she couldn't come with us, the good times we had were tinted just a bit with missing her.  She's still with us, in more ways than one (and that's a fairly strange story, itself),and though no dog could ever replace her, we are hoping that our new dog will be able to help fill the emptiness she left.
 
Now, if you are not a dog lover, you probably think I'm a little off-kilter at this point, but if you are, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  Mollie was a pound puppy. They said she had been in the shelter for six months. That sounds awful long to me, but I do know she was in pretty bad shape, emotionally, to the point that we had to carry her to the car for her first ride home.  It took a few days before she could look at me without fllinching, and about a week to learn to trust me, but when her trust came, it was absolute and was one of the biggest rewards I've ever had. 
 
Just a little side story: The first few nights we had her, she didn't want to sleep in the bedroom, so we left her on the couch in the living room. She had spent most of her time cowering from us and not moving very much at all. When we went to bed, we heard nothing for about ten minutes, so long that we thought she had fallen asleep.  But after those ten minutes, we heard her jump off of the couch and start sniffing around for a few minutes at the bedroom door.  Then, all of a sudden, the scratch of nails on carpet and she was off: She ran back and forth around the house, thumping the plywood floor everywhere she went, for an hour, at least.  We laughed so hard, but then we realized: It was probably the first time in her life she had more than a few square feet to run in, and it turned from a funny moment into a touching moment just like that. And I'm tearing up as I write this. I still miss her so badly.
 
But, back to the point of this post: We don't like to buy from pet shops, for a number of reasons, and we are not picky about purebreds.  We think a mutt is at least as good, with the proviso that we like to have a good clue what the mix is, so we can know what to expect.  Besides, it makes us feel good to try and save a dog that might not have a chance at a good life, otherwise. There are too many dogs out there that need a home for us to justify going to a breeder.  In that spirit, we went on Sunday with the kids to look at a few dogs that had been rescued from puppy mills. To make a long story short (too late), we ended up with a schnauser mixed with maybe a little cairn terrier that had been used for breeding and was to be "discarded" by the breeder. We asked my daughter, who named our son, what she would like to call a dog and she said "Lily," and so we will pick Lily up on Saturday, after she has a little more vet work done. Here are her pictures:
 
Schnauzer Picture
 
Schnauzer Picture
 
She is very shy, and has never, until recently, been outside of a two-by-two cage.  She will be a "Project," but I know she will give us more of a reward than we could ever possibly give her.
 
I wrote this post for a purpose. I am not looking for pats on the back or anything like that.  I learned a good deal about puppy mills this weekend, and I want to share some of that information with you.  It is really even worse than the animal shelter stories we've all heard; It's like turning over a rock.  And it involves some surprising people that I otherwise respect very much.  I will be researching my facts, and I will share what I find with you.  I hope you find it interesting, and I hope there is something that can be done.
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Hard Hitting Questions for Obama

Posted by Arik on Thursday, January 08, 2009 9:07:37 PM
I have found, oddly enough, Chris Matthews list of questions to ask in his first post-inauguration interview with the new President. I thought it to be in the public interest to share them with you. I, myself, can't wait to hear Obama's answers.
 
1). The economy is a mess, and everytime you release new information on your financial plans, the market talkes a nosedive.  My question is this:  How long do you intend to blame the poor economy on ex-President Bush before you start to blame it on Republican obstructionism in Congress?
 
2). The current situation in Gaza is quite intense. How do you plan to ease the problem, by sanctioning Israel or by supporting the Palestinian Freedom Fighters?
 
3). I've stated that I feel my job is to make your administration a success. With that in mind, do you need a Press Secretary? An Assistant Press Secretary? An Assistant to the Assistant Press Secretary? I'm flexible, you know.
 
4). Vice President Biden stated that paying taxes is patriotic. What our viewer wants to know is, regarding tax rates, how high is too high: ninety or ninety-five percent?
 
5). You've stated that your administration will be the most transparent in American history.  Compare and contrast, please, with the Clintons' "Most Ethical Administration in History."
 
6). Seriously, I'll wash windows, scoop dog poop. Anything. What do you say?
 
7). VP Biden stated that your administration will be tested in foreign policy within your first six months.  What could Bush have done to stop this, and why didn't he?
 
8). You were attacked during your campaign for calling gun owners and churchgoers "bitter and clinging." What's up with those people, anyway? Are they stupid or what?  You ought to take their guns and chase them all into their churches and then build walls around the churches and never let them out. Is this plan feasible?
 
9).  Could you explain how you could have such close ties to Tony Reszko, William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright and not know what giant concatenations of pus and excrement they are? Just kidding, do you wear boxers or briefs?
 
10). What's up with these people and their "Constitution" anyway?  I mean that was an old piece of paper written by a bunch of old white guys a long time ago.  What's that got to do with real life?
 
11). You are the first Black President.  What difficulties will this cause for you with the racist Republicans in Congress?
 
12). Shine shoes? Wash your car? Seriously, Anything.
 
13). Seriously.
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I'm Lovin' It

Posted by Arik on Monday, January 05, 2009 11:29:22 PM
Today's Political scene ought to be sponsored by McDonald's, because I Am Lovin' It. 
 
While the Republicans seem to be a party in search of a platform, I think we can rest somewhat assured that they will eventually find their way back from the middle, to a position more firmly in the right.
 
The democRats, on the other hand, seem a party in search of a clue. 
 
In her haste to sweep the "Culture of Corruption" out of Washington, she seems to have lifted up the rug and found a whole nest of her party mates. 
 
In Florida, fresh-faced and smiling from winning the seat vacated by dirty boy Republican Congressman Mark Foley, Freshman Congressman Tim Mahoney proved a worthy heir to the throne by failing to keep his trousers zipped long enough to win re-election. He the atoned for his misdeeds by putting his mistress on the Federal payroll to keep her quiet.
 
In New York,  Eliot Spitzer apparently used HIS economic stimulus check for a little stimulus of a different sort, if you know what I mean - and I think you do, as Joe Bob Briggs used to say.  His successor, David Paterson, who is legally blind, and therefore can't tell she looks more like John Kerry than John Kennedy, is likely to appoint Caroline Kennedy to the seat being vacated by Shrillary Clinton.  Her most notable achievement prior to this appointment, other than not murdering a mistress, is being The Little Sperm That Could.
 
Meanwhile, down the Thruway in the Big Apple, Charlie Rangel, head of the House Ways and Means Committee, is in trouble for not following the tax code that he was in charge of writing.  His excuse: Couldn't understand the damn thing.  Hmmm. Wonder if I could use that excuse.  yeah, right.
 
In the heart of the Fly-over States, Rod "Love the 'Do" Blagojevich is accused of attempting to sell the Senate seat being vacated by The Obamessiah.  Instead of succumbing to calls for his resignation, Blago takes the stance that he not only did he not do anything wrong, but even if he did, you can't prove a thing, even if you DO have tapes of the phone calls of him trying to sell the seat. 
 
To make matters even more amusing, against the wishes of  pretty much every democRat in Congress, he appoints Roland Burris, a man whose major accomplishments include imaginatively naming his his children Roland and Rolanda, to the Senate seat.  This puts Senate Majority Leader Dingy Harry Reid, who is in danger if having his hopes Dascheled in the 2010 election, in the wonderfully uncomfortable position of having to choose to refuse to seat the man who would be the only Black Senator in the nation or allowing him to serve his time, thus offending one of two key constituencies no matter what he chooses: The Black Community or Everyone Else.  Update: Anybody else notice that when Dingy Harry DID in fact refuse to seat Burris, it took Congressman Bobby Rush about thirty seconds to start throwing around the word "racist?" 
 
Farther west on I-90, in Minnesota, the democRats are attempting to steal the Senate seat currently occupied by Republican Norm Coleman, who is in danger of becoming the first Senator ever to lose an election to a comedian who can't even write a funny joke: Al Franken.  You may remember Franken from his show on Air America. Ba-dum-bum. 
 
But seriously, folks, after screeching for eight years about Bush being "Selected, Not Elected," the democRats are about to have the distinction of having three "Selected, Not Elected" officials in office:
 
1). Obama lost the popular vote in the primary to Shrillary, selected by the democRats for the nomination.
 
2). Burris in Illinois, selected by a Governor who is under imminent threat of impeachment.
 
3). Franken in Minnesota, selected by the most corrupt Secretary of State that side of Jennifer Brunner (D-OH).
 
At the other end of the Mississippi from Frankensota, the Big Easy just, and I do mean JUST, managed to oust Congressman William Jefferson, who was apparently stunned to find a couple hundred grand in cash stuck in his freezer. This scandal has managed to drag on longer than Roger Daltrey singing 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' in the style of  'My Generation.' ("On the f-f-f-f-f-f-irst d-d-d-d-d-day of Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Christmas...").  Contrast this to how long it took Hollis French (d-AK) to attempt a lynching of Sarah Palin on "Troopergate," which apparently WASN'T about Palin using State Troopers to try to score with hot chicks in Arkansas.  The democRats want to clean out the Republican corruption in Washington, so they can have a monopoly on it themselves.
 
Out on the Left Coast, Oregon Big Brother, I mean Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski wants to install GPS devices in everybody's cars to track the mileage they've driven, and tax them accordingly.  Need I say more?
 
In Washington State, Governor Chris Gregoire has determined that the celebration of Christmas by Christians is on a par with the denigration of all that is Good and Holy by the atheist group Freedom From Religion.  These people, also a cherished constituency of the democRats, don't seem to understand that the basis for pretty much everything in our society is based on Biblical laws and teachings. Morons.
 
Speaking of Left, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is getting Left, as in Left Out of Obamarama: The Cabinet.  Officially, he is Withdrawing his Nomination due to some potentially less-than-squeaky-clean dealings involving a big state contract and one of his major campaign donors.  I wonder how our diligent unbiased media missed this one during his abortive campaign for President.  Oh wait, we don't HAVE diligent, unbiased media. Silly me.
 
Taking the Left theme officially one step too far, I'd like to end on what is Left of Shrillary's campaign debt.  She has spent far beyond her finances and has had her former rival and his running mate shilling for her on their website.  You mean she spent millions of dollars she didn't have and now expects someone else to pick up the tab? Maybe she IS qualified to be President.  You know, if most of us in the real world were to spend beyond our means and expect someone else to pick up the tab, we would be called irresponsible, and probably have to get a dressing-down in front of Barney Frank, which sounds even creepier than it actually is.  Those who expect to  get away with this sort of thing go by one of three titles: 'Ceo,' 'Obama Voter' (i.e. Peggy the Moocher), or 'Mister or  Madame Congressperson/Senator.'  What the Hell! It's only tax money! There's PLENTY of THATto go around.
 
If I wanted to dig a little deeper, I could go on all week, and not even finish my own State of Ohio. Things on the local level are so bad that of the top ten "Poorest Cities in America," Cleveland is the one with the most recent Republican Mayor, RINO George Voinovich, who grew up and became Governor, then Senator. That was 1989.  They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time.  Welcome to Twenty-First Century urban politics.
 
As the months go by, you can find me sitting in my big comfy chair, a Big Mac in one hand, a Super-Size Coke in the other and a big grin on my fat happy face as I watch what as the democRats do what the democRats always do after they taste a bit of electoral success: implode.
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An Open Letter to Israel

Posted by Arik on Sunday, January 04, 2009 9:10:07 PM
Dear Israel,
 
Once again, it appears you are knee-deep in raw sewage.  Of course, considering that most of your neighborhood is essentially an open sewer, I guess this is to be expected.  For the longest time it seems that everytime you have just about had the place tidied up, the crap starts rolling back across your borders and into your homes.  Maybe it's time to put in a septic tank, six feet down, if you know what I mean. 
 
Call me crazy, but what I think you need to do is let them know you mean business.  No lobbing a few missles here or there, no half-hearted "peacekeeping."  Law down the law, hard and heavy.  If you want to give fair warning to clear out the civilians, by all means do so, even though those civilians are the ones who voted in the people who have been tossing bombs and blowing up your citizens for the past few years.  Give them a few days to clear out.  Then level Gaza.  Seriously. Don't leave two bricks standing on top of one another.  Make sure there's nothing to come back to. 
 
Will this make the rest of the Arab world angry? You bet. But then, they get angry if your Prime Minister so much as breaks wind. 
 
Will this make them want to eradicate you as a nation and a people? Probably. But then, when in the last, oh, say, three thousand years HAVEN'T they prayed for your eradication?
 
There will be those among your allies who will not agree; Cynthia McKinney probably will shout all Holy Hell. Of course, in a just world, she would be facing charges of treason on her return to this country. But then, where are your allies when your citizens are being butchered by teenagers who think that dying while killing you is a one-way ticket to Paradise? 
 
Don't wait for our new President to take a stand. He hasn't taken a stand on anything so far in his career, and he's not likely to jeopardize his approval ratings by doing so now.  In fact, he's more likely to try to get you and them to "the table," around which you've had so many lovely chats before, and which, in the end, have resulted in zero gains for you, leaving you in the position you are in right now.  And, frankly, there are a whole lot of us here that aren't exactly enthralled with him. 
 
Don't fall into the Clintonesque trap of accepting a cease-fire or ceding authority or granting autonomy to these people.  All of these things you do appear to them a sign of weakness. While you sit back and take a deep breath, they are reloading. While you seek peace, they seek to destroy you.
 
Let your neighbors know that any aid to the terrorists will be considered as an attack by the sponsoring nation.  Let them know that any ground taken by your military will become part of your territory, that you will not give back ground taken.  They seek to take your land, little by little, bit by bit. Let them know that their territory is in jeopardy as well. 
 
It may be a hard battle, but every time they've attacked you before, you've beaten them back, and then some.  Let them take you on in a real battle. I suspect that when they don't have their women and children to hide behind, they won't be such ferocious fighters.
 
Will they send terrorists to your cities and villages? Probably. But then, aren't they doing that now?
 
Take it to them Israel. There are a great many of us out here rooting for you. If they won't join the rest of us in the twenty-first century, send them back to the stone age.
 
Arik
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Bad Religion

Posted by Arik on Saturday, January 03, 2009 9:47:05 PM
One might think looking at the title, that I am about to start a diatribe on Islam.  Not true.  I don't believe religion turns people bad, I believe people turn religion bad.  I have had enough experience, and enough friends to know that not all, nor even most, Muslims are bad.  I have as much contempt for those who would bomb abortion clinics and picket soldiers' funerals, like the Westboro Baptist Church, as I do for the radicals who blow themselves and others up due to some misguided fantasy that God wants them to further his glory by blowing up babies (Not to mention Obama's buddy BillyBoy Ayers, who is as good an argument for capital punishment as any I've seen).  And, as much as I hate abortion, I don't beleve that blowing up clinics is the proper way to address the issue.
 
No, the faith I want to address is Atheism. Let's not mince words, Atheism is as much a religion as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, and its adherents are just as ardent at spreading their faith.  By inventing a wall of separation between church and state not to be found in the Constitution, nor the Declaration of Independence, nor any other writing of the Founding Fathers other than one oft-quoted letter from Thomas Jefferson, which, in context with all of his other writings, is clearly misinterpreted, the Atheists, or, as they are often referred to, the Secular-Progressives, have wedged their clearly minority views into our classrooms and into the halls of government.
 
The Atheists are actually a polytheistic religion, who make deify men and their ideas, rather than accept Divinity as even a possibility.  They also look at the Earth as essentially a single organism, with all living things essentially the cells of Earth's body.  Of course, humans, or at least humans who don't believe as they do, are a cancerous growth.  Ann Coulter, in her book "Godless," made the argument that they are basically Druidic in their beliefs, which I believe is mostly correct, but I also believe they worship, to a great extent, themselves, and what they perceive as their intellectual superiority. They find it unthinkable that there could be an intellect greater than theirs in the universe.
 
The Atheists push, under the guise of science, humanism into our schools, and morality out.  Is it any wonder that our spending on schools has skyrocketed in the past few decades, while the product these schools are putting out, the education of our children has deteriorated.  Self-esteem-based education has not produced smarter kids, it has produced kids who are stone-cold stupid, but feel good about it.  Exceptionalism has been forced out.  Our teachers are expected to dumb down their curriculum to teach to the slowest learners, at the cost of truly educating the best and the brightest.  We can't separate the smart kids and teach them at an accelerated rate, that would make the slower students feel bad about themselves.
 
They attempt to force all mention of God and Christ from public view.  They call not for freedom OF religion, but freedom FROM religion.  In their bid to take Christ out of Christmas, they attempt at every turn to remove Nativity displays from places where they might actually be seen.  In Britain this year, they decided the Salvation Army couldn't ring their bells because it was a noise nuisance.  If they fail to remove the symbols, they fight to put up their own, typically nasty messages aimed at insulting those who believe. 
 
Now, some would wonder: Why do they not so strenuously object to symbols of other religions, such as the Star of David,  in public places?  Why do they seem so intent on putting, say, foot baths in public restrooms to accomodate the Muslims? To this I say: They are trying to pit the Jews, the Muslims and the Christians against each other.  They are attempting to make each of these groups feel persecuted by the other, in order to cause chaos and conflict, which will, they believe, prove that it is religion itself, and therefore God which is at the root of all our problems, thereby convincing us (they think) that a world without God will be peaceful and orderly; A paradise on Earth.
 
They've already had some success at secularizing the Jewish community in this country, and they are hard at work on the Christians.  When they are done with the Christians, they will inevitably turn to the Muslims.  Any cooperation the secularists seem to be giving to the Muslim community is aimed not at elevating that community, but in tearing down the others. They are friend to no religion.
 
John Lennon once imagined there was no Heaven and saw Peace.  I imagine no Heaven, and it looks a lot like Hell.
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