Three Cats and a Roast

I swear that the following testimony is true!

Many, many years ago I was living in a small cinder block house on what were then the western outskirts of Bloomington, Indiana. I had three large house cats, Damao, a large, dark grey, tiger-striped cat; Heizi, a black cat with white boots (sweetest cat in the world); and Xiaomao, a tri-color female with six toes on each of her front paws.

I was having company for dinner and was defrosting a Boston pork roast into which I was going to insert pieces of garlic, then roll it in salt and pepper, roast, and serve with scalloped apples, etc.

I had to run out to the store and was behind on defrosting the roast. I decided to set it on a plate in the sink and to invert a mixing bowl over it to keep the cats from getting at it. Just before I went out the door, I was overcome with a wave of caution and filled another, slightly smaller, mixing bowl most of the way with water and set it on top of the inverted bowl to insure its protection from the cats.

When I got back from the store about 45 minutes later (I'm a sucker for grocery stores), I found a partially chewed, semi-defrosted pork roast on my kitchen floor. Amazed, I went to the sink to try to ascertain where I had gone wrong. In the sink was the plate with an inverted mixing bowl on it and with a bowl of water on top of that.

'Tis a puzzlement, a mystery, a pork enigma wrapped in dander which I've never been able to fathom, but I have an image in my mind of two cats holding up some bowls while a third wrestles a pork roast to the ground for all to share.

Tragedy in Huntsville

Once again the liars and spin merchants at NTSB and in the school bus industry will tell us that school buses are safe without restraints when three kids are dead and most of the other 40+ are injured. It is plainly clear that if they had been wearing shoulder harness seat belts, injuries would have been minimalized and deaths probably avoided. We just don't value children enough to spend money on their safety!!!! Moreover, how do we expect them to learn that safety belts should be worn, when we send them to school daily with the implicit message that they are not needed???? Shame, shame, shame!

Very Low Food Security, Very Low Food Security Hippos!

From the valley of New Speak that brought us "Patriot Act" and "No Child Left Behind" comes the latest mangling of meaning--the substitution of "very low food security" for "hungry." I guess we'll have to re-edit Kafka's title to the "Very Low Food Security Artist." I wonder what the codeword for "shame" might be in Washington? Oh, wait, there is no word for that now is there!

Did your kids ever play Very Low Food Security, Very Low Food Security Hippos?

Manipulated Gas Prices?

Anyone notice what's happening to the price of gas at the pump now that the election campaign is over???? Prices at the pump have jumped a good 10 cents+ in the last week, but there was no attempt to manipulate the voters was there?

What We Want

Oversight!

We want a Congress that carries out its Constitutional responsibilities to tax, fund, and oversee the execution of the laws of the land. We are tired of a Congress with blinders on, without the courage of its conviction (if any).

We want full and complete transparency in earmarking!

We demand a real ethics process with bulldogs and teeth in both the House and the Senate.

We want legislation that passes both the House and Senate and is not rewritten by the majority in camera after conference subverting the will of Congress.

We want an end to K Street bribery, including trips, comps, and we want the offer, delivery, and/or acceptance of favors to be felonies!

We want everyone to have the same health plans as Congress (with contributions from workers and employers like that for government employees) with the government as the payer-of-last-resort for those without work or with low incomes.

We want the United States to renounce forever preemptive war.

We want habeas corpus reinstated for all!

We demand due process and equality before the law for all!

We must end torturing prisoners, including waterboarding which, in the past, we have prosecuted others for doing as a war crime!

We demand that the United States accord with international law and honor its treaty obligations.