May 4 Link Log

Categories: Animals, Books, Phenology, I'll edit the rest tomorrow, I've got to dash out into the rain now.

Animals

Cute outdoor cat...his eyes are greener than Elmo's, but he's the same type.

http://thevagabondtabby.tumblr.com/post/143810260692/hes-happy-to-be-out-about-me-too-tbh

A quick Cat Sanctuary update...It's Wednesday not Tuesday, but this is the day my cat Heather chose to present herself as "Tuesday Tortie Shorties" blog material. I got up this morning, counted the cats, had enough kibble for the residents. Sojourner cats Elmo, Tickle, and Inky had to wait for me to get some more kibble in town. They will appreciate their dinner tonight. But Heather and Irene, who are co-nursing a double batch of kittens, got a full-sized breakfast. Irene, whose father was Manx and whose kittens tend not to live long (I have hope for two of her four), is capable of eating two big meals a day--and growing fat, if she's not nursing kittens. Heather doesn't do that. Heather really needs three small meals when nursing kittens. Anyone who believes that "torties," calico cats whose black, orange, and creamy-white hair grows together into a tortoise-shell-like or brownish or blurred or "heathered" color, are mean should only have seen Heather this morning, deciding that she couldn't eat another kibble, Irene and Sisawat could finish hers, and she could claim some extra attention. She nestled onto my clean town clothes, went limp, and didn't want to move. (It was a chilly morning, "blackberry winter," and she wanted to share the body heat.) I believe Heather knew as well as I knew that she'd feel hungry, in that all-prevailing way cats feel hungry, before I'd get home today. She has to know that, being a Mature Cat of Some Size, having nursed kittens for as long and let the others finish big meals as often as she's done these two weeks, she's lost some weight. I believe she doesn't care. She likes to see that her sister and daughters eat well. If she were to find a rabbit today while I've been blogging, she'd share it with them. There is not a mean or greedy bone in this "tortoise-shell" cat's body; this discontented face, put on while purring and cuddling, is about as far as she goes in the direction of "negativity." But I've eaten too many vegan or liquid meals lately, and Heather's missed too many of the bonding-through-food-sharing moments for which she waits; currently there's not a lot in her body but bones.



Books 

Calling all students: If you're going to have to take an economics course, and you dread it, get the book reviewed here. It's a short, snarky, funny digest of the biggest, longest, most off-putting two books to which the course will refer; it will leave you familiar with the terms and concepts found in the other economics books and theories you'll study.

http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2016/05/04/book-review-p-j-orourke-on-the-wealth-of-nations/

There's not so much laugh-out-loud comedy in this one (although the author did have an irrepressible sense of humor) but it, too, is recommended to all students. It explains how to stop saying some things that people have said to you, that they've told you were Kind and Patient and so on, that annoyed you and that will annoy people to whom you say those things when you want to be Kind and Patient and so on. Then it explains why whatever you say won't get through some people's thick heads, anyway. Best of all, it explains how to make a presentation so effective that, with unprejudiced people, you can get "the last word" without having to get into an argument. If you have to sell products to or, worse yet, give instructions to, people who are older than you are, this 1987 book by an author who was born in 1939 explains how to do that in a respectful way.

http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2016/05/03/book-review-the-last-word-on-the-gentle-art-of-verbal-self-defense/

(If you're wondering how the B-word and N-word work as inside jokes, as mentioned in my remarks, this comedian/journalist just demonstrated the N-word in public...and yes, although few people who are much older than 54 stay in Washington, he just alienated a lot of older people I used to know there.)

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/03/wilmore-says-his-use-of-n-word-to-address-obama-in-speech-may-open-up-a-dialogue-that-is-probably-pretty-good/? )

Here's someone else's review for a change:

http://blogjob.com/thegoodstuffgiftshop/where-to-find-a-tikki-tikki-tembo-book-for-children/

And here's another e-friend's new book:

Charity

Read this blog, this month, to support a shelter for battered wives and children (and pets!).

http://www.itsjustlife.me/keepingsafecommentsforacause/

Christian

Antichrist? (I tend to side with those who think the Bible means a "spirit of antichrist" that will, at least, prompt a lot of people to support any individual who may appear to be the Antichrist. Or, for those who remember their Left Behind novels...I'm neutral about the possibility of the Evil Principle ever fully embodying itself in Carpathia or some real-world counterpart of his, as in the later volumes, but I do believe the Evil Principle is actually, currently, steering people to support harmful ideas and the people who preach them, like Ivins and the myriad of minor characters who put Carpathia in the position to embody the Evil Principle during the earlier volumes.)

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/04/does-the-bible-really-predict-an-antichrist-who-will-wreak-worldwide-havoc-during-the-end-times/?

This post by an e-friend of an e-friend stirred up some thoughts about Applied Christianity. Some business types changed their plans at the last minute. They left a small international airline stuck with a big financial disappointment. So the airline passed that disappointment on to their (few) customers--young people, who've been working dirt-cheap overseas and may be subject to criminal charges and deportation if they can't get home. Hello, they take these desperation "work overseas" jobs because they and their families are poor, and some of the jobs are pretty appalling I might add. (Prostitution and forced begging are common; Reuters reported a case where an Arab family used a foreign laborer in a science experiment. The ones I saw at work in the U.S. just worked like meth-fuelled maniacs, one of three guys working three shifts back to back, and considering the alternatives some of these agencies have for these kids I could see why.) Then if they can't get home...does anyone remember what happened to Norman Allison? When we make plans, then back out of them at the last minute, we never know how much harm we may be doing. When we keep our word, come flood come fire, we don't know how much good we may be doing.

http://blogjob.com/serendipity/who-will-take-up-the-cudgels/

Btw Blogjob, which just signed the concerned father here on as a dollar-a-day blogger, has just been forced to "suspend payment" because the little ad-and-cookie aphids are almost completely covering up the rosebuds of content. Writing for Blogjob for more than a week or two is a fairly good indicator that a blogger is poor (whatever that means in his/her country). So y'might want to spend some time checking out that site and plussing anything plus-worthy you find there, if you want to be charitable...or just send us some money, if you have any,'cos all of us are, like, those proverbial church mice.

Crafts

Quilts in progress, reminding me to be a good Zazzle Associate, along with being a good Amazon Associate...and see which site pays out sooner, ha ha...

http://marshasspot.blogspot.com/2016/05/wip-wednesday-quilt-retreat.html

Well, here's the link to a collection readers might enjoy ( +Ruth Cox 's dogs)...

http://www.zazzle.com/collections/dog_pawsitive_tidbits-119940362256256531?rf=238230564219034623

Now can I add a picture to this page? Apparently so! Nice...

Friends and Fences by dogpawsitivetidbits
Check out other Friends Plaques at zazzle.com

Education

Elizabeth Barrette seems to be channelling the good spirit of John Holt this morning.

http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/3990794.html

Flint Update

President Obama goes to Flint. (Apologies for the nasty Yahoo page that tries to get all those distracting, disgusting videos jiggling and jabbering at once before it lets you read the articles...maybe some readers need to see just how badly it's possible to set up a web page.)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/obama-visiting-flint-first-time-072811011.html

Food (Yum) 

Don't (ever) poison dandelions. In fact, why bother even digging up dandelions? People eat them. If you don't, someone else can. In March, when I wasn't blogging, I was nibbling the leaves off mine as fast as they popped up. Dandelion leaves can be fairly strong medicine, so when the bitter taste stopped tasting piquant and interesting to me I figured I'd eaten enough for one day. But people also make tea, jelly, and (fermenting it with yeast) wine) from the flowers...while they're still looking cheerful, before they ripen into those seed heads so many people dislike. Well, personally, I let my dandelions go to seed and encourage them to spread. But if you don't, try...

http://rusty2rustyschatter.blogspot.com/2016/05/ww-dandelion-jelly-recipe.html

Vidalia onions will soon be here, and when thoroughly cooked (with carrots or other things) they melt down into a sort of syrup...I don't know whether Walla Walla onions, the sweet kind available in the Western States, are quite as sweet, but if your carrots are also sweet and you use Vidalia onions, this would be a Dessert Dish. Even with parsley and pepper, you could bake it as a pie filling.

http://blogjob.com/mountainrecipes/2016/05/03/mountain-mans-carrot-and-onion-bake/

For the main course, what about a sandwich bar? +Sandy KS gave 13 options. I added one for the gluten-free, who, unfortunately, need to be tortilla-suspicious these days.

http://rusty2rustyschatter.blogspot.com/2015/06/13-sandwiches-to-eat-in-summertime.html

Funny

Least Competent Candidates:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/03/democratic-candidate-learns-the-hard-way-why-you-should-never-leave-your-car-running-if-youre-not-in-it/?

Money

If you have any significant amount of money (specifically, US$25,000 or more) in a single bank, even if it's in multiple accounts, you might want to get it out now...

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2016/05/our-money-at-risk.html

...And, although this web site is blatantly trying to sell you "investment" metal, big-chain banks are helping them out by providing them with quite a long list of ways banks may be uncooperative with those who don't want their savings melted down into a doomed "equity" in a doomed corporation. (This web site is not telling you "Buy metal." You might prefer to buy real estate, invest in a more diverse range of business ventures, or "invest in people" by giving more to charity...and diversification among all these things, neither excluding nor overemphasizing metal, was my husband's secret for getting back from real bankruptcy to a solid quarter-million in less than ten years--on $2000 a month.)

https://www.wholesaledirectmetals.com/banks-quickly-abolishing-your-ability-to-use-store-cash/?cid=TownhallDedicated&st-t=TownhallDedicated

This web site is, however, telling you that Nice People Always Carry Cash. No, you can't afford to assume that anyone who really needs money for food is or could be getting food stamps; I personally would rather starve (a possibility that's not been ruled out for June) but no, unfortunately, the number of people who'd rather starve than welfare-cheat is not high enough to ensure that everyone can depend on food stamps. Buy less from corporations, more from people who need cash for things like food and electricity, and you'll be a better citizen than the people who depend on tacky bank cards.

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2016/05/obama-tightens-food-stamps.html

Nature (big pretty pictures)

http://thevagabondtabby.tumblr.com/post/143818023852/thevagabondtabby-spanishpeaks-colorado-sky

Phenology 

This tree story actually qualifies as News, although my own. The trees are chronically endangered; although what I saw was a mature tree (of a fast-growing species), they don't bloom every year and don't live long.

http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2016/05/03/may-3-phenology-post/

Politics

David Goetch reports that it's not only an isolated Swedish scholar who's discovered the basic rules of economic commonsense. Sweden as a country is trying to recover from their experiment with socialism, even though Sweden's experiment was long touted as the most successful experiment with socialism on Earth.

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2016/05/sweden-dumping-socialism.html

(More about how Sweden did socialism-at-its-best, and where the problems started to emerge, was documented by the same economist/comedian recommended above in a very funny book called Eat the Rich. If you order it along with P.J. O'Rourke on the Wealth of Nations, you send me $15--$5 for each book and $5 for shipping--and I send O'Rourke or a charity of his choice $2.)

Rob Natelson's comments seem particularly cogent today. (Thanks to Norb Leahy for sharing.)

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2016/05/why-is-america-engaging-in-socialism.html

The U.S. presidential election is in the process of tanking as it comes down to a race between a Spoiler-Jerk, an Outright Socialist, and a Self-Proclaimed Victim of Brain Damage. Like many who planned to vote Republican in this one...I find Hillary Rodham Clinton relatively easy to "like," in the sense of empathizing with her. If it only weren't for her politics. Unfortunately, a presidential election being about politics...I see us looking at disaster versus disaster versus disaster. I don't feel any personal animosity toward any of the three disaster candidates, although #NeverTrump is the one I would least like to have as a neighbor. It's purely the shock effect of having seen so many legitimate, viable candidates back out, leaving us watching the disasters, that makes me say that the best thing for the U.S. this year might be if the three remaining candidates were all on one plane, and it crashed, and maybe they survived somehow but they weren't found until December.

http://www.lloydmarcus.com/2016/05/thanks-may-god-bless-ted-cruz/

Weird

What is weird about this worse-than-weird idea is that they've found a fool to buy into it.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/03/blaze-poll-would-you-have-a-rice-sized-chip-implanted-to-avoid-carrying-a-wallet-credit-cards-and-keys/

For those who can't or don't want to open The Blaze, here's my comment:

"Y'know, having lots of different keys, cards, and cash in my pockets feels like a Grown-Up Thing to me in *any* case.
Even if tracking weren't a solid guarantee that dissidents would be tracked down.
Even if I trusted any form of non-cash payment that's already in use--many people have lost many dollars just with checks.
Even if any electronic gadget ever worked for more than a year or two.
Even if evildoers couldn't be depended on to carve the identity chips out of people's flesh.
Even if I didn't seriously believe that anyone who seriously proposes an idea like this one needs to spend the rest of his life in a padded cell!"

Meanwhile, P.E.T.A. lunatics dispute the possibility that people who serve vegan food may not be full-time vegans themselves. Duh. (Most restaurants offer both vegan and non-vegan food at the same meal. Some people who develop dietary deficiencies, as it might be by adhering too strictly to an unbalanced vegan diet for too long, lose their sense of proportion and become hysterical.)

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/04/when-animal-rights-activists-find-out-famed-vegan-restaurant-owners-are-now-meat-eaters-reactions-reportedly-arent-all-that-humane/?

And...btw the Examiner has become another really annoying site...Ernie and Bert have been ripped off by an online ad that, incidentally, gives those learning English the completely wrong interpretation of medical test results. (In medical terms, "positive" test results means the patient tested definitely has the disease.) Jim Henson, Joe Raposo, and friends ought to be able to sue these jerks. No matter how "gay" they were, themselves, or privately imagined Ernie and Bert being. No matter how cleverly I think the issue of Akbar and Jeff's "gayness" was resolved, or how obvious I think it is that Ernie and Bert are "gay" in exactly the same way as Akbar and Jeff. This character theft is very, very nasty.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2590220/

Writing

Useful warnings...

http://www.jerryjenkins.com/5-common-mistakes-see-beginners-manuscripts/