Animals
It's a cat day, white cats in honor of The Cat Who Came for Christmas
, but not without some controversy. At the page linked here,http://www.mochasmysteriesmeows.com/2016/12/sheltercatslovechristmastoo-5-ways-to.html ,
the following comment may not be appreciated, so I'm posting it here too:
"
I know for a fact that our local shelter has engaged in petnapping for profit. (It's been documented in newspapers--a dog of a valuable breed was "rescued" from his owner's little brother and held until the owner paid the dog's full market value.) The shelter also makes a lot of noise about a "no-kill policy" and then, in practice, refuses to take in strays they can't sell for a profit, so genuinely homeless animals are likely to end up being killed, only by someone else. These facts raise ethical questions about how best to help shelter animals. My suggestions would definitely include supporting laws protecting cats' right to hunt and capping shelter "adoption fees" at the cost of veterinary care.
"
The original idea behind animal shelters was a good one, for animals as well as humans...but when shelters reach a position of dominance in a community, they tend to attract evil people who use that dominance to do horrible things to animals, humans, and local laws. This web site has no way of knowing, when we use Petfinder to encourage readers to rescue a shelter pet, whether you're rescuing a genuinely homeless animal or participating in a lucrative petnapping scam. We need more aggressive journalistic coverage of this issue, for sure. However, whether they've genuinely lost their homes or have been stolen, the animals deserve our support...
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| Dazey from Rockville (Maryland): https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/34678503 |
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| Lucky Little Oliver from Brooklyn...his name's explained at the page: https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/31810000 |
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| Lulu from Fayetteville was apparently photographed as a skinny adolescent, and has been in search of a permanent home for years--possibly because the photo looks as if she had one! https://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/36954656 |
Not to neglect dogs, here's a dog blog link-up...my "Mutty Top 5," or in this case "Catty Top 5," lists need to be a separate post, but Riley looks like an interesting blog. (I love the way Blogspot automatically registers blogs in different countries; http://thebookofbarkley.blogspot.co.uk/ indeed!)
https://mymuttriley.wordpress.com/
About animals, generally, and the principle applies to "people doctors" too:
https://www.change.org/p/congress-require-veterinarians-to-give-drug-side-effect-information-when-prescribing-animals-drugs
Appalachian Studies
Will our Neighbors to the North destroy us all?
http://dailycaller.com/2016/12/20/a-wave-of-new-fracking-is-about-to-hit-appalachia/
Books
Fellow Amazon Associate +Marsha Cooper shares...you knew there had to be one...a Bollywood-inspired coloring book to color in while listening to Bollywood music. I could get into that. I don't want it desperately enough to compete with any homesick Indian readers for the free copy, but if you happen to get it for Christmas and feel that it's not your thing, you could re-gift it to me.
http://marshasspot.blogspot.com/2016/12/win-copy-of-cosmic-and-eternal-love.html
I've not read this one (yes, it requires reading) but it promises to get kids "steamed" up (in the good sense of being motivated and energized) about Science, Technology, Engineering And Math:
http://bookpound.blogspot.com/2016/12/steam-ahead-diy-for-kids-by-sumita.html
+Barbara Radisavljevic discusses ethnic diversity in children's books generally, with numerous specific examples:
http://barbsbooks.com/2015/06/22/are-books-used-in-the-us-public-schools-too-white/
Censorship
For those whose protest flag of choice (Gadsden or Confederate) has been suppressed by idiots, here's a way to wrap yourself in the Gadsden flag motif. (Disclosure: I don't get a commission on this one; I'm sharing it for those who will think it's cute.)
https://patriotdepot.com/dont-tread-on-me-woven-throw/
Crafts
Amazon has taken to e-mailing me about sales of items other than books, to get some of those links onto this site. I'm hesitant to link to products I've not used...Wool-Ease yarn is a product I've used. This color would be ideal for knitting your Official Anti-Trump Hat. Note that the link goes to Amazon's page for Wool-Ease products; you'll see lots of different yarns, not only this one. Search to find the weights and colors you like.
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| Amazon Smile link supports A.D.R.A. |
Faith
Feel the fear and do it anyway...
http://www.beckykiser.com/blog/playing-it-safe-v-doing-it-scared
Family
From Fiverr.com, where of course it's also possible to hire me to write a coherent blog post on a single topic that's relevant to your business...
http://blog.fiverr.com/6-gig-economy-values-parents-need-teach-children/
And, finally, a new label (did we really need this): Aphobia--fear that other people may be asexual, that your own enslavement to carnal commotion may be a burden some lucky soul doesn't have to carry, or at least hasn't started having to carry yet. Maybe we did need this one. In high school, where I pretended to be asexual while privately feeling passionately heterosexual, I didn't feel harassed by other people's aphobia, but in my early twenties, when I pretended to be heterosexual while feeling asexual, I did. (Yes, asexuality may be a phase in which people spend only a few years...it's still real while it lasts.) Warning: this Tumblr post contains the thoughts of several of the younger generation and is about as profane and incoherent as most of that generation seem to me to be, most of the time. (Yes, Nephews: those of you who are becoming old enough to use the Internet, prove me wrong, make me prouder, but most of your generation, unfortunately...)
http://acesareroyaltytoo.tumblr.com/post/154726529341/societysonlooker-aphobephobe
And no, actually, I don't think I've ever forgotten what I was hoarding junk for...but I've hoarded junk for reuse, re-purposing, whatever, for years before deciding I wasn't going to take the time to use the junk, in the foreseeable future, and just sending it off to be recycled.
https://niume.com/post/197071
Food
Vegetarian, gluten-free, sugar-free, and if you can bear to omit the cheese, which I certainly can...
https://niume.com/post/199663
Vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, naturally sweetened by real vegetables...but this is an obnoxious web site.
http://www.organicauthority.com/vegan-chocolate-chili-recipe-because-chocolate-is-invited-everywhere/
Holidays
"Make sure your holiday party is not a Christmas party in disguise"? Feh. I grew up about as Grinchy and anti-Christmas as it's possible for a whole-Bible Christian to get, I practically memorized a little paperback book about how all Christmas traditions not found in the Book of Luke are Pagan accretions Christians should reject, and this p.c.-ism is making me want to see this fraternity deck the halls with fairy lights that spell out "CHRISTMAS IN YR FACE." Hmm. Is that a title for a new carol? Merry Christmas, Socialists! Christmas Christmas Christmas, you'll never come up with anything as good as Christmas, neener neener nee-ner! That's not actually the Christmas Spirit...fortunately for me I didn't grow up thinking of it as being the Christmas Spirit.
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/12/14/christian-frat-member-posts-pointed-reaction-to-schools-holiday-party-guidelines-and-its-perfect/
+Martha DeMeo shares a cute way to package giftcards:
http://themarthareview.com/creative-way-to-wrap-gift-cards/
+Andria Perry shares a cute way to package cookies...especially oatmeal cookies:
https://niume.com/post/198307
Music
+LB Johnson shares a song parody...hey, it could actually work!
http://thebookofbarkley.blogspot.com/2016/12/times-almost-up-doggie-dinner-time.html
News
Shared by Norb Leahy...I'm not sure whether George Soros should be described as evil or just as an old man living in the past, because his political views were common among his generation, but his politics are certainly misguided and anybody who's been handling that much money for that long has undoubtedly violated some sort of financial "laws."
http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2016/12/arrest-warrant-issued-for-george-soros.html
Pictures
Would you have thought of buying a special Christmas teapot?
http://itsjustlife.me/teapot-tuesday-christmas-coming/
Beth Ann Chiles went to Spokane. (My mother would not approve of those runner sculptures...I chortled.)
http://itsjustlife.me/theres-lot-see-spokane/
From the +Allen West Republic , reminding all evildoers why it's a bad idea to mess with older Americans. Some of them are veterans:
And here's the fashion mistake I tried to celebrate on Twitter--the machine-knitted "sweater" with too-short sleeves meant to be different lengths. A friend's kid actually gave this fashion disaster to me. (To be fair, she didn't say "You need to wear this to 'update your look'"; she sent me a bundle of clothes, collected at a college campus, to wear, sell, or use in crafts projects, as seemed appropriate.) I assumed the "sweater" had been sold as an "Irregular." I had to see, via that Cracked.com article last week, that a serious store had seriously marketed it as this year's "new fashion." Hoot! I think you can still actually buy it at jcpenney.com. I'm actually wearing it, today (over a real, apparently now relabelled "mannish," T-shirt so I'm legal), for laughs! This sweatshop product is the ultimate Ugly Sweater...my sweater-made-of-four-big-Brownie-Squares, the very first one I ever knitted with lots of mistakes that I was actually able to make work, looks waaay better than this moneysucker. Still. After 28 years of hard wear and machine laundering.
Some readers may also enjoy this one; most of the photos are merely linked to this page, but if you click on the link below you'll see an absolutely fabulous knitted teacosy. Worth opening for the teacosy alone. +Beth Ann Chiles should enjoy that picture.
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/12/20/awkward-author-photo-contest-let-the-judging-begin/
This commemorative post fits under "Politics," but since it consists mostly of a cartoon...
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/154704499366/called-it
Politics
Democrats are indeed surviving the election.
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/154466950151/the-campaign-hallucinations-are-lifting
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/12/19/the-key-is-always-hope/
Though Michael Moore sounds as if he's been relying too heavily on alcohol...I hope it's only alcohol. The post linked below bothers me because...earlier this year, MM's home town needed financial help. More recently, Dolly Parton's home town needed financial help. What DP did at the Dollywoodfoundation.org page is what I was sort of hoping Michaelmoore.com would have done. Or any of Michigan's other well-known richies--not only Ford, Gilbert, Penske, et al., but certainly including those--could have done something similar; it's just that MM has actually answered to the name of "Mike From Flint." His Twitter name is still @MMFlint. This web site cries "Shame" and repeats: Michigan could use a little healthy pride. It's all very well when rich people don't think of themselves as different people than they were before they became rich, but they need to accept that they are rich and that God allows people to become rich so they can Take Care Of Their Own. When you become a millionnaire, you don't let your home town plead for handouts. You reach out first. You don't offer to pay fines imposed on rogue electors; you offer to pay for the help your neighbors need. Maybe I just haven't received the right e-mails, maybe rich Michiganians have been quietly doing the right thing by the non-rich people of Flint, but if they haven't...shame!
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/12/20/michael-moore-now-thinks-the-electoral-college-is-racist/
MM is being smeared as "promoting violence." Actually the group he's encouraging on Twitter are threatening to "blockade, disrupt," which we can hope mean the group (hope to recruit people to) stand in the street waving signs until they're arrested...and the benefit of doing that is? Tea Parties organized around opposition to the idea of "eminent domain" being used to rob people of their homes, which Trump has vilely exploited, need to come up with a better plan than just racking up police records for otherwise law-abiding people. Come onnn. If not "violence," it is..."wasted effort."
http://noisyroom.net/blog/2016/12/19/president-elect-trump-wins-electoral-college-vote-michael-moore-promotes-violence/
Lloyd Marcus is calling it. I did not vote for this President--well, I didn't vote for the previous three, either. I accept that a critical mass of other people did, and have faith that God, the Constitution, and the unofficial "system" in Washington will...suppress this President's worst excesses as needed.
http://www.lloydmarcus.com/2016/12/time-conservativesrepublicans-unite-behind-trump/
Cato's research may come as good news for your favorite law enforcement hero. It's free; if you can spare the computer memory you can download or print the whole thing.
https://www.cato.org/publications/working-paper/policing-america-understanding-public-attitudes-toward-police-results
Science, As Confused with Politics and/or Stupidity
Couldn't agree more with Scott Adams on this:
"
The best way to know if a non-scientist is under-informed is to ask if they have a firm opinion on climate change. If that firm opinion is anything but “I don’t know” it probably means they are experiencing cognitive blindness about the existence of a strong argument on the other side.
"
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/154679929646/watching-the-climate-science-bubbles-from-the
Stupidity Is a Choice
Here's a sign for Lena Dunham:
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/12/20/lena-dunham-i-still-havent-had-an-abortion-but-i-wish-i-had/
Writing
Chuck Wendig shares a post by Andrea Phillips that should also appeal to Elizabeth Barrette...
But AP's title would violate this web site's policy (it contains a swearword). The post contains some additional profanity. Meh...anyone whose father was a drill sergeant has heard that kind of "Army words" before, but reading the post did make me wonder when AP was in the Army.
Google...actually self-sabotages with the policy discussed here. They're trying to divide the blogosphere into for-profit and non-profit blogs, on the assumption that for-profit blogs will be less informative...but in fact, blogs that link to books on Amazon just might be more literate and more informative than those that don't. I'll not make that claim on behalf of this web site, but...just a thought.
http://grammieknowshow.com/how-to-engage-the-world-with-your-blog-posts/
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