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/

Book Review: P.J. O'Rourke on the Wealth of Nations

(This was my last Blogjob blog post, and its tags were Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, division of labor, economic value of self-interest, economics, first year economics class, introduction to economics for reluctant students, P.J. O’Rourke. Note that here and elsewhere I added an S...Some languages don't use plural forms. Native speakers of those languages can often be recognized by writing things like "one student, two student" in English. I am not a native speaker of any of those languages. I left the tags on Blogjob the way Blogjob seemed to want them to be; here, I feel that leaving them that way might be misleading.)

Title: P.J. O'Rourke on the Wealth of Nations 

Author: P.J. O'Rourke

Date: 2007

Publisher: Grove / Atlantic Monthly

ISBN: 978-0-87113-949-8

Length: 195 pages of text plus 47 pages of quotes, references, and index

Quote: "That self-interest makes the world go round has been tacitly acknowledged since the world began going round."

As an explanation of what's in humorist P.J. O'Rourke's digest version of The Wealth of Nations, it's hard to improve on the blurb on the dust jacket. "The Wealth of Nations was first published in 1776 and almost instantly it was recognized as fundamental to an understanding of economics. It was also recognized as being really long...over nine hundred pages...and...you also need to peruse Smith's earlier doorstopper, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. But now you don't have to read either...P.J. has done it for you. He has slogged through all of Smith's works."

Fair disclosure: Tenth grade economics put me to sleep faster than any other subject to which I was ever exposed. Proof: I "read" the teacher's very own anti-Communist tract--required--and felt rebellious and wrote a pro-Communist term paper and took an F for the course. Nobody has to be fifteen years old forever and eventually, after a few more years of neurological maturation, I was happily married to a certified Economist. Our home was full of books about economics. I actually read some of them. I even read The Wealth of Nations, in a consciously clueless fashion similar to the way I've been reading a collection of Renaissance Spanish poetry. The main thing I learned was that I was glad my husband had "retired" from practicing economics and found happiness as a middle school tutor in the D.C. school system.

But if P.J. O'Rourke had been teaching that tenth grade economics course, I think I would have learned something, even at fifteen.

O'Rourke achieved fame as a gonzo reporter, unreliable narrator, self-proclaimed 1960's drug experimenter, probably best known for outrageous road trip stories published in Car & Driver and Rolling Stone. It's hard to imagine how he'd write if he were serious; unlike Dave Barry, he's not published a straight "my son was injured in an accident and I have nothing funny to say" column (so far as I know). You have to get this book and read it to see how. It's quite a feat. He manages to be serious and seriously funny at the same time.

"[I]t is never a question of folly, sacrilege, or vulgarity to better our circumstances. The question is how to do it."

"Coercion destroys the mutually beneficial nature of trade, which destroys the trading, which destroys the division of labor, which destroys our self-interest."

"Adam Smith's flow of goods and services needs to be accompanied by at least the threat of another flow--getting a drink thrown in my face."

"Smith, the lonely  pioneer, is sodbusting the vast untilled prairies of econometrics. There was hardly such a thing as a reliable statistic in the eighteenth century."

"As Smith himself declared in Moral Sentiments, "We may often fulfil all the rules of justice by sitting still and doing nothing.""

This tribute to two of the most ponderous, abstract, soporific Great Books ever written will keep readers awake, give non-economists enough understanding of Smith's ideas to quote at parties, and even guide potential economists through Smith's books and/or tenth grade (or, these days, undergraduate) economics class. Smith had his lively moments. O'Rourke highlights them, and summarizes the long dull patches between them in a readable, memorable way.

If this were a new book, it'd be worth Tweeting my way through, the way I keep trying to do with The Conservative Heart (I'm still on page 126; bear with me, Tweeps). It's not a new book any more. It is, therefore, a Fair Trade Book. I have one copy at home with which I don't intend to part. I have access, via Amazon, to additional copies I'd be delighted to retail to you, for the usual $5 per book + $5 per package for shipping, for a total of $10, of which I'll send $1 to O'Rourke or a charity of his choice. (If I can track him down, anyway; Laura Ingraham has yet to choose a charity here.) Four copies at one time would thus add up to a total of $25, which you would send to either of the addresses that should be showing in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, and O'Rourke or his charity would get $4. And that option is seriously recommended to anyone taking or teaching a first course in economics; this is the book that will set students on their feet, eyes open, ready to absorb information about subsequent economic theories. 

(Update: you can now pay with an Amazon giftcard as well as by Paypal or U.S. postal order, but if using either online option, you need to add $1 to the total. If using a postal money order, you pay a comparable surcharge directly to the post office, so go ahead and send me $10 or $25.)

For forty-some years I would never have imagined I'd recommend any book about economic theory as a fun read. But this one is.

...And Kill the "Red" Wolves, Too, or Confine Them

Wolves are another form of wildlife that I think should be extinct in North Carolina. Alaska, maybe. Nunivut, maybe. Behind 30-foot cement walls in nature preserves, even. But not in any part of North Carolina.

Here, dear correspondents, is my ground rule on all carnivorous animal species: If it eats meat and it weighs more than 25 pounds, it should not be roaming around off a leash in any place that is (or has recently been) inhabited by humans.

That includes Sydney, the dog I've blogged about sitting--a lovable, intelligent, good-hearted animal whom I'd trust to protect my cats, or my Nephews when they were smaller, but I have no right to expect people who don't know Sydney to trust her. She is, in fact, an animal who could kill and eat a human baby. She is, in theory, an animal who might do that; who almost certainly never will harm any human, cat, chicken, or smaller dog, whose normal tendency as a beloved pet is to bond and nurture all of these species--but she might turn on somebody, some day. So she shouldn't ever be free to roam outdoors. (Even though, if you ever met Sydney and a bear in the woods, I'd expect that Sydney would protect you from the bear.) The voice of a human friend is the only leash Sydney really needs; if I walk with her, she's on a leash, anyway. Just so the sight of her doesn't scare other people into doing ignorant things that might cause her to act out of character.

The rule also includes Graybelle, the cat whose actual weight was only about 12 pounds when she was mistaken for a bobcat and shot--another sweet, gentle, friendly animal, but I had no right to expect people who'd never picked her up to believe that her intentions were good or, for that matter, that she weighed less than 25 pounds. She looked like something that might kill and eat a human baby. So she shouldn't have been roaming outdoors. I wouldn't have agreed to keep her as an outdoor pet if I'd realized, when I met her and saw her as a good-sized cat, that she was less than half the size she was destined to reach. Even Her Human came to realize that Graybelle, a throwback to her full-sized wild-predator ancestors, needed to be confined.

And the larger herbivores...are less likely to attack since they have prey-animal instincts. Deer, horses, and cattle never attack other animals for food--only in defense of themselves or their young, or once in a while when an unaltered male wants to impress other members of the herd. That doesn't mean they've never killed humans, either. Horses are most dangerous to humans when they panic and run away from us. Horses still don't need to be roaming around outdoors.

Now, about red wolves: Are they really an endangered species? Are they, in fact, a species? The genus Canis includes an incredible variety of DNA that produces individuals that aren't able to crossbreed with one another, due to size disparities, but can crossbreed with other individuals of intermediate size. The strongest, smartest, most successful type in the genus has traditionally been given separate-species status as Canis lupus, and isolation in Australia has given C. lupus dingo enough DNA-distinction that some patriotic Australian biologists still argue for separate-species status as C. dingo, but these, too, can hybridize with Canis familiaris. So can C. latrans, which, despite its distinctive look and voice, seems to be the degenerate form to which Canis species devolve when allowed to crossbreed freely. It has never been proved that C. rufus is anything but a simple crossbreed between lupus and latrans, or even between one of the hardier, more "wolfish" breeds of familiaris and latrans.

The biological bottom line: Even lupus, latrans, and familiaris don't fully satisfy the criteria by which creatures in other genera are defined as distinct species. If humans succeeded in extirpating every individual C. latrans alive today, and I wish we had, a few stray mutts' pups would manage to devolve back into "coyotes" next year. If every living C. lupus rufus were killed today, whenever and wherever one of those coyotes managed to mate with a wolf, the subspecies rufus would revive likewise.

A few years ago, I believe my Virginia home was visited by one of those precious "red wolves." It had a coyote-type tail (as do some things posted on Bing as Canis rufus). It was big--if not all of 80 pounds, itself (I didn't personally see the animal alive), it was bagged by a public-spirited neighbor who described it as having been the same size as a retired police dog known to have weighed 80 pounds. It was not part of a wolf pack. It was so lost and confused, and probably sick, that it was ridden and chivied by my fabulous formerly-feral house cats Mackerel and Polly. (Mac might have reached 12 pounds in his prime; Polly might have reached 5 pounds when pregnant, but she never lost touch with her Inner Lion.) I wouldn't have made that up; I didn't watch it, and wouldn't have believed it when then-kitten Bisquit tried reenacting it, if I hadn't seen unmistakable tracks in the snow documenting exactly how the canine and felines moved from my home into the neighbor's shooting range.

I call that kind of animal an overgrown coyote, or coy-dog, or straying feral mutt, and I say the sooner they're shot the better. When a predator attacks a much smaller, weaker member of a prey species, and the prey animal routs the predator animal, you're dealing with a weak individual who has nothing good to contribute to the predator species--and who, if it survives, is likely to hold a grudge and attack the domestic animal, and its friends, later on. No matter how much some people admire healthy, human-avoidant wolves or tigers or whatever, the ones who've threatened humans or livestock truly have no reason to live.

Sometimes people make pets of some of these animals. Wolves are intelligent, can be friendly, and can make good pets for some humans who are unusually strong, brave, and devoted. So can dingos. Coyotes and feral mutts are usually less intelligent, more often vicious, but also smaller and easier to handle if somebody wants to tame an individual who happens not to be vicious. That's all well and good as far as I'm concerned. Just don't ever let it get outdoors, off a leash, or out of sight of the human who's responsible for it.

Because, unfortunately, the nature of these big hungry carnivores is to roam in packs and attack more desirable animals, conceivably including humans. Wolves/coyotes, cougars/pumas, bears, and wolverines are smart enough to prefer attacking chickens to sheep, sheep to domestic cats and dogs, and domestic cats and dogs to human babies...but they will take what they can get, and they don't need to be allowed to attack chickens either. And that's not even considering their susceptibility to rabies--all the big carnivores are very vulnerable to rabies, and when rabid any of them can and will kill a man.

If you're in love with "large predators," like that unlovable character in Barbara Kingsolver's least satisfactory novel, please consider buying a large chunk of "waste" land--maybe an abandoned oil field out west, or on the Canadian Shield--where they can safely be allowed to live within walls that keep them from being dangerous to the species that can coexist peacefully.

And, when you read the e-mail quoted in part below, please bear in mind that this fellow is talking about a "species" that is "endangered" by not being, or having ever been, a true species.

Is he pushing a political agenda, as well? I don't know. There is, in fact, a political agenda that has called for destroying human communities, such as Gate City, Virginia, and parts of "the North Carolina wilderness" (otherwise known as "small towns and suburbs between Asheville and Cherokee Town"), by "re-wilding"--romanticizing the animals that became "endangered" because they're incompatible with humans, getting sentimental humans to support efforts to bring them back, then declaring places that have become infested with bears and cougars unfit for human habitation, and herding the farmers and nature lovers into city slums (where we can perish miserably from the plagues and disasters those people overtly hoped to see). This agenda has been openly printed and circulated, by people who don't like the United States much. It has an official name and number; it was "United Nations Agenda 21," and despite its ignominious failure, some people who still hope to put it into practice are still alive. But whether people who start petitions like the one below are supporters of "Agenda 21," or merely foolish enough to have bought into an individual bad idea that spun off it...all I know for sure is that they're wrong.

"

Red wolves are one of the most endangered species on the planet. These magnificent, shy predators once roamed from Pennsylvania to Florida, but now only about 50 remain in one corner of the North Carolina wilderness.

But these 50 wolves are actually a success story: in 1980, red wolves were declared extinct in the wild. Impressive efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) saw their reintroduction in northeast North Carolina, and the numbers of healthy wild red wolves grew steadily. Unfortunately, the FWS has now chosen to put the brakes on its Red Wolf Recovery Program, saying it needs to re-assess its "viability and necessity."... 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could be abandoning red wolves just as they stand at the brink of extinction, and their motives are suspicious. Recently, a powerful lobby of ranch owners and hunters launched a campaign against the wolves, claiming that they are a hazard to human safety. This is absurd, as there have been no documented cases of wild red wolves attacking humans, despite 500 years of coexistence....We must not allow the FWS to cater to the powerful anti-wildlife lobbyists. Please join me in demanding that they act in the interest of the endangered wolves and the public trust, and continue their successful Red Wolf Recovery Program.

" 

Morgan Griffith on Presenting a Strong Face

From U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA-9):

"
United States Must Present A Strong Face
Individuals can often be judged by how they perceive those around them.
To his credit in foreign affairs, President Obama seems to view his fellow world leaders as people who want a fair deal and who want to do what is right. This, I believe, reflects well on the President’s core beliefs. To me this indicates he truly wants fair deals, and that he believes if he treats other world leaders fairly even if such deals are not in the best interest of the United States, they will reciprocate by doing what is right.
However, while this may speak well of the President’s character, it doesn’t necessarily speak well of his leadership.
I believe this well-meaning naiveté is what led the Administration to make the President’s bad nuclear deal with Iran. An Iran that doesn’t seem to be following this deal even in these early stages of the agreement.
Also, the Russians waltzed in and took the Crimea, a strategic peninsula that is part of the nation of Ukraine. A nation we had a treaty with and had promised to defend.
Further, there are so-called “little green men” in Eastern Ukraine. These so-called “little green men” are armed men in green uniforms who look as if they are members of the Russian military. However, Russia attempted to assure us otherwise, claiming these unidentified though seemingly professional soldiers instead were merely men wearing green who speak Russian, who are pro-Russia, and who are occupying territory in Eastern Ukraine.
Some suspect there already may be or soon may be “little green men” near the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The United States has a treaty with these nations, which are also members of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Will the Russian empire or its agents attempt to reoccupy our Baltic friends and NATO allies as they did with the Crimea? Will the Obama Administration pay more than lip service in defending the Baltic nations?
The Obama Administration didn’t defend Ukraine.
The Obama Administration did not take action against President Assad of Syria even after Assad crossed Obama’s red line. (One can debate whether we should be involved against Assad, but the United States should not make threats if it is not in our interest to follow through on those threats.)
Nor did the Obama Administration swiftly develop a solid strategy for dealing with the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which the President himself once referred to as a “JV” or “junior varsity” team.
Because of the Administration’s failure to recognize that other nations do not operate with “good will” but are aggressively advancing their agendas to the detriment of the United States, they perceive President Obama’s attempts to do what he thinks is “fair and right” as weakness.
Accordingly, China has recently started pursuing its objectives in the South China Sea, having built an airstrip on the Fiery Cross Reef. This reef is part of the Spratly Island chain claimed by China, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
China believes it has a historic right to dominate this region. It is China’s long-term strategy to turn the South China Sea into the equivalency of a Chinese lake.
CNBC reports that Peter Dutton, the professor and director of the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College, said in a February speech that China’s actions represent “a significant strategic event” and “…leave the potential for the South China Sea to become a Chinese strait, rather than an open component of the global maritime commons.”
The effects of allowing China to dominate this region would severely damage the ability of neighboring countries, particularly our ally the Philippines, from shipping goods from their country to other nations. Further, it would undermine the existing law contained in the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. The undermining of this international treaty could lead to a global territorial grab by various nations to dominate waters outside of their recognized borders.
In the South China Sea, will the Administration do more than merely wag its finger and say “shame, shame?”
In the waning months of this Administration, I hope they will take a stronger stand in foreign affairs. If the Obama Administration will not present a strong face for the United States, I hope the next Administration will.

If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov. Also on my website is the latest material from my office, including information on votes recently taken on the floor of the House of Representatives.
"

May 3 Mini Link Log

Today I wrote today's phenology post and tomorrow morning's reader-requested book review, and tracked down the link, hidden by cookie conflicts, to the song I cited in the LJ version of today's book review. This left little time for collecting other excellent links. Categories: Books, Recipes, Song.

Books 

Today's review is of a book that meant a lot to me:

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

Recipes 

Disgraceful, decadent banana muffins. (Reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup, and the oil to 1-2 tablespoons, for regular-type banana muffins. Substitute cornmeal for flour for gluten-free banana muffins--yes, they taste good--and add blueberries, chocolate chips, or nuts for my version of decadent banana muffins; but these days you have to be very, very careful about cornmeal.)

http://blogjob.com/irenen1kitchen/2016/04/01/rainy-day-baking-banana-muffins/

Song 

Search engines absolutely refused to pull up the text to this song, even when I typed in a complete line, word for word, or the title. In the end I had to search my own e-mail, where I'd e-mailed a copy formatted for printing to myself a few years ago, to get this link to the song I cited as "music" in the LJ version of that book review post this morning. This song parody is made up of the most common sneaky verbal attack patterns, or vaps, in English (as discussed in the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense series). If it sounds like this (the sentence patterns, minus the melody), even if it's coming out of a church-lady type who may have managed to believe that she's sounding patient and humble and gentle and long-suffering (probably in response to a non-churchgoer and/or male and/or less educated type who is YELLING, which she considers VERY BAD), it's sneaky verbal abuse. There is likely to be some exaggerated attempt to make the voice and body language seem conciliatory or "submissive." This person really intends to have her (or his) own way, but wants full credit for acting deferential--even though that's the last thing s/he is. And yes, there are churches where this is what's presented to the young and/or confused as the way Christians are supposed to talk in difficult situations; there are people young and/or confused enough to buy it. I used to be one of them.

http://ozarque.livejournal.com/2005/08/21/

May 3 Phenology Post: Locust, Iris, Rose and Other Blossoms

(Blogjob tags: black locust tree, carob tree, honey locust tree,locust borer beetle, Robinia pseudoacacia, trees native to Virginia, trees with fragrant white blossoms.)

I've not done a phenology post for a while. Today, however, I saw something I don't see every year: Robinia pseudoacacia in bloom.

I walked the long way around town to the computer center, which always means more opportunities to see more wild flowers, and saw plenty: violets, buttercups, fleabane "daisies," a few early "oxeye" daisies, wild geraniums, a few Bidens, ground-ivy, celandine, blackberry blossoms, the first few blooms of bedstraw. And a mourningdove.

Back at the Cat Sanctuary, my white roses started to bloom yesterday, and my oldfashioned yellow iris put forth its first bloom this morning. This iris colony really is "old," at least 55 or 60 years old. Blooms usually grow 20-30 inches above the ground. Since the "Tall" blue iris was planted on the other side of the house, however, the yellow one seems to have gone into competition (or cross-pollination?). One year one bloom got up to 49 inches, and this year's first bloom was close to 36 inches above the ground.

My grandmothers loved this iris, and so do I. One year I swear it waited until July, when I'd stayed in Washington through June, to bloom when I came home. Aside from the illusion of a relationship with this particular planting, I think what I like about the iris is the fact that this big, fragrant, showy flower positively requires minimal care and poor soil.

But what would have pleased my father, if he could have seen it, was the black locust tree, with the cardinal perched in it.

(Black locust blossom image shared by Pollinator at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Robina9146.JPG .)

The locust tree, Robinia pseudoacacia, is a legume. Big as it is (up to 70 feet high), it's closely related to garden peas and peanuts, and has similar leaves. It also has similar roots, and helps to aerate and "revitalize" overworked soil.

When I was a child and most people actively farmed at least part of their land, fields allowed to lie fallow would usually produce a few black locust trees. My brother and I enjoyed watching them sprout up. New growth is smooth, with thin bark protected by sharp brittle thorns, which we used to rub off between our fingers. As the trees mature, woodier parts develop thicker, more typical "tree"-type bark.

Mature trees produce fragrant white blooms. (Wikipedia says a yellow mutation is possible.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinia_pseudoacacia

Black locusts are not closely related enough to hybridize with honey locust or carob trees; nevertheless, bees make honey from the blooms, and humans can eat the flowers (usually by cooking and sweetening the petals). The leaves, bark, and seeds may be mildly poisonous to equines and humans; the phytochemical usually blamed for any toxicity is destroyed by heating, but no, this tree is not carob, and it never will be. The tree coexists splendidly with many other things that are native to, even emblematic of, our corner of Virginia.

https://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_locust.htm

Locust wood is surprisingly hard and durable when well seasoned. It is not often found in the best condition. It makes dangerous firewood in any condition--if dry enough to burn at all, it will burn hotter than other wood and shoot out more sparks. Fresh-cut locust wood has a strong, sweet odor that few people want to live with. However, once dried out, it's considered good timber for building things that will be exposed to weather. Wesley Greene calls it "the tree that shaped the United States" and quotes an early historian who says it was used for making hunting bows.

https://www.livescience.com/50732-black-locust-tree-shaped-the-united-states.html

So, if the young trees are good for the soil, the blossoms have some use as food, and the wood can be good timber, why doesn't everybody cultivate black locust trees? Because they don't cultivate well. When my father was growing up, black locust trees flourished--briefly--in our corner of Virginia, as a first-growth species on clear-cut land. During my childhood, the locust borers discovered them and moved back in, and the trees began dying out. It didn't take the local population long to achieve local extinction. We'd see hillsides with a dozen or so rotting, dying locust trees in a cow pasture, and Dad would mourn, fearing that the species would go completely extinct due to insect-predator loss and other complications of the Vicious Spray Cycle.

During the years when he knew he was going blind, but could still see trees, Dad looked for locust trees and didn't see them. I think it did him some good, after he'd become blind, to hear that I'd found black locust trees blooming in a park in Maryland. For a minute or two his face brightened. Then he said, "But they'll get infested and die out there, too."

They usually do. Black locust trees grow fast enough, and reproduce fast enough, to survive in a precarious balance with their primary predator species--the borers. Here and there people find mature trees with healthy wood...but the species never forms real groves or forests. The blooms attract locust borers, which both eat the wood and spread a fungus that kills the trees, and the trees start to die out.

(Locust borer image shared by Cody Hough at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:M_robiniae.jpg . In real life these beetles are half an inch to three-quarters of an inch long; males have longer antennae than females. They mimic bees but can't sting. They are remarkably resistant to most insecticides...don't start a Vicious Spray Cycle; black locusts and locust borers are precariously balanced at best.)

Black locust trees have spread, usually by deliberate cultivation, into the Northern States and Europe. It's not taken long for the borers to follow the trees, so although these trees may be invasive, they will probably never manage to become a nuisance species. If you see one, and they're not native to the place where you see it, enjoy this tree while you can.

Book Review: The Last Word on the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense

(Blogjob tags: early studies of sensory preference, effective communication, GAVSD series, Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense, psycholinguistics, Suzette Haden Elgin, verbal abuse, verbal attack patterns in English, verbal self-defense, Virginia Satir and the Satir Modes.)

Title: The Last Word On the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense 

(But the title, as shown, is a typo. The Last Word is a book about making presentations so persuasive they don't arouse arguments; it was book three in a series of, depending on which types of books you count, more than twenty.)

Author: Suzette Haden Elgin

Date: 1987

Publisher: Prentice Hall

ISBN: 978-0135240670

Length: 245 pages

Quote: "Anything you feed will grow."

This is the review of The Last Word, specifically, as distinct from its many companion books. Each book in this series contains a brief explanation of the sneaky "verbal attack patterns" in English, what makes them hurtful, and how to respond to them without using more of them. The first book, The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense, had analyzed that topic in most detail.

Because English uses "contrastive stress," the way we utter a sentence makes it possible to say almost anything in English in a matter-of-fact way, a goodhearted way, or a hateful way. People who've not studied GAVSD often misleadingly describe the difference as "tone of voice"; actually the quality of your speaking voice has nothing to do with it...although various features of our speaking voices may turn some people off, too, and The Last Word contains a detailed discussion of how to identify and change those.

Here's an example of current interest: "Contrastive stress" is what makes it possible, not exclusively for Southerners, to make terms of respect sound like insults and make terms of hatespeech sound like friendly inside jokes--in one particular situation, not another. Recently people who seem otherwise sane, including James L. Snyder and Mike Huckabee, have described the, er um, Communist-style effort to substitute the vulgar-bordering-on-obscene word "honey" for the traditional "Ma'am" in such a way that readers could imagine that the use of these words has flipflopped. It hasn't, in my part of the world.

In theory it's possible to say "I hate you" in a way that clearly means "I love you," but in practice that doesn't change the normal meaning of those words. Even Southerners who were too old and genteel to know that "honey" embeds the stings of both sexual and ethnic insults--and very few of them are still alive--always seemed to use it, the way old-time slaves had started using it, as a subtle term of rebuke to a family member. I have never heard "honey" successfully used to express goodwill in a live conversation, in any place, no matter how many pop songs have used it as a euphemism for "bedmate." I have heard the B-word and the N-word used that way--but not often, not in the Southern States, and not in conversations that included older people.

If you are concerned that calling anyone, of any age, "Sir" or "Ma'am" will make that person feel old or make you sound as if you're trying to sound older (which is possible), the polite alternative is not to call people who are already present. "Calling" the other person in a two-person conversation adds an extra dollop of emotion that's usually best avoided. In a two-party business conversation, the emotion is probably hostility. (Other emotions expressed by "calling," like "Oh, Absalom, my son!", are unmistakable.) The Last Word explains how to identify, and reduce, the hostility.

The Last Word also reviews material presented in volumes one and two about what too many church ladies mislearned, in the 1980's--how a "soft, gentle," or "Placater Mode" sentence can be nastier than a "loud, angry," or "Blamer Mode" version, and a quick effort to salvage a conversation by switching from one emotional "mode" to another can be more alarming to some people than either of those. 

Then there's an early summary of the concept of "sensory modes" in communication. This then-new concept has been studied in more depth and precision, and some misperceptions have been corrected since 1987, but The Last Word provides some basics.

That begins what Elgin considered the best part of GAVSD--the part where you move beyond dodging quarrels into using the same principles, in a benign way, to present information so persuasively that people who don't want the fight won't even argue with it. She explains the classic Rule of Three for our era, discusses the role of nonverbal communication in persuasive speaking, and explains why, if someone were to find a cheap, simple, reliable cure for cancer tomorrow, it would still take many years for people to accept it.

The short answer to that question is cognitive dissonance...which is also why, valuable though GAVSD is, it won't solve all the communication problems in anyone's life. Only most of them. (For example, no matter how persuasive my writing may be or become, some local lurkers still display cognitive dissonance related to the prophet-in-his-own-country effect, or "You can't be a full-grown adult who has anything worthwhile to say, even after age fifty, because you were once a child!" Elgin commented on that, too.)

I think it was the subtle admission that GAVSD is not the only thing everyone needs to solve all communication problems that convinced me that The Last Word was more than your usual self-help book. And it is.

Now, about buying these books...for a long time the ethical way to buy any of Elgin's books, except the early short novels, was directly from her. Now, of course, anybody can resell them. Some Amazon Associates are demanding collector prices already; some are offering copies for pennies plus outrageous shipping charges. I have as much right to sell these books as other people do, so, yes, if you want to support this blog, you can buy'em here. Currently, either The Last Word or GAVSD for Business Success will cost $5 per book + $5 per package + $1 per online payment. That means, if you want both books together, you'd send $15 to either of the addresses at the very bottom of the screen.