I know less than nothing about politics in California. *Whew* It’s nice to be able to say that. Regardless, with all the hyper-sensitivity (created by Democrats) to anything even remotely resembling gun violence (think; the Rep. ‘Cross hairs’ ad from 2010) and you’ll understand why I believe that while the intention was good, the ad’s imagery was bad and combined with the slogan, “Take Linda Sanchez OUT!” the liberal media will have a field day with it. Here’s a link to a political ad by a California Republican congressional candidate.

Yeah, yeah, the machine gun is blasting the message to vote for a candidate named Robles. But, under that message, is one saying - in essence - take out his opponent. You and I know that wasn’t what was meant when the gun was blasting away but common sense in this pussy-age of political correctness says that you don’t do that.

Ordinary citizens in China are not permitted to own firearms. They should get a job like hers:

During work hours, though, the 44-year-old with a gentle voice packs a pistol, or a rifle, or whatever other gun comes her way as a firearms tester.

“Other unborn babies hear music from their mothers as prenatal education, my son heard firearm shots,” said Huang, recalling the time she was assigned to test a new sniper rifle in 1994 while she was pregnant.

Known as “the Queen of guns”, Huang estimates she has shot more than 3 million bullets during her 21 years of service for the military.

Not that that would compensate for living in a communist country.

The Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. is flunking Obama:

Mexico’s ambassador to the United States detailed last week how the administration of President Barack Obama left his government in the dark while arming violent drug cartel criminals through Operation Fast and Furious.

Last Thursday, Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan told a forum on Capitol Hill that the Obama administration’s handling of the operation demonstrated an “outstanding lack of understanding of how criminal organizations are operating on both sides of our common borders.”

How’s that “smart diplomacy” working out?

Related: Another congress critter joins call for Holder investigation.

First of all, considering how well Gov. Walker has gotten Wisconsin’s budget under control, that should be reason enough to vote against recall:

In April, 10 months into Act 10, Walker’s office announced that his policies already had saved Wisconsin taxpayers more than $1 billion. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did a detailed accounting, verifying more than three-fourths of Walker’s claim, with the rest — such as estimated savings from changes to overtime and sick leave — not possible to calculate.

But the big picture isn’t lost on many Wisconsinites: By cutting spending, limiting property tax hikes and freeing local governments from some personnel costs, officials could trim spending without trashing services. In fact, the savings have let governments avoid cuts they otherwise would have had to impose.

Indeed, the state has gone from a $3.5 billion deficit to an expected $150 million surplus. And jobs and services weren’t lost. Only the unions lost some dues paying members when the act scrapped mandatory dues collection.

Still, if you need one more reason to vote for Gov. Walker (that is, against his recall) I’ll mention some other bills he’s signed: ‘Castle Doctrine,’ Concealed Carry, Sporting Heritage, and creating a wolf hunting season. Does anyone really think that Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett will be as sportsman and gun friendly as Walker is?

Update 6/4: Mayor Tom Barrett is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. That’s NYC Mayor Michael Blowhard’s group.

I’ve pretty much given up on Weather.com for getting the latest forecast. Their new design sucks. I like Wunderground.com and AccuWeather.com MUCH better.

If you’ve never used either of those, test them out, specify your location, and THEN bookmark it.

Yeah, I know, who cares? Consider this my tepid Saturday rant.

At Life’s Little Mysteries: What if the Yellowstone Supervolcano Erupts?

A rough estimate based on geologic records indicates there’s a 1-in-10,000 chance of a “supereruption” at Yellowstone during our lifetimes. However, given the erratic nature of volcanoes, that number doesn’t mean much.

There are people throwing away money playing the lottery with far bigger odds. Of course, losing a dollar isn’t fatal; having most of North America covered in ash would be. And, women and minorities would suffer the most.

. . . They’ll have the market on them cornered. From Fox News:

Federal prosecutors announced charges Friday against two Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies accused of illegally selling dozens of weapons, some of which authorities say fell into the hands of criminals.

[ . . . ]

U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagoner said the deputies were charged with serving as straw buyers by purchasing the restricted handguns. They then sold the handguns at a profit of thousands of dollars to unqualified buyers through licensed dealers, prosecutors said.

Last year five NYPD cops were caught gun running.

Well, not exactly, but Alameda County will finally allow a gun show — with tight regulation. From the Sacramento Bee:

A years-long showdown over the right to bear arms in California’s Alameda County appeared to end Friday after officials agreed to allow tightly restricted gun shows on government property.

A special, 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the county’s revised interpretation of the gun show ordinance makes it constitutional. That ordinance allows gun dealers to sell their wares on county property so long as the guns are unloaded and attached by a sturdy cable to a display table.

The county was sued by gun show promoters after the county decided to enforce a ban on gun shows on county property. More at the link.

The Seattle City Council will examine ways to get around Washington State’s preemption law so they can enact stricter gun controls. From KUOW Radio:

Seattle City Council members say the spate of shootings in the city has heightened their interest in seeking new gun control regulations. But they say they’re proceeding carefully, since the city’s previous ban on guns in parks was struck down by the courts.

And, no doubt Bloomberg’s moles will help:

Gun rights advocates recently discovered that the gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns has burrowed its “gun violence prevention coordinators” (read “anti-gun lobbyists”) into city payrolls from Augusta, Maine to Seattle, Washington, at taxpayer expense.

After that, they’ll turn their attention to large-sized sodas.

It’s not so bad. Well, yes it is but not so bad after the fact. Yesterday, I was a basket case when I came home from work. I was still in the basket when I called my boss last evening to tell him why I wouldn’t be at work today. A pet owner himself, he understood, completely.

Anyway, at 9:45 this morning, all of Crispy’s problems, hurts, ailments, and pain went away. His quality of life had gone completely. Hyper-thyroid. One kidney not working. Big (3″) tumor in the abdomen, sudden deafness, no longer grooming himself or ‘going’ in the litter boxes, not playing or . . . Well, you get the idea. Sure, the last month was difficult for him but I think about (he was 16-years-old) the thousands of days of his long, happy life with me and I think; OK, he has basically let me know that it is time. He just lies on his side, occasionally drinking water, pissing, and doesn’t even come sleep with me anymore. The Vet, last week, let me know that, too, that yeah, I could spend a bunch of money on further diagnosis, but even with that and tons more money for operations, Crispy’s life would have been extended only another couple of months. This way is better. Let him go out with some dignity. Let him remember that my arm was around him as he lost consciousness as my hand stroked his face, head, lips, etc.

My Vet is wonderful, they even have a special room for the unpleasant deed, filled with couches. They first tranquilize your pet. And leave you alone with him. Then, a while later, they give the final injection, and leave you alone with him. (Or her.)

Crispy went quietly and at peace, with no pain.

In 1996, he joined my family as a kitten:


He was a cutie-pie. Half-Maine Coon, 100% VOCAL Maine coon.
He had no problem posing for the camera:


Crisp with the lion’s mane at 6-years-old:

So, I still have that young tramp, Gracie. She's 3 1/2-years-old. She's now Queen of the house. I suspect that for a little bit, she will like it that way but, five days-a-week I spend 9-hours at work (plus commuting) and I sleep 6-7-hours. Soon, I will be looking for a companion for her, to play with and keep her company. Since she's a girl, I'll look for a male (much more likely that she will accept him) and maybe this time I'll adopt an older (well, not a kitten) one. I know that there are a ton of them since in a past life, I volunteered at an animal refuge. Everyone loves puppies and kittens. What about the older dogs and cats that need a loving home? I'll find one and give him one.

In the meantime, here's the only resident (besides me) of our home. This is a picture of Gracie wrestling the kitchen hand-towel. For the moment, she rules the roost but sometime soon, I'll find another cat to carouse with her and keep her and me company.

I’ll be back here soon, blogging away.

After getting all the extra bad news about my cat Crispy last Monday, I figured I still had a few weeks to be with him. Unfortunately, that will not be the case. He’s deteriorating so rapidly, the tumor, deafness (which is probably another tumor in the brain), kidney, and now he can barely speak, stand-up, etc. I suppose there’s some comfort that it is happening quickly — in the space of a couple of weeks. Still, I had hoped for a few more but, tomorrow I must restore his dignity and memory by taking him to his last visit to the Vet.

My first cat, Jasper, had the terrible slow death of full-blown kidney disease. I had him put to sleep at 10-years-old. He was magnificent with other cats and (along with me) was a volunteer at the local animal refuge in N.J. He befriended dozens of cats: That was his job; can a cat (up for adoption) get along with other cats. He was the final arbiter.

Rainbow, my second cat — God bless her, she was the ultimate ‘Daddy’s Girl’ fuss-over-me cat — lived to be 20 1/2-years-old with no health problems until quite suddenly, in the last couple days, it was like: Okay, I’ve lived my life and now it’s time to go. All of her systems shut down in one day. Quick. Painful for me but not for her.

I lost Samantha a couple of months ago. A dear sweet friend who never ever complained, did anything wrong, and became Crispy’s best friend. She was badly ‘mutated’ in many ways, including the arrangement of her internal organs. But, she was the silent, not demonstrably loving cat (but she was in her own subtle ways) and was - although silent (she only uttered a small sound about once every half-year) a part of the household and the playmate of Crispy.

Crispy, my best friend, had a bad kidney but not THAT bad — it was exaggerated by his thyroid disease (he had one of the two removed last Winter) and was still active and healthy until a month or so ago. But, not now.

In the space of a couple weeks, he has lost everything. Tomorrow, I will lose all of that everything that he represented. Do pet owners have favorites? Well, yes. God made Crispy just a little-bit extra special. Giving him up at 16-years-old might not seem like such a tragedy to you since that is way above the average life-span of a domesticated cat. But, it is to me. He was the most alive, playful, outrageously obnoxious (in a good way) cat that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, interacting with, sharing a home with.

Posting and email response will be light for a few days while I try to get over this. Burying two cat friends in two months is brutal. Meanwhile, Gracie — the youngster — will get what she has probably always wanted: My full attentions. . . .

Tomorrow, after the horrible deed is done, I will be a basket case for several days.

I do know this, though: If there is a God, and somehow he allows me into heaven, I will demand that Jasper, Rainbow, Samantha, Kimo (the outdoor stray I fed for so-many-years) and Crispy (and eventually; Gracie) must be there and existing with me. If not, then “Heaven” is no heaven and I don’t want to be there. I want my best friends, my soul mates - my cats - with me in Heaven or else it will be Hell and just put me back in the dirt on Earth.

From Breitbart:

CNN Contributor Erickson and Family Targeted in Latest ‘SWATING’ Attack:

Local police received a call from an individual claiming to be Erickson, stating that an accidental shooting had occurred at his home. Says Erickson, “Tonight, my family was sitting around the kitchen table eating dinner when sheriffs deputies pulled up in the driveway.”

This follows similar - pranks? - against blogger Patrick Frey (aka Patterico) and others.

More at the link as well as here.

On a side note, I REALLY don’t like how Breitbart writers have turned the acronym SWAT (as in sending a SWAT team) into verbs such as “swated” and “swating.” If it must be done . . . well, I’m tempted to add another ‘T’ into the word. If you go to bat in a game, you are a batter, or are batting third in the lineup. Better yet, use “SWAT’ed” and “SWAT’ing” to indicate that you are bastardizing the acronym for prose.

From Arlington National Cemetery, final resting place for many of our fallen heroes:

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:



Instead of the sale at a big box store, why not take your children to the local monument honoring your town’s war dead? Most towns have one and spending a few minutes there in silent prayer to say, “Thanks,” wouldn’t interrupt your day much.

And, at the barbecue, leave a place setting for the spirit or ghost of a soldier.

They found another case that fits their agenda. Funny how the news media pretty much ignores all the incidents of justifiable shootings that occur with much greater frequency than possibly borderline ones that are still under investigation. Incidentally, this time it was a Black man shooting an Hispanic one. Al Sharpton could not be reached for comment.

From Fox News:

A German 16-year-old has become the first person to solve a mathematical problem posed by Sir Isaac Newton more than 300 years ago.

Shouryya Ray worked out how to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance, The (London) Sunday Times reported.

The Indian-born teen said he solved the problem that had stumped mathematicians for centuries while working on a school project.

[ . . . ]

If that wasn’t enough of an achievement, Ray has also solved a second problem, dealing with the collision of a body with a wall, that was posed in the 19th century.

Both problems Ray resolved are from the field of dynamics and his solutions are expected to contribute to greater precision in areas such as ballistics.

More at the link.