Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. Well, according to a recent poll, 18 percent of those surveyed believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. This is up from 11 percent in March.
To me, it sounds like there’s a rising epidemic of stupidity in the States. We imagine these are the same morons who insist that he wasn’t born in the United States; who believe that a woman’s place is in the home; that liberals are ruining the world; that the earth is flat and the center of the universe.
Given the incredible scrutiny any political candidate undergoes, particularly concerning their qualifications for office, it is inconceivable that an elected head of state’s country of origin and religion would not be as claimed.
That, however, is applying logic to minds to whom reason is as unpalatable as higher education, universal suffrage, an informed opinion and an open mind. And in America, stupidity is not illegal and it’s seldom fatal.
In fact, it appears to be rapidly eclipsing baseball as the national past time.
IN OTHER NEWS
This Recession may be the biggest reason why Americans are making fewer babies, according to a report issued recently by National Center for Health Statistics. The birthrate has dropped for the second straight year since 2007.
The Great Recession "is definitely a deterrent" to people having more children, said Dr. Michael Cabbad, chief of maternal health at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, where births declined from about 2,800 in 2008 to about 2,500 last year.
Yep, for more on this one, please go here.
Thank God it’s not chopping cotton and the exercise the inmates at Columbia County (Washington) Jail get working a large truck garden plot is apparently right up there with the satisfaction these self-admitted screw-ups derive by doing something right and something which benefits the community. Much of the harvest of the several hundred plants they tend goes to the Pacific Food Bank, which serves the poor and the marginalized. I totally loved this one. Check it out here.
This is another example of small is beautiful. It’s about a Boeing engineer in Seattle who designed a state of the art condo that takes up less than 200 square feet/18.5 square meters. It’s a home for two with all the amenities and I got some ideas of my own for maximizing my loft-style flat which covers 144 square feet. What I especially appreciated about this article was the seven-photo slide show and the “home tour” narrative style. Yep, I loved it so go here.
SURVIVING HARD TIMES
My father passed away recently of complications from the brain cancer he was fighting. Too late for him but not for thousands of others, is a promising new vaccine that apparently turns those “killer cells” into cannibals of a sort. Yep, go here.
RESOURCES AND RELATED LINKS:
Cancer Research Journal
National Cancer Institute (American)
Fighting Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer Survivor Stories
Science Daily: Health & Medicine News
American Cancer Statistics 2009
Canadian Cancer Statistics 2009
Green tea drinkers rejoice. If you drink three or more cups of the stuff a day, you’ve probably added at least five years to your life. The folks that have been drinking tea probably the longest have scientifically isolated the ingredient which slows the aging of cells. Yep, for more on this one, go here.
This one’s a little delicate in most circles I’ve run. The medical term for it is halitosis. I’m a working stiff so that’s like bad breath. I’m guilty of it with garlic, onion and pepperoni sandwiches just before company I don’t want hanging around for a long time. The kind in context now though comes from sloppy dental care aka not brushing after every meal. The damage that does has now been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Yep, don’t forget to floss and for more on this one, go here.
SEATTLE SCENES
Another totally sunny day in Seattle. Looking across Elliott Bay from Pike StreetSUMMER GUIDE: Let us steer you to the best beaches, festivals and fun.
SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State
CRITTER STUFF
Well, here’s one that leaves me with real mixed feelings, even though I was in the Navy when they first started training marine mammals to plant mines and torpedo ships. In its war against terror, they’ve drafted dolphins and sea lions and a small squadron of them will soon be posted to the Puget Sound. It will be very interesting to see how our ‘resident’ orca pods react to that one. This might possibly NOT have been the best deployment of these creatures and my hunch is that if one of them is ever killed in action, you’re going to hear an outcry from every animal protection group on the planet. I’d really cut the chain on this one before the anchor drags the ship down with it. For more on this one, go here.
This one will come as real good news to those with arachnophobia. There are not more spiders in the Puget Sound this year. They’re just bigger. Nope, this is NOT the time to get weird. More of the spiders who are born here every year survived. Have I had any personal encounters in the Bastion on the Puget Sound? Nope. That Maine coon cat of mine may have this aggravating habit of making friends with raccoons, but when it comes to spiders? Snack time. Yep, for more on this one, go here.
When I wrote the above about the military dolphins coming to the Puget Sound, I had NOT read this piece about a bunch of civilian dolphins who normally hang out off northwestern (windward side of) Vancouver Island have been showing south and on the other side. And in amazing numbers and for absolutely no reason yet determined. These creatures are also master communicators and I’ve got a hunch it’s going to get real interesting if some of the American cousins of these Canadian dolphins get hurt. Yep, admittedly this is crossing into supreme weird so go here for the facts and stuff.
Recommended Related Links:
Go Northwest: Northwest Wildlife Websites
BBC’s wildlife finder
National Geographic Daily News - Animals
Retrieverman’s Weblog: Engaging articles on domestic & wildlife in the American South
YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP
Well, here’s one that I don’t think any of us are going to do much partying behind. What would you do if your child or grandchild was a student at a school where a teacher got his job back after doing 20 days in jail for inappropriately touching female students? And had like a track record of doing this and getting away with it that went back 13 years?
That’s what happened in Lewis County, Washington and parents are understandably outraged. This sleaze was convicted before on the same charges but copped what’s called an Alford plea, which means, as I understand it not being a lawyer or a barrister, that while he said he’d probably lose if it ever went to trial, but he never admitted guilt.
After the school district fired him, he appealed. The hearing officer who heard his case decided that since he’d “served his time,” he deserved to get to go back into the classroom where he could do this again. Sometimes child predators have friends in high places?
The school involved, unable to do much more, has given those students who do not want to attend this pervert’s classes an online alternative. Parents are organizing a protest and an a friend of ours who lives there said there are dark rumblings about justice and what one must sometimes do when the blind lady fails.
What gets me about this too is that this teacher can’t be incredibly bright. And he’s apparently got the emotional sensitivity of petrified peat. Any human being with an IQ twice their shoe size could feel the fear, the hatred and the primordial consideration of a permanent solution pervasive in the community now.
This is a rural part of a mostly rural state and when it comes to protecting their children, these people are not burdened with a lot of “Christian charity” or this rather nauseating tendency on the part of the courts sometimes to look at the perpetrator of a crime as also somehow a victim of life/society. As true as that might be on the philosophical level, if doesn’t do one damned thing for the real victim, thank you very flipping much and stuff.
Translation? If you hurt my child, one way or another, you will pay. If I were this dude, I wouldn’t be preparing a lesson plan. I’d be packing my bags and hoping there was a place on the planet one of these parents couldn’t find me.
If those same parents told me they had this basest of all human beings beside a tall tree and just needed the rope, they’d have it from me in New York City heartbeat. There is nothing more heinous in any society which dares call itself compassionate than hurting a child.
Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the ear. Before you leave, if you’re in a shopping mood and into some interesting choices? We’ve got a “reader stocked” General Store that you might want to check out. If you’d like to sell something with us or know someone who does, email us at minstrel312@aol.com and we’ll see what we can do.
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