An area of Fort Worth, Texas, is having a lot of trouble with feral hogs.  Animal control and the police are pointing at each other when it comes to finding who should be taking care of the issue. 

Why don’t the good residents of River Bend Estate take care of the problem themselves? 

Local laws ban the shooting of wild hogs within the city limits, the neighbors said.

So these people, who live in  a pretty gun and hunter friendly state, are restrained by applying a little bit of copper and lead travelling at a few hundred feet per second or even a pointy carbon fiber tube and making a little bacon because hunting within city limits is frowned upon.

My solution:  Change the law.  You are responsible for where your bullet or arrow goes and what it hits, but nothing can stop you from using whatever reasonable means you want to in order to kill off the feral hogs that are digging up your begonias. 

Areas up north have the same problem with  deer.  Due to city laws, they aren’t hunted, and because we’ve gotten rid of their natural predators, they have no checks on their population that’s not powered by an internal combustion engine.  Some have tried birth control in food, or poisoning. When the animals still remain a problem, eventually someone has had the bright idea of letting people pay to correct the issue using bows and/or crossbows.  Amazingly, people will actually purchase permission slips in the form of deer tags to have a chance at bringing down the number of suburban deer.

I say change the law and declare open season on Porky the Barbarian.   My guess is that the hogs will find somewhere not quite so pointy and noisy to live, and once they’re outside of city limits, it’s a free fire zone on hogs.

From the “No Kidding” Department:

• People who swim after eating may get cramps.  
• People who live in the desert tend to get suntans.  
• Wild dogs tend to like raw meat.

A study in Texas suggests that people who join gangs are much more likely to be a victim of crime.  What?  Hanging out with criminals makes you more susceptible to having a crime perpetrated upon you?  If you frequent a “social group” whose main claim to fame is how many asses they’ve busted caps in might get you shot, beaten, or robbed?  By the way, that little triptic is known as the “Detroit Three Way”.

In related news, a study done by the University of Minnesota has found that people with small children have a different diet and a higher risk of being overweight than people without children.  Really?  People who are lower on money, sleep, and time tend to eat differently, exercise less, and be heavier than their childless brethren?  You mean a sleep deprived young father may not take the time to make a nice salad, slow-roasted lamb shanks, baby potatoes, and asparagus when the only thing your kid will eat is chicken nuggets, ketchup, and strawberry yogurt, washed down with milk and apple juice?  Who would have thought that a young mother might not get to the gym as much when she’s trying to juggle job, pediatrician, day care, and potty training?

Did we actually pay for this research?

Apparently alcohol and it’s effect on the brain may have some positive impact on learning.  While it can make you forgetful and clumsy, it also gives the brain a little positive feedback about what you’re doing while you’re drinking.

When I was in Russian school, I was known to imbibe a ‘few’ adult beverages while practicing my conjugation and chatting up the female members of my class in “speech practice”.  All of this was after class of course.  Maybe the ethanol lubrication assisted me in learning my verbs.  It certainly made DLI a lot more fun.

Today is Boo’s 3rd birthday!  He is growing up fast, and the worst of the terrible two’s seems to be behind us.

I have a song picked out for each of my kids, and this is the one I think I’ve settled on for BooBoo. 

Someone just had their signing ceremony to play power forward for Satan’s basketball team today.  The main refrigerator compressor at the Dare to Care food bank in Louisville was broken into last night and the copper coils were ripped out.   That freezer holds 100,000 pounds of meat, which is distributed to needy people and soup kitchens in the area.  I’ve done some volunteer work for Dare to Care, and I can confirm that they’re good people trying to do good works.

It’s sad that I’m not shocked.  People are starting to get desperate, and things like this are beginning to become commonplace.  But in this instance I just have to shake my head.  Dare to Care is one of the few charities that I’ve seen actually make a positive impact.  People that are desperate enough to steal parts of a refrigeration system are only a couple steps up the ladder from needing their services.

The TV news reports that Kroger has committed to helping out with cold storage if necessary.  Hopefully repairs will be in place before that becomes necessary.  I imagine that the new compressor will come with a security cage.

And I hope the goobers who stole the coils enjoy doing two a days for Beelzebub.

Who Watches the Watchers Department

• The chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in South Florida is being investigated for child porn
•  A judge in California is in trouble for allegedly making traffic tickets disappear for relatives and friends.
• A former leader in Michigan politics and talk radio host has been arrested on child molestation charges.
• Yet another air traffic controller was asleep at the switch while planes were landing, this time in Reno.

Money Don’t Buy  Class Department

• A group of Hollywood celebrities made a series of ‘funny’ commercials in an inane attempt to stop trafficking in women for sex.
• An NFL football player was arrested, along with his passenger, after leading police on a high speed chase.

Servicemembers United, an advocacy group for gay military members, is scratching their collective head about why they’ve been rejected by the First Ladies office after they asked to be included in an event for military families.

“They just made it abundantly clear we weren’t welcome there — which is strange,” Nicholson said. His organization put out a written statement attributing the White House decision to “lingering political homophobia.” 

Dude, it’s not political homophobia.  Your group supported Obama in the election, and then had the temerity to believe he should make good on the promises he made to get elected.  He didn’t get rid of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, the Congress did.  Hint:  The Democrat controlled Congress could have done that all the way back in 2006.  Pelosi and Reid did it as a poke in the eye to the Repubs just before they lost power in the House and weakened in the Senate.  Obama didn’t call for Congress to do this, and they didn’t do it because, as a block, they tend to get a lot of support from gay people.  He needed you for some photo-ops yelling “Yes we can!”, and then dropped you like a hot rock as soon as the votes were tallied.  Don’t feel bad, Bush did the same thing to fiscal conservatives back in 2001 and 2005.


So now you’re getting an icy reception from an extremely political White House, and you’re surprised?  Sorry, but you helped put him in the office, now you can deal with how he acts.   But while you’re under the Obama Bus, could you check for loose joints?  It’s starting to rattle and squeak a bit. It’s been driving over a lot of people shaped bumps over the past few years.  

I’m not trying to be a ghoul here, but I’m not surprised that Hosni Mubarak has been put in the hospital with an unspecified condition.  My guess is that he will quietly die in his sleep in the next few days, which will miraculously keep all the dirty laundry of the Egyptian government from being aired.  His family will decide that the best way to deal with their grief will be to move en masse to a small country with no extradition treaties and a warm climate.  The Egyptian mobs will have a temper tantrum, then a middle-management group of scapegoats will be offered up and hung.

Why do I get the feeling that all of this is going to play out in this manner?  Because I’ve seen this movie before.  When the communist regimes in eastern Europe dissolved, a lot of the dictators or their close advisors died of some quick acting malady and were blamed for a lot of the repressive behavior.  Look for this formula to be repeated as dictators in the mid-East are pushed from power.

OK, I’m not a car guy.  I love the way that Corvettes made in the 1950’s and 1960’s look, and I love early model Mustangs, but who doesn’t?  The sportiest car I’ve ever owned was a 1991 Dodge Shadow, and I didn’t even get the V6 model.  I drive a mini-van or a bare bones pickup truck.  I also know that with a small kid in the picture, I will probably be too old to enjoy a sports car by the time my family is sized right for a two-seater.  Sadly, I will never be in a position to, as Tam puts it, “haul nothing but ass”.  I’ve been hoping that my next car will be a little more fun and less of a dad-mobile, but my hopes aren’t that high.

But the other day I saw one of these, and I discovered automotive lust:

I’ve never been that impressed with German cars.  I drove Opels, VW’s, and BMW’s in Germany, and they didn’t trip my trigger any more than driving a Dodge or a Chevy.  Mercedes were nice, but not nice enough to pay Mercedes prices.

This little honey, though, looked like polished sex on wheels.  I will have her.  Oh yes, she will be mine.  I’ll just have to find someone who wants a 40 year old kidney and lung in great condition.

Bluesun has a good post up about a Christian group that is advocating gun control.  The central theme seems to be that a good Christian will not defend himself, instead “turning the other cheek”.

Here’s my response:

   ⁹And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
   ¹⁰For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
   ¹¹And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
   ¹²And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

As Christians, we trust in the Lord to do the right thing for us, even if it’s not always pleasant, but we understand that the role of God is not to provide for us, nor is it to protect us in every way.  He made us thinking, reasoning creatures, so we are responsible for ourselves.  We should always strive towards the ultimate goal of loving our fellow human beings as we would want to be loved, but that does not mean we should let go of our responsibility to protect ourselves and those dear to us.

The “turn the other cheek” thing has also been explained to me as “Don’t give the bastard the satisfaction of a response”, as opposed to “Stand there and take it rather than fight back”.  The chaplain that gave that sermon to soldiers certainly knew his audience.