Yes, as of 1:14 AM EDT, spring has officially sprung. And for the first time in a long, long, time, it actually feels very spring-like. Actually, it feels more like summer, with the temperature supposed to be around 80 for a few days. Yesterday we even had thunderstorms late in the day. And I’ve been pulling ticks off the dogs at an alarming rate. I used to use Frontline ‘cuz it’s supposed to take care of ticks. But it didn’t seem to be killing the fleas, so I switched to Advantage (we have cats, so I’m leery of using K9 Advantix). But with all the ticks, I decided to order some Fiprogard (which is generic Frontline). Hope it works.
In much less interesting news, there’s a big old primary thingie in Illinois, where Mitt Romney is poised to whip Rick Santorum into a frothy mixture of, well, you know. Rick is getting pretty darn nasty to Mitt, and Mitt is saying mean things about Barack (did you know Obama is slowing down this whole economic recovery?). I try not to listen to them all, but NPR insists on shoving it down my throat on my way into work.
Oh well, time to get back to doing whatever it is I should be doing.
Shocking reports have surfaced that reveal at least ten teenage boys were castrated in the 1950s by the Dutch Roman Catholic Church as a “treatment” for homosexuality, the Telegraph reports.
Dutch journalist Joep Dohmen, reporting for the NRC Handelsblad uncovered ten cases of the castrations, one of which was suffered by Henk Heithuis, who was castrated as a minor for reporting to police sexual abuse by a priest that he endured while in the boarding home.
Although the priests were convicted of the abuses, Heithuis was still transported to a Catholic hospital, and underwent a surgical castration as a treatment for homosexuality and, according to the report, a punishment for tattling on the clergy.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports that the new information wasn’t included in the large Deetman Commission report published three months ago on sexual abuses in the church — and furthermore — that the commission received a complaint about the castrations last year, but claimed there was a “lack of sufficient leads” to warrant an investigation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/dutch-church-castrated-treatment-homosexuality_n_1365725.html?ref=world&ir=World
I’m sure they all agree that the American Catholic Church should not be forced to allow insurance companies to offer birth control coverage to women. How immoral!
I just spent $150 at the “cheap” pet store for Frontline Plus (1 pkg for the dog and 2 for the cats as each pkg contains 3 treatments and I have 4 cats). Frontline Plus kills fleas, ticks, mange and flea eggs. Fiprogard Plus is no longer carried by 1800petmeds and Fiprogard does not say it kills flea eggs. I would love to have cheaper flea stuff but I’m leery of flea eggs as they tend to hatch little fleas and that never leads to anything good.
Last year, Frontline would only work for like a week on Fritz before they were back in force. Had to keep giving him capstar, which only last for a day and only kills adults. Advantage worked much better, but now the ticks are out in force. I like to get stuff from Foster and Smith. They seem pretty good.
With Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signing of the controversial bill into law today, New York became the first state in the nation to require DNA samples from every person convicted of a crime.
The law, which goes into effect Oct. 1, requires law enforcement officials to take DNA from every person after a conviction. Previously, the database included DNA from people convicted of felonies and some misdemeanors, but the new law includes every misdemeanor, even minor ones such as fare evasion or resisting arrest.
snip
The only people excluded from having their DNA taken are those convicted of having small amounts of marijuana, if they don’t have a criminal record.
“That exception just shows how ridiculous all of this is,” NYCLU spokeswoman Jennifer Carnig said. “If you think people that get caught smoking pot of holding pot should not be in the database, then you probably also think people who jump over the turnstile should not be in there too.”
http://www.metro.us/newyork/local/article/1128616–new-law-collects-dna-for-convictions-from-turnstile-jumping-to-violent-assaults
I can’t say I ever liked Andrew Cuomo (he’s definitely not his dad) but I have come to dislike him in a rather short span of time.
As a former Georgian and current Okie, I am somewhat flea/tick savey. PJ, you need guinea hens on your farm. They will reduce both pests significantly from your property. Frontline sucks. I use Sentinel. Prevents heart worm and sterilizes fleas. If my dorks get the bastid fleas, I use Capstar. With Sentinel, it prevents any infestation. Ticks…I stop taking the pups to the country for romps during tick season. Otherwise a tick collar is the only thing that works.
Was at Chipolte in Stillwater today and there on the what’s happening in okc newspaper cover was a full picture of Maron. Not something you see every day. 😎
Pity the Poor Gun Lobby
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: March 21, 2012
There is nothing so dangerous as a lobbying organization that’s running out of stuff to lobby about.
I am thinking in particular of the National Rifle Association. These people are really in desperate straits. The state legislatures are almost all in session, but some of them have already pushed the gun-owner-rights issue about as far as it can go. You can only legalize carrying a concealed weapon in church once.
This year, in search of new worlds to conquer — or at least to arm — a couple of states are giving serious attention to bills that would allow gun owners to carry their concealed weapons in places like day-care centers and school buses.
People, do you think there is a loud public outcry for more guns on school buses? I truly believe that this is all the product of a desperate N.R.A., trying to show its base that there are still lots of new battles to be won.
“I subscribe 100 percent to that theory,†said Brian Malte of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a group that is never going to suffer from a problem of not having anything left to work on.
Why, other than a frantic search for ways to show your gun bona fides, would legislators pass something like the Stand Your Ground law? As the whole country learned this week, 21 states now have laws allowing people to shoot anyone they feel is putting them in imminent physical danger, whether they’re at home, in a bar or on the street being hassled by an irritating panhandler. It was thanks to Florida’s Stand Your Ground law that a crime-watch volunteer was not arrested after he fatally shot an African-American teenager with no criminal record — and, as far as we can tell so far, no intent to do anything more dangerous than carrying home a bag of Skittles.
“Florida is the N.R.A. utopia,†said Malte. “Make it as easy as possible to carry a loaded gun in public, virtually anywhere. And then instill the mentality that you can shoot first, ask questions later.â€
The N.R.A. did not respond to my request for comment, although, to be fair, they’ve been having a pretty busy week.
This is big business. The N.R.A. takes in more than $200 million a year, which is a heck of a lot more than it made back in the old days, when its principal activity was running marksmanship classes. A considerable chunk of the cash comes from gun manufacturers and gun sellers. I cannot help but think that this was the constituency its lobbyists had in mind when they recently pushed Virginia to repeal its one-handgun-a-month purchase law. According to a recent poll, two-thirds of the residents of the state liked the law just fine. However, it did pose a considerable hardship for hard-working small businessmen involved in the transport of large quantities of weaponry up the East Coast to drug gangs in Philadelphia and New York City.
But guns-on-campus bills are perhaps the best proof that success is driving the N.R.A. to levels of craziness it never would have contemplated in the past.
Arizona, which has already passed absolutely every other law the anti-gun-violence crowd opposes, is currently considering a bill making it legal to carry guns on the campuses of public colleges and universities. The State Board of Regents estimates that administering it would cost the equivalent of 25 full-time faculty positions a year.
The legislation, which sailed through last time around only to be vetoed by the governor, currently seems to be stalled. If you are a person so intensely optimistic that you find this to be good news, I salute you. Perhaps you should consider a career in the gun control lobbying field.
Since no amount of gun-related tragedy seems sufficient to get state lawmakers to dial back on their firearms-friendly laws, we need to find a different approach, or face a future in which citizens of some states are required to carry a weapon with them at all times except when bathing.
I am thinking that the best solution for all concerned would be a strict national gun-control law that makes it very difficult to get a concealed weapons permit, permits gun dealers to sell only one handgun per individual per year, and makes it illegal for even permit holders to keep handguns anywhere but their home, store or car glove compartment unless they are employed in the security business.
The N.R.A. would have a whole new lease on life, and the donations from the gun industry would come flooding in. Legislators in red states would be kept out of other mischief for a decade, while they devoted their entire careers to passing new gun-friendly laws. And it’s very possible that the purple states would find that they like the new order of things just fine. Everybody wins!
No need to thank me. It’s the least I could do for the school bus drivers.