It's the same in any lingo

בַּת-בָּבֶל, הַשְּׁדוּדָה: אַשְׁרֵי שֶׁיְשַׁלֶּם-לָךְ-- אֶת-גְּמוּלֵךְ, שֶׁגָּמַלְתּ לָנוּ
אַשְׁרֵי שֶׁיֹּאחֵז וְנִפֵּץ אֶת-עֹלָלַיִךְ-- אֶל-הַסָּלַע


How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master's bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately, therefore, it is I who am the victor and not he, for he has failed in getting me to do what he wanted done. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when? ~ Rav Hillel, Pirke Avot

This Red Sea Pedestrian Stands against Judeophobes

This Red Sea Pedestrian Stands against Judeophobes
Wear It With Pride

31 May 2007

The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid

Oh my valve. I take a few weeks off and all hell breaks loose. Where to begin? Ah yes...Gaza.

Poor Fatah and Hamas. They just can't decide who is going to be in charge of killing Israelis (and who will have access to all the yummy money, weapons, and other great stuff you get to be in charge of the Middle East's most popular vacation retreat...sorry Kurdistani Iraq aka the other Iraq). So instead of remembering that the glue that held all the disparate Arab factions together was killing Jews and wiping Israel off the map (an increasingly less valid body politic in world opinion...as long as Hamas is in charge...for some reason it's okay for Fatah to want to wipe out Israel...sorry Mr. Haniyeh...maybe it's your lame haircut). But El Greedo strikes again. Looks like Charles Beard was right: economic motivation really is paramount in man.

So while the world watches these opposing/unopposing factions kill each other I wonder where is the voice of reason saying, "I guess these guys are completely unfit to run their own country. Perhaps we need to cultivate a legitimate political entity in Gaza that is dedicated to building for the Arabs instead of killing Jews." Alas, Jimmy Carter is too busy napping, or back peddling on his criticism of The Shrub (in case you forgot Jimmy...spineless indecisiveness is why you lost to Ronald Reagan in 1980).

While we're in the region let's talk Lebanon. What the hell is that all about? My best guess is that this Fatah Islam group is perhaps some Al Qaida supported entity that Hezbollah doesn't want to see sprout up. Hey, this is their turf. If Osama Burt-Laden is going to move in he's gonna do it over Fat Black Turban Guy's dead body. So Fat Black Turban Guy calls his buddies in the Lebanese government and says, "Have the army bomb the crap out of the Palestinian refugee camp. It'll look like you're fighting terror and stuff." And they also get to kill Palestinians, which Arabs really don't mind doing. They only keep them around for political leverage against Israel anyway. If you don't believe me just ask King Abdullah in Jordan. He'd love to take Dick Cheney quail hunting in the streets of Amman. Too bad his Hashemite clan is in the minority. Sorry Abby baby.

Moving on...it's Global Climate Change...not Greenhouse Effect or Global Warming...Global Climate Change. It does sound sexier doesn't it? Hopefully it's sexy enough for Hollywood to pin a ribbon on their clothes today, and forget about it tomorrow. I think Liz Taylor may be the only star left in Hollywood who still wears a red ribbon, but she has been out of the public eye so long who knows? This is the issue of our times. Let's face it folks; unless we do something to change the direction we're going we're all dead anyway...except for Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitless (can you believe he had to leave his post at the World Bank? Who would have seen that coming), Donald Dumsfeld, and Paris Hilton as they will all be living it up on the moon. Most of you probably don't remember Rummy waxing philosophic over invading the moon during the propaganda spree that preceded the invasion of Iraq.

So the musicians are all going to get together to change the world's climate back to normal just like they ended famine in Africa. Thank god. It would be a shame for people to still be starving in Africa. Instead why don't all these obscenely wealthy idiots buy us all hybrid cars? And stop riding in limos, and producing giant electricity burning rock shows? Remember when loud was enough? Break a leg guys. Let's face it, I'm in it to see the Police and Spinal Tap.

When the hell did I become the voice of reason?

02 May 2007

Ugh! Scrapple!!!

I haven't written lately as I have been preoccupied with falling in love with the most amazing girl. I'm not going to delve any further into my personal life other than to say that she is the butter on my biscuit, the cream in my coffee, the road map in my car, the fire in my cracker, the tube in my tuba...you get the idea. Sometimes the universe lines up and things that are supposed to happen just happen. So Big Cosmic Thing, we owe you an eternal debt of gratitude which we will do our best to pay back with good deeds, peace, and gardening.

And now for something completely different: Pet food. Yes the douches in China have been poisoning pets, and now apparently, humans as well, by adding melamine to wheat gluten, rice protein, chicken feed, and probably a host of other things that we don't even know about yet. Why? Because like anyone trying to make a buck (remember when the commies were all about forsaking capitalism? Oh wait...that only worked in Israel) they are willing to do just about anything to boost sales.

This is actually a subject near and dear to my heart. I have been an animal lover all my life. I currently live with two cats and two dogs. They are my children (let's face it...a dog is like a 5 year old that never grows up), and I refuse to feed them shit in a bag. I admit that I used to though.

I used to feed them Iams. I, like many others, fell for their wholesome image, only to find that Iams is basically shit in a bag. I should have known something was up when my oldest dog refused to eat it after a while. My younger dog will eat anything she can keep down so she's a poor canary in the coalmine. Everything was fine until I found out that Iams was performing all kinds of horrible experiments on animals in their contract labs. But they were busted by PETA (an organization that I wholeheartedly stand against as they advocate the wholesale euthanasia of domestic animals, i.e. dogs and cats, because they feel these animals are better off dead than living with humans...if you don't believe me go to YouTube and watch Penn & Teller's episode of Bullshit on PETA). But Iams was actually one case where PETA got it right, at least in the beginning.

Aside from the moral implications (Iams now uses their own facility to do food testing which the ASPCA claims is non invasive (keep in mind that Iams is a major corporate sponsor of the ASPCA, and as you hopefully know money talks and bullshit walks, so you use your own judgement). But the fact remains that, as far as I'm concerned, Iams is still shit in a bag.

So I did lots of research, and consulted with a friend, who is a self studied expert on dog food and nutrition, and have found a food that the dogs love, and is not made with any of the shit that is causing the recalls. The dogs get Timberwolf Organics, and the cats get Innova. Both are made by independent companies that have reliable sources for all their ingredients.

If you own an animal you should know that there is NO regulation of the pet food industry in the United States. None. Zero. Zilch. The big goose egg. Yes there is AAFCO. But they only set a standard of nutritional requirements. They are not a regulatory body. This is why some pet foods end up with the same chemicals that are used to euthanize horses, dogs and cats. How? Because the shameless profiteers who make the crap that Wal Mart, and others, sell put euthanized animals in their food. I'm not kidding. Do a web search and find out for yourself.

My feeling is that my animals are going to eat the best I can get. If that means I eat Ramen noodles then so be it. But that's just me.

Click on the title of this entry or go to http://www.dogfoodproject.com/ to get the latest on the recall, and to find out about what foods are healthy, and which are shit in a bag.