Veterans vs. Soldiers

There I was minding my own business, just chowing down on a hot dog and a soda, when I look up and see this guy grinding his coffee beans and wearing the the sweatshirt pictured below. As an atheist I am appalled at anything that can be interpreted as violence in the name of religion, whether Muslim jihadists, Jewish zionists or so-called "soldiers for Christ."

As a veteran I am also appalled at these sorts of militant religious people. "Soldiers for Christ" sends the wrong message. First of all, Jesus preached against violence and harm. He was a hippy, peace, love, swords to plows and all of that. 

So, I walked up to the man (after I finished my hot dog), tapped him on the shoulder and asked, "Are you a real veteran?"

He didn't turn around, just looked at me over his shoulder, "No."

"Oh, good," I said and walked away. He didn't argue or follow, nor did he create a scene. I fully expected him to be full of righteous fury but he wasn't. Color me surprised.

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272 Words

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation invited all Americans to submit 272 words in honor of the sixteenth president's famous Gettysburg Address.

To commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Address, on the 19th day of the 11th month of this, our 2013th year, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Museum and Foundation challenge you to participate in an historic project: “272 Words,” wherein people from all walks of life write 272 words in the spirit of the 16th U.S. President. You can write about Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address or a cause which stirs your passions, but remember, in the spirit of Mr. Lincoln, write only 272 words.

 This year I decided to submit 272 words of my own. Keeping in mind we're emulating a speech I wrote my 272 words in a manner characteristic of what I'd like to say to a throng of people. Short, succinct and hopefully pushing the right buttons to make people think. Two hundred and seventy-two words isn't a lot of room to express an idea with enough conviction to have an impact upon the listeners, or in the case, the readers. Hopefully mine carries some of the same resolution our former president's carried all those decades ago:

How do we talk about the United States today? The land of the free? Of opportunity? As a shining example of rule of secular law?

There was a dream once -- a promise made to each and every person born to this nation: you are exempt from the tyranny sweeping through other nations. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is yours for no other reason than you were born to, or came to these shores yearning to be free. That promise was penned in ink and confirmed by thirty-nine men. The freedom to speak your mind without retaliation; to hold on to your religion against another’s will; to report on the government and others -- all are inalienable rights. There are more, the right to privacy, to petition the government and to be secure in your belongings. And there are more.

Yet these rights -- this covenant -- has gradually been eroded over time. We’ve seen speech by individuals restricted, while speech by corporate interests expanded; the majority religion imposed on the minority; the press harassed and hounded for not toeing the acceptable line.

Abraham Lincoln once declared all men are created equal. We believe this to be true at the polls demonstrated by ‘one man, one vote,’ but this has not been the truth in society where well funded interests are trying to take away equal rights from the gay population, from the disenfranchised, from those who don’t participate in the majority religion.

Two months and two-hundred and thirty years ago thirty-nine men signed a piece of paper creating a vision come to life. We have repeatedly failed them.

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Google NOW has New Commands!

Since this handy-dandy infograph has already been shared all over the interwebz, I don't feel like my posting it is special anymore. However, I did take the time and effort to copy and past the link to this image so I'm going to publish this anyway.

Why?

Why not?

I present unto thee, Google NOW commands!


Google Now voice commands by trendblog.net

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Bred to Be Hated and Feared

Earlier today I received a normal weekly correspondence from the local city council person for the area in which I live. Every week he sends out a missive about what he feels is an important issue before the council, letting us all know about social and educational events in the city and occasionally tidbits of trivia or a joke.

This week's email reads in part:

In My Opinion

With the recent attention received regarding a Pit Bull that was traveling through Aurora being taken to it's new home in New Jersey, and while it was here it attacked another dog in a park, the breed specific legislation in our City is again being challenged. Since it has come to light again, opponents of our ordinance are contacting elected officials in the City hoping to convince us to reconsider our positions on not allowing certain breeds of dog in the City limits. This week I have received no less than half a dozen emails from people asking me to consider support of lifting the BSL (so far, none from Aurora residents).

An Op-Ed appeared in the Aurora Sentinel yesterday regarding this topic. And while it doesn't happen often, I happen to agree with this one:

http://www.aurorasentinel.com/opinion/perry-aurora-shouldnt-bite-foolish-push-let-pit-bulls-back-city/

I am certainly not a dog expert. But I do know that many breeds of dogs have very specific traits inbred that have very real possibilities of showing up...who knows when or why.

Years ago, I had a German Wirehaired Pointer that I rescued at the Denver Dumb Friends League when she was a puppy. She was part of our family for years, but was never the bird-hunter her ancestors were bred for.  She could pass within feet of a bird, out in the open or in a bush, and not even care that it was there. But every once in awhile, for no discernible rhyme or reason, she would stop shock still with her nose level, ears up, tail straight out and right front leg lifted staring at a bush. She would wait for me to give her the okay to chase the bird out of the bush. I never taught her to do that...I wouldn't even know how to. But her wiring was preset to be a bird dog, and even though she had not been taught to do so, she instinctively knew the steps.

I believe the same prewiring is true of many breeds of dog. This is one reason I will continue to support our BSL policy in the City of Aurora.

But the main reason by far is that of the nearly 100 people I have personally spoke with on this issue, who live IN Aurora, and who live IN Ward V, only a small handful so far have asked me to support lifting the ordinance. The vast majority have made it clear that they do not want this ordinance changed.

I am no fan of breed specific legislation or bans, just as I am no fan of gender specific legislation, race specific legislation or and other legislation that singles out a subset or group for no reason other than fear or ignorance (which, in my opinion, is a vast majority of legislation that targets a subset of a group).

And, since I prefer fact, reason and objectivity over fearmongering and hysteria, I wrote a rebuttal:

First and foremost, I am a dog owner. I do not own a pit bull-style breed, but a good ol’ fashioned American mutt. He may or may not have some of a couple breeds in him: Australian Shepherd, Border Collie, A. Cattle Dog, some sort of setter (English, Gordon) or some breed of spaniel.

He is a killer.

Chasing the Duck

With a handful of bunnies, squirrels and birds who have fallen prey to his teeth, Rufus is indeed a killer, as all dogs have the potential to be one. In fact, any creature on this planet with canine teeth has the potential to be a killer, including humans.

Recently, Aurora’s “pit bull” ban has come to light again. A “pit bull” named Stallone, a “pit bull” that had a history of being abused by other dogs in dog fighting arenas. As a bait dog, Stallone would have subject to disfigurement, torment and constantly in fear of his life on a regular basis. He would have been bitten, left bleeding and possibly to die over and over again, in the name of sport for a handful of spectators. He would have had no choice in the matter, he would have had no way out, no quitting and only retiring when he was considered to be useless as bait dog.

Stallone was stolen from his family in Arizona. The thieves then filed down his teeth, hobbled his legs and forced him into the fighting ring as bait. When they had no more use for the dog they threw him from a car. ~

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/11/07/attorney-fights-to-save-pit-bulls-life/

When Stallone was brought to a local area dog park he attacked at dachshund, possibly having a flashback to his time as a bait dog upon seeing another dog running for him. We see this sort of behavior all the time with victims of PTSD who lash out physically when society would advise most people to walk away or ignore a situation.

Whether anyone wants to believe “pit bulls” are inherently vicious dogs is up to them, but while many of us are predestined to certain traits (intelligence, physical acuity, music ability or even math) many more of our traits are learned, some from the culture in which we were raised, others from training and education and still others from adapting to new situations. We’re all products of our environment.

Even dogs. Even “pit bulls” are products of their upbringing, wherein one, raised by a loving family, can be submissive and congenial while another from the same litter but raised by different people can be vicious and terrifying.

People v. Riddle, 258 Ill. App. 3d 253, 630 N.E.

2d 141 (Ill. App. Ct. 2d Dist. 1994), stated,

“merely applying the label ‘pit bull’ to a dog does little to describe it and provides no

basis for determining whether it is dangerous... we cannot malign a breed of dogs on the

basis of rumor and hysteria”. Id.

Furthermore, the court added,  

“vicious dogs shall not be classified in a manner that is specific as to breed. Our

legislature chose not to accede to the stereotypes the State urges here. In Illinois, each

dog is to be evaluated individually and is not to be classified as "vicious" merely because

of its breed or type.” Riddle at 260-261. ~

http://www.lclark.edu/live/files/7623-2011-teamtwentybrief

Targeting a breed, or a breadth of breeds, based on appearance or stereotypes is no different than targeting people of races not Caucasian, the bald, the tattoo’d or the biker in his leather jacket.

There are still people out there who would claim that African-Americans are inherently violent, who would claim that Hispanics are inherently lazy or unethical, or who would claim gays are inherently immoral.

We know none of these claims to be any more true than single women with a cat are witches waiting for the right moment to steal our children.

On a daily basis we are surrounded by lies and half-truths, facts slanted or spun  to favor our preconceived notions. Supposedly, as an enlightened generation, we rely on facts over fiction, reason over superstition and observation over stereotyping.

I am no fan of “pit bull” style breeds just as I am no fan of Huskies, Chihuahuas, larger breeds or smaller breeds. It’s a personal preference. Just as choosing to love “pit bull” breeds is a personal preference for others.

The Aurora Sentinel’s opinion piece about Stallone cited the proverbial statistics, without actually providing a single statistic in support of his argument:

That’s for a good reason. As clear as the statistics are showing that the majority of deadly dog bites in this country come from just a few breeds, including and especially pit bulls, it’s even clearer that pit-bull biters will bite again. ~ http://www.aurorasentinel.com/opinion/perry-aurora-shouldnt-bite-foolish-push-let-pit-bulls-back-city/#sthash.p88Qx7mw.dpuf

However, the American Humane Association states that breed specific legislation does not reduce or prevent dog attacks.  ~ http://www.americanhumane.org/animals/stop-animal-abuse/fact-sheets/breed-specific-legislation.html

A Center for Disease Control study also does not support breed specific legislation, supporting instead legislation holding dog owners more accountable for the actions of their dogs and suggesting programs that encourage people to socialize their pets properly. ~ http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/images/dogbreeds-a.pdf (pg 5)

The National Canine Research Council also questions the validity and success of breed specific legislation:

Q. Does BSL reduce dog bites?

No. BSL has not succeeded in reducing dog bite-related injuries wherever in the world it has been enacted.

• An analysis published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association explains why BSL does not reduce serious dog bites. The authors calculated the absurdly large numbers of dogs of targeted breeds who would have to be completely removed from a community in order to prevent even one serious dog bite-related injury. For example, in order to prevent a single hospitalization resulting from a dog bite, the authors calculate that a city or town would have to remove more than 100,000 dogs of a targeted group. To prevent a second hospitalization, double that number.[4]

• Denver, CO enacted a breed ban in 1989. Citizens of Denver continue to suffer a higher rate of  hospitalization from dog bite-related injuries after the ban, than the citizens of breed-neutral Colorado  counties.[5]

• A study published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior (2007), compared medically treated dog bites in  Aragon, Spain for 5 years prior to and following enactment of Spain’s “Law on the legal treatment of the  possession of dangerous animals” (sometimes referred to Spain’s Dangerous Animal Act) (2000). The results  showed no significant effect in dog bite incidences when comparing before and after enactment of the BSL.[6]

• The Netherlands repealed a 15-year-old breed ban in 2008 after commissioning a study of its effectiveness.  The study revealed that BSL was not a successful dog-bite mitigation strategy because it had not resulted in  a decrease in dog bites. [7]

• The Province of Ontario in Canada enacted a breed ban in 2005. In 2010, based on a survey of municipalities across the Province, the Toronto Humane Society reported that, despite five years of BSL and  the destruction of "countless" dogs, there had been no significant decrease in the number of dog bites.[8]

• Winnipeg, Manitoba enacted a breed ban in 1990. Winnipeg’s rate of dog bite-injury hospitalizations is  virtually unchanged from that day to this, and remains significantly higher than the rate in breed-neutral,  responsible pet ownership Calgary[9] ~

http://www.nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/dog-legislation/breed-specific-legislation-bsl-faq

Do “pit bulls” bite? Absolutely. So do Cairn Terriers, Great Danes, Golden Retrievers and St. Bernards. In fact, dogs bite. All of them. There is no question that dogs bite. Cats bite, as well. So do horses, mice and the occasional snake. Even human beings bite. Without fingers and thumbs most animals’ only defensive tool is to bite it’s tormentor. Sometimes that’s another dog, sometimes it’s another animal and sometimes it’s a human being.

Is it the dog’s fault the human being tormented it, tortured it or otherwise hurt it? Is it the dog’s fault it is a product of it’s environment, an environment created by human beings? Even a study published by the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center cites the human beings, the dog owners, who are creating environments of that nurture dogs into aggressive animals when they might otherwise be docile family pets:

Categories of criminal convictions examined were aggressive crimes, drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, crimes involving children, firearm convictions, and major and minor traffic citations. Owners of cited high-risk ("vicious") dogs had significantly more criminal convictions than owners of licensed low-risk dogs. Findings suggest that the ownership of a high-risk ("vicious") dog can be a significant marker for general deviance and should be an element considered when assessing risk for child endangerment. ~

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17065657

Let us not look at a breed or subset of a group with eyes and minds tinted with fearmongering and hysteria. Instead, let’s look at the root cause of this problem and address the cause not the symptom.

My dog, Rufus, has rid the city of birds, squirrels and bunnies. He is, without a doubt, a killer. Does the city wish to ban his anonymous breed because he has the 'taste of blood?"

Getting My Bed Dirty

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Dead DV6

The worst part about having ideas to write about is not having the ability to write them down. Last week, without notice, my laptop died on me. Allow me to explain:

I was actively using my laptop one morning last week. Using as normal: social networking, job hunting, etc. You know, nothing out of the ordinary. This went on for about two hours when I decided it was time to take the dogs to the dog park.

Sometimes we head over to the dog park mid-afternoon and sometimes mid-morning. A couple of weeks ago I met a really pretty very intelligent girl during one of our mid-morning jaunts and a few days later ran across her again at roughly the same time. So, naturally, I've been heading over there at roughly the same time. Mid-morning.

I set the laptop down on the ottoman (on the cooling tray it rarely ever leaves) and let MS Windows naturally fall into hibernation mode while I was away.

A couple of hours later I return. The laptop is still sitting where I left it, the fan is running, as it is wont to do, the screen is dark and the LEDs are on and blinking. All was normal.

After lunch I decided to wake the computer up and get some NaNoWriMo writing done. Nothing. Hmm... So, I force a reset by holding the power button down until the laptop shuts down -- a few seconds later I hit the button to fire it back up.

Instead of seeing the "Windows Was Shut Down Incorrectly Screen" I see... nothing. Nothing at all. The fan fires up, the LEDs are alll working, but nothing appears on the screen. So, I shut it down again and pull the battery, just to make sure any caches holding onto data are wiped.

I replace the battery and push the power button. Nothing. Or rather, the same as before: LEDs, fan, nothing on the screen, not even the "Press F-whatever to enter BIOS" screen comes up.

Okay, then. I call my friend who works in IT and she says it sounds like the graphics chip.  She suggests I plug in an external monitor and try again.

No difference.

I post the symptoms online:

And Nate Taylor also suggests it's the video card.

The next day, or was it a day later, I take it up to Nate's shop for a re-seating of the video chip. After a little more than an hour the laptop is back together, plugged in and ... nothing.

Argh!

First, this was an expensive laptop and second, it's still technology relevant. That is, it can still run all the programs, has all the latest and greatest technologies built in and aside from having a touch screen is still a contemporary machine. There is no reason to replace it, especially considering I don't have to the money to replace it right now.

To the Internet!

A quick search of eBay shows a replacement motherboard at about $100. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Okay, not too shabby. $100 is definitely better than replacing the laptop with a like spec'd machine. But everything on eBay was used. But could they guarantee it was good? Not to mention eBay's policies are atrocious for returns and/or complaints.

So, I ask my friend in IT again. Do you know a better place to look for laptop motherboards? She comes back with a link from Amazon.

Fantastic! I have a DV6-3000 laptop and the price is so much better than eBay! However, the item doesn't indicate NEW, USED or Refurbished and the seller isn't responding to questions in a timely manner.

Before I go to order the board I do some more research, is this the right motherboard? Seems I'm not the only person with this question.

However, the question is never truly answered.

I check the HP Manual for the DV6-3000 and then the Parts Guide for HP products. Nothing says this 

632103-003 motherboard will work properly. 

I'd already been a week without my laptop. Writing isn't getting done, photos aren't getting edited and I'm bored. So, I go ahead and buy the one for sale on Amazon using gift cards bequeathed to me by family for birthdays and holidays.  

Supposedly, it will arrive between the 18th and the 21st of this month, so here's to fingers being crossed and it working as advertised.

Anywho, if you're curious as to why I'm not writing more, that's why. Right now I'm typing away on my 5 year old Asus netbook EeePC, which doesn't have the processing power to do much of anything other than the most basic of web surfing.

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Lappy Toppy Broke-y

Terrible news! Not only am I going to lose very valuable time with NaNoWriMo, but photos, photo-editing and a host of other things.

Hopefully, +Nate Taylor's offer solves my problems.

In the meantime I have my Note II (to keep me connected) and my old +ASUS netbook with limited computing power for everything else. I can blog, but there's not enough power to edit 20mpx images or to run numerous programs at once, Hangout or even watch HD videos on Youtube. Heck, even running numerous tabs in +Google Chrome bogs it down.

Here's to crossed fingers.

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I Saved a Shark's LIfe

It was a dark and stormy night... No, not really, but it was dark outside and I did have the TV's volume up a good notch while I sat on the couch and edited pictures on the computer. The dogs were asleep, Charlie on the other end of the couch and Rufus presumably on my bed.

Then I hear it... beep. Huh, what?

A few moments later ... beep.

Great. One of the smoke detectors is giving off it's low battery beep.

Beep.

I let it beep a few more times before finally getting my fat butt off the couch and figuring out which one is beeping and as it turned out it's the one in my roommate's bedroom.

Fantastic. She's out of town and now I have to go into her room and change out her smoke detector battery before I go to bed as the beep, as quiet as it is, is indeed loud enough to keep me awake at night. Especially with her bedroom door open and mine as well (since she's out of town)

I find a 9volt battery in a drawer and set it on the counter waiting for the DVD I was watching to finish. Yes, I could have paused it, but why? The beep was annoying, not super loud.

Suddenly, out of the blue a hear something move in the kitchen. I mean a real movement, not just a normal kitchen noise like the ice maker turning on or a drip, drip, dripping from the faucet or something else common place. Whatever it was that I heard was loud enough to wake both dogs and even cause Rufus to come out of my bedroom to see what was happening.

The first thing I did was send a chat message to my roommate who's out of town, letting her know that there's a weird noise in the kitchen. It's a running joke in the house that we have a ghost living here and anytime there's a weird noise or a flickering light bulb we jokingly blame it on the imaginary ghost.

"Something in the kitchen just moved and it's own. I mean, Charlie jumped and Rufus came of the room to see what the noise was." ~ Me, 18:50

She replied with a joke about the 'demon' doing dishes for us.

When the movie was finally over I set the laptop down and head over towards her bedroom, grabbing the battery along the way.  I step into her room, turn off the ceiling fan and look at the alarm. It should be easy enough to change the battery and I step back into the dining room to grab a chair real quick. As I step up to the table I see what looks like a fish shaped dog toy on the ground underneath the chair I'm about to pull away.

Fish Out of Water

That's weird, the toy didn't look familiar. I look again and see that it's not actually a toy, it's one of the two sharks in the fish tank. You see, right there on the bar between the kitchen and the dining room my roommate placed a fish tank a few years ago. It's still there. A year ago, or so, one of the silver dollar fish jumped out and landed on the kitchen counter, suffocating slowly until it was found hours later by my roommate.

This time, however, the fish made it from about 5 feet high (the top of the tank) and onto the floor, probably bouncing off the table or the chair on it's way down to land where it did. If that was the noise I heard earlier, then that means it's been out of the tank for at least an hour.

I reach down to pick it up only to have to swat Rufus away in the process to prevent him from treating it like a snack. As soon as I touch the 6 inch shark it jumped.

Was that a death throe? A spasm? Nerves reacting?

I reach for the fish again and this time it doesn't move. It's eyes aren't moving, it's gills aren't moving and it's dry. Limp, but dry.

As I walk it around to the garbage can I pull out my cell phone and call my roommate to let her know her black shark is dead. The other end rings as I step on the lever that opens the can's lid and she answers as I'm about to drop the shark. I stop and explain what happened, "Remember when I sent you that message about a noise in the kitchen? Well, I figured out it was your shark. Somehow it jumped out of the tank and landed underneath the table."

She's not happy and I'm about to drop the shark when it starts squirming and slips out of my hand falling straight into the garbage can, sliding between a couple of things and down into the bag. Crap.

"Well, I thought it was dead, but it just moved and fell into the can," I explained the current situation.

"Can you get it out and put it in water?"

"Maybe. It slipped down into the can."

I had to fish around (he he, see what I did there?) up to my elbow, until I was able to grab the shark and pull it out of the garbage can. The shark's skin was covered in garbage, dog fur and other things I didn't want coming off in the fish tank so I quickly filled a Big Gulp cup I normally use for filling the dogs' water bowl and set the shark in there to rinse of for a few minutes.Without a lot of room to move, the shark sat there, face down, as the dog fur and a piece of lettuce separated from his skin. When I deemed him clean enough I dumped most of the dirty water out into the sink and then slid the shark out into the aquarium.

It sank. To the bottom. Like a rock. A real rock, not a Chevy truck, although I'm sure a Chevy truck would sink to the bottom as well.

For a second I thought it really was dead and I was just dealing with nerve system reactions when I noticed it's gills were moving. And then an eye. I watched for a few moments more and then the shark shook. It was upside down at this point, but moving. I thought about reaching in and adjusting his body right-side up, but before I could his whole body shifted like a shark does when it's swimming. It was still upside down, but it was moving. And then it righted itself.

Nemo Was a Sissy

This entire time I'm giving a verbal account to my roommate over the phone (hence the lack of pictures) and she let's me know she'd be surprised if the shark lasted through the night.

The shark swam around the tank a couple of times, still a little dirty from the adventure in the garbage can, and I leave to replace the 9volt in my roommate's bedroom.

A few hours later I check on it before heading off to bed and it seems fine. The following morning it was swimming around like nothing was wrong.

Amazing.

Black Shark Swimming with Albino Shark, the Next Day

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