The Michael Bellesiles saga continues. The Chronicle of Higher Education (which first printed the latest Bellesiles baloney) investigated and discovered (no surprise) that the tale of the sad student and his soldier brother is false. But it’s the student’s fault. Um … aren’t historians responsible for checking their “facts”? I mean, isn’t that what they supposedly do for a living? And that tale Bellesiles retailed to the gullible was so obviously too good to be true. It just begged for the half hour it would have required to check it. (Tip o’ hat once again to J.F.) Kudos to jellydonut…
Category: Dogs and (grudgingly) cats
No description needed. Dogs are life. Cats are also necessary on the Internet.
Pat was the first commenter to notice: They caught Colton Harris-Moore yesterday. At least the Bahamian cops had the presence of mind and decency not to shoot him. (I expect most U.S. police would simply have blown him away, under the circumstances.) That boy. Neither monster nor hero. But oh, what a story! Might be silly, but I’m proud to have had a small connection to his adventures. (Yes, it’s a tenuous connection, I admit. But there’s a tad more to it than I’m at liberty to tell right now.) Interested in paleo/primal nutrition and exercise? Free the Animal may…
An 11-pound hero. (Thank you, S&L, for the news.) Another great dog story. Okay. Equal time for cats. This is not only amazing cat news, but the implications for severely injured humans are pretty awesome, too. Gold. Yes, it’s likely to end up as a bubble. But in the meantime, take a look at that chart. Besides, the Dow really could go to 5,000. Are any actual humans investing in stocks any more? Or is it all just banks and computers? “A Sermon on Ethics and Love.” (Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!) Tip o’ hat to C2 for this and…
… and some more miscellany. The confession The astute among you who’ve followed my links to Joel Simon’s blog, The Ultimate Answer to Kings, have noticed, shall we say, a few similarities between Joel’s life and mine. I think it’s time to reveal the secret. No, I am not Joel Simon. I have more hair and I’d look just awful in that beard, not to mention that Jayne Cobb cunning hat. But I am the neighbor Joel refers to as W. or Uncle W. — and I suspect his attempt to turn me into a person of the male persuasion…
Great story of the week: Homeless man rescues hopeless dog. Via Rational Review News, top honors go to a Forest Ranger who sounds like he deserves them. “Democracy breeds gullibility.” Which breeds worse. Dudeism! Now there’s a religion I could get behind. If I weren’t too busy swinging in a hammock in the shade. Sipping a Margarita. Tip o’ hat to Pirate King Lufty at The Mental Militia Forums. Long before I ever heard the terms “paleo diet,” “caveman diet,” “neanderthal diet,” or “pirmal diet” my food intake had been moving in that direction. My body simply told me (after…
Found this picture on a rather cool stock photo site. The photos at Stock.XCHNG are free for most uses (with a very few money-making exceptions) and despite the suspiciously flaky URL (.hu?), the site is owned by reliable old Getty Images. The catch is that they’re amateur photos uploaded by people simply giving their work to the world. That’s cool. But it also means that if you search on “dog” or “cat” you’ll get 50 pages of mostly undistinguished snapshots (albeit in glorious high-resolution) of people’s pets sleeping, grinning, or gazing soulfully up at the camera. Still, sometimes the old…
Got this note last night from my beloved former veterinarian up in the Pacific Northwest: I thought this may make you smile. I had a visit … from an outlaw last night. Someone left a note attached to a $100.00 bill shoved in the front door of the clinic. The note said, “I had some extra cash while passing through, please use it to care for an animal in need.” It was signed “Colton Harris-Moore AKA the barefoot bandit.” [My receptionist] found it and was busy trying to figure out which client left it when I came in. After reading…
I know this is last week’s news and it’s already gotten a fair bit of circulation. But I think it’s worth a second read. Or a third: “Warning: Crash dead ahead. Sell. Get liquid. Now.” Paul B. Ferrell. I know that much doom-gloom needs to be taken with a healthy sprinkling of salt. But you do gotta wonder when we’re finally going to teeter over this brink we’ve been wobbling on. “The part of me the Watchers couldn’t see.” Encouraging. And apropos of nothing except a coincidence of wording (and some evils of government), I’m currently re-reading one of my…
One year ago today, a man named Ian Tomlinson was attacked by police. He died minutes later. They tried to cover it up, of course. Most Americans have probably never heard of Tomlinson. Let’s just say our country has no monopoly on armed thugs roaming the street in uniform. Tip o’ the hat to Jim Bovard for this lovely interactive map that shows current rates of return for census forms. Good going, Texas! Some of your counties have rates as low as 19%. Interesting that basically the whole southern tier of states is balking at the snoopery. (To see your…
8:00 this morning. A polite “knock” on our hotel room door. Okay, more like a polite scratch, repeated when we failed to respond. When we opened the door, in strolled one of our new friends: We’ve met this girl previously in the hotel lobby, where she and her much older companion, a lab, reign in pampered splendor. Rotties seem to be the most popular local breed. We offered doggie delicacies. Like nearly all the pets in these parts, she was deeply suspicious of cheese. She finally took a slice, but spat it back out. (My dogs back home would be…