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Post-Fourth News

Well, I hope everyone had a Happy Fourth of July. I pleasantly spent my National Natal celebrations in the quiet air-conditioning while my Moms braved the sun and humidity at the Festival for the Eno. (They apparently had a good time, but I don't know how that could be.)

Yesterday, John Kerry announced his decision to have Sen. John Edwards as his running mate. Sen. Edwards is from our blessed state so the tail feathers are all a'rufflin' down here - muds a'startin' to fly. I am trying to do the research now as to whether or not I approve of him, but as of now, I cannot seem to find any reference to a family pet. I'm probably going to have to break down and read his new book (a biography titled "Four Trials"). 'Til I get that information, I will remain tentatively supportive of the Kerry-Edwards campaign for Cym's sake. My Moms will probably support them because of some sort of loyalty to the "issues" and their desire to get the Little Dictator (and his 'boss' Pres. Bush) out of office.

Apart from Iraq, the upcoming elections, AIDS case upticks, and the Tour, the news story in today's paper that most closely struck home was one from Southport,NC where 17 cats were mauled to death by two unrestrained pit bulls. Reading about how a careless pet custodian led to the deaths of those poor little guys, I was brought to tears (and you know how hard it is for German Shepards to cry). Apparently, she had just let them out to relieve themselves and the dogs got into the shelter where the cats lived, killed them, then went to sleep. The irony (if that's an appropriate use of the word 'irony') is that they were living in a "no-kill" animal shelter, already seemingly protected because other careless humans that discarded them or been lazy about spaying or neutering their parents. To make matters worse, when the shelter officials held the dogs for authorities, a "friend" of the pitbulls' person went over to the shelter and demanded they be released immediately or he'd come back, kill all the other animals, and burn the place down.

The Southpark/Oak Island Animal Rescue (SOAR) has posted pictures of the slain cats in memorandum and have mentioned that folks are sending their condolences from all over the world. The dog owner has been fined, as has the "friend". I, of course, am glad they didn't put the dogs down (as they most likely would have if the cats had been 17 human babies) because the dogs really couldn't know better, but I would have liked the dog owner to have see real jail time and a fine that really hurt (more than the $500).

Dogs like that give us all a bad name. Maybe when Cym is First Dog he'll do something about that.

More for Cym

Teresa Heinz Kerry from CBS Article

"I'd like to be a dog... Do you know why? Wouldn't you like to be a dog? I would. Dogs are friendly."

Not that this technically has anything to do with how well John Kerry would lead. But still...



The All-Knowing Sydney