Stonepounder
Stonepounder's JournalJust a story of me and my dogs.
I don't know whether I believe in God, or Karma, or Fate, or anything else. But sometimes stuff happens that I find somewhat inexplicable.
About 16 years ago we decided that we wanted a dog. We did a lot of research to try and find the right breed for us. Everything we found pointed us to Cavalier King Charles spaniels. So, after searching we found someone who seemed to be the perfect breeder and got our first Cavvie. We named him Sancho (after Sancho Panza, Don Quixote's faithful companion). He became our heart dog. As time went by we managed to acquire a couple more Cavvies. When Sancho was 8 he passed away in October, with absolutely no warning. We were in Pendleton, Ore at the time to celebrate my dad's 90th birthday. We had chosen to drive so that we could bring our dogs with us. Sancho's death devastated us and the drive home is still a blur. The house seemed wrong without Sancho in it. We talked about it and decided we needed a new dog but would wait until after the holidays.
A few days later (actually late at night after the Mrs. had already gone to bed) I was idley wandering the internet and stumbled across an ad for a Cavalier puppy. Somehow the ad called to me and I bookmarked it to show the Mrs. The next morning, my wife being an earlier riser than I am was already up when I wandered out. She said to me "Look what I found" and showed me an ad she had stumbled across for a Cavalier puppy. It was the same ad. I don't know her we both found the exact same ad, but the next day Bennie became ours.
Flash forward to Feb. 2018 when we had to have our Dulcinea sent to the bridge. We had taken in for a routine dental and the vet found an inoperable cancerous tumor in the back of her throat. While Scancho had been 'our' dog, Bennie somehow became 'my' dog and Dulcinea had become 'her' dog. Again we decided to wait some time before we thought about getting a dog to fill the hole that Dulci had left in our hearts. This time it was 'Pet Finder' that that sent me an email with a puppy that we fell in love with immediately. And Bella came into our lives. Again, we hadn't gone looking for a new dog, but a new one somehow showed up.
Two weeks ago we had to let our Maggie go. Again, we weren't looking to immediately get a new dog. I was browsing Facebook the other night and a Reputable rescue organization was looking to rehome a Cavvie who was being fostered only about 100 from us.. However, when I looked closer, this one was already 9 years old and had health issues. We already have two diabetic dogs and the thought of taking in another old dog with medical issues was not what we were looking. Just out of curiosity I check the web site of the Rescue org that I volunteer for. Imagine my amazement when I found a pedigreed 8-month old Cavalier puppy looking for a furever home the same 100 miles from us. So, today Beau, a frisky tri joined our family.
All I want to know is how is it that we have needed a dog to add to our family, regardless of the amount of time we think we need before we start looking, we never have to look, somehow the right dog is offered to us, the exact dog we have been looking for.
(And just for the record Beau rode the two hours home with us with no problem, politely introduced himself to our existing dogs and seem totally at home with no problems leaving his foster home and coming into a new family. And also for the record, Bella is not quite a year and a half and Beau is 9 months and they seem to be getting along great.)
Like I said at the beginning, I'm not sure what agency is providing these wonderful pups, but we must be doing something right and I am thankful to that agency.)
Found a great tweet re: William Barr
https://twitter.com/jwgop/status/1118876182693519360For those of you who can't see the tweet:
John Weaver @jwgop:
What a fucking embarrassment to the rule of law in this country. William Barr has decided he is 1/2 Roy Cohn and 1/2 Sarah Sanders.
Trump offered to pardon Homeland Security head if law broken while closing border
Trump offered to pardon Homeland Security head if law broken while closing border.
If this turns out to be true, then Congress might want to take a look at the following section of the U.S. Code:
18 U.S. Code § 2. Principals
U.S. Code
(a) Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.
(b) Whoever willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be an offense against the United States, is punishable as a principal.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 684; Oct. 31, 1951, ch. 655, § 17b, 65 Stat. 717.)
Netanyahu says Trump named Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group at his request
https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-israel-netanyahu-iran-revolutionary-guard-election-20190408-story.htmlNetanyahu says Trump named Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group at his request
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing a hotly contested bid for a fourth term, tweeted on the eve of the election that the Trump administration designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization at his request.
“Thank you, my dear friend, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, for having decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization,” he wrote in Hebrew on Twitter on Monday. “Thank you for responding to another of my important requests, which serves the interests of our countries and countries of the region.”
His English-language thank you note posted later omitted taking credit, but said of Trump, “Once again you are keeping the world safe from Iran aggression and terrorism.”
In Israel, the move by the Trump administration is being viewed by some as an election eve gift to Netanyahu.
Found on Facebook: "Watch how a republic dies"
"In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and and say, "And we shall overcome." I saw Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over. I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh's madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing 'Amazing Grace' in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
"These were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men. They were not perfect presidents, god knows. Not one of them was that. But they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate to the job. They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.
"And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.
"The scion of a multigenerational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides. We never have had such a cheap counterfeit of a president* as currently occupies the office. We never have had a president* so completely deserving of scorn and yet so small in the office that it almost seems a waste of time and energy to summon up the requisite contempt.
"Watch how a republic dies in the empty eyes of an empty man who feels nothing but his own imaginary greatness, and who cannot find in himself the decency simply to shut up even when it is in his best interest to do so. Presidents don't have to be heroes to be good presidents. They just have to realize that their humanity is our common humanity, and that their political commonwealth is our political commonwealth, too.
Watch him behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn't he a funny man? Isn't what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now."
- Charles Pierce
-Posted by a friend, reposted by permission.
Mayor Pete's answer about being in the military.
Found this on Facebook with the notation "please feel free to copy or share":
Pete Buttigieg got this question from CNN's Jake Tapper: "If elected President, you would have the most military experience of a commander-in-chief since George H.W. Bush, who fought in WWII. Barack Obama didn't have any military experience. Does it matter? It's certainly an important part of your biography, and we honor it, but does it matter as a part of your resume for President that you serve?"
Pete: "I think so. I don't mean to say that you have to have served in the military to be eligible to run, but I do think that it brings a lot of perspective. First of all, again, you can never lose touch with why politics matters, with why it matters who's sitting at that desk. When you have had the experience of writing a letter and then putting it in an envelope marked 'just in case', and putting it where you know your family can find it, and packing your bags and leaving, you have a sense of the gravity and the weight of the decisions that are made in the White House. But there's something else about serving that I think the generation of George HW Bush and JFK experienced, which is that it brings you together with other Americans. When I got into the vehicle - a big part of my job was just driving and guarding vehicles on movements around Kabul, or occasionally between Kabul and Bagram. You know, when somebody got in my car, my vehicle, they didn't care whether I was a Republican or a Democrat, they didn't care if I was going home to a girlfriend or a boyfriend. They wanted to know if I was doing my job well and if I could keep them safe, and we learned to trust each other with our lives, even though our politics and our lives back home were so different. And I think we need to get back to that. It shouldn't require going to war to get that. But one reason I'm a big believer in expanding opportunities for national service is that we need more common experiences, in this world that's divvied up into Twittersphere bubbles and ideological echo chambers, we need more of those experiences that can bring us together even when we have nothing in common except the fact that we're American."
For those of you interested watching nice pet stories on Netflix.
Stumbled across a 1 Season series call "Save Our Shelter". Is sponsored by PetSmart Charities and with an assist from Bissel. Two guys going around the country to privately run animal shelters and giving them a makeover to make them look more professional.
Nothing extra special except for videos of people running shelters out of their homes (usually) who dedicate a huge amount to their time trying to save dogs and cats and then trying to find them forever homes. Just nice stories. No commercials per se, but you will hear that PetSmart Charities is sponsoring the show and putting up funds for the rehabs.
Watching a few episodes on a lazy afternoon is a feel good, relaxing way to spend some time.
Trump Considering Pulling U.S. Out of Constitution (Borowitz satire - or maybe not)
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-considering-pulling-us-out-of-constitutionTrump Considering Pulling U.S. Out of Constitution
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Calling it “maybe the worst deal ever,” Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that he is considering pulling the United States out of the United States Constitution.
“I’ve seen a lot of bad deals in my life, but this Constitution is a total mess,” he said. “We need to tear it up and start over.”
Trump was scathing in his remarks about the two-hundred-and-twenty-nine-year-old document, singling out for special scorn its insistence on three branches of government. “The branches thing is maybe the worst part of this deal,” he said. “The first thing we do when we pull out of the Constitution is get rid of two of those branches.”
He also called the First Amendment “something that really has to go.” “No one in his right mind would put something like that in a Constitution,” he said. “Russia doesn’t have it. North Korea doesn’t have it. All the best countries don’t have it.”
........
This was an unusually long Borowitz. There are two more full paragraphs at the link.
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Member since: Sun Jun 27, 2010, 10:05 PMNumber of posts: 4,033
