Random Animal Videos

Everyone thinks I'm insane - and apparently the city does too (some random piece on NPR today about raising the cat limit in the city from 3 to 5. 5?! Psssht, I have 8) - but I like cats. All animals, really, make me happy.
Old lady at ATL's work sent this video around today and it was highly amusing.

This is me, and even Tarzan - who claims to hate all animals, especially ours - laughed.

Despite Her Inadequacy

I listen to Fresh Air because it's on NPR and I'm often driving in the evening hours. I do not listen because I like Terry Gross, because I don't. She is terrible at interviewing people. Her questions are awkward and lengthy and she often tells so much of the answer in the question that the interviewer's only response is "yes, I know."
However, really cool people come on the show.
Tonight I felt really special knowing who Allie Brosh of Hyperbole And A Half was. I've read her stuff and I find her extremely intelligent and well read...(What does one call a person who writes well?) I love her cartoons and I think she's very courageous to put it all out there. It was interesting to hear her interview and think "she doesn't sound like that when I read her blog" and then by the end of the interview, wonder how I could have ever thought she sounded any other way.

This is me knowing someone cool.

You Know...Prison

Apparently there is a hunger strike going on in one of the state maximum security prisons. It's been All. Over. The. News. lately and my question is: why should I get worked up over a hunger strike in a prison?
If the prison guards and/or administrators were starving the inmates as a form of torture, sure, then I could find some compassion.
But when guys who care so little about society's rules that they end up in Pelican Bay decide to exercise the only choice they should have left to make - to eat or not eat - why does it become national news and why does it divide the nation?
These individuals all CHOSE to flout the law, CHOSE to commit a crime - and a really serious one to end up in Pelican Bay - CHOSE to do it multiple times in some cases, and then CHOSE to stop eating.
I say, have at it.
Why does this guy:

"Beasley is serving a life sentence for murder. Once behind bars, he joined a violent white power prison gang. And that's when officials sent him to Pelican Bay"

Deserve my sympathy and support?
Sure, solitary confinement is not pleasant and I'm sure there are things the guy could be doing that would make him feel better. Next time, DON'T KILL SOMEONE! and then when you get to prison, DON'T JOIN A GANG! Especially a VIOLENT WHITE POWER PRISON GANG!
It's not rocket science people.
Not an easy call for the prison authorities to make. Lock the guy up; be called cruel and inhumane. Protesters, media coverage, extra audits and inspections.
Let him out with others; guards, inmates and innocents on the street die.
Nice options.
My two cents are these. We have some of the nicest prisons in the world. Offer these complainers a choice; same sentence in either place.
Stay here in America's maximum security facility or prison in North Korea.

This is me and they're not doing well with captivity.

The Way It Used To Be

I don't remember exactly what day I heard this. (NPR has a horrible filtering/sorting function.)
But I have an opinion about the piece, which was discussing what elected officials earn. Namely Presidents, Cabinet people, Congressmen and Senators.
And I think they are definitely paid too much.
It is my humble opinion that elected officials should be doing their job out of desire to make the country a better place and not a belief in their own 'divine right' like the kings of old that the US of A was founded on leaving behind.
They sure don't pay me a sizable sum to serve on jury duty. And the video that is shown at orientation talks about the civic responsibility and how our service with only token compensation keeps the system equal and fair and *I* would like to think if Washington saw it they would feel guilt for the desire to line their own pockets and not give two snaps at how greed affects the nation as a whole and we might actually get better suited representatives if those running for office understood that it wasn't a paid position.
It wasn't always a paid position. Or not a large compensation. With a lifetime of Secret Service and a pension forever.
'Back in the day' Congressmen and all those guys had jobs outside of serving the country and when they weren't in session, they went home to their jobs. Their living. Their lives.
I think it was a better philosophy.
Your thoughts?

This is me and there would be less drama and maybe more work done.

Because 13 Years Isn't Enough

Is anyone else in their car so much that they hear the same segment on NPR more than once in a day? There are days when I hear every edition of Marketplace and they're identical...
In my desire to hear the funny, quirky things, I hear other things repeatedly. And I have noticed that NPR certainly likes to beat the inflammatory topic drum.
Here's my (next) question for you: how do you feel about Pre-Kindergarten being required and why?
All I know is that my parents worked hard when I was growing up, one or both of them, multiple jobs, etc., and yet all nine of us learned to read and count before we went to school. What's the push for pre-K? When do children get to be children?

This is me, looking for another perspective.

Connection Made

I am sure I learned this at some point in my education but I didn't put it all together until this evening on my way home from work. I was listening to the radio - NPR as usual now - and someone was talking about Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery, the Civil War, normal stuff and the guest mentioned that there were two ways to go with slavery. If it was to survive in America, slavery had to expand. Otherwise it would die out and as a Republican, Lincoln did not want any more slaves in the union. So he signed the paper to free them all. It amused me to think of how mixed up the political landscape is; back in the day it was the Democrats who wanted to expand slavery and make more money.
What's that song, "the times, they are a changing?"

This is me and the irony made me smile.

Election Coverage

In my conversion to NPR I have heard this slogan frequently; "No Rant, No Slant?"
I'm inclined to grant them the first. They tend to have logical discussions and interviews, taking turns, no screaming. The hosts do not go off the deep end, encouraging verbal battles and dissent among the guests. In fact, the guests are handled very well by the interviewers.
I can't give them the second part though. There is CLEARLY a bias in the pieces done by NPR. And the types of guests brought on and the angle the questions take.
One of the reasons Tarzan and I like to watch The Daily Show so much is Jon Stewart highlights faults on both sides of the political stage. The writers notice the hypocrisy and silliness and stupidity on all sides.
I'm a big one for fairness and real equality, not media hype and sensationalism, so I like to see good and bad noted for all parties.
NPR does not drift down the middle as much as I would expect a station with "no slant" to do. And as the election gets closer, the coverage gets more intense and much more frequent. I am so annoyed listening every day to a reiteration of the story that was done before, with no alternate ending and not even new guests sometimes.
As a friend of mine says; blargh.

This is me and if I vote tomorrow can I stop hearing about it?

At Least Until Next Year

As you may recall, Tarzan got the RIF notice from his school district earlier this year. And despite the dour mood on the radio - thank you NPR - and among other departments that have been reduced, Tarzan has been remarkably upbeat. He's right; whatever will be, will be and we're prepared either way.
The good news however, is that the school district has contrived some deal with the unions and the state to allow nearly all of the teachers, librarians, counselors and maintenance staff to come back in the fall.
Which means, for the second year in a row, Tarzan's job has been saved. The school year is getting cut a whole week short but I'll be honest, there are very few to whom five days will make a difference.
Additionally, the Academic Decathlon funds have been "found" somewhere. It was amusing to hear the uproar when the program was threatened. Our state, and for the last 4 years, our district, has won the National Academic Decathlon Championship.
The buzz was, 'why would they cancel the one program in the state that was working?'
Well, they aren't, and that means Tarzan has his other job as well. We'll be back teaching, chauffeuring, cajoling, baking cookies and herding the teenagers again in a few weeks. But it's a good thing and we're happy for that too.

This is me and this is getting silly.

NPR

Tarzan has made a few comments over the years about my lack of knowledge regarding current events. I can't say that he's wrong entirely, but the news makes me so mad most of the time, and if it's really good stuff it shows up on The Daily Show. But the last time he borrowed my car he left the station on NPR; it was a decent piece so I left it and then he and I chatted about it at dinner that night and that snowballed so now I listen to NPR all the time. I am more informed for sure and find I can talk to other people about current events and sound quasi-intelligent. It hasn't made me any less mad though.
Two discussions in the last few days in particular make me want to bite someone.

• The first bit I heard on the way home one day was about how some Silicon Valley employees are wearing hoodies in a show of solidarity after the whole debacle in the news about the kid who got shot by the Neighborhood Watch guy. It's terrible that the kid is dead and that the guy has to live with a death of a teenager but I don't know that it was racially motivated. If I see a person in a hoodie, shading the face, in the dark, slouching down the street, I'm gonna be more inclined to think it's a thug - no matter the color of their skin - than if I see a kid on the sidewalk, in the daylight, with a designer brand, pressed hoodie on, no matter the color of their skin. Situation and circumstance plays a part in these incidents as well. Location, location, location.


• The second piece has to do with a cover of Time magazine about attached parenting. Despite the hideous picture - which I didn't see until just now - my first concern after listening to the guest describe what the group is all about was "just how is that different from what my parents did?" If, as they spokesperson kept saying, their emphasis is on connection between parent and child, talking to the kid, touching, cuddling, eating with and spending time with young ones, I still don't know how that is different from what my own mother and father did. Why do we need a whole new label and 'movement' about it? And the NPR host kept trying to get the guest to specify how her group was different than 'regular' parenting and she couldn't, or wouldn't. The only differences I see are the extreme cases; the nursing until the child goes to kindergarten, or the one caller who still co-sleeps with her son and he's 9. It broke up her marriage because the husband didn't want to share his wife with his son. Other than the weird stuff, it sounds like Parenting 101. Why the big to-do about it?

This is me, better informed but not happy about it.