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Nobody appreciates how much Buttigieg cares.

February 24, 2023 /

Pete Buttigieg is frustrated  and everyone is picking on him.

Three people in Buttigieg’s orbit admit to being exasperated by the furor, saying nobody asked him about the derailment in any of the 23 media interviews he conducted during the first 10 days after the accident.

Buttigieg first tweeted about the disaster on Feb. 13, when he said he continued to be “concerned about the impacts” to those living in the area. He pledged to use all “relevant authorities to ensure accountability and continue to support safety.”

This is from an article in Politico, a liberal site that is trying to defend Buttigieg.

Buttigieg may have be a diversity hire because he seems like a non-threatening gay guy with middle-class values or it may have been a quid pro quo to get his support for Biden’s presidential run.   Clearly, Buttigieg didn’t think a patronage job required him to actually be accountable.

As the head of the Department of Transportation, Buttigieg expects reporters to ask him about East Palestine.  Yeah, that’s leadership.

Waiting a week to even Tweet about it, and expecting that people really need to hear that he is concerned, is patronizing.  People expect leaders to do something.

I’m not a big fan of politicians rushing to disaster sites.  Those visits can interfere with people actually doing their jobs.  However, Buttigieg could have done a press conference the next day explaining what is known, what is being done and assuring people that experts are onsite. 

Trump, showing up faster and with supplies, did a fantastic job of showing that he cares.  Sure, it might just be symbolic, but symbolism matters.  Buttigieg appears to be in way over his head, generally incompetent, and possibly not caring about conservative communities.

 

Let’s all be indigenous.

February 24, 2023 /

The Idea of the Indigenous People

The Idea of the Indigenous People

Yet many peoples who are now considered Indigenous don’t claim to be aboriginal—the Maasai among them. According to Maasai oral histories, their ancestors arrived in Tanzania several hundred years ago from a homeland they call Kerio, likely situated near South Sudan.

A handful of Gaelic monks and then the Vikings were the first people to arrive in Iceland (they settled there earlier than the Maori arrived in New Zealand), yet their descendants, the Icelanders, are rarely touted as Indigenous. Farther east, modern-day Scandinavians can trace most of their ancestry to migrations occurring in 4000 and in 2500 B.C., but it’s the Sami reindeer herders, whose Siberian ancestors arrived in Scandinavia closer to 1500 B.C., who get an annual entry in the “Indigenous World” yearbook.

On any form that asks, I identify as native American because I was born here.  Most racial and ethnic identities aren’t coherent enough to be used for anything important.  Do Native Americans, what we used to call Indians, have any more right than I do, to say they were always here?  No, I was born here, and presumably, so were they.  Of course their ancestors go back farther, but go back far enough, and we are all from some region in Africa.

When eggheads call a group “indigenous”, they mean something like a noble savage.  That’s no way to run a country.  

Elon Musk is an African-American.  He’s from Africa and now he is an American.  Genetic sites like “23 and Me” find that African-Americans have 30% white blood.  So, someone like Barack Obama, with a white mom and black dad, may very well have more white DNA than black DNA.  So what?  Who cares? 

We can screen everyone to determine just how much privilege they should receive, or we can treat everyone like a person.

Sparky takes a quiz.

February 23, 2023 /

Sparky takes a quiz

Beagles are smart, but would happily eat themselves stupid.  I cut a couple of holes in a deli container and put some treats inside.  The big treat doesn’t fit through the hole.  Sparky took it into his crate and messed with it until he go to the payoff.

Harry and Megan are mocked.

February 23, 2023 /

Harry and Megan may sue South Park

Harry and Meghan’s lawyers are ‘casting an eye’ over animated sitcom South Park, a royal commentator has claimed, after it launched a series of attacks against the couple.

South Park does hammer Harry and Megan pretty hard, but this seems like a media trick.  An anonymous source fabricates a claim, hoping to force a response.  The person who is supposed to be on the inside, could just be the journalist.

It’s better to ignore anonymous sources unless there is some effort to vet the source.

Trump was right about the borders, and everyone knows it.

February 23, 2023 /

Biden proposes tougher restrictions on asylum.

The Biden administration is moving forward with tougher restrictions on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. A proposed rule published today would make it harder for migrants to get asylum if they cross the border into the U.S. illegally after passing through Mexico or any other country without seeking protection. Critics compare the rule to a similar effort by the Trump administration, and they are vowing to fight it. 

That sounds like the Trump policy.  Will the administration make foreign aid and trade contingent upon those countries stopping the invaders before they cross into Mexico?

It’s too much to hope that Biden’s handlers are going to start acting in the best interests of the American people.  Being a skeptic, is it possible that:

  • The unvetted people coming into the US don’t vote.
  • Texas and Florida busing the illegal immigrants to liberal cities is having an effect.
  • Even the media can’t ignore the problems caused by open borders with a third-world country.
  • NYC and SFO and other fashionable liberal cities are a disaster, and that doesn’t look good.
  • Even the Leftists have noticed the instability of the US, and are starting to worry.
  • Biden couldn’t be elected to the Social Committee of a nursing home, and the stink is getting on the rest of the Democrats.

Sparky and Jalad at Tanagra

February 22, 2023 /

I remember the words, but I don’t understand.

I never liked that episode of Star Trek: TNG, and now I’m living it with Sparky.  He’s a smart dog and, at 9 years old, had a lifetime of experience.  He seems to be operating in good faith and wants us to be friends.  Where ever he came from, they had routines.  I don’t know what those routines were and have different expectations.

We started training with a few basic commands.  If I look at him and talk, he comes over and sits down.  He may not understand anything, but that is 2 out of 3 of the commands we covered, so there is a good chance that he’ll get a treat.

He is about 50/50 on getting “Lay down” right and when he does, it looks awkward and unnatural, like he forgot where his legs go. 

“Crate” has been tough.  At first, he acted like it meant “go 10 feet away, and turn right”.  That worked the first couple of times we tried it, but not if we started somewhere else.  Eventually, he figured it out, but recently, he seems to think it means “run around the house and get to the patio door as fast as possible.”  I don’t now if he’s screwing with me or trying to tell me something.

When I lived in Spain, I spent time with people from all over Europe.  Most didn’t speak English, while I spoke a little German and rudimentary Spanish.  I found that conversation had to be concise and pretty basic.  Witty word play or complexity was out.  Sparky is smart and opinionated.  Sometimes, I think he’s trying to mix it up for fun or thinks that I’m offering him suggestions.  If we had 30 seconds of communication, we could clarify our signals and this would all go easier.

Break a Deal, Face the Wheel

February 22, 2023 /

Over at the Teacher Reddit , there was a post about whether teachers should follow the same rules that students are supposed to follow.  Of course not, the teacher is in charge, but occasionally, it’s fun to play along.

Early on, I came up with the Wheel of Science.  To layout the wheel, it was easiest to have 28 cards.  So, half of the deck and two jokers.  Each student picked a card from the other half of the deck.  That was their card for the year.  Their card was used when I needed to pick students randomly.

One use for the Wheel was to choose a student to explain one of the homework problems for the class.  The student doing the current problem would spin the wheel to decide who’s doing the next one.  If a card came up that wasn’t assigned to a student, then we spin again.  If a joker came up, then I would demonstrate the problem.

Eventually, we needed a rule for when a student spun their own card.  It seemed fun to have that person do the rest of the problems remaining in that set.  It just added a little peril, and the students didn’t really mind.  When a joker came up, I’d spin, and more often than you’d think, another joker would come up.  Sure, I didn’t really have to do the rest of the problems in the set, but it was better fun to feign irritation.  “Son of b…  Why do I have to do all the work?  This is a rip off.”

At the end of each year, students inevitably ask what they are supposed to do with their card.  I started telling them, “Keep it.  It’s good for a free drink at the 10 year reunion.”   I haven’t had to come through on that promise, but if a former student contacted me and asked, I would have to come through.

Sparky and the Poop War

February 22, 2023 /

Sparky and the Poop Fence

Not so much a war, but a frustrating negotiation. 

Based on reasonable advice from Monica, Sparky had a poop fence available when I first brought him home.  The idea is that the dog will realize this designated area is his dump station.  Take him there, he poops or doesn’t, but either way, he had a shot.

I’ve got a good patch with some woods, so I take Sparky for nice walks or rambles through the woods.  First walk we took, Sparky took a dump on my wood pile.  Next walk, he crapped on a stump.  For each walk, we start and end at the poop fence, but he didn’t use it.  Pete or Tim thought that was fine, we had a system.  Take him for a walk an hour after morning and evening meals, and we’re good.  Pitch the dirty business into the brambles or across the fence.

The problem is that a walk isn’t the same as a dump station.  My schedule or the weather isn’t always conducive to a long walk.   It was late in the evening and he hadn’t crapped in a while, so I took Sparky to the poop fence.  He doesn’t recognize that as a dump station, so he just wandered around.  He was eager to walk, so we did a short loop.  He wanted to go up the hill, and around the third of a mile loop to a spot he likes by the church parking lot.  I wasn’t up for that, so Sparky politely shat in the creek. 

I have to explain the poop fence to Sparky.  My plan is to leave him in the poop fence until he’s got to go.  I like the long walks, so we power through without a stop.  On the last walk, he was sniffing some stuff, then started to hunker down.  I waved him off and took him to the poop fence.  He didn’t understand, and resisted the urge.

Sparky can’t tell me when he’s got to take a shit.  You know, sometimes, you just gotta go.  His new strategy is to hunker down and commence taking a crap a couple of feet away from me.  He’s a smart dog, I appreciate his thought process.  I interrupt him and hustle him outside.  His approach is much better than shitting behind a couch or in a closet.

I’ve noticed that Sparky likes to be on a stump or  mound or anything else that is a little higher when he does his business.  Maybe I can work with that.

 

 

 

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