New Dog

Every household needs a new dog occasionally. I know that there are lots of people who wouldn't consider having a pet and there are some who think only cats are appropriate pets. But for me the only criteria in having a pet is that you treat them as rational thinking four legged friends. Not as dumb animals who can be ignored or mistreated at will...do that and you will be no friend of mine.

But I have to admit that having a new puppy sometimes makes me wonder if it's worth the extra work. Shortly after we acquired a 6 year old Papillion we had a chance to be adopted by an 8 week old Long Hair Chihuahua / Papillion mix and rapidly found we were being maneuvered by a 3 pound bundle of energy who knows that the best way to get her way is to jump in your lap and flash her eyes until you melt.

But Amber makes up for her manipulate skills with her self training skills. She watched us working with the other dogs and without any urging from us she now understands the simple commands of come and stop and appears more than willing to learn all service dog commands and skills we want to teach her.

Like all rescued dogs she also seems to know that she has lucked out and now has a home for life, with warm beds, good food and lots of opportunity to train her humans. Having a new dog, with all its responsibilities is also keeping us young and active...to the extent I'm feeling positively middle aged again.

Dogs Best Friend

A while back we lost our alpha male dog at the tender age of 22. Jean Luc was a Service Dog who specialized in helping first responders deal with the tensions and issues that come to those who deal with disaster. He had a special skill in recognizing people who were trying to deal with stress and not having a very easy time of it. He would walk up to an individual and tell them that they needed to give him a hug and tell him what was bothering them and they would always pick him up and talk with him until they felt able to once more to go back out to the field with renewed confidence in their ability to help others.

After losing our friend we have been looking for a replacement service animal knowing full well that whoever tried to fill Jean Luc's paws had a serious goal in mind. We searched a lot of sources, looked at and rejected a number of candidates for a lot of reasons and within a week's period found two dogs that might become the support service dog we have in mind.

JL was a mixed Papillon  and Long Hair Chihuahua so we were looking for someone in that breed range. What we found was a pure Papillon who is active, intelligent, eager to learn and protective of his selected handler (who just happens to be My Lady). A few days later we were selected by a Heinz 27 cog who is mostly Long Hair Chihuahua with something else that has resulted in a young lady who is eager, thoughtful, empathetic and eager to be your special friend.

It's early times so we don't know how they are going to turn out, but we have high hopes and grand goals. Between these two dogs and a slightly older dog who currently allows us to feed and honor her we hope to to gain a service support dog who will be available to work with first responders at disasters and (if the training takes) a cadaver dog we can use in support of law enforcement and for search and rescue.

Stayed tuned for I think we are in for interesting times and fascinating stories as we try to create special additions to our family.

It's a nice dream

I was in Pennsylvania last year when the sex scandal at the University became public knowledge and I had a chance to read the indictment laying out the State’s case. I was appalled by the actions of the assistant football coach (who’s name I don’t want to mention) but more disturbed by the inaction of the University when the case was brought to their attention several years previously. As bad as the criminal acts were the fact that the school chose to ignore the event, hoping that it would “just go away” is what made me truly angry. In addition, the actions and comments of the school’s supporters were disturbing when they defended the accused and the school, usually with a claim that no lasting harm had been done. For that I call BS because there are more than a few damaged children now having to live with the results of the actions that were perpetrated on them.

Today I’m equally offended by the NCAA sanctions that many claim to be “too harsh”. In my opinion the school should be outlawed and forbidden to engage in any inter-collegiate sport equal to the period of time the pedophile was allowed to operate within its walls without being halted by informed and knowledgeable school officials who chose instead to sweep the scandal under the rug. From trial testimony that appear to be a time span of 14 years.  The school officials who decided to allow a culture of pedophilia to flourish should be removed and, at best lose their livelihood and their pensions.

Who knows…maybe if that were done the school’s costs would go down, tuition could be lowered and the students could concentrate on the academics that brought them to the school in the first place. I know it won’t happen, but it’s a nice dream.

To Protect the innocent, names have been changed

Le Conteur and I have been sitting pets the past few days while close friends are off visiting her family. For at least a few days James will be able to have some time for himself…for he is the full time caregiver for his long time friend and wife. She has a long term debilitating disease that has a negative impact on their lives, but despite the disease that is wracking her body and mind. Peggy is a lovely lady who unfortunately needs 24 hour care and attention and James loves his wife with enduring passion and is more than willing to give of himself so that he can be there for his lady when she needs him. Le Conteur and I both marvel at his dedication and look within ourselves for strength that equals James.

Both James and Peggy love their pets, two large doges and three dependant cats, and my story is about one of the dogs. Shadow is an elderly Lab who has severe arthritis and finds it difficult to walk, because of Peggy’s issues (which take up most of James’s time) Shadow doesn’t get out often and has taken to falling when she tries to move around. So one of the things we do each day is to take her for a short walk when we go over to visit the pets several times each day. And the results have been amazing…Shadow, after only a few opportunities to explore the outside world is now walking without stumbling and wants to take a walk before anything else. She is alert and active and her inner puppy is expressing itself.

We don’t know what the long term will be for the dog, but it has proven to us that even a little bit of change and exercise is good for both body and soul.

Small Town 4th

There are 105 counties in Kansas with a 2011 population of 3,993.000 and the county I live in has 552,991 of those people. It is an "urban county" by any definition but if you look hard enough in this up scale, slightly yuppified county you can still find pockets of rural life that struggle on and, without shame, live by the ethics and culture that are the foundation of this singular republic.
As many socially responsible citizens do I volunteer with our Sheriff's department since I'm getting just a little too old for the fire and rescue game. As a volunteer I'm given the opportunity to support the police in doing their job, and yesterday I spent part of the day directing traffic for a 4th of July parade in an unincorporated area of the county that is working hard to keep its rural character.


Instead of fancy floats and marching bands I was privileged to watch 4H clubs marching several miles in the plus 100 degree heat, farm tractors pulling trailer loads of white haired service clubs and very vocal high school football teams. There were service trucks from local business advertising their availability and (of course) the obligate local politicians eager to get your vote. Kids riding on hay bales and adults riding quarter horses made for a fun time for everyone. Sspectators and participants were all having a grand time and it was a taste of small town Americana that I don't often get a chance to see any more and I feel the better for watching people come together to enjoy themselves, wave the flag and socialize with friends and neighbors.
My faith in the future of our society was made stronger by the opportunity to go back in time to a period that wasn't ashamed to admit its love of country.

Health Care and the People

I am supposed to be a neutral and un-biased participant, engaged in helping others resolve whatever issues brought them to me. If truth be told I don’t believe that any one can be “neutral”, we always have an opinion, but I can be fair and impartial when I’m working as a mediator.

One of the tricks of mediation I use is never to jump to a conclusion, think about the issues, consider the arguments advanced by the parties, contemplate options, visualize end points and only then start to guide the conversation towards a solution. The important thing is to be deliberate in the process and never rush to a decision. It doesn’t work every time, I am after all subject to human emotions and have been known to make mistakes. But slow and steady is usually a good way to go. And when it comes to the governments “Affordable Health Care Act” also known as Obama-care, it pays not to hurry to a conclusion.

The decision of the Supreme Court that the legislation is essentially constitutional energized some and enraged others. Very few people don’t have an opinion, and it's usually a strongly held opinion. But after thinking about the decision and doing some research I’ve reached the conclusion that the Supreme Court decision was a brilliant step that is designed to encourage the parties to further dialog and an eventual resolution that will allow the parties to be content with their decision.

There are key elements in the Courts decision that I see as essential to the future of this Republic. The administration pushed the legislation under the 14^th Amendment (known as the Commerce Clause) but this argument was set aside in the majority opinion that stated that a mandated penalty levied on individuals who declined health insurance was not appropriate but that it was within the power of Congress to levy a tax on people who declined to purchase health insurance. So it seems that it’s no longer possible for Congress to pass legislation based on 14^th Amendment arguments. It must now pass any future legislation that establishes penalties solely on its ability to tax…and that’s a much higher and more complex bar to surmount when Congress establishes ways to fund the laws it passes.

Personally Le Conteur and I pay a monthly premium of about $800 for a very good comprehensive family health care plan. Under Obama-care it was mandated that the penalty for the uninsured should be $95 per year. Having to fund the program via taxation will certainly change that figure to something closer to what we now pay for our insurance and I shudder to think what will happen to my taxes when the costs for the half of the population that doesn’t pay any taxes are lumped into our annual tax bill. I think the conversation on the health care bill has really just started and that the administration will be hard pressed to defend the program when the true costs are calculated and become public knowledge.

In addition the decision stated that it is not constitutional to penalize states who decline to participate in the program by cutting off the funding for other federally supported programs. In effect, the tiger is now toothless since 25 states were party to the suit that came before the Supreme Court. There are also interesting ramifications such as if a state were to decide that it is ok for its citizens to drink at age 18 it could no longer be penalized by the loss of all highway funds…I think we will be hearing some interesting and long winded Congressional debates in the future.

In effect the court tossed the problem back to the administration and Congress saying “Here are the problems and now you have to fix it” So for those who have issues with the Supreme Court decision I will merely say that ultimately it will be seen as a brilliant maneuver to get Congress to do the job as set forth in the Constitution.

My own opinion is, to paraphrase a long dead Roman:

                           Obama-care delinde est.

EPA and those who don't listen

The Environmental Protection Agency apparently has a regulation on the books that requires refiners to add cellulosic ethanol to the fuel they produce. But the refiners are not adding the chemical because they say the product doesn’t exist in commercial quantities. In other words it’s a laboratory creation and is too expensive to make in large quantities. EPA press releases say that they expected cellulosic ethanol to be available at the time the regulation went into effect, but that didn’t happen and the agency is refusing to reevaluate its position. It must be nice to require an unavailable product and then hold producers accountable when the product isn’t unavailable!

I did a short internet search and found that cellulosic ethanol is not made from corn, but instead uses grasses such as switch grass, hemp, assorted plant waste and/or wood chips to produce alcohol. These are all non food products and it certainly makes sense to convert them to a fuel additive but it seems to be an expensive process because the conversion requires sugar and these items don’t have a lot of convertible sugar within their cellular structure. There is a research outfit that has been trying since 2001 to develop an enzyme that will cheapen the process but to date they have been unsuccessful. Since they have been doing this under a contract with EPA it boggles the mind that EPA didn’t pay attention. An agency that doesn’t pay attention to the real world is not something we need to listen to in these times.