So, I gave max dog a chew today – not something I do very often. And, after chewing on it for quite a while, he decided that he needed to be hidden, for whatever reason.

After scoping out various spots around the room, he decided to hide it under the pillow on the bed. Which I was using, because I was reading. He spent literally five minutes shoving it up under the pillow, and then stuffing a sheet up against the pillow. I even told him I would guard the damn thing, if he would just quit smacking my head with his. So he finally gets it hidden.

Then, he goes and gets a long drink of water.

After which, he comes back, and gets the treat out and goes back to chewing it!

Dogs.

I love those bird days when all of the birds have been out long enough that they all get tired and go back into their cages for a nap.

This doesn’t happen as often as I would like.

Good move – laws should be very clear about what they are outlawing. They need to have a bright, clear line about what is illegal, and what is not.

Supreme Court Deals Blow to “Honest Services” Law

The Supreme Court sided with former Enron CEO and smartest-guy-in-the-room Jeffrey Skilling and media mogul Conrad Black on Thursday by ruling against a fraud law commonly used to go after white-collar criminals. The “honest services” law, which the Court determined to be excessively vague, allows prosecutors to file suit against executives who don’t act in companies’ best interests. The law was critical in targeting former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (whose own trial has been keeping Chicagoans entertained since June 3), lobbyist Jack Abramoff (now employed at a kosher Baltimore pizzeria) and former New York State Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, who was indicted last January. Now, there’s concern that today’s ruling could overturn convictions and make it harder to file fraud cases. Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ruled that Skilling’s “honest services” conviction was flawed (he’s serving a 24-year sentence for duping investors about Enron’s financial health) and that the law should only be limited to “schemes involving bribery and kickbacks.” The Court also challenged the conviction of Conrad Black, who was sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison in 2007 for allegedly stealing millions from the Hollinger International Inc. media company through insider dealings. Both cases will be sent back to appeals court, but the ruling won’t necessarily overturn their convictions. Despite the victory over “honest services,” the Supreme Court disagreed with the second part of Skilling’s argument—that bad media coverage had prevented him from getting a fair trial in Enron’s home city of Houston.

Okay, I’m not a fashion plate, by any means. I’m pretty much an anti-fashion plate.

BUT, even I know that cowboy boots are not to be worn with shorts of any kind. Or anything other than long pants – except in the bedroom, where it is acceptable to wear only cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, with nothing else. But, no spurs.

From a book review on Amazon, about the book How to be alone, we have

a point Franzen makes tellingly when he says that while a black lesbian New Yorker and a Southern Baptist Georgian might appear totally different, the truth is that both “watch Letterman every night, both are struggling to find health insurance… both play Lotto, both dream of fifteen minutes of fame, both are taking a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, and both have a guilty crush on Uma Thurman.”

Or, one of my personal favorites,

Just remember, you are unique. Just like everyone else.

There are at least two items worthy of note in this article about Abby Sunderland.

First, her Father was spot on with this comment

Her father rejected criticism that it was far too dangerous to allow a 16-year-old to sail around the world by herself.

“Sailing and life in general is dangerous. Teenagers drive cars. Does that mean teenagers shouldn’t drive a car?” Laurence Sunderland told the AP. “I think people who hold that opinion have lost their zeal for life. They’re living in a cotton-wool tunnel to make everything safe.”

Exactly.

And

The Australian maritime authority did not say how much the rescue mission would cost but said it would not be seeking compensation for the search, which initially fell just outside of Australia’s search and rescue region.

“That’s the way the system runs,” search coordinator Kinley said. “It’s our obligation to do this and we’ll fulfill those obligations as Australia does.”

(For some reason, I can’t block quote the above).

Anyway, thats exactly right too. Search and Rescue is there for Search and Rescue.  People should NOT be charged for this function, for various reasons.

First some background- in China, Foxconn has a seriously large factory, with 300,000 people working there. Thirteen employees have committed suicide this year. This is being played up in the U.S media, even though its a non story. That suicide rate is substantially BELOW the average chinese suicide rate.

Anyway, Foxconn makes lots of U.S computer parts, including Apple iphones. So thus the U.S angle. Now, Foxconn is going to be upping the pay of their employees in China by 30% as a result of all this bad PR they are getting over this non story. Which just leads me to ponder – okay, if their are a rash of “suicides” where I work, can I get a 30% raise?

Another way of dealing with parrots – swap it up. Sometimes with Harley macaw (and with Kiwi amazon) they will try to bite me through the bars when I’m putting food in their bowls. Yeah, to be so bright, they can be that dumb….

Anyway, they have both caught me a time or two, and they aren’t kidding about the bite. It normally brings a bit of blood if it lands.

The easiest way to deal with it – I open their cage doors, and reach in and drop the food in their bowls. With them right there, and inches from my hand, with nothing in between my hand and them. They don’t try to bite.

Its a game when its through the bars. Its not when I’m not.