Ready, aim . . . stab?

Harmony fights back.

Juice

At an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinean demonstration in New York on Sunday . . .


Now, I can see prune . . . ugh! But all?




Source: Webshots, here.

Enter the animal cynic. The Menken of Moosedom. The Disparager of Our Doggy Denizens.

Indeed, the Frondeur of All Fauna . . .

Apparently not everyone is of the opinion that furry little creatures, especially captured photographic or video images of animals, are deserving of our generalized outpourings of emotional bond . . . those personification-laden moments, where we willing suspend our apperception of their predominently stark world, especially of that world inhabitated by wild little creatures . . . to instead attribute to them qualities and values that we as humans like to pretend that we hold dear.

Oh, that polar bear is soooooo playfully cute, isn't he? You know, the one who, given a moment's opportunity would likely tear you apart?

That person runs this website, rather jarringly entitled:

Fuck You, Penguin
A Blog Where I Tell Cute Animals What's What

Or . . . is it all tongue in cheek? The pictures are rather consistently cute.

Hero dog

A sad event, and yet an exemplary display of courage, as a dog risked his life on a busy highway in Santiago, Chile, vainly tried to save his friend, the attempted rescue having caught on video . . . But it was too late, as it turned out.

Not Good Christmas Gift Ideas . . .

Money is really tight this year. So, you certainly don't want to waste it on stupid or annoying gifts. As it turns out, help is on the way -- not that the promoters of this crap necessarily see it that way!

What they do know is that there are some niche gift givers, who like to give small gifts as gags -- they're usually funny, entirely useless and, in many instances, a little bit biting.

Then, there are others who simply must have the idea of being a jerk when they go for one of these, because there just doesn't seem to be any other possible explanation. Back when they thought they were being the class clown, they were no doubt actually thought of as the class pest.

As reported by Reuters, here the top ten list of the stupidest Christmas gift ideas for 2008.

This years biggest clinkers have been thoughtfully prepared, via the website that actually promotes them . . . Stupid.com.

Their list includes an annoying screaming chicken, a Barack Obama can opener, and, one for my golfer buddies -- a potty putter -- with provisions for playing a complete round of golf while lounging on the can!

But here is the number one stupidest toy for 2008, the screaming chicken:



By the way, I can't help but think that the screaming chicken must have been inspired, at some level, by the Elmo doll that does the Chicken Dance. In case you've never had the pleasure, may I present for your entertainment Chicken Dance Elmo, or CDE, for short. It was posted at YouTube by someone named CincinnatiGifts who indicated that it was an Ebay item.



Hard to imagine anything being much more annoying than that! Oh . . . the "song" indeed does stay with you, in case you were wondering! That could explain him selling it on Ebay.

At least CDE doesn't have a "dark side" like the "Elmo Knows Your Name" doll that reportedly started issuing death threats to a Lithia, Florida child named James last winter.

But a screaming chicken . . . I think I'd at least want to read the full disclaimer before I would think of buying anything like that!

And then I'd pass on it.

Makes about as much sense as anything else . . .

A recently received e-mail from a friend . . .



6 reasons not to mess with children.

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.

The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal, its throat was very small.

The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.

Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.

The little girl said, 'When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah'.

The teacher asked, 'What if Jonah went to hell?'

The little girl replied, 'Then you ask him.'



A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work.

As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, 'I'm drawing God.'

The teacher paused and said, 'But no one knows what God looks like.'

Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, 'They will in a minute.'



A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds.

After explaining the commandment to 'honor' thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, 'Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?'

Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, 'Thou shalt not kill.'



The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.

'Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer; she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael; he's a doctor.'

A small voice at the back of the room rang out, 'And there's the teacher; she's dead.'


A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, 'Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face.'

'Yes,' the class said.

'Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position, the blood doesn't run into my feet?'

A little fellow shouted,
'Cause your feet ain't empty.'


The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray:

'Take only ONE. God is watching.'

Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.

A child had written a note, 'Take all you want. God is watching the apples.'


It doesn't matter how many people you send this to, just remember if it made you laugh, your friends will laugh too.

College Fun




Uhhh . . . watch your fingers! It is also posted here.

Halloween Caption "Contest"

We've set up a multiple choice caption contest for the following intriguing image recently taken by a friend. Sorry, no prize!



Which one of the following Halloween-related captions do you think best fit the essence of this image?

Or, do you prefer another? Comments welcome!

Best Caption For the Photograph
	"Witch" way does this thing go?
	Oh !. . . Damn, I'm in reverse!
	Looks like the tread in wearing down!
	Wonder if I should rotate the bristles?
	See? I told you I'm not a vampire!
	None of the above -- post a comment
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Uh hhh oh! Looks like pumpkins are bad ... very bad this year! At least in Maryland.

Another friend sat down to read the first post, and immediately told me she had a response, which she had received in an e-mail the other day.

Here it is!

Kind of gives a whole new meaning to "Harvest Moon," now doesn't it?

No, I assure you, it is not the modern version of my brief college foray into the mysterious world of vegetable art, as noted above in the first post.

And, I think I should also add that at this point, in order to avoid the risk of having this blog quickly become typecast, I would be very reluctant to feature any more pumpkin photos.

Well . . . unless they are really good!

Naturally, that will likely prompt some to try and meet the challenge.

A friend has sent me the following email photo, entitled "When Pumpkins Drink ... , a seasonal reminder of the wages of sin.

Cute. And funny, I think. We're searching for the photographer, to give due credit. Anyone know?

It also reminded me of a somewhat similar pumpkin sculpture, one with a decidedly more racy theme, that I was somehow inspired to carve as a college sophomore, which I then proudly displayed on the back shelf behind the bar in a gin mill, where I was working as a bartender at the time.

It was intended to "shock" the girls. Didn't work. As I think back about it now, it was a little crude! I don't have a photo, and I wouldn't post it if I did!

But this one, especially with the barfing pumpkin, begged for a written response. So, I wrote back in mock seriousness that,

"Some would certainly say that this undermines the basic dignity of plants. Plants have rights too, ya know!"

And, that is the subject of this first post, here on our new blog, World Gone Nutz!

The Wall Street Journal carried the linked commentary (above) in a post entitled,

Switzerland's Green Power Revolution: Ethicists Ponder Plants' Rights
Who Is to Say Flora Don't Have Feelings? Figuring Out What Wheat Would Want
by Gautam Naik

Here are a few key grafs from that story, about what began years ago as Swiss government efforts to keep a short leash on genetic engineering trials, originally intended to allay fears "that a mutant strain might run amok and harm the environment." But the government interference seems to have lately taken a bit of an absurd turn.

Please, read the whole thing:

Back in the 1990s, the Swiss constitution was amended in order to defend the dignity of all creatures -- including the leafy kind -- against unwanted consequences of genetic manipulation. When the amendment was turned into a law -- known as the Gene Technology Act -- it didn't say anything specific about plants. But earlier this year, the government asked the ethics panel to come up rules for plants as well.
. . .

Several years ago, when Christof Sautter, a botanist at Switzerland's Federal Institute of Technology, failed to get permission to do a local field trial on transgenic wheat, he moved the experiment to the U.S. He's too embarrassed to mention the new dignity rule to his American colleagues. "They'll think Swiss people are crazy," he says.

Defenders of the law argue that it reflects a broader, progressive effort to protect the sanctity of living things. Last month, Switzerland granted new rights to all "social animals." Prospective dog owners must take a four-hour course on pet care before they can buy a canine companion, while anglers must learn to catch fish humanely. Fish can't be kept in aquariums that are transparent on all sides. The fish need some shelter. Nor can goldfish be flushed down a toilet to an inglorious end; they must first be anesthetized with special chemicals, and then killed.

Now the very notion that a "rights analysis" can somehow be applied to plants is just plain preposterous. But, if I saw some nasty kid destroying a nice tree or a bush, just for the heck of it, I guess I'd want to throttle the little creep.

I wouldn't. But I would try to find a way to stop him (it would be a him 99 times out of a hundred) and explain that that sort of mindless destruction is offensive. But I would not tell him that he was violating the plant's rights, for crying out loud!

If, on the other extreme, the kid was helping his father clear out a patch of staghorn sumac trees run wild, or yank up the undergrowth in an area infested with invasive plant species, like the lovely purple loosestrife, or invasive herbs that have had beneficial uses over the years, like garlic mustard, or trying to control some patch of golden bamboo that an annoying neighbor either planted so he wouldn't have to mow a lawn, or allows to run wild because he doesn't care, then I'd keep my damn yammer shut, or even commend the kid for helping out the old man.

The last people on earth who should be "promulgating" rules about the basic notions of how we should each personally relate to the world around us, are government bureaucrats. They know precious little about it, and even less about what the "rules" should be for the rest of us.

Now, lest you conclude that I am some insipid plant-snubbing troglodyte of some sort, I assure you that I did read Findhorn Garden years ago, and it surely helped me to focus on the mystical bonds that hold living things together. While I don't talk to them, I probably have accumulated more general knowledge about species of American trees than most people. I am an unrepentant tree-hugger.

There was a time when people did care about such things. My grandfather imparted it to me, not some government regulation.

If you want to see an extraordinary collection of trees, travel to Westerly, Rhode Island, right on the eastern border of Connecticut, and take a walk through their 1-acre arboretum, called Wilcox Park, a Victorian Strolling Park. Check out the trees.

There are more modern locales, where to me, the trees (many from the far corners of the earth) are the actual focus of wonder, in spite of the name of the place -- Grounds for Sculpture, J. Seward Johnson's sculpture garden, built in 1992, and located in Hamilton, New Jersey.

So there you have my take. Plants don't have "rights!" And the nutty people who build themselves up into a frenzy, trying hard to impose some such silly nonsense on the rest of us, do a real disservice to the whole idea of really protecting what is beautiful around us.