Now, James Carville is getting in on the Prosecution act. Said Dems will prosecute Trump family members after the MidTerms. And, I believe him, should the Dems win.
Befriend a bird, and you’ve got a friend for life.
Actually that’s true for all mammals, but birds especially. Crows and ravens especially.
I have a group (a “murder”?) of crows in my neighborhood. They gather on the rooftops next door and converse and carry on nosily and at great length. I am trying to make friends with them. Putting out food, comporting myself in a non-threatening manner, etc. I know they see me and I know I have been a subject of their discussion. So far they have remained neutral. But I am optimistic. I will keep trying to win them over. This is my project for the spring and summer.
Animals are God’s gift to ease humanity’s suffering.
Well, according to the information linked below, the people at the Beeb are worried that America setting up a base on the moon will just be an act of “colonialism.”*
Befriend a bird, and you’ve got a friend for life.
Actually that’s true for all mammals,
— IrishOtter49
Um, no. It isn’t.
Some animals you can sort of tame/make friends with and it’ll last. Others it’s highly iffy. Remember Knut, the polar bear cub? Back in the mid-2000s he was an adorable cub that became the center of a classic Internet/media emotional outpouring.
Of course, a few years later his keepers carefully avoided going into his containment area alone or without protection, because by then he was a full-grown polar bear and could easily attack them.
People who raise chimps from infancy sometimes get a nasty surprise when that chimp reaches sexual maturity, too.
Baby deer are cute, but it’s not unknown for male deer raised by humans to attack humans when they go into breeding mode, because they are responding to ‘fight to mate’ programming and they confuse the proper target.
You can raise a pureblood wolf pup, and it’ll often bond with you, but you’d better make sure you retain your dominant status with it as it gets to adulthood.
No, ‘friend for life’ is not true of all mammals, not reliably.
Animals are God’s gift to ease humanity’s suffering.
— IrishOtter49
No, they aren’t. Not in a general sense, anyway.
I realize I probably sound kind of jerky here, or like a killjoy or something, I’m sure you didn’t mean it as a universal statement, but that is exactly the sort of anthropomorphism that gets people maimed and killed.
It’s a bit of a bugaboo of mine.
@HC68:No, they aren’t. Not in a general sense, anyway.
The animals that are, are the end result of thousands of years of Man’s interventions.
Part of the problem is YouTube. YouTube will show you the one-in-a-million pet otter or beaver or raccoon or what have you and will only show the golden moments of such pets, and gives a false impression of what the typical experience is like.
4 to 5 months, your scratches are beginning to heal as you have finally weaned the walking weed-eater. The laceration inside your lip however is infected. Must get that checked. The mattress on your bed has begun to smell funny and you haven’t seen your computer mouse in weeks. The jungle gym forgotten, your head begins to plan a really big cage. You want to go purchase the materials for it, but you shelled out you entire paycheck to replace the contents of your mother’s purse, which disappeared during her last visit. You think you saw a twenty in the garbage disposal this morning and her lipstick was in your shoe..OPENED. Yet another hole in the carpet. Time to rearrange the furniture, but where were those other two holes at? Oh well. Hit the garage sales and find another chair.
6 to 7 months, you have booted the rotten little beast outside and to get back at you, your raccoon has somehow broken into your car and shredded the seat cushion. To make matters worse, he left you a nice present of something smelly under the seat…somewhere…You try to get to the carwash, but you turn the key to absolutely nothing. Upon inspection under the hood, you search for broken wires…unplugged wires…ANY WIRES…there are no more wires. They are all gone.
At 8 months old your kit hates your living guts unless you have a marshmallow in your hand. You carry them in your pocket so you can get into your house. He waits blatantly on the step for you EVERY DAY and if you forgot your marshmallow, you prepare a tactical plan of entering through the chimney, otherwise, you have the pleasure of sharing your house with a 30 lb nightmare who will torment your every breath.
This is the point when I usually get a phone call from someone who called me months ago to find out what to feed the “precious new baby”, and hung up on me when I wouldn’t give care instructions and demanded they bring it to me now since we do not accept imprints. They always voice their regret for not listening to begin with so PLEASE, leave the raccoons to the experts and get a cat. You will thank me later.
Minitrue has seen better days
As for carville can someone stomp that watermoccassin
Smarter than most humans and more commonsense
See that crazy person above
Today is the Passover Day, which started at sundown yesterday. Interestingly , the current Jewish ” Perpetual Calendar” does not allow Passover to start on Tuesday at Sundown for a Wednesday Passover during the day.
There are those of us who believe that Jesus ” Last Supper”,aka Passover Observance and institution of Communion / Lord’s Supper was on what would be a ” Tuesday ” night and his crucifixion on a Wednesday. This would be when the calendar was more strictly celestial observation based before the ” Perpetual calendar” was instituted several centuries later. In this belief, it is the special sabbath of the first day of Unleavened bread – the day after Passover – ( See Leviticus chapter 23 ) that Jesus was hurriedly buried before. Hence 3 days and 3 nights with the resurrection sometime after sundown ” Saturday” night ( which would be the start of the first Jewish night/ day cycle of the week) and the tomb stone rolled away early ” Sunday ” morning to show it was already empty.
in other news, that decision by judge mehta, re civil lawsuits against Trump, relied on magic as well as the discredited remarks of Cassidy Hutchinson, which only one person here, believed plausible,
Julie Kelly as usual found the receipts,
Federal worker Nehemie Almonor in Virginia admits to using telework to collect three paychecks at same time.
Besides Almonor,
Crissy Monique Baker was ordered last year to repay the government $255,866.99, but U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan spared her jail time after she was convicted of fraudulently claiming to work three federal jobs at the same time.
Baker claimed to have worked as many as 26 hours in a 24-hour period.
She insisted she didn’t actually shortchange the government because her “exceptional time management, concentration and organizational skills” allowed her to finish every task she was assigned.
and it should be noted, it was prophesied in Isiah some 400 years earlier, as I recall
about Jesus betrayal
To: Snow on Pine on April 2, 2026 at 11:13 am:
“Some ideas are so stupid only an intellectual can believe them.”
George Orwell.
Speaking of colonialism:
Since it was Americans that first set foot on the moon, this makes Americans the first indigenous people of the moon and therefore the moon is owned by Americans.
Any effort by another nation to lay claim to the moon will be a blatant act of imperialism and, depending upon the circumstances, genocide.
I agree that in these often charming Youtube videos what you are seeing are the best days, not the worst.
For instance, there is a series of cute videos put out by someone in Japan about life with his two pet Otters. But someone else–it may even have been him–also talked about these otters wrecking the house, biting, and how they had a really bad smell.
As I have written here before, what gets me are the YouTube videos of “animal lovers” demonstrating their “love” by repeatedly kissing dogs, chickens, pigs, wombats, goats, horses, parrots, Emus, or even more exotic animals, you name it, and sometimes directly on the snout or mouth.
These animal lovers lovers don’t seem to know, or perhaps care, that there are some diseases which can transfer from animals to humans (and vice versa), and some of them are quite serious, or even deadly.
I wished a Happy Passover to Neophile readers observing the holiday on yesterday’s thread, and I repeat it now for those who missed it.
@JohnTyler:Americans the first indigenous people of the moon
“Indigenous” literally means “born from the soil” which would exclude Americans from being indigenous to the Moon. In reality it means whatever Leftists need it to mean this week. Irish people for example don’t count as “indigenous” to Ireland and Arabs apparently are “indigenous” to everywhere they’re found outside of Arabia.
But before the Leftists got hold of it, “indigenous” people were those had lived in a place from “time whereof the memory of man runneth not to contrary,” and since we can remember Americans not being on the Moon, we can remember them coming from somewhere else where they are still found to this day, they are not indigenous to the Moon.
But if some wants to tell me this is really real, I’d be OK with that.
A host went on live TV begging ordinary Iranians NOT to leak the hiding locations of regime officials to Israel! He literally cried that if the people expose their coordinates, “it’s over” and they will be eliminated.
The Islamic Republic is terrified because they know the ultimate truth: millions of Iranians are acting as the eyes and ears of Israel on the ground.
The Iranian people are actively cooperating to hunt down their oppressors. We are allies in this fight.
But if someone wants to tell me this is really real, I’d be OK with that.
A host went on live TV begging ordinary Iranians NOT to leak the hiding locations of regime officials to Israel! He literally cried that if the people expose their coordinates, “it’s over” and they will be eliminated.
The Islamic Republic is terrified because they know the ultimate truth: millions of Iranians are acting as the eyes and ears of Israel on the ground.
The Iranian people are actively cooperating to hunt down their oppressors. We are allies in this fight.
Sorry, not even sure how that happened. In my defense, in all these years, that’s my first double post.
HC68 and Niketas:
Thank you for your opinions. You’re doing the Lord’s work, boys.
OSINTdefender at X.com, posted yesterday (22hrs ago):
“Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed in recent days that the Iranian Government is not currently willing to engage in serious or substantial negotiations to end the ongoing war against Israel and the United States. Assessments indicate that the Iranian Government believes it is in a strong position in the war and does not have to accede to America’s diplomatic demands, and while Iran is willing to keep channels open, it does not trust the United States or President Trump, U.S. officials have told The New York Times.”
wretchardthecat (Richard Fernandez) posted yesterday:
To understand why Saudi Arabia and Israel are urging Trump not to relent on Iran it is important to understand the military term “pursuit phase”.
Pursuit is the phase which follows a breakthrough designed to catch or cut off a hostile force that is attempting to escape (retrograde), with the aim of destroying it before it can reorganize or establish a new defensive position. It begins when the enemy breaks contact and tries to withdraw, often after losing cohesion.
Pursuit is often one of the most decisive and destructive phases for the enemy when executed effectively, because the retreating force is highly vulnerable. It’s the payoff phase. To achieve a breakthrough only to call off pursuit is basically to let Blofeld escape in the final reel so there’ll be a sequel.
When pursuit becomes impossible or severely restricted due to sanctuary (safe havens across borders or in ungoverned spaces) or international law/political constraints, it fundamentally undermines the decisive potential of this offensive phase. MORE WITH Historic EXAMPLES https://x.com/wretchardthecat/status/2039484834083655754?
____________________
Not many days ago, Neo fretted that Trump would call it quits before destroying the Theocratic Terror State.
Yet, after his speech last night, “Bomb them into the Stone Age” is now not just a Trumpian threat. It is his pursuit.
Regarding the novel and now deployed tools I hadn’t imagined to open the Straits of Hormuz is Max Afterburner, who informs us earlier today: https://www.youtube.com/
“Bomb them into the Stone Age – where they belong”
You left out the best part.
On befriending animals: senior summer in college my roommates and I found 3 abandoned racoon babies west of Boulder. We brought them home, set up a pen in the backyard and raised them. They were a delight until they reached puberty, then became aggressive and uncontrollable. We released them back into the wild and watched them happily scamper away.
Dogs are a different story. There’s now genetic evidence of a recent “bonding” genes that wolves do not have. Dogs have adapted to be predisposed to bond with us. I have no objections as I can’t imagine life without a dog. Yes, they sleep on our beds and the licks on my face are one of the real pleasures in my life.
TEST
Animals are manifestations of the glory of God’s creation.
Suck it, guys. You know who you are.
Happy Easter.
Physicsguy,
I wonder how dominant that dog ‘bonding’ gene is. I’m thinking fairly strong. I have known two wolf/dog crosses and they were both very bonded to their people and social with others. Not barky at all though and one made interesting crooning type sounds. Both had the thickest coats I’ve ever felt and slightly narrower skulls than the usual shepherd type dog. The crooner was a Husky x and the other a Shepherd x. Massive and could have done serious damage if he wasn’t so busy begging for treats. Of course his name was ‘Timber’. It’s my understanding that deliberate crossing of wolf and dog is illegal in most states and Canada. As it should be. People do it anyway or it just happens.
IrishOtter49,
To paraphrase Ben Franklin;
Dogs are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Re: The Beeb and colonizing the moon.
Indigenous, smigenous.
Anyway, we got there first.
@ Molly Brown: “Anyway, we got there first.”
Unless we find the aliens underground tunnels!
I have wondered for multiple days now:
Where is Rufus T. Firefly?
I admit, I can’t read all of Neo’s posts, nor all of your comments (–:though I do want to!).
But, I have noticed that I’ve missed reading comments from Rufus.
Is it just me?
Marlene:
Now that you mention it, RTF has been AWOL for a month it seems.
Thanks very much, Kate!
And right back at you—a happy Easter to all who celebrate.
(I assume wishing one a happy Good Friday may not be in the best of taste…)
@Molly Brown: I wonder how dominant that dog ‘bonding’ gene is. I’m thinking fairly strong.
According to Temple Grandin, the autistic animal savant, human bonding is so huge for dogs, that we are now a dog’s environment, not the natural world.
Dogs can survive on their own, but they have evolved to live with humans. I would venture to say that a dog can’t really thrive without a human relationship.
It’s a humbling thought.
@ Huxley: ” … a dog can’t really thrive without a human relationship.”
That is an amazing observation, in the sense that we would consider that a domesticated canine would or could or should have evolved, or been bred, in such a way that it just might well “thrive”.
And in parallel, that as humans we can relate the concept of our thriving and interject it into the life of a domesticated animal as a potentially desirable characteristic.
[I am not sure if this is two separate ideas or basically a single idea expressed in two different ways.]
Plus we should acknowledge that some people own and relate to other (typically domesticated farm) animals with such affection as to be close to the relationship dog owners have with their pets.
Part of the problem is YouTube. YouTube will show you the one-in-a-million pet otter or beaver or raccoon or what have you and will only show the golden moments of such pets, and gives a false impression of what the typical experience is like.
— Niketas Choniates
YouTube certainly contributes. But so do TV and movies.
For ex, most of the cute, adorable chimpanzees we’ve seen on TV and movies over the decades (my favorite example is the old BJ and the Bear, TV show, which dates me) are young. In fact, IIRC there is a general rule that ‘actor’ chimps have to be 5 or less. Partly that’s for the good of the chimp, but it’s also true that adult chimps are a good deal less cute, and a great deal more dangerous and hard to manage than the young ones.
This leads to tragic outcomes sometimes when people adopt a baby chimp, legally or not, and don’t allow for managing it when it’s an adult, substantially stronger than a human, and aggressive. Even if they stay friendly with their owners (and they often but not always do) they can become dangerous to everyone else around them. Plus, even if the chimp has no aggressive intent, an adult chimp is powerful. They can easily injure a human without even intending to.
And when chimps do get aggressive, they mean it. They go for the face and the genitals, they try to maim.
The problem is that A turns into B in the natural course of time. Sometimes the result is tragic for a human, like that woman whose face was ripped off by her friend’s ‘pet’ chimp. Sometimes it’s tragic for the chimp, because they can become too big to manage and too expensive to care for, a human raised chimp can’t be released to the wild, zoos are full, often they end up having to be killed or end up as experimental stock.
But they’re so cute and adorable! People fall into the bad habit of thinking of pets as their children, and forget that animals grow up. That can cause problems even with dogs and cats if owners are naive, it’s much worse with wild-ish animals that haven’t been bred for human company.
I loathe the phrase ‘pet parent’ for just that reason.
Here is an interesting report about about the dangers of climbing Mt. Everest, and they’re not all just the mountain itself.
First, the article points out that it costs somewhere between $40,000 and $70,000 dollars to equip yourself and to make the arrangements to climb Mt. Everest, so there is a lot of money involved.
You hear stories about the trusty Sherpas who make that climb possible–Tenzing and all that.
But authorities have discovered a scam in which some guides have been dosing the food of climbers with baking soda, the climbers get severe gastrointestinal distress, and in the high pressure and very dangerous environment of the climb, the guides pressure them to call for very costly medical evacuation by helicopter.
According to the linked report authorities have found that this scam involves not only some guides but also that some helicopter companies are in on it, and the hospitals they are flown to are also in on it, the payout to all these scammers coming from the travel insurance companies which are billed for the emergency evacuation and treatment.
So far, authorities say they’ve found almost $20 million dollars paid out in the scam.*
So I guess the lesson here is that no mater where you go–you can climb the highest mountain–and you still can’t escape evil, or should I say “human nature.”
Now, James Carville is getting in on the Prosecution act. Said Dems will prosecute Trump family members after the MidTerms. And, I believe him, should the Dems win.
Befriend a bird, and you’ve got a friend for life.
Actually that’s true for all mammals, but birds especially. Crows and ravens especially.
I have a group (a “murder”?) of crows in my neighborhood. They gather on the rooftops next door and converse and carry on nosily and at great length. I am trying to make friends with them. Putting out food, comporting myself in a non-threatening manner, etc. I know they see me and I know I have been a subject of their discussion. So far they have remained neutral. But I am optimistic. I will keep trying to win them over. This is my project for the spring and summer.
Animals are God’s gift to ease humanity’s suffering.
Well, according to the information linked below, the people at the Beeb are worried that America setting up a base on the moon will just be an act of “colonialism.”*
* See https://x.com/MichaelARothman/status/2039383650140398036?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2039383650140398036%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finstapundit.com%2F787044%2F
I really don’t know what the Hell this is.*
* See “Why is she like this” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb7ahTUylpA
— IrishOtter49
Um, no. It isn’t.
Some animals you can sort of tame/make friends with and it’ll last. Others it’s highly iffy. Remember Knut, the polar bear cub? Back in the mid-2000s he was an adorable cub that became the center of a classic Internet/media emotional outpouring.
Of course, a few years later his keepers carefully avoided going into his containment area alone or without protection, because by then he was a full-grown polar bear and could easily attack them.
People who raise chimps from infancy sometimes get a nasty surprise when that chimp reaches sexual maturity, too.
Baby deer are cute, but it’s not unknown for male deer raised by humans to attack humans when they go into breeding mode, because they are responding to ‘fight to mate’ programming and they confuse the proper target.
You can raise a pureblood wolf pup, and it’ll often bond with you, but you’d better make sure you retain your dominant status with it as it gets to adulthood.
No, ‘friend for life’ is not true of all mammals, not reliably.
— IrishOtter49
No, they aren’t. Not in a general sense, anyway.
I realize I probably sound kind of jerky here, or like a killjoy or something, I’m sure you didn’t mean it as a universal statement, but that is exactly the sort of anthropomorphism that gets people maimed and killed.
It’s a bit of a bugaboo of mine.
@HC68:No, they aren’t. Not in a general sense, anyway.
The animals that are, are the end result of thousands of years of Man’s interventions.
Part of the problem is YouTube. YouTube will show you the one-in-a-million pet otter or beaver or raccoon or what have you and will only show the golden moments of such pets, and gives a false impression of what the typical experience is like.
For example, here is the BBC telling us
with lots of references to YouTube raccoon pets.
But the reality is
Minitrue has seen better days
As for carville can someone stomp that watermoccassin
Smarter than most humans and more commonsense
See that crazy person above
Today is the Passover Day, which started at sundown yesterday. Interestingly , the current Jewish ” Perpetual Calendar” does not allow Passover to start on Tuesday at Sundown for a Wednesday Passover during the day.
There are those of us who believe that Jesus ” Last Supper”,aka Passover Observance and institution of Communion / Lord’s Supper was on what would be a ” Tuesday ” night and his crucifixion on a Wednesday. This would be when the calendar was more strictly celestial observation based before the ” Perpetual calendar” was instituted several centuries later. In this belief, it is the special sabbath of the first day of Unleavened bread – the day after Passover – ( See Leviticus chapter 23 ) that Jesus was hurriedly buried before. Hence 3 days and 3 nights with the resurrection sometime after sundown ” Saturday” night ( which would be the start of the first Jewish night/ day cycle of the week) and the tomb stone rolled away early ” Sunday ” morning to show it was already empty.
in other news, that decision by judge mehta, re civil lawsuits against Trump, relied on magic as well as the discredited remarks of Cassidy Hutchinson, which only one person here, believed plausible,
Julie Kelly as usual found the receipts,
Federal worker Nehemie Almonor in Virginia admits to using telework to collect three paychecks at same time.
Besides Almonor,
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/apr/2/nehemie-almonor-federal-worker-va-admits-using-telework-get-3/
and it should be noted, it was prophesied in Isiah some 400 years earlier, as I recall
about Jesus betrayal
To: Snow on Pine on April 2, 2026 at 11:13 am:
“Some ideas are so stupid only an intellectual can believe them.”
George Orwell.
Speaking of colonialism:
Since it was Americans that first set foot on the moon, this makes Americans the first indigenous people of the moon and therefore the moon is owned by Americans.
Any effort by another nation to lay claim to the moon will be a blatant act of imperialism and, depending upon the circumstances, genocide.
I agree that in these often charming Youtube videos what you are seeing are the best days, not the worst.
For instance, there is a series of cute videos put out by someone in Japan about life with his two pet Otters. But someone else–it may even have been him–also talked about these otters wrecking the house, biting, and how they had a really bad smell.
As I have written here before, what gets me are the YouTube videos of “animal lovers” demonstrating their “love” by repeatedly kissing dogs, chickens, pigs, wombats, goats, horses, parrots, Emus, or even more exotic animals, you name it, and sometimes directly on the snout or mouth.
These animal lovers lovers don’t seem to know, or perhaps care, that there are some diseases which can transfer from animals to humans (and vice versa), and some of them are quite serious, or even deadly.
I wished a Happy Passover to Neophile readers observing the holiday on yesterday’s thread, and I repeat it now for those who missed it.
@JohnTyler:Americans the first indigenous people of the moon
“Indigenous” literally means “born from the soil” which would exclude Americans from being indigenous to the Moon. In reality it means whatever Leftists need it to mean this week. Irish people for example don’t count as “indigenous” to Ireland and Arabs apparently are “indigenous” to everywhere they’re found outside of Arabia.
But before the Leftists got hold of it, “indigenous” people were those had lived in a place from “time whereof the memory of man runneth not to contrary,” and since we can remember Americans not being on the Moon, we can remember them coming from somewhere else where they are still found to this day, they are not indigenous to the Moon.
I try to stay on guard against wishful thinking.
https://x.com/patriot_apranik/status/2039360626221256833
But if some wants to tell me this is really real, I’d be OK with that.
I try to stay on guard against wishful thinking.
https://x.com/patriot_apranik/status/2039360626221256833
But if someone wants to tell me this is really real, I’d be OK with that.
Sorry, not even sure how that happened. In my defense, in all these years, that’s my first double post.
HC68 and Niketas:
Thank you for your opinions. You’re doing the Lord’s work, boys.
OSINTdefender at X.com, posted yesterday (22hrs ago):
“Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed in recent days that the Iranian Government is not currently willing to engage in serious or substantial negotiations to end the ongoing war against Israel and the United States. Assessments indicate that the Iranian Government believes it is in a strong position in the war and does not have to accede to America’s diplomatic demands, and while Iran is willing to keep channels open, it does not trust the United States or President Trump, U.S. officials have told The New York Times.”
wretchardthecat (Richard Fernandez) posted yesterday:
To understand why Saudi Arabia and Israel are urging Trump not to relent on Iran it is important to understand the military term “pursuit phase”.
Pursuit is the phase which follows a breakthrough designed to catch or cut off a hostile force that is attempting to escape (retrograde), with the aim of destroying it before it can reorganize or establish a new defensive position. It begins when the enemy breaks contact and tries to withdraw, often after losing cohesion.
Pursuit is often one of the most decisive and destructive phases for the enemy when executed effectively, because the retreating force is highly vulnerable. It’s the payoff phase. To achieve a breakthrough only to call off pursuit is basically to let Blofeld escape in the final reel so there’ll be a sequel.
When pursuit becomes impossible or severely restricted due to sanctuary (safe havens across borders or in ungoverned spaces) or international law/political constraints, it fundamentally undermines the decisive potential of this offensive phase. MORE WITH Historic EXAMPLES https://x.com/wretchardthecat/status/2039484834083655754?
____________________
Not many days ago, Neo fretted that Trump would call it quits before destroying the Theocratic Terror State.
Yet, after his speech last night, “Bomb them into the Stone Age” is now not just a Trumpian threat. It is his pursuit.
Regarding the novel and now deployed tools I hadn’t imagined to open the Straits of Hormuz is Max Afterburner, who informs us earlier today: https://www.youtube.com/
“Bomb them into the Stone Age – where they belong”
You left out the best part.
On befriending animals: senior summer in college my roommates and I found 3 abandoned racoon babies west of Boulder. We brought them home, set up a pen in the backyard and raised them. They were a delight until they reached puberty, then became aggressive and uncontrollable. We released them back into the wild and watched them happily scamper away.
Dogs are a different story. There’s now genetic evidence of a recent “bonding” genes that wolves do not have. Dogs have adapted to be predisposed to bond with us. I have no objections as I can’t imagine life without a dog. Yes, they sleep on our beds and the licks on my face are one of the real pleasures in my life.
TEST
Animals are manifestations of the glory of God’s creation.
Suck it, guys. You know who you are.
Happy Easter.
Physicsguy,
I wonder how dominant that dog ‘bonding’ gene is. I’m thinking fairly strong. I have known two wolf/dog crosses and they were both very bonded to their people and social with others. Not barky at all though and one made interesting crooning type sounds. Both had the thickest coats I’ve ever felt and slightly narrower skulls than the usual shepherd type dog. The crooner was a Husky x and the other a Shepherd x. Massive and could have done serious damage if he wasn’t so busy begging for treats. Of course his name was ‘Timber’. It’s my understanding that deliberate crossing of wolf and dog is illegal in most states and Canada. As it should be. People do it anyway or it just happens.
IrishOtter49,
To paraphrase Ben Franklin;
Dogs are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Re: The Beeb and colonizing the moon.
Indigenous, smigenous.
Anyway, we got there first.
@ Molly Brown: “Anyway, we got there first.”
Unless we find the aliens underground tunnels!
I have wondered for multiple days now:
Where is Rufus T. Firefly?
I admit, I can’t read all of Neo’s posts, nor all of your comments (–:though I do want to!).
But, I have noticed that I’ve missed reading comments from Rufus.
Is it just me?
Marlene:
Now that you mention it, RTF has been AWOL for a month it seems.
Thanks very much, Kate!
And right back at you—a happy Easter to all who celebrate.
(I assume wishing one a happy Good Friday may not be in the best of taste…)
@Molly Brown: I wonder how dominant that dog ‘bonding’ gene is. I’m thinking fairly strong.
According to Temple Grandin, the autistic animal savant, human bonding is so huge for dogs, that we are now a dog’s environment, not the natural world.
Dogs can survive on their own, but they have evolved to live with humans. I would venture to say that a dog can’t really thrive without a human relationship.
It’s a humbling thought.
@ Huxley: ” … a dog can’t really thrive without a human relationship.”
That is an amazing observation, in the sense that we would consider that a domesticated canine would or could or should have evolved, or been bred, in such a way that it just might well “thrive”.
And in parallel, that as humans we can relate the concept of our thriving and interject it into the life of a domesticated animal as a potentially desirable characteristic.
[I am not sure if this is two separate ideas or basically a single idea expressed in two different ways.]
Plus we should acknowledge that some people own and relate to other (typically domesticated farm) animals with such affection as to be close to the relationship dog owners have with their pets.
— Niketas Choniates
YouTube certainly contributes. But so do TV and movies.
For ex, most of the cute, adorable chimpanzees we’ve seen on TV and movies over the decades (my favorite example is the old BJ and the Bear, TV show, which dates me) are young. In fact, IIRC there is a general rule that ‘actor’ chimps have to be 5 or less. Partly that’s for the good of the chimp, but it’s also true that adult chimps are a good deal less cute, and a great deal more dangerous and hard to manage than the young ones.
This leads to tragic outcomes sometimes when people adopt a baby chimp, legally or not, and don’t allow for managing it when it’s an adult, substantially stronger than a human, and aggressive. Even if they stay friendly with their owners (and they often but not always do) they can become dangerous to everyone else around them. Plus, even if the chimp has no aggressive intent, an adult chimp is powerful. They can easily injure a human without even intending to.
And when chimps do get aggressive, they mean it. They go for the face and the genitals, they try to maim.
A: This is a cute young chimp a year or two old: https://friendsofanimals.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/toto3-600×559.png
B: This is an annoyed adult male chimp: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQCHhKY3JRLe5LQDR3j5klFLgv4d8fPfGIMuQ&s
The problem is that A turns into B in the natural course of time. Sometimes the result is tragic for a human, like that woman whose face was ripped off by her friend’s ‘pet’ chimp. Sometimes it’s tragic for the chimp, because they can become too big to manage and too expensive to care for, a human raised chimp can’t be released to the wild, zoos are full, often they end up having to be killed or end up as experimental stock.
But they’re so cute and adorable! People fall into the bad habit of thinking of pets as their children, and forget that animals grow up. That can cause problems even with dogs and cats if owners are naive, it’s much worse with wild-ish animals that haven’t been bred for human company.
I loathe the phrase ‘pet parent’ for just that reason.
Here is an interesting report about about the dangers of climbing Mt. Everest, and they’re not all just the mountain itself.
First, the article points out that it costs somewhere between $40,000 and $70,000 dollars to equip yourself and to make the arrangements to climb Mt. Everest, so there is a lot of money involved.
You hear stories about the trusty Sherpas who make that climb possible–Tenzing and all that.
But authorities have discovered a scam in which some guides have been dosing the food of climbers with baking soda, the climbers get severe gastrointestinal distress, and in the high pressure and very dangerous environment of the climb, the guides pressure them to call for very costly medical evacuation by helicopter.
According to the linked report authorities have found that this scam involves not only some guides but also that some helicopter companies are in on it, and the hospitals they are flown to are also in on it, the payout to all these scammers coming from the travel insurance companies which are billed for the emergency evacuation and treatment.
So far, authorities say they’ve found almost $20 million dollars paid out in the scam.*
So I guess the lesson here is that no mater where you go–you can climb the highest mountain–and you still can’t escape evil, or should I say “human nature.”
* See https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2026/04/01/i-did-not-have-everest-guides-poisoning-climbers-on-my-bingo-card-n3813495?