I AM AN ENVIRONMENTALIST

June 23, 2010

My Monday blog (see below) got me into some hot water with readers. Sometimes I write things from my momentary gut feelings without taking the time or effort to consider the consequences. What I wrote probably stems from my second childhood. When I was a kid, I ripped one wing off a housefly to watch it's reaction. Someone told me that it would only be able to fly upward until it reached outer space and died. My experiment didn't have the same results. The fly just gyrated on the ground until I put an end to its misery with my foot. I have killed many flies since that time, but I never intentionally mutilated one to see how it flies.

In my heart I am an environmentalist. I wrote a blog about the plight of turtles in Malaga Lake that was reprinted on the front page of our local newspaper. We not only have a dog, but we keep a lovely yard and garden, feed wild birds, and have millions of pet mosquitoes. They are so tame, they will eat out of our hands - or any other part of our bodies. They are amazing creatures. Have you ever examined one under a microscope? Still, when they come as uninvited guests for a meal, I chase them away. People who try that may receive the same treatment. If the mosquito manages to steal part of a meal before I notice it, I don't hesitate to retrieve that meal by force. I am more lenient with people.

I only shot one squirrel in my entire lifetime. After looking down at the lifeless creature, I said to myself, "Ralph, don't you feel like a hero?" Today I enjoy watching squirrels, but not in our garden. They bury acorns all over the place and they (acorns, not squirrels) grow into oak trees that I have to tear out by the roots. But please don't conclude that I have anything against oak trees. I love them and we have a dozen large oaks in our yard. When they get old and feeble like me, I cut them up and burn them to keep warm. Many environmentalists don't like that because it makes large carbon footprints. They would rather burn old, feeble people like me. Getting back to the squirrels, I have never observed a squirrel digging up an acorn, but they do dig up flower bulbs and other plants in our garden. That is why I don't have guilt feelings When I run over a squirrel. I am just one of their natural predators.

I need to set the record straight about geese. They are majestic creatures that have just as much right to live here as I do. In fact, they were here first. There just isn't enough room for all of us. Someone sent me a URL of a goose-lover website on which a woman in South Jersey presents an interesting argument. In response to my and other people's opinion that there are just too many geese, and to my suggestion that they be fed birth control pills, she replies, "312 million humans versus 6 million geese? That's one Canada goose for every 52 humans. How can we say that there's an overpopulation of Canada geese when human numbers far outweigh geese numbers?"

Bees are also wonderfully created creatures, and extremely beneficial. Would the goose-lover lady contend that there should be an equal number of people and bees? What about flies and mosquitoes? I may be prejudiced, but I think humans should receive precedence over animals and plants in matters of life and death, but not necessarily in numbers. On the other hand, I believe that our Creator gave humans a responsibility to care for other forms of life. That concept seems better to me than Darwin's survival of the fittest. Geese are no match for people, so by Darwin's standards, they would not have a chance.

Regarding geese, I concede that there should be an equal number of people and geese on the beaches at our local lakes. Right now, there are hundreds of pooping geese but no people. Now remains the question of how to resolve the inequality.

PUPPY AND GOOSE POOP

June 21, 2010

Pumpkin is the second puppy that we are raising for The Seeing Eye. We hope that our puppy will someday become a companion and guide for a blind person. Although it is difficult to part with a dog that you have come to love, it is not much different from watching your children leave the nest to live with another person. In both cases, our careful and loving training will assure that the new partnership will be harmonious and successful.

When we get a puppy from The Seeing Eye, we also get a catalog of explicit instructions on how to care for the puppy. One rule is that we always carry a plastic sack to pick up after our puppy when it "eliminates" or has "park time" (TSE terminology). If we failed to do so, our entire neighborhood would be up in arms and rightly so. Who wants doggie excrement on their front lawn, sidewalk or - perish the thought - on their shoes! It's not just The Seeing Eye's rule, but the law in most places. Even it it wasn't required, common courtesy would demand it.

Although a fully trained guide dog is allowed to go almost anywhere people go, our puppies are not permitted on beaches. In most cases, there would be no problem, but some people just can't believe that a dog can hold it in as long or longer than humans.

For geese there are different rules - or rather none whatsoever! The only rules pertaining to geese are directed at the people who are fed up with their pooping and destructive activity. Flocks of geese that have gotten too lazy to fly south in winter and north in summer are now permitted to ruin public beaches and pollute the water in New Jersey. We human beings are forbidden to swim, but the geese can do whatever they like. They can tear up your lawn, pulling the grass out by the roots. And then they can walk around your house and poop on all your sidewalks. The poop is eventually tracked into your house and onto carpets.

The whole country is alarmed about the current Gulf oil spill. People are demanding of BP and the government that the pollution be stopped and people be reimbursed for damages caused. But these same idiots, who would not hesitate to swat a housefly or mosquito, get irate if anyone wants to do something to curb the goose population. They promote free condoms for school kids, but are opposed to giving birth control pills to geese.

I would like to figure out a way to collect all the geese in our area and deposit them on the lawns of the environmentalists. Trapping them is illegal. Does anyone have a suggestion?

TEA PARTY RALLY

June 19, 2010

Because I don't want to overload my T.E.A. Party website with pictures, here are a bunch of photos from today's rally at the Salem County Fairgrounds. You can read the blog here.

INDECENT BBC FILM

June 4, 2010

Dr. Brett Mills of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, southeastern England, believes that intimate scenes of animals such as sexual activity, giving birth and dying, breach the animals' rights to privacy. His criticism was directed toward the BBC documentary series, "Nature's Great Events."

The BBC series follows animals such as polar bears, African elephants and humpback whales during epic annual events.

Mills argues that animals have a basic right to privacy, and that filming their most intimate moments violates this right.

Mills' report was published in the April 30, 2010 Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies.

Let's hope this idea is embraced by the general public, film makers and the media. Since these "experts" believe that man is simply a higher animal on the evolutionary ladder, they would hopefully agree that films showing sexual activity and death among humans should also be banned.

Not knowing about the intimate moments of animals would be a small price to pay to rid society of films that are full of sex and violence.