Help me understand…

AP photo from BBC link

 

… how a 2-year old dehydrated bear with his head stuck in a jar for over a week couldn’t have been tranquilized - yes, even in a “busy” town - and relocated, instead of being killed?

 

Efforts to tranquilise the animal failed because the bear “stayed in forested areas”, he said.

Mr Naplin said the bear was “in pretty tough condition” after being unable to eat or drink for several days because of the 2.5-gallon (9.5-litre) plastic jar on its head.

Officials knew the jar had been stuck on his head for many days.  It was not going to fall off suddenly.  It was not going to break.  Why could he not have been tranquilized?

Thought for the day

In early September I’ll be leading a discussion session at my church’s annual retreat.  I get to pick the material and topic (though the pastor has veto power), so I’ve been trying to narrow my options.  This morning I was thumbing through a little discussion-friendly collection of sermons and essays by Lutheran theologian Joseph Sittler, The Care of the Earth, and re-encountered this paragraph:

If the creation, including our fellow creatures, is impiously used apart from a gracious primeval joy in it the very richness of the creation becomes a judgment.  This has a cleansing and orderly meaning for everything in the world of nature, from the sewage we dump into our streams to the cosmic sewage we dump into the fallout.

Abuse is use without grace; it is always a failure in the counterpoint of use and enjoyment.  When things are not used in ways determined by joy in the things themselves, this violated potentiality of joy (timid as all things holy, but relentless and blunt in its reprisals) withdraws and leaves us, not perhaps with immediate positive damnations but with something much worse - the wan, ghastly, negative damnations of use without joy, stuff without grace, a busy, fabricating world with the shine gone off, personal relations for the nature of which we have invented the eloquent term, contacts, starting without beholding, even fornication without finding.*

 

Which reminds me…  Hundreds of species of American birds and songbirds have declined by up 90 percent in the last 40 or so years, primarily due to habitat destruction.  Of course, John Terborgh was sounding the alarm years ago.

 

 

 

 

(*”The Care of the Earth,” pages 59-60.)

Help run this ad!

I love this ad.  Let’s help the NRDC get this published in the Washington Post, shall we?  Click here to make a donation.

Sadly, the Bush/McCain snake oil (being peddled with particular exuberance by none other than Newt-Contract On The Earth*-Gingrich) appears to have potent stupification effects: 74 percent of Americans now approve of offshore drilling, despite the fact that even though ”Federal energy analysts have said offshore drilling would have no impact on oil production or prices until 2030.”

No surprises re: where the candidates stand on this nonsense.  McCain is pushing the snake oil for its “psychological benefits.”

*”mistitle” intended; and I didn’t attach my Powells account number to that link, either: if you buy his book, I don’t want any points from it!

Who’s holding up the Global AIDS bill?

My email today included an alert from the ELCA Advocacy center urging phone calls to our senators to unblock the Global AIDS bill.   I confess, I was not up to speed, so I hunted Google news and read that it is currently being stalled by “seven socially conservative senators“ who are worried about what kinds of programs the money will be spent on.  They don’t want to spend money on prevention if that means encouraging people to use condoms.

No surprises, there.  But one of the Seven Socially Conservative Senators is — ready? – Louisiana Republican David Vitter, staunch defender of Family Values and occasional patron of call girls.  OK, semi-habitual patron of call girls.  As an amusing aside, I must note that Vitter is also defending marriage and Family Values by co-sponsoring an anti-gay marriage amendment with… (if you have liquid in your mouth, swallow now)(seriously) – Idaho Senator Larry “I have a wide stance” Craig.  What is with these conservatives?  Do they swear a Hypocritic Oath on taking office?

But I digress.  Now that you know what Vitter is up to, please call your senator (even if it’s one of the Seven Socially Conservative ones).  Here’s what the ELCA alert advises:

Take action today! Call your Senators and urge their support of the S. 2731, the Global AIDS Reauthorization Act of 2008.

Step 1: Call the Capitol switchboard at 202. 224. 3121 and ask to be connected to your Senator’s office. (If you don’t know who your Senators are, you can look them up at www.senate.gov)

Step 2: The receptionist will answer. Introduce yourself as (your name) a constituent from (city, state).

Here is a helpful script:

“I am calling today to urge Senator________ to support immediate Senate consideration of S. 2731, the 2008 Global AIDS reauthorization bill. Our Government’s effort to fight deadly disease in the world through PEPFAR is saving lives and is helping to restore America’s image throughout the world. I urge Senator ___________ to support the $50 billion reauthorization of the Global AIDS bill. Do you know the Senator’s position on this bill?”

Request a written response from the Senator on his/her position on the bill. Be sure to leave your full name and address with the receptionist and thank him or her when you are finished.

Step 3: Let us know how the call went. E-mail kim.stietz@elca.org with an update so that we can follow up with your Senator’s staff in Washington if necessary.

Dancing fool

 And I mean that in the nicest way.  This is great (but his moves are pretty dorky).  Story here.  Have your speakers/headphones on.

Why is this man smiling?

G-8 photo, NYT 7/9/08

Because the rest of the G-8 joined him in stupidity and intransigence this week, offering a spineless and vague “pledge” to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by… 2050.  Oh, the courage!  The leadership!  The vision!

No wonder ”the White House painted the document as a victory.”

I wonder if Cheney got his hands on it first.

Update: Makes you so proud, doesn’t he?

$4.99/gallon

That’s what we paid for gasoline at a stop on the way back from a weekend wedding in Pasadena.  Next time you consider stopping at a Petro station, think twice.  I was so disgusted, I would gladly have driven on and taken our chances.  But we compromised and bought a few gallons, so that the engine wouldn’t begin sucking grit and grime off the walls of the fuel tank while we drove to the next station.  There was absolutely no reason for charging $4.99; they did it because they could.  Just a few miles north on Interstate 5, gas was about 40 cents cheaper.  At the most far-flung, “last gas for 40 miles” stations on the highway, gas was cheaper.  But Petro is a big truck and  travel stop at the northern foot of The Grapevine, and they simply took the opportunity to gouge.  Talk about highway robbery.  Next time you see this sign, drive on.

On further reflection: By the way, I have always been one of those party-poopers arguing that Americans have long paid too little for gasoline, and I am not averse to my own medicine.  I’ve already paid over $5.00/gallon for biodiesel (made from recycled veggie oil, not the virgin stuff).  But gouging for the simple sake of gouging is another matter.  Considering the prices in the area around that Petro station, gouging is exactly what they were doing.  Maybe they’ll be plowing the weekend profits into the development of alternative energy sources and flex-fuel technologies.

I crack myself up.

I like this guy’s plan for his DIY electric car:

Lefteris now wants to cover his roof in solar panels and recharge his car batteries from the sun.

“We have so much energy falling on our heads,” he said “and we are not doing anything with it.”