AirBeagle

Happy Birthday to the Three-Year-Old Beagles!

Feargal, Fergus and Fredrik turned three years old today. Pics and video of the day’s celebrations (which included beagle baths) are now up at «their website». Enjoy! And Happy Number Three boys!

New Beagle Video: The Howling …

… and it’s available «here». Enjoy.

Good Riddance, Facebook

My Facebook account is being deleted (allegedly) as of this morning. It takes 14 days for the deletion to go through, during which time they beg and plead for you to come back (mainly by trying to guilt trip you: “Your friend, John X, will miss you!”) and sending you spam begging for your presence [...]

Escape!

The beagle boys escaped tonight, the first time they’ve given us the slip since June. They’re fine — they’re asleep all around the den right now. The strong winds this evening had blown the front gate open a crack, just enough for them to test it and push against it and get out, and I [...]

It is Difficult …

… to keep up a blog like this one, which has, at various times in the past, been chock-a-block with details and observations from our lives. Living two years back in California, with the attendant extreme stresses, drained the blogging impulse from both of us. Plus, there was the whole medical drama on my part. It [...]

Elite Care for Student Athletes, Not for Scholars

I once got death threats for taking a stand like this … but … «the Duncan Banner reports that DPS has reached a contract agreement with Air Evac» (the reporter doesn’t mention the cost) to cover student athletes if they get injured in any situation. Why just the athletes?? Where’s the coverage for ALL Duncan [...]

The Final Passing of American Journalism

It feels as if the last bit of actual journalism in America is now dead. In «What We Lose With Cronkite’s Death», Bruce Maiman sums it up pretty well: “… it’s a reminder, too, that the broadcasting style and journalistic credibility that Cronkite represents also seems to be fading into history. Cronkite’s death was inevitable rather than [...]

Of Interest: 19-Jul-09

• «We lost Walter Cronkite this week» (along with the last vestiges of American journalism). • In Salt Lake City, the ‘Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’, which had no problem blitzkrieging California and spending millions getting Prop H8 passed, is «extremely unhappy now that us queers are shoving back right in their own front [...]

Add One More to the Pile

This evening’s mail brought, finally, an official copy of our California marriage certificate, which is 1 of only 18,000 gender-neutral, Constitutionally equally protected, legally recognized marriages. (The copy pictured here has some personal details blanked out, such as birth dates, addresses, witnesses, and parents.) I post it here as a big ol’ kiss off to [...]

Of Interest: 12-Jul-09

• In Minneapolis, the New York Times turns up «a fascinating, heartbreaking, and ultimately, important story» of povery, terrorism, Somalia, teenagers, Facebook, and oddly enough, the building used to depict Mary Richard’s later apartment on the Mary Tyler Moore Show back in the 1970s, all of which may add up to the “most significant domestic [...]

Waiting Room

This summer has been one of just waiting. Waiting on doctors, hospitals, school districts, principals, universities, admissions directors. The gory, boring details of my medical situation were recounted in «this previous post from a year-and-a-half ago». Here’s an update: I have a saline suppression test (the third one I will have done) scheduled for 3-Aug; the posture [...]

Two Right-Wing Terrorist Murders in Two Weeks

And now two right-wing terrorists have committed two political murders in two weeks. First Dr. Tiller in Wichita, a murder which was, from the point of view of the terrorists, successful in its aims. Now, an obscene attack on the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum begs the question, are we in for a Summer [...]

Marriage Equality Arrives in New Hampshire

With a (mostly meaningless) addition, Gov. John Lynch is set to make New Hampshire the sixth of the 50 states to acknowledge equal protection under the law and Constitution this week: ‘Gov. John Lynch will sign a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, he announced yesterday – but only if the Legislature passes extra protections for religious groups [...]

Protects the Property, But Doesn’t Obstruct the View

One of my favorite blog categories is nostalgia, and within that category, one of my favorite blogs is «The Daily Mirror». It’s basically a blog which looks back over the years at what was in the LA Times at the time. Occasionally, there are priceless nuggets of mainly Hollywood history which are dug up. «This bit [...]

Marriage Equality Arrives in Maine

It’s tentative and fragile, but «Maine added itself» to the list of states willing to uphold equal protection under the rule of law and the United States Constitution: ‘In a banner day in New England for advocates of gay marriage, Maine legalized the practice Wednesday, and the New Hampshire Legislature voted to do the same. Maine [...]

The Right Way

The story of the United States of America joining the long and black list of nations who abuse and torture prisoners and then invent all sorts of justifications for it is dribbling out slowly. «A new article in Newsweek» is one of the best I’ve seen so far at laying out both the nitty-gritty and [...]

And Then There Was Maude …

Sad news today: «Bea Arthur passed away at 86 from cancer»: ‘Beatrice Arthur, the tall, deep-voiced actress whose razor-sharp delivery of comedy lines made her a TV star in the hit shows “Maude” and “The Golden Girls” and who won a Tony Award for the musical “Mame,” died Saturday. She was 86. Arthur died peacefully at [...]

Obama Condemns Intolerance and Homophobia

Said President Obama at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual ‘Days of Remembrance’ ceremony in commemoration of the victims of Fascism: “To this day, there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened – who perpetrate every form of intolerance — racism, antisemitism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, and more — hatred that degrades its victim and diminishes [...]

Marriage Equality Arrives in Connecticut

The governor of Connecticut signed «marriage equality into law today». Equal protection under the law as provided in the U.S. Constitution was thereby affirmed by all three branches of the government. ‘Four years ago this week, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a bill allowing civil unions. Today, with the stroke of a pen, she abolished them. [...]

The Bigots’ Last Hurrah

It’s a great title for a great «column». Frank Rich of the New York Times sums up very thoroughly and very presciently the status of one of America’s favorite Culture War battlegrounds/sports grounds in which people like us are kicked around like political footballs (cartoon at left is from 2004, Steve Kelley of the New [...]

Germans Join UN Racism Conference Boycott

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced that Germany will join the U.S., Israel and other countries in a «boycott» of the upcoming United Nations World Conference Against Racism after “a draft declaration circulated earlier this year made Israel responsible for the entire Middle East conflict, while human rights violations in Muslim countries were largely ignored.” Preparations [...]

Tennessee Spring

I’m a little nervous about stormy weather here in Middle Tennessee, because this is, of course, tornado country. But nonetheless, the past 24 hours of weather have been kind of beautiful, spring rain without depressingly torrential downpours, followed by periods of clouds interspersed with clear sky. Tonight was particularly wonderful, with a little rain followed [...]

Doggoneit, an Anniversary

I’m reading, and enjoying, a new book: «Dog On It». I usually confine my mystery reading to James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux books, but I made an exception for this one, because the twist is that it’s told from the private eye’s dog’s perspective. Chet is a police dog helping his buddy find a missing girl. It appears to be the start of a series.

New Pics on Flickr!

Finally posted some «new pics on Flickr» of the boys. Whatta buncha beagles!

Nothing to See Here

News in this neck of the woods is pretty mundane: More beagle escapes (fifth, I think), necessitating the expenditure and labor of putting up a new chain link fence to isolate half of the backyard. Application almost complete for Vanderbilt’s special ed master’s program. Storm front moved through today; several thousand people just south of us without power, [...]