This Week in review

Reducing my plans for Chicago Pride, because of the rain.

Sitting on the couch watching the pit-bulls play with a rope toy.  They love each other all day everyday.  I wonder how anyone could take one of these dogs, a breed which has a capacity to express such loyalty and devotion, and turn them into a ferocious fighting dog.  Not that mine aren't ferocious, of course they are, there isn't a ground squirrel in the neighborhood that doesn't run in fear every time they walk out the door.  Not a tennis ball in miles that doesn't quake when these dogs walk by, and not a raspberry vine or tomato plant in creation that isn't fully aware of the danger they are in when these dogs get loose.  I love these dogs, and wish I could save every one of them.  For the rest of my life, I will only own rescued pit-bulls.  What other choice do I have?

At 2am last night I walked out into the backyard.  I'm lucky to have an acre of land where my dogs can run freely, and my garden can grow well enough to feed us for months this summer.  But I don't often walk around my yard at night.  There isn't much ambient light, and living next to the woods and a creek, there are enough mosquitoes at night to keep every bug zapper in Lovington buzzing all night with the sounds of unsuspecting blood suckers meeting an untimely demise.  Last night I looked out the back door, and the yard was pitch black, with the exception of thousands of lightning bugs, dancing their sexy insect dance of hot chemical fueled attraction, trying hard to shine the longest and the brightest, each looking for a moment of biological imperative to fulfill the purpose of their summer long quest.  This is a species designed solely to mate with another that has the brightest and shiniest hindquarters.  The female lightning bug actually selects her mate by determining who has the best ass.  You have to love the simplicity of that in nature, yet it perplexes me that I consider that behavior to be so entirely disgusting in people.  Perhaps 2am last night will cause me to go a little easier on those that are looking only for the brightest shiniest asses.

Peregrine Falcon

Red Winged Blackbird Attacks Much Larger Bird

Those of you who regularly travel the 80/35 pass around the north side of the city, have likely witnessed the next topic, which is timely primarily because Father's Day was last week.  I work on the edge of a suburb, with lots of open prairie to the west and south.  All the way to work everyday, I see hawks and falcons circling over the sides and center of the highways, looking to make a quick and easy meal of some rabbit or some recently hatched Red Winged Blackbird.  Rabbits run and scatter, leaving their little ones to fend for themselves.  Blackbirds are a different story.  While the male is a notorious philanderer, mating with as many females as he can attract to nest on the ground of his well defended territory, he is a faithful and protective father.  When a falcon, crow or hawk circle over head, planning the meat portion of their meal for the day, the  male Red Wing Black Bird alights into the air, and attacks the offending predator, driving it from his territory.  No worry that he is only 1/5 the size of the predator his is fending off.  No worry that any miscalculation will almost certainly result in his own demise.  If there is defending to be done, the male blackbird does not hesitate. And while he is fiercely territorial, and would fight to the death with another male for landing on the ground in his territory, in the air, male blackbirds from neighboring territories assist each other in protecting the offspring of the entire neighborhood.  I have seen as many as 5 blackbirds chasing a Peregrine Falcon successfully out of their area.  When I park my car at work, the male blackbirds come sit on the  edge of the grass and carefully watch me, to be sure that there will be no funny business.  Those with red cars need to park in the middle of the lot.  The blackbirds are especially wary of the color red, and will do their business all over red cars, all day long.  I think that all of us that are parents should take a lesson from that, we should spend less time trying to protect the world from our children, and spend more time fiercely defending them.

This shit ain't helpin' anyone but our enemies.  Quit it!!!

Finally, New York Marriage Equality.  Two things are all I want say.  First, I have to insist, STOP CALLING IT GAY MARRIAGE!!!  The whole reason we fight for equality is so we can have the SAME thing as straight folks do.  So when we call it Gay Marriage, it is still making it seem like something different.  In New York, Iowa, Vermont,  Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and the District of Columbia they now allow all of their citizens to marry, they don't Straight Marry or Gay Marry, they just Marry.  Second, STOP demanding that Obama support Gay Marriage.  We need to accept that if he takes that position, he will not be reelected.  We all know where he is with this, he said when he was a State Senator and when he was a US Senator that he supports Gay Marriage.  He had to change that stance when he ran for President.  He is the best President we could hope for in the next election, he needs to be reelected.  We must understand his situation, and support him through it.  We let Bill Clinton "change his mind" when he left office, and we accept his apology for the Defense of Marriage Act.  Gay Marriage not being enacted is the fault of every voting age LGBT person in the US who did not vote for a Democrat or voted for a Republican or didn't vote at all in the last Mid-term elections.  Full voting from our community could have kept Congress controlled by Democrats.  When we start supporting our allies, they will be able to PUBLICLY announce that they support us.  Next time an election comes around, and you decide you are too busy to go out and support Obama, and the allies in your area, you can thank yourself for what you get.

The pit-bulls, one brown, one white, tired out already, from playing, are now laying on the couch, in some sort of weird Yin/Yang configuration, sleeping peacefully.  So dangerous, so terrible, such nonsense.  Dogs are like children, beat them silly and scream at them, and they will grow up to be loud and mean and violent.  Love them gently and provide for them, teach/train them to be gentle, and they will grow up to be well mannered, friendly and loyal.