Tag Archives: government

Political Progress, Severe SWAT, Riotous Raccoons, Diminutive Dwellings, and Interest Intelligence

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This entry is part 52 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

In the feed today is a totally adorable video of people feeding a whole passel of raccoons in a parking lot.

It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve seen people do on the Internet today. (That’s saying a lot.)

I grew up in the woods. I’ve had numerous “close encounters” with raccoons. They’ve all been amusing. But that doesn’t mean I go out of my way to interact with these critters. It’s typical to see three, maybe four raccoons trundling along in the dusk… especially if there’s a trash bin nearby. But, more often, you’ll see solitary ones or pairs doing their thing. If you’re in an area where you see this often, they probably won’t dash off when they see you–they’ll just continue on their way.

That, in and of itself, is kind of a problem. It means they’ve gotten used to humans being around them. It also gives the false impression that they’re really okay with humans being around them and can easily lead to people thinking, “Hey, let’s play with the cute animals!”

Which is a very bad idea.

In the video there are more than two dozen raccoons gathered around this nimrod who’s handing out Doritos. In a parking lot. During daylight.

That is not typical in any way, shape, or form.

This is a whole colony of raccoons who have been trained out of most of their natural habits–being nocturnal, not grouping up, showing at least some minor trepidation when humans are around, actually foraging for food. No doubt this has occurred after years of people feeding them in that parking lot (which I’m guessing is for a park of some sort).

Here’s what this sort of thing leads to…

  • A bunch of raccoons that can easily catch and spread disease–not just among themselves, but over to humans, too
  • A situation where someone is more apt to get bit or scratched or otherwise wounded by a raccoon (which never ends well for the raccoons in the area)
  • A hazard for pets and other animals (not to mention children)
  • A game of Russian roulette as to when that cute and passive gaggle of fuzzies is going to decide you most certain are not done feeding them as they swarm you

These are wild animals, people. They should be treated with some amount of respect and, whenever possible, left to their own devices.

Unless you like the idea of going though treatment for potential rabies infection. If that’s the case, then by all means go snuggle with those little banditos.

Star Wars Stuff, Perspective on Numerous Levels, Cool Looking Hobbies, and (of course) Politics

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This entry is part 51 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I’ve spent far too long reading stuff and watching YouTube videos. Between that and hitting a meeting down in Silver Spring proper after work tonight, my “free time” has all but vanished, leaving me, once again, at the “Oh, crap, I should probably be going to sleep now-ish” point.

My “normal” sleep schedule really doesn’t fit well with the “normal” world. There’s really nothing close to normal about it. It rotates oddly if I’m left to my own devices. And, while I’ve found plenty of documented cases of variously odd natural sleep schedules. documentation doesn’t really help solve the problem of it not at all matching with a typical work schedule. (Let alone when anything else is going on.)

This has been the case for pretty much as long as I can remember.

And it really shows no signs of changing for the better. No matter how much I try to tweak it.

So, here’s the feed from today and the weekend. Enjoy it. I did. 🙂

More than a few days worth of stuff (Including science, cats, politics, Fathers Day, and a whole lot of Johnny Cash)

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This entry is part 46 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Not much of an intro today. It was a low-key weekend (after the out-way-too-late game night, at least) and a busy Monday.

It’s going to be hot and humid the rest of the week. Can’t say I care much for that combination. Hopefully, the A/C unit can handle it.

Anyway, on with the catch-up feed…

Short Short Stories, Green Fetish, Warp Speed, Color Capture, He Says He Didn’t Know, Russian Homophobia, and ER Perspective

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This entry is part 44 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Amid the slightly less hectic waves of work, I had the chance to read a couple of interesting–and infuriating–news articles today.

One of the big ones was about Archbishop Robert Carlson, one of the far too many higher-ups in the Catholic Church who were involved with the whole child sex abuse scandal. According to him, he doesn’t remember when he figured out having sex with kids was illegal.

As a friend of mine put it in their own stream: “Sex out of wedlock: SIN! Sex with someone of the same gender: MORTAL SIN! Sex with a kid: Gee, I just don’t know… could be okay, I guess, maybe.”

And then people wonder why I have no respect at all for the temporal body of The Church.

Thankfully, I know enough good Catholics–ones who actually live decent lives and are properly critical of their leaders–that I have yet to descend into the full-on hate of the religion itself.

One of the other big ones is about the institutionalized homophobia that’s now in place throughout Russia. Gay rights groups–really, any group in any way affiliated with the whole GLBT population–are being deemed “foreign agents.” That basically means, as far as the government is concerned, they are subversive, enemy organizations. The powers that be have taken to applying pressure to other agencies–banks, landlords, etc.–reminding them that dealing with foreign agents can get them on that list, too.

This has, of course, lead to the gay rights groups not being able to do things like renew their leases, maintain bank accounts, or, for those who are affiliated with the groups, hold down other jobs.

That right there is example enough to remind us all why we fight so hard for the equal rights under the law that we enjoy in this country. And why we need to keep fighting any time those rights are infringed upon.

It makes me sad that modern Russia seems well on its way to being the bundle of bad examples that the Soviet Union was when I was growing up, before the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Apparently, everything old is new again. Can’t say I like it.

Creative Living, Tone Deaf ‘Comedy’, Brain Science, Net Neutrality Sniping, and Reset the Net

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This entry is part 41 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

A year ago, a light got directed into a dark corner of our government.

How that light got turned on is a bit questionable, but it happened and now there’s no way to deny that our intelligence agencies are more than a little out of control. Without the knowledge of a large part of the government, and most certainly without a mandate from the population, massive amounts of data were being collected on American citizens.

Gleaned from every electronic network you could imagine, “metadata” was being harvested hand over fist… just because. They’re calling it “metadata” because that belies just how revealing it can be by masking it in techno-babble. “We’re not listening in! We’re just getting the metadata!” (So, y’know, they only who you’re talking to, when, for how long, and where both parties are… noting invasive in that, right?)

There’s a fight going on now. A fight for our rights to privacy. A fight for our right to know what our government is up to. A fight for the future usefulness of the Internet as a whole.

Yes, this ties into the whole Net Neutrality battle, too.

There’s just far too much at stake to not take some sort of stand, to not speak out. Remaining on the sidelines isn’t an option if you want things to change for the better… if you want to know you’re not going to suddenly find yourself on a watch list, or banned from air travel, or just constantly under surveillance for no good reason other than “they can.”

If you’re not ready to speak out loudly, then at least listen. Take the time to actually read a few articles. To think about the road we’ve been on for well over a decade. About the rash decisions that have chipped away at the freedoms we, as Americans, tend to cling to. Freedom, Rule of Law, Presumption of Innocence. “Little” things that are the cornerstones of everything we tend to think of as kind of important… things we’ve fought shooting wars in the name of and that we cheer whenever another nation steps up to those who would crush those ideals.

Some will say “Why bother? Nothing’s going to change anyway. They may be listening, but they never listen when we call for change. They’ll always just do what they want, anyway.”

If you don’t speak up, you only ensure you won’t be heard. You prove “them” right when they argue back that they have to take such an active role because people don’t care enough to take any action themselves… “after all,” they’d likely add, “no one’s really complaining about it.”

Be loud. Be active. Make it so no one can ever say We the People don’t care. So no one can ever think they can just walk all over us.

That can only happen if we let it.

We still have power.

Use it.

Reset the Net