Newsmax: Common Sense Cowboy

[VIDEO] Further explaining the actions of Border Patrol agents in Texas during the past week. A cowboy experienced in handling horses explaining the usage of reins and how the "racist" border patrol weren't whipping those Haitian refugees. Don't you just hate when a story just takes hold and there's hardly anyway to turn that story around. 

And I don't think Maxine Waters want a lesson in this. She'll run this narrative into the ground!

Puppies and model trains

[VIDEO] I've really enjoyed Jim Zimmerlin's videos of his model train collection. It's probably how I discovered his YouTube channel two years ago. I wouldn't be able to make an offer on his G-Scale model trains especially the Amtrak train he has.

Today he's combined videos of model train with German Shepherd puppies. Animal videos seem to gain traction on YouTube. We love seeing pets and their owners interact. We could be talking about dogs or cats or adult or puppies and it seems there's an audience for it.

For Zimmerlin, his vids on his cruises and his model trains got the traction for his channel. However, time will tell if this video combing puppies and a model train will itself go viral.

Enjoy!

Want to see a rodent eating Easter candy?

[VIDEO] Here's an unusal video to mark this Good Friday. I've been watching videos over the last few weeks by Shawn Woods. His shtick if you will is trapping rodents who may be running around in his barn. And he has a regular feature called "Mousetrap Mondays". It's even the url for his website mousetrapmonday.com.

On this day Woods share with us footage of rodents squirrels, mice, and rats who are eating off of a Reese's peanut butter Easter bunny candy. He's not outright trying to trap these animals he's probably trying to see what creatures are running around on his property. He also finds chipmunks and shrews running around.

When he does his videos on mousetraps they may be live traps where he'll allow the mice to go free and he's may use traps that are fatal. He has said that he's run into issues with YouTube as he's set up his channel to generate revenue, however, an algorithm has determined his videos to not be family friendly. Especially those traps that are designed to kill mice and recently he's even had to unlist those videos of those fatal mousetraps for those of us who want to see how those various traps work. For public consumption he's forced to edit and censor such videos.

I'd recommend this video if you're having issues with rodents at home. Even though Woods live in a rural area for the most part, even city slickers would like to find away to get those pests that invade our space.

Meanwhile, I hope everyone had a wonderful Good Friday and Happy Easter and Happy Passover

21 Dogs That Have No Idea How Big They Are

You know, I really like dogs and aspire to own one in the future. Some of the dogs in this set of pics seem like they're regular size, but most of them seemed very photoshopped. Is this serious?

More than likely this is just a humor based meme and not taken very seriously. :P

Iowa Town Won’t Let Retired Chicago Cop Keep Service Dog « CBS Chicago

Iowa Town Won’t Let Retired Chicago Cop Keep Service Dog « CBS Chicago

I think this could count as a nanny state problem. People will single out a breed without any evidence of aggressiveness. This former Chicago Policeman uses this dog as a service animal and surely no one would train a particularly aggressive dog as a service animal. So perhaps this Iowa down and the citizens doing the complaining are just allowing themselves to become nanny state busy bodies.

I hope the retired officer, Jim Sak, gets his pit-bull mix back in his possession.

BTW, I fully support the idea of states and localities within states to make whatever laws that are deemed necessary. At the same time this is a case of not only not thinking but thinking with fear.

OBL mission included a dog...

More details, a dog had been part of the mission to find Bin Laden successfully.

The explosive-sniffing dog was strapped to an assault team member as they took on one of their greatest challenges to date.

He was part of the operation in which the elite US Navy Seals lowered themselves down ropes from three Black Hawk helicopters into the terrorist supremo's hideout in the town of Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Sunday.

The world's most wanted man, 54, was shot dead by a Special Forces marksman during the raid.

Heavily armoured hounds — equipped with infrared night-sight cameras — have been used in the past by the top-secret unit.

The war dogs wear ballistic body armour that is said to withstand damage from single and double-edged knives, as well as protective gear which shields them from shrapnel and gunfire.

German Shepherds have been leading the way in SAS raids in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Wearing oxygen masks, the pooches have been trained to jump from aircraft at 25,000ft, before seeking out insurgents in hostile environments.

So much secrecy and yet so much interest and curiousity about all aspects of this mission.

VloMo08 began yesterday

I just saw this video from Ryanne's Video Blog. She was in Florida petting cows and it's interesting because I never thought of cows as pettable. Almost like an overgrown pet although I never think of cows that way because of their general function. It doesn't need to be said.

Anyway I look forward to this month. Let's see what other video blogs are participating this month.

Chicago alderman hopes to force vote to repeal foie-gras ban

Joe Moore tends to get ragged up there in the 49th Ward. Craig Gernhardt and Tom Mannis goes after him pretty good up there. Of course most of us in the city may not know much about the dynamics up there in his ward. What we do know about him is the big box ordinance in 2007 and the foie-gras ban. Well if the city council has its way he won't even have that:

Aldermen opposed to Chicago's controversial restaurant ban on foie gras said they will try to force a vote Wednesday to repeal the measure, which gained the City Council widespread notoriety since its approval two years ago.

Noting opposition to the ban from the restaurant industry, Ald. Thomas Tunney (44th) said Tuesday he would take action to force a council vote to overturn the measure. The legislation prohibits restaurants from serving the delicacy made from the enlarged livers of geese and ducks.

"We think we have the votes to do it," Tunney said of the repeal effort.

Tunney, a strong ally of Mayor Richard Daley, has dismissed the ban as "the silliest law the City Council has ever passed," and warned that it could stifle economic development in the city.

The Illinois Restaurant Association, led by former Daley chief of staff Sheila O'Grady, challenged the ban in court. But last year a federal judge dismissed the restaurant group's lawsuit, ruling that the city had a constitutional right to enact the measure.

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) sponsored the ban at the urging of animal-rights groups. On Tuesday, he decried Tunney's parliamentary maneuver to force another vote.

"There's really no reason to bring this up again," Moore said. "Restaurants continue to survive and thrive. I can't think of one restaurant that has closed because of this."

Foie gras, once a staple in some of Chicago's most upscale restaurants, is produced by inserting tubes down the necks of geese and ducks. The birds are then force fed to expand their livers to as much as 10 times normal size.

The ban was passed in April 2006 by a 48-1 vote. But Tunney noted Tuesday that there was no discussion of the measure on the council floor before the vote. The ban was passed in an "omnibus" vote at the end of a meeting, packaged together with other ordinances considered to be routine.

Surely if you want to think about the animals there are much more effective ways of eliminating foie-gras as a delicacy than passing a law or ordinance where there are certianly more pressing issues to consider. I know to say that is easy, but too bad that we're discussing it now even if it is a silly law!