Author: Trish

English scientists have discovered that so-called farm animals are much brighter and more aware than meat eaters would prefer to think.

ABC News:

One sheep who got a reward every time she recognized a human face correctly on a video screen scored a perfect 50 out of 50.

“If it was a monkey, no one would have any problems, possibly even if it was a dog,” said Keith Kendrick, a neurologist at Babraham. “They would say, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s expected.’ But a sheep, no one really believes.”

And it’s not just sheep.

Hamlet the pig is a computer wiz. He gets a reward every time he uses a joystick designed for a chimp to move a cursor into a blue area on a computer monitor. A Jack Russell terrier couldn’t achieve such a task after a year of trying.

…chickens can be taught to run the thermostat of the chicken coop, and even the lowly cow has a surprising inner life.

Cows have been known to form lifelong friendships, and one recent study found that they actually show excitement when they’ve learned something knew “as if they’re saying, ‘Eureka, I found out how to solve the problem,’ ” said Donald Broom, a professor at the University of Cambridge.

The reporter goes on to wonder if it’s therefore wrong to eat animals, and gets the obligatory views from both sides, with pro-carnivores taking the day with the tried and true, “Huh-huh, yeah but” argument.

Insisting they are just dumb animals with no thoughts or feelings is necessary to be able to tune out the cognitive dissonance that comes from loving animals but eating them. Anyone with a backyard bird feeder knows animals have complex lives and relationships, and problem-solve better than some humans (hey squirrels, I’m talking to you).

The argument that God put animals here for people to eat is right up there with “God put women here to serve men” and “God put black people here to ride in the holds of ships and serve white people on the other shore.”

Great web site to accompany the DeLay article that follows.

indelayspocket.com

You can click on your state and get a dollar-for-dollar breakdown of which of your Congressional representatives gave to the DeLay Legal Fund (ARMPAC), took from the DeLay PAC, and how your person voted vis-à-vis Tommy. The whole thing is summed up into a handy DeLay ranking score.

In Florida, no Democrats gave or received but some voted with Tom more often than others. Some Republicans evidently tried to stay clean, giving or taking only $20 or so, while Rep. Clay “Gimme Gimme” Shaw helped himself to $30,020.

They got us again, kids.

We’re debating “women in combat” while the Bush administration pulls the wool over our eyes and tight around our necks.

First of all, women will continue to be in combat until war changes, which won’t be in our lifetimes. “Insurgents,” “war lords” – and whatever other GOP-speak terms that avoid acknowledging we are fighting in a couple of civil wars – don’t stick to battle fronts, all neat and tidy like in World War II movies. They attack supply vehicles and kill soldiers like Lori Piestewa, who are allegedly safe from so-called “combat” positions.

Second, there are roles only women can fill in the current wars, such as body-searching Iraqi or Afghan women.

So unless we restrict women, ala Frank Capra, to the home front and hospitals across the border, and announce that the military now offers a glass ceiling so low you’ll bump your head if you stand up, we are wasting time debating an option that doesn’t really exist.

Which is exactly what the Bush folks were counting on.

The House bill that offers this so-called protecting of women from combat also includes $442 billion in military spending NOT COUNTING IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN. Hello? Did you hear that?

CNN:

President Bush requested $442 billion for defense for the budget year that begins October 1, excluding money to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But what catches our eye? The bright, shiny object in Karl Rove’s other hand, as usual.

In a nearly 15-hourlong committee hearing, the most contentious issue was the role of women in combat.

At least a couple of Democrats weren’t distracted.

Added Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the committee’s leading Democrat: “There seems to be a solution in search of a problem.”

…Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Georgia, cast the lone dissenting vote on the overall bill.

Afghanistan – where, thanks to our side trip into Irrelevant Iraq, things are going south – was where we should have been from the start. How much more money – and how many more men and women – will we put through the shredder that is Iraq?

Democratic gains in the West don’t offset loses in the South, according to Brookings Institution visiting fellow William H. Frey. His study of recent Census data, “The Electoral College Moves to the Sun Belt,” says Democrats better get busy in the South, or kiss future elections good-bye. Los Angeles Times:

…anyone who believes Democrats can consistently win the White House without puncturing the Republican dominance across the South is just whistling Dixie. The census projections present Democrats with an ominous equation: the South is growing in electoral clout even as the Republican hold on the region solidifies…

In 2004, Bush won 286 electoral college votes, while Democrat John F. Kerry tallied 252 (with 270 needed for victory). Frey projects that after the 2010 census, four electoral college votes will shift from Kerry states to Bush states…

By 2030, he forecasts, the Democratic strongholds of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan would lose a combined 17 electoral college votes. Over that same period, Florida (up nine, to 36) and Texas (up eight, to 42) could gain that many votes alone. Arizona (up five, to 15), which has voted Democratic for president once since 1952, would be the other big winner.

The only Democratic bastion likely to increase in strength is California, which Frey projects would gain one electoral college vote (to 56) after 2010, and another after 2030.

The big lesson for Democrats from these numbers is that there is no substitute for restoring the party’s competitiveness in at least some of the South — particularly Florida and states such as Arkansas, Virginia and Tennessee…

There’s a warning sign for Republicans too. The three big projected electoral college winners — Florida, Texas and Arizona — all have large and growing Latino populations.

Florida’s Democratic party just went through a (surprise!) fairly contentious leadership change, after former head Scott Maddox stepped down to run for governor. State Representative Karen Thurman, the new chair, better come out swinging.

I’m scratching my head over a report in the St. Petersburg Times about a crackdown on sexually explicit email at Florida government agencies. Fourteen employees in four departments were fired, while many more were suspended and reprimanded.

The fired employees seem to be overwhelmingly female, judging by the names printed. That’s odd enough but what I’m really wondering about is the contents of the email.

Some of the e-mails included nude photos of men and women and some included videos, profanity and suggestive remarks. One animation portrayed former President Bill Clinton at his desk with Monica Lewinsky and another included Barney, the purple dinosaur, and children dancing to profane and violent gangsta rap.

Fabulous Borowitz Report today about the grenade thrown at Bush in the former Soviet state of Georgia.

But after authorities were able to examine both the grenade and the president more closely, it was determined that they were both completely fake.

“The grenade posed no real threat at all,” said a top Georgian security official. “Much like Iraq in March of 2003.”

The White House issued no official comment on the phony grenade, but said that the president would make a false statement later in the day.

Sometimes he’s even better than The Onion.