Happy end-of-the-month, boys and girls. I have deliberately laid low for the past couple of days, due to the invasion of my blog by white supremacists. I did not argue with them or in any way aggravate them; I just waited for them to leave. To Review: my post about the lynching of Willie Earle was linked on the highest-traffic white supremacist website in the USA. (I will not name the website here, but I did name it in the comments on my Willie Earle post.) And after that, it was linked on a lesser-known, but far more rabid (!) racist site. Admittedly, it spooked me pretty bad. As regular readers may recall, I grew up hearing a lot of that stuff, and it makes me profoundly nauseated, as well as generally freaked-out and scared. (Yes, I'm sure it's all terribly Freudian, as well as political.)
Can you believe there are people who would defend lynching?
In any event, I waited until their copious hits died down, and now it's safe to go back into the water, so to speak.
It's important to remember: they are out there. Anonymous, quiet, observing, interacting with all of us as if they are decent people. Be aware.
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Did anyone read that recent Wall Street Journal article about how all these different animals are now classified as "service animals"?
This includes some guy's iguana, if you can believe it:
Last summer, after Ocean Park, Md., resident Joseph Wayne Short began walking Hillary, his four-foot-long iguana on the boardwalk, the city council passed an ordinance prohibiting undomesticated animals from mingling with the public, according to City Solicitor Guy Ayres.I had no idea there was a controversy developing over this kind of thing. Beginning March 15, the Americans With Disabilities Act will only recognize dogs as service animals.
Mr. Short fought back. He plunked down $64 to place Hillary on the Internet-based National Service Animal Registry, a private company that, among other things, sells service-animal credentials.
On the company website, where Hillary's picture and registration number is displayed, it says under service type: unspecified. But Mr. Short, who couldn't be reached for comment, has told people that Hillary keeps him calm.
"The gentleman claimed that the iguana was his service animal, so I am not sure the police looked into it further," Mr. Ayres says.
The registry didn't return repeated phone calls for comment.
Cosmie Silfa, in San Francisco, also has a "service iguana." His name is Skippy. Mr. Silfa takes him on the bus and walks him in a local park.
"He cradles him like a baby, a big scary baby," says Roy Mair, who works the front desk of the subsidized housing unit where Mr. Silfa lives. Mr. Silfa says what qualifies Skippy as a service animal is a letter from the psychiatrist who has been treating Mr. Silfa for depression. The letter says Skippy "helps him to maintain a stable mood."
What do you think?
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If you're under the weather, try some Black Elderberry punch to get that immune system pumped up:
1.5 bottles Knudsen Simply Nutritious Lemon-Ginger-Echinacea Natural Juice
1.5 bottles Berry Lime (or other flavor) Sparkling Water
3 tbsp Gaia Herbs RapidRelief Black Elderberry Syrup
2 cups ice cubes
Add ice cubes to large pitcher (about 1/3 full). Add juice, then Elderberry Syrup, then sparkling water at end. Mix lightly with wooden spoon.
Ahhhh...yum!
More from Gaia Herbs, which make my life so much sweeter. And that reminds me, the Medicines From The Earth conference is June 4-6 in Black Mountain, NC. (My coverage of the conference three years ago is here.) I haven't yet decided if I will attend, but if you're going, drop me a line! Black Mountain is one of my favorite spots in the world.
~*~
And what is going on with all of you?
*Today's blog post title is from They Might Be Giants. (I'd post the song, but I don't particularly like any of the versions currently on YouTube.)