What kind of species ARE we?

Something I found myself musing upon early this morning.

We are ...           ... a weed.      ... A hardy perennial. ... An unwanted mutation      of an otherwise benevolent species. We are ...      ... a virulent offshoot.           ... an unsightly blight, a canker.      an infection, which unlike      its predecessors, reproduces All. Year. Round. We aren't a domesticated breed. Nobody has adapted us      for any paritcular function. Nobody has tamed us,      bred us into show breeds and pedigrees,           and beasts of burden,      or drones,           or lab rats. We are, above all,      a freak;           a sport;      a bastard throw           of the genetic dice of chance, and in our haste      to colonise, we're destroying our home      and ourselves. We Are A Wild Species.

Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.

Animal Farm

Horse

Cow

"She probably won't remember any of it when she wakes up again. But the farmer will, because he's going to have to pay damages of about 25,000 euros," said fire services spokesman Martin Argendorf. <:0D

and finally ...

More Coyote Mayhem yaay

Coyote looks but doesn't buy at store
Wed Apr 25, 5:08 PM ET

Jim Haskell says the Select Comfort store he manages in northern Kansas City keeps its front doors open to encourage customers to come in. And that's not going to change just because a coyote wanders in.

The coyote, described as tall and skinny at 40 to 45 pounds, sauntered into the Select Comfort store at the Shops at Boardwalk open-air mall Sunday afternoon.

"We were just kind of shocked," said employee Melissa Bogatch, who was in the store with one other employee and two customers.

The shock quickly faded when she realized the coyote was nervous. It cowered in a corner, then hid under several mattresses, she said.

Police who were called to the store summoned the Missouri Department of Conservation. Two agents subdued and snared the coyote, then carted it away to be released in countryside near Kansas City International Airport.

Conservation agent Aaron Post said the frightened but otherwise healthy female attracted attention outside the store as he and the other agent carried it away.

Select Comfort sells regular mattresses as well as its adjustable-firmness Sleep Number beds. There was no word on whether the coyote found one to its liking.

[personal note: Wait till one of the customers tries to sleep in one of those beds and wakes up smelling like a coyote's spent the whole night marking its territory all over him. :)

[And what about those strange dreams ...]

Remember this saying?

"If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?"

The only answer is "Because people don't always get rich by being smart, duh."

If you bloody want proof ...

Also, does this ring any bells?

And now, outrage

This really is as bad as it sounds

LAGOS (Reuters) - A Nigerian lesbian has gone into hiding to avoid arrest days after marrying four women in the Islamic city of Kano, local media reported on Thursday.

An estimated 2,000 guests watched Aunty Maiduguri, 45, wed the four women in a sumptuous ceremony that was followed by two days of feasting and merry-making.

But neighbours tipped off the authorities, who enforce Sharia law.

"As defenders of Sharia law, we shall not allow this unhealthy development to take place," Rabo Abdulkarim, deputy commander of the state Islamic police, told ThisDay newspaper.

"We are investigating the matter with a view to find the culprits and punish them."

Kano is one of 12 states in northern Nigeria that introduced Sharia in 2000.

Homosexuality is also illegal under secular law in Nigeria. The government introduced a bill last year explicitly to outlaw gay marriage in response to its legalisation in some Western countries.

Africa's most populous country is split about evenly between Muslims and Christians, and both communities strongly condemn homosexuality.

* * *

Barbaric.

Once more, I am forced to remind people of what's already bleeding obvious, or ought to be.

The Duty Redux

Today, I had to sort out the worries and woes of not one, not two, but three of my clients.

All three of them were in town. All of them were women. I do have male clients, but they're rare.

I'd arranged to meet the first one in a cafe. A lunch date, as it were. We talked, and then we went walkabout. I gave her something for her back, and spoke of her life and her woes and many such things.

I bumped into the second client at the end of the road. She's getting on, and she needs support walking; which was why I gravitated towards her when I realised she was laening against a wall. Her walking stick had broken.

I hadn't realised I needed to see my third client until passing by the place where she works. It was only on dropping by that I discovered something.

The third client's sister had died three weeks ago. Pneumonia.

After I'd finished, I turned to my first friend, the one with whom I'd had a lunch date, and said "Now do you see?"

It turned out that she knew the woman whose sister had died. And both of them knew the first client's late husband.

This isn't gossip. There are no names here, no pack drill. As far as you could be concerned, I could be making the whole thing up.

But by the time I'd finished, I'd helped two women find a new friend, to lend mutual strength and support, and offered help to another.

Even if a person is at the end of their tether, with nowhere else to go, there's always someone out there who might need their help.

Sometimes, the only thing I can try to do is to let fate bring those people together, let them help one another.

Sometimes, I believe it is the only thing any of us can do.