Conservative Republicans scream the loudest about any preferential programs based on racial or gender discrimination. Yet they have no problem with political discrimination being used to get people who mirror their political beliefs jobs in the Justice Department, especially when those people are not as qualified as liberal candidates. So it’s ok to exercise political discriminate against the best and the brightest if that’s what it takes to get your somewhat dumb people jobs at the Justice Department but it’s not ok to use race or gender for the same purpose. I’m just asking because I want to make sure
Why is it?
Why is it that my dogs will be sick all night if I accidentally drop a piece of cooked chicken skin on the floor and they eat it before I can pick it up but they can drink filthy water out of pools along the side of the road when we walk and be perfectly fine? What am I missing here?
When you wake up in the morning…
When you wake up in the morning and look out the window and this is what you see in your back yard, you remember all over again why you live in Alaska.
Photo courtesy of the mama moose and babes in the Landis backyard.
Jolt, USA
So for a financial donation to its well being, the City of Barrow renamed itself Jolt, USA for the day of the summer solstice. Apparently there were cans of Jolt for everyone to help them through the longest day of the year. And I only have two questions. One, have the kids come down yet from their caffeine high? And two, did anyone mention to Jolt that the sun hasn’t set in Barrow since May so really, the solstice is just part of the longest day of Barrow’s year?
They are yours so you have to love them
I’m sitting here trying to finish up some work. The dogs want to walk. Blue keeps jumping up and down and heading towards the door in case there is any doubt in my mind about what she wants. And she is doing this with a sunflower seed from the bottom of the bird cage plastered on her nose. She apparently can’t feel it because she clearly is unaware of just how silly she looks. And i find myself feeling very loving and protective all at the same time because it’s clear that her intellect will not keep her safe in
It’s a small world after all
Alaska’s former chief medical examiner Franc Fallico died last week. This would normally be of only passing interest to me since I didn’t really know him. Except I kind of did. Soon after I arrived in Alaska in the early 70s, back when I was still under the mistaken impression that I liked nursing, I helped medivac a patient from Barrow to Providence Hospital. As I walked down the hall after the patient was admitted, this doctor passed me by and I had one of those out of body experiences. I knew the guy. He had been dating a nurse,
My taste has not improved with age
I had to buy a pair of gym shorts and a T-shirt for a young man in Barrow who was turning 14. Because I knew if I did this alone I’d buy something only a dorky old lady would buy, I brought my buddy Page along who is 16 and very in tune with what should be worn. You could tell how bad my choices would have been from the look on her face every time I picked something up and asked her what she thought. After a while, I just shut up and walked behind her until she handed
The dead zone
The dead zone in front of my house seems to be supporting some ferns and a bleeding heart. So walk softly when you come to visit. The least vibration and the ground there may notice something is growing and kill it again. And don’t worry about that little aborted dead tree that’s there. I’m leaving it to fool the ground into thinking it won.
We have finally gone too far
As I stood in my kitchen preparing dinner and listening to the umpteenth million rerun of CSI, a commercial for male enhancement drugs came on. I’ve somewhat gotten used to that with dinner. But this had a special offer. If you called now, you could get two free tubes of a special male enhancement pleasure cream absolutely free. And while I agree that it was silly in the early days of TV that Rob and Laura couldn’t push their beds together, I can’t help but think we have perhaps moved just a tad too far the other way. Shouldn’t we
Has Zyrtec not heard about pollution?
I went to pick up some Zyrtec and found that one option was to buy a pack in which each individual pill was packed inside it’s own totally separate piece of plastic and cardboard, lined up one behind the other, all inside another pack of plastic and cardboard. Have these idiots not heard about pollution? Why the hell would you need each pill packaged separately? Not only would I be ready to put a gun to my head trying to get the damn pill out each time I needed one, but I would be horrified at how much waste I