Coffee and Provocation

Lassie and Timmy Say "No" to Mandatory Spay-Neuter:
From the Santa Clara County Signal: "On the eve of a controversial bill that is scheduled to be heard in a state Senate committee, opponents of the measure are getting a little help from some four-legged star power. A ninth generation descendent of the dog that played "Lassie" in the 1950s television series will be roaming the halls of the Capitol in Sacramento in opposition to the California Healthy Pet Act of 2007, a bill that would create a statewide mandate for the neutering of dogs and cats over six months of age. The Collie, whose name is also Lassie, will be joined by Jon Provost, the man who played "Timmy" in the series. The two will go office to office briefing legislators on the drawbacks to a bill some say could threaten the various dog and cat industries."

Timmy Says Take Action:
It's not too late to take action. Simply go to the PetPac site to see who to contact. And read this USA Today editorial in opposition to California's mandatory surgical sterilization law >> click here.

Cloning News:
South Korea has announced that, for reasons unknown, it is going to clone beagles to sniff for drugs at the border. What makes this so odd is that there is not much of a border to guard (Korea is a peninsula and both sides of the North Korean border are guarded by landmines and armed guards), and there's not a lot of illegal drug use in Korea. And never mind that sniffing out illegal drugs is not a genetic behavior, but a learned behavior, and never mind that there is no shortage of beagles anywhere in the world. The cost of this stupid-on-a-stick excercise is estimated to be over $50,000 per animal.

On the Frontiers of Good Government:
China executed the head of its FDA last week and one of his subordinates, which is something you would think would give pause to the folks over at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who have inspected nothing for years, and greenlighted everything from killer dog food to toxic toothpaste.

Two Billion Mice:
My daughter is in Thailand at the moment, so I am reading the local paper over there, which reports that "An estimated 2 billion field mice are chomping their way hungrily through crops in 22 counties around the Dongting Lake in central China's Hunan province after their homes on islands in the lake were flooded."
. . . . . Meanwhile, folks who are trying to live in the U.S.A. without buying Chinese-made goods are finding all the good mouse traps are made in China. Go figure.
. . . . . Finally, to round out the mouse news, the brain trust at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute reports that they have found a faster and cheaper way to make mutant mice. Their goal is to make 900 new lines of mutant mice by 2010. Hopefully they will be released in China which seems to have the mousetrap market all sewn up.

Go Green (Very, Very Fast):
The young (26-year old) Al Gore III was nailed for driving very fast with a wide assortment of illegal prescription drugs in his car. My condolences to Al and Tipper Gore; it's never easy being a parent. Some mystery surrounds the initial news reports, however, such as: How the hell do you get a Prius up to 100-miles per hour? The answer to that question can be found >> here.

Elk Tag Auction: Doing Well and Doing Good:
Ben Nicholson won a New Mexico tag in a raffle from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Ben cannot use the tag, but he is allowed to sell it, and that sale is happening as an auction through the HuntingLife.com web site and blog, with 10 percent of the proceeds to go to conservation. Let the bidding begin!
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