I was born in 1940, in a free country called the United States of America. I still live in that country. It's still called the United States of America. But how free is it really?

I hold a degree in Theoretical Physics. I've worked as a physicist, a software designer/developer, an independent computer consultant, a management consultant ...I know how to think, and can tell the difference among facts, factoids and fictons*. I am a loyal American and a patriot but all too often I think that calling this a free country is a ficton.

How free is a country where you be arrested for saying "hi" to your friend Jack at an airport? A country whose government maintains a secret "no-fly" list that you may be on, but you won't find out until you get to the airport, and even then you won't find out why? A country whose government can demand information about you, not notify you, and not allow their source to notify you?

That said, I've been looking over some of my past posts, and don't recognize the person who wrote them. They're essentially a bunch of long rants. Not what I want. I've removed many of the most blatant examples, and from now on will think twice before I publish.

*Fiction suggests a story invented and fashioned to entertain or to deceive

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Dogs Are Wise, and We Would Be Wise To Heed Them

This post is nothing like my usual ones, but it does fit the "Common Sense" theme. I hope you enjoy it.

I subscribe to ArcaMax Jokes Ezine to ensure that there's always a light moment in my morning. But once in a while they publish something that may not be as funny as their usual offering but contains some folk wisdom worth pondering. I'm quoting one of today's items uncut, but with some commentary. Their words are in blue, my comments in green, and wisecracks by my grand-dog, Sparky, are in brown.

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Sparky Love Sandler
 
Sparky weighs about 20 lb, but his long hair makes him look much bigger. He's a "rescue dog" saved from the Humane Society by my daughter's neighbor, and then given to my daughter when the neighbor found she had to be away too much to give him proper attention. We think he's two or three years old, and a terrier mix, (mostly border terrier and Australian terrier.) He is smart and good-natured.



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The Wisdom of Canines

1) The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue. -Anonymous
Have you noticed that dogs don't use their tongues when they bark?
2) Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. -Ann Landers
But my grandpa and my grandma and my mommy are wonderful.
He's right about his mommy and his grandma. No comment about his grandpa the blogger.

3) If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. -Will Rogers

4) There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. -Ben Williams
I would be a great therapy dog. I love to lick my peoples' faces.
5) A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself. -Josh Billings

6) We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made. -M. Acklam

7) Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate. -Sigmund Freud

8) I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult. -Rita Rudner

9) A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down. -Robert Benchley

10) Dogs need to sniff the ground; it's how they keep abreast of current events. The ground is a giant dog newspaper, containing all kinds of late-breaking dog news items, which, if they are especially urgent, are often continued in the next yard. -Dave Barry

11) Anybody who doesn't know what soap tastes like never washed a dog. -Franklin P. Jones

12) If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise. -Unknown

13) My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to $3.00 a can. That's almost $21.00 in dog money. -Joe Weinstein

14) Ever consider what our dogs must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul -- chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth! -Anne Tyler
Right. And some of it even comes in cans.
15) Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea. -Robert A. Heinlein
Heinlein got that one right for sure!
16) Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -Groucho Marx
How would he know? Was he ever inside a dog?
Official White House portrait of the First Dog

 17) Speak softly and own a big, mean Doberman. -Dave Miliman
Hmmmm. Maybe a big, mean Doberman should be one of the perks of the Presidency. Bo is cute but sometimes a President should have a junkyard dog.

18) If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. -Mark Twain

19) Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. -Roger Caras
That's what I try to do.
20) If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then giving Fido only two of them. -Phil Pastoret

21) My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am. -- an OleHoss 
I try,
but only the people around me
will ever know
 whether I succeed.
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