Please Treat Animals Well

Now that's a horse that I would ride.

I was walking near a Wal-Mart.  I noticed a young man addressing a seagull in an impolite way.  If he had taken action against the seagull, I would like to think I would have intervened.  I would have told him to leave the seagull alone.  Or what?  He might have asked.  Or I'll knock your teeth down your throat.  He probably would have been shocked.  He likely would not have believed that a skinny, short, "old" guy would confront him like that.  But no, he just gave a disdainful look to the seagull and walked on. 
I often get offended while watching TV.  While channel surfing today, I came across a hunting program, which, of course, make me sick.  This hunter picked up a dead duck, and said to his buddy, "It landed right at my feet.  It literally hit me in the knee on the way down."  Predictably, his idiot buddy laughed.  I changed the channel in disgust. 
Duck Dynasty, I hear, is an extremely popular TV show.  I don't have cable; I've never seen it.  From what I've read, it's about hillbillies that have gotten rich by helping people kill ducks.  I'm rooting for the ducks: not the hillbillies.  I don't care how long their beards are.  If I was given power of life and death, and was forced to choose who would die, either a duck or one of the Duck Dynasty hillbillies, I would spare the lives of the ducks every time.  I don't care how long their beards are, every single duck in the world is cuter than they are.  F___ those Duck Dynasty ass_____. 
Trust me, it always feels good to treat animals well.  I don't know if I believe in karma, but I do at least sometimes.  If you're going around and dealing out death and violence, then maybe you should expect some to come back in your direction.  Don't you think things would work out better for you if you tried to be good instead of evil?
If you love all the animals, and live your life that way everyday, then I love you.  But it's not enough.  People like us need to try to change the hearts and minds of those who eat meat and don't care about animals beyond their pets.  The animals literally don't have a voice; we must speak up for them.       

So Much Pain

A Young Groundhog

My god, there's so much pain on this planet.  You couldn't possibly measure it.  Life is so hard.  Maybe it isn't for people who have inherited a lot of money, but, for the rest of us, it can be.  For instance, I used to have cable, and I used to watch nature programs.  I still do, on PBS, but it depends.  I don't want to see animals ripping each other apart.  I know it's going on; I just don't need to see it.
This is a violent, brutal world.  As far as I'm concerned, parenting is the big lie.  When humans bring another human, or animal, into this world, I believe they have committed an act of cruelty.  It's so funny to me how backwards it is.  You're supposed to respect and obey your parents.  Why?  Because they brought you into a world of pain, brutality, and misery?
I have to make a distinction here.  Adoptive parents are heroes.  When a couple of people get together and say, to themselves, I refuse to bring someone into this world, but I want to raise a kid, and they adopt as a result-giving a home to a kid who needs one, well, they are certainly heroes as far as I'm concerned.
I hate breeders: for example-of dogs.  There are so many dogs languishing in shelters that deserve loving homes.  They are betrayed by breeders, who bring more dogs into a world that already has tons of homeless dogs, so they can make some money.  Shame on them.  I'd spit in all their faces if I could.  They are human garbage.
But it's even harder to live in this world if you care about animals more than the average uncaring human does.  You try to watch a little TV, and you're bombarded by things that offend you: like commercials that show smiling people eating meat.  We don't need to eat meat.  Those that do, do it out of selfishness.  They refuse to limit their food choices at all.  They don't care at all how many pigs, chickens, cows, turkeys, fish, and so on have to suffer so they can eat whatever the hell they want to.  I'm disgusted by people who eat meat.  I think the murder of an animal, any animal (with the possible exception of bugs, even though I don't harm bugs in my home or elsewhere, I just don't feel as strongly about them as I do about other animals), should be punished as though the person killed a human being.     

Hibernation

Bumpkin's Butt

Groundhogs hibernate, and this winter, 3 of them are hibernating in my apartment: Sloopy, Lucinda, and Bumpkin.  Hopefully, it will only be a winter thing.  However, once one has lived indoors, living outdoors presumably loses some of its charm.  Thankfully, groundhogs are small.  I only have 1 bedroom.  I'm glad I bought that futon.  All 3 sisters fit quite comfortably on it.  I'll probably have to buy another TV.  All of us like to watch 30 Rock and The Office, but we don't agree on everything.  Bumpkin likes to watch CSI, Sloopy's favorite show is Dancing with the Stars, and all of them like any show that features food and how to cook or prepare it: especially Lucinda.  I hope that Bumpkin doesn't find out about cable while she's staying here.  I don't have cable.  If she becomes aware of it, I suppose she'll force me to order it, and then I can probably look forward to hours of Food Network channel watching everyday.  I don't like to watch the Food Network.  There is enough temptation out there.  Delicious food is advertised on TV, on the radio, and in magazines.  It might be mentioned in a book you're reading or by a friend at any time.  Intentionally watching scrumptious food on TV is a bad idea in my opinion.  You're liable to make yourself hungry even when you really aren't. 
I'm doing enough shopping and cooking as it is.  The sisters want to try every vegetarian dish they see prepared on TV.  Bumpkin, since she's the only one of the sisters who can write, is always adding foods to the shopping list.  She's also constantly jotting down recipes for me to try.
Groundhog poop has been a problem; as I expected it would.  They were pooping everywhere but the futon.  I doubt I'll get any of my security deposit back when I eventually move.  Although, Bumpkin could help me get every penny of it if she wanted to do so.  After cleaning poop off the carpet many times, I bought some kitty litter and a litter box.  I explained, to Bumpkin, the purpose of these items.  Fortunately, she was receptive to the idea, and she showed her sisters, through example, how to use the litter box.  So things have definitely improved.  But they just eat more and more.  And, obviously, the more they eat, the more they'll poop.  I've never had a cat before.  I'm not used to changing a litter box 8 times a day.  It seems like it's only going to get worse.  
What will happen when they become groundhog adolescents?  Are they going to have several groundhog boys over?  Are they going to have sleepovers with their friends?  What if Bumpkin learns how to use my computer?  Will she be meeting groundhogs on Craigslist?  Will she spend so much time chatting that I'll never get to use my own computer anymore?  Why, oh why, did I cause all of this by naming Bumpkin Bumpkin and subsequently allow the dark netherworld to bestow her superpowers upon her?

TV Is a Drug

Don't watch TV; watch this young groundhog!

It really is, and I am a recovering addict.  As a kid, I watched tons of it.  As an adult, I've watched tons of it. When you add cable, it becomes a hard drug.  A TV with digital cable is cocaine.  A TV with digital cable plus a movie channel is crack.  A TV with digital cable plus two movie channels is meth, and so on.  You get the point.  TV, the way I have it now, is like alcohol or marijuana.  I have no cable, so I get only three channels, and one of them is a 24-hour-a-day weather channel.  However, I have a DVD player.  I watch very little television programming, but I might watch anywhere from part of a movie to two movies in any given day.  I certainly don't miss having to pay the monthly charge for cable, which went up every single year. 
TV, like drugs, can be a real time-waster.  I'm pretty sure that Time Warner Cable isn't planning to offer free cable to me, but even if they did, I think I would decline it.  The older I get, the faster time seems to move.  I feel like watching TV is like watching your life pass by.  I want to do more with my life than watch TV.  And it really does get me high.  I turn it on, watch it, and get high on it.  It brings on a certain feeling of relaxation. 
Someone recently said to me that TV gets a bad rap.  I think that's true to a degree.  I think most of the programming is crap, but I have seen some interesting and informative stuff.  Probably the most informative show I ever saw was about the Three Gorges Dam in China.  I learned that many people were displaced by it.  A city was shown, from above, that was eventually going to be entirely underwater because of the dam.  It blew my mind, because it was a real-sized city with tall buildings and everything.  It was hard to imagine.  Of course the buildings would have to be demolished.  You can't have a ship, traveling down the river, crashing into an underwater building.  In fact, some people were paid to demolish buildings in their own town that they were being forced to evacuate: adding insult to injury.  So, as you can see, that was a very informative program.  On the other end is a show like Celebrity Apprentice.  What a piece of crap.  I have to admit, the commercials drew me in.  I gave it a try.  It didn't take long to realize that Trump's main objective was to create drama by getting the participants to criticize each other: garbage.
You're free to watch as much TV as you want to.  Just remember, ultimately, what you're doing is watching a box.