...and they can have it back anytime!

“Multiculturalism is Canada’s gift to the world.”


Via: Protein Wisdom

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Farewell, Professor Frisky

Laurence and Gina lost their fluffy orange fellow on Wednesday.

If I had to pick, I think that, after Edloe (who was in a class by herself), Frisky was my favorite of Laurence's crew.

More, with a picture.

Later:  Elisson offers a 100-word story, and a touching tribute.

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Colorado, again

Associated Press story posted at cbs4denver.com

A tactical law enforcement team broke into Tom Shiflett's home and took his 11-year-old son to hospital for court-ordered medical treatment for a minor head injury.

Garfield County's [Colorado] All Hazards Response Team raided the home Friday night, a day after Jon Shiflett fell after grabbing the handle of a moving car. The child was returned to the family at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, hours after the raid.

“Inappropriate is not nearly strong enough a word. It was gross irresponsibility and stupidity,” said Ross Talbott, owner of the Apple Tree Mobile Home Park south of New Castle who rents to the Shifletts and who witnessed the raid. “Is this Russia? I don't know what we're coming to when they think your kid needs medical help and they send a SWAT team.”

But...

Use of the Garfield County All Hazards Response Team (AHRT) was appropriate to seize Tom Shiflett's son for medical care because of Shiflett's confrontational history and repeated lack of cooperation, according to Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario.

“I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think we would have been able to accomplish it with just the deputies we had on duty,” Vallario said. “The end result of what happened was based on (Shiflett's) decisions, not mine.” – Glenwood Springs Post Independent

But...

Vallario said Shiflett was arrested in 2005 on suspicion of felony menacing after chasing someone down the street with an ax...

The 2005 arrest was never prosecuted... Vallario said he didn't know why the decision [not to prosecute] was made.

Shiflett said he did.

"I was completely within my rights under the Make My Day law," he said.

That Colorado law allows homeowners to use deadly force defending themselves from an intruder who is considered to be a threat.

Shiflett said he picked up the ax and chased the man out of his yard after 40 minutes of listening to his threats. He said he was the one that called the sheriff's office. – Glenwood Springs Post Independent

From Phil Dean's comment at Instapundit:

Based on the facts we know, I don't agree that the raid was necessarily excessive. Consider: the police have to enforce the court order. They sent two deputies to knock on the door and ask. They were unsuccessful. THEY STILL HAVE TO ENFORCE THE COURT ORDER. Now, whether this particular court order was reasonable or not is a separate issue, but that's not the cops’ doing. And as far as “accountability” goes, they can also be held accountable for NOT executing a court order pertaining to the health and safety of a child. Just another one of the damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't scenarios that make modern law enforcement so much fun.

Except, as somebody remarked recently, the “I was just following orders” defense was ruled invalid internationally at Nuremberg, and domestically with Watergate.
Notice also the silence from the Child Protection people who requested the order, and the judge who issued it.

Another datapoint making Colorado a less attractive place to live.

Previously: Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Colorado. Your papers, please.

Via: Instapundit

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Caution: Sans-serif font

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Cats' friend

“Gillibrand” at Catholic Church Conservation found this story at Bild.de:

In the New Year, Pope Benedict XVI has to cope with a number of appointments, traveling also is ahead of him and he has to write a book and two Encyclicals.

He only very rarely has time for himself. But now he has told his neighbour in the papal apartments, what he would really do, if he just dreams for a couple of moments. Then he thinks of his secret wish:

To write a book about cats.^[1]

...

Joseph Ratzinger had cats around himself for decades, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The CDF is on the Via Aurelia, one of the most traffic-heavy streets in Rome. Daily, cats are killed or injured. Quite a few drag themselves into the garden of the CDF, where Ratzinger resided and movingly cared for them, feeding them, bandaging their wounds, watching them lie in the sun and slowly get better. And he gave names to all of them.

He wanted to write about these cats, but the election to the Papacy foiled these plans, now he has to take care of the global Church instead of the little cats at the Via Aureli.^[2]

Benedict isn’t the first Pope to love cats. This story about him reminded me of this one^[3] that “Mira d'Oubliette” posted back in 2005.


-----
^[1] “Gillibrand's” translation
^[2] This portion translated by “Gerald Augustinus” at The Cafeteria Is Closed.
^[3] Mira hasn’t posted since July, 2007. In the interest of preservation, I’ve reproduced her entire post below the break.

Via: Belmont Club, linked in this comment at AoSHQ
more...

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Let's put the cat amongst the pigeons

I wonder just how this story

Patients could be required to stop smoking, take exercise or lose weight before they can be treated on the National Health Service, Gordon Brown has suggested.

In a New Year message to NHS staff, the Prime Minister indicates people may have to fulfil new "responsibilities" in order to establish their entitlement to care. - The Telegraph

plays with this one

Overeating And Obesity Triggered By Lack Of One Gene...a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is critical in mediating satiety in adult mice.

Mice in which the BDNF gene was deleted in two of the primary appetite-regulating regions of the brain ate more and became significantly heavier than their counterparts. - Science Daily

...?

Scientists have long suspected that there's a genetic predilection to addiction. If now we find out that obesity has a genetic link, is it "less immoral" to deny treatment to someone who is fat than because they have, say, sickle cell anemia?


Both from Instapundit (1, 2) the second one via the Right Coast (where there's discussion).

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When perfection is your standard...

I thought of using that line over at Laurence's, as a comment to one of the posts lamenting his poor stewardship (he says!) of COTC over the last year.

Then C.G. Hill came out with a new year's list of his "bad post titles."

Now I've always assumed that the excellence of a pun is directly proportional to its groan-a-tude.  So I hope he's being at least slightly tongue-in-cheek.  'Cause if those are his bad ones...  well, I'd take 'em.

And he put up 2021 posts last year, too.

(Glances at sidebar.)  Aaarggh!

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 23:45:56 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Little Old Lady from Detroit

I'd love to meet Bikerken's mom:

My mom is a little old lady with an old Lincoln Towncar and the engine died in it. She saw an ad in a Pep-boys flyer for a new motor for six hundred bucks. So she called them up and asked about it. They told her that a motor for her car would be about 3200 bucks. She asked, “What about these six hundred dollar motors?” The guy at Pep-boys said, “Lady, I’ll be honest with you, you wouldn’t want one of those motors, there are made on assembly lines and about two hundred different people put their hands on those.” Mom said, “you happen to be talking to a little old lady from Detroit who knows that ALL motors are made on assembly lines, what the hell did you think, they we’re going to chisel one out just for me?” The man was speechless.

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Happy 2008

......

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 00:08:27 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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