The Curlydog Blog

Home Schooling - This says it all

2009-07-03T07:31:00.001-04:00

From FreeThoughtFortWayne:
New York Times featured an article about the popularity of football leagues for the home-schooled. As they often do, the NYT also published a related slideshow. The first photo from this slideshow:

Must Be A Cold Day In Hell!

2009-06-26T20:13:00.001-04:00

Why? because today I agree 100% with Rep Michele Bachmann! I never thought it could happen! But today I agree with her not one, not one single constituent in the 6th Congressional District of Minnesota should complete the census form, they should all boycott it! In fact I think every Republican in America should show their support for Rep. Bachmann and her fight against tyranny by boycotting the census, that'll show 'em!!!

Taser Tag - Little Ol' Ladies

2009-06-03T20:51:00.001-04:00

Texas cop Tasers great-grandmother
A traffic stop for speeding in a construction zone led to the tasering of a 72-year old great-grandmother by a Texas deputy. Kathryn Winkfein, 72, of Granite Schoals, Texas was then handcuffed, and taken away to jail for resisting arrest and detention.

The deputy said that when he asked Winkfein to sign the speeding ticket he issued, she refused, used profane language and became violent, at which point he tased her.

The great-grandmother admits to speeding, but denies the rest of the deputy's allegations, and has hired an attorney to represent her, she tells a Fox News reporter.

Regardless, it's difficult to fathom how a speeding ticket evolved to the point where a trained law enforcement officer felt the need to jolt an elderly woman with a taser.

Super Cooper! - BELLY FLOP

2009-05-23T16:06:00.002-04:00

I must apologize, I have been grossly negligent in updating Cooper's blog, and it has not been for lack of material, it has been quite an adventure these past 4 months. Cooper is really a big baby who just has no clue how big he is, and he is definitely in those teenage trouble years.

He has found his way under the fence several times into the yard next door, fortunately he is not a runner and comes immediately when called. More landscaping ties will be going in soon!!! My only concern is doing just that side of the yard and will he then move his escapes to the back fence which leads to the pond..yuck....so we will do it all at once. He is very attached to our Daughter Molly and her best friend Kersten, must be wherever they are whenever possible.

As you can see from the picture above Cooper is enjoying the pool. He is doing great, he clearly had never swam before, he fell in the first time we went to swim before I could lead him in and I watched him sink to the bottom, for a moment I thought I would have to rescue me a Chessie, but he suddenly popped to the surface and started dog paddling..it was a pretty ugly stroke. He made his way to me at the stairs, 5 minutes of sweet talking him, he final let me lead him into the pool and he was off. He swam so much the first two days he sprained his tail, we learned it has a number of names, dead tail, cold-water tail, limber tail etc....good news, he was fine in a couple days and now is in puppy ecstasy when swimming and belly flopping and the stroke has definitely improved.

Cooper's other favorite past time is playing fetch, he loves to chase those tennis balls!!

Only in Texas

2009-05-10T08:00:00.001-04:00

Having lived in Texas for about 15 years, nothing surprises me anymore

What A Nasty Witch

2009-04-28T17:10:00.001-04:00

From Think Progress

During an interview with PajamasTV today, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) falsely claimed that the last swine flu outbreak occurred under "another Democrat President, Jimmy Carter." Bachmann, however, insisted she was not trying to blame either man for the outbreaks:

BACHMANN: I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under Democrat President Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it is an interesting coincidence.

The only problem is that the last U.S. outbreak of swine flu did not begin under Carter. Rather, it began in February of 1976, when Republican Gerald Ford was president.

Doh !!!!

2009-04-12T18:49:00.001-04:00

Sure it was a stunt to publicize a reality show, but is still kinda cool:

Fox has a teabagg’n problem

2009-04-10T17:01:00.001-04:00

From the good folks at the DailyKos:

Colbert's 10-31 Project

2009-04-01T18:37:00.001-04:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The 10/31 Project

comedycentral.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

NASA Name Contest

Things you don't say to your wife -Tim Hawkins

2009-03-23T19:24:00.000-04:00

The Mess George left Us To Clean Up!

2009-02-07T19:27:00.001-05:00

People the last eight years was a mess , it has destroyed our economy, quit listening to the right wing nut jobs they don't get it!

This is what "W" left us with:

Deja Vu All Over Again

2009-01-28T20:37:00.002-05:00

Boy this sure looks familiar..............

In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill Wednesday night with spending increases and tax cuts at the heart of the young administration's plan to revive a badly ailing economy.
The vote was 244-188, with Republicans unanimous in opposition despite Obama's pleas for bipartisan support. Eleven Democrats voted against the measure, while no Republicans supported it.

1993 - not a single Rethuglican vote for the Clinton package back then, not a single Rethuglican vote for the Obama package now. Just shows the Rethuglicans do not care about the country just about the politics of power. They figure voting for the package can gain them nothing, it it works to get us out of this Rethuglican mess Obama gets the credit anyway, if they vote no at least they can say I told you so.

Cooper - The Great Escape Part Duex

2009-01-25T13:22:00.002-05:00

Well, Cooper had a very good week, after Sunday's rampage, right up until Friday evening. Cooper was enjoying time in the yard with Molly and her friends, doing better every day with his walking on a leash for our morning stroll and settling in to the family well.

Even our male cat(Tux) has been explaining things to Coop, "If I am laying in a doorway I am not moving for you so get over it and all the play bowing in the world will not entice me to wrestle with you, so go away."

We were out for dinner Friday and of course talking about how well Cooper was doing, all the while unbeknown to us young Master Cooper had pulled the great escape part duex! So much for zip stripping the crate door closed.

The wife came home to a destroyed fios remote, oatmeal throughout the living room and utter chaos. I got home just in time to see the oameal being vacumed and was sent off to find a way to secure the crate door. Well I think we have it this time , 4 strategically placed carabiners should solve the problem

Cooper is still very upset by noisy cars and trucks but other than that and his escape excapades he is doing well.

Cooper's New Blog

2009-01-22T21:19:00.002-05:00

I have had several requests for Cooper only posts if at all possible, well here goes, from now on all Cooper posts will be cross posted at www.curlydog.com/cooper

I Am Used To Wingnuts Making Things Up! Shuster I Expect Better From However!

2009-01-19T18:23:00.002-05:00

As Media Matters points out the wingnuts are making things up again.

Summary: Leading up to President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony, several media outlets have advanced the claim that Obama's inauguration will cost significantly more than President Bush's 2005 inauguration. Citing "estimates" ranging from $150 million to $170 million in total costs for Obama's inaugural events, the outlets have compared the purported total costs in 2009 to the approximately $42 million in private funds spent on Bush's 2005 inauguration. However, these outlets omit the additional costs of security, transportation, and other expenses incurred by federal, state, and local governments in conjunction with the events in 2005 while including them in the projections for the 2009 events.

But I truly do expect better from MSNBC and the likes of David Shuster. Now the real question I have is, will Olbermann or Maddow call him out on it tonight?

The Curlydog's Bad Day

2009-01-18T20:14:00.002-05:00

Well Cooper had a tough day today, seems he is a bit of a Houdini and escaped his his crate while we were at Church today. So we came home to an absolute mess(well Molly and Deb did), tore apart a hassock and chair(where Maggie used to sleep), a tub of cat liter, Molly's glasses case and a few other odds and ends.

Well quite the shock to arrive home to. So we will be modifying the crates locking mechanism and the door this evening.

Why Paper Trails Matter - And Why Does The Person Ahead Always Say They Would Concede If Behind?

2009-01-18T20:04:00.001-05:00

440 uncounted ballots found -
Busansky said she thinks the uncounted
ballots were the result of a combination of human and mechanical error at
the Temple Terrace precincts on election
night, when two of the three optical scan voting machines
in the church apparently broke down.
Elections workers "were unable to get any information out of the machines to
find out how many votes had been tabulated at the precincts," said Busansky's
chief of staff, Craig Latimer.
The optical scan voting system uses paper ballots, so even if the machines
fail there is a paper trail. That's one of the benefits of the state-mandated
switch to paper-trail voting in 2007 after a disputed congressional race.
Without the paper ballots as a backup,
election officials said, the 440 votes would have been lost forever.
"If a judge orders us to recount the votes, we still have the paper ballots,"
Latimer said.
David Penoyer, who lost by 84 votes to Mary Jane Neale in the Temple Terrace election, said Friday he is
leaning toward legal action to get all the votes counted.
Neale said she hopes the controversy does not end up in a courtroom.
"If I were in David's position, I'd handle it like Al Gore did," she said.
"I'd move on."

Great Moments?

2009-01-18T17:09:00.001-05:00

Nice Farewell Dave!

Alan Colmes - Can He Redeem Himself?

2009-01-17T17:28:00.001-05:00

I used to listen to Colmes all the time on the radio prior to his stint with Hannity and Colmes (one of the fuuioest things Fraken ever did), let's hope that after all these years playing lackey for Hannity he will redeem himself, well here's a start.

Fox Noise Just Making Shit Up! - I Call Bullshit!

2009-01-17T07:24:00.001-05:00

For those who came to check up on Cooper, sorry but I must rant occasionally:

From Think Progress:
Today, President Bush left for Camp David for what is expected to be his last departure from the White House via Marine One. During Fox News’s coverage of the event, hosts Martha MacCallum and Wendell Goler tried to rewrite history for Bush:

GOLER: This president inherited a budget surplus, but he also inherited what he called “the trifecta of bad times.” There’s the president headed out to Marine One right now. […] He inherited the 9/11 attacks. He inherited the recession and he inherited some tough times on Wall Street.
Goler did not provide any explanation as to exactly how President Bush inherited those attacks. Watch it:

Bush did not inherit a recession:
The NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee has determined that a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001. A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession. The determination of a peak date in March is thus a determination that the expansion that began in March 1991 ended in March 2001 and a recession began. The expansion lasted exactly 10 years, the longest in the NBER's chronology [1]. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which is the private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization charged with determining economic recessions, the U.S. economy was in recession from March 2001 to November 2001, a period of eight months. However, economic conditions did not satisfy the common shorthand definition of recession, which is "a fall of a country's real gross domestic product in two or more successive quarters," and has led to some confusion about the procedure for determining the starting and ending dates of a recession.

Bush was warned about Bin Laden

The White House said tonight that President Bush had been warned by American intelligence agencies in early August that Osama bin Laden was seeking to hijack aircraft but that the warnings did not contemplate the possibility that the hijackers would turn the planes into guided missiles for a terrorist attack.

''It is widely known that we had information that bin Laden wanted to attack the United States or United States interests abroad,'' Ari Fleischer, the president's press secretary, said this evening. ''The president was also provided information about bin Laden wanting to engage in hijacking in the traditional pre-9/11 sense, not for the use of suicide bombing, not for the use of an airplane as a missile.''

Nonetheless the revelation by the White House, made in response to a report about the intelligence warning this evening on CBS News, is bound to fuel Congressional demands for a deeper investigation into why American intelligence agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had failed to put together individual pieces of evidence that, in retrospect, now seem to suggest what was coming.

In the past few days, government officials have acknowledged for the first time that an F.B.I. agent in Phoenix had urged the F.B.I. headquarters to investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled in American flight schools. That memorandum also cited Mr. bin Laden by name and suggested that his followers could use the schools to train for terror operations, officials who have seen the memorandum said.

Administration officials reached this evening said the warning given to Mr. Bush did not come from the F.B.I. or from the information developed by the Phoenix agent. Instead, it was provided as part of the C.I.A. briefing he is given each morning, suggesting that it was probably based on evidence gathered abroad.

The C.I.A. had been listening intently over the July 4 holiday last year, after what one investigator called ''a lot of static in the system suggesting something was coming.'' But then the evidence disappeared as quickly as it had arisen, and by August, officials have said, little was heard from Al Qaeda.

The warning of the hijacking was given to the president at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., where he was on vacation.

He created this mess!!

Earlier this year Mr. Bush used projections of vast budget surpluses to push through a huge, 10-year tax cut. Most of that tax cut went to people with incomes of more than $200,000 per year. Now Mr. Daniels tells us that the budget -- not just the budget outside Social Security, but the whole enchilada -- will be in deficit through 2004. Since the administration's phony budget math (''fuzzy'' just doesn't cut it at this point) gets phonier the further you go into the future, this means that we have effectively returned to a state of permanent deficit.

Curlydog Update!

2009-01-16T21:24:00.003-05:00

Cooper is adjusting well and Deb and Molly are not far behind :0)

Deb and Cooper had an eventful first day together, yesterday, Cooper knock her down(cut her legs out from under her) and hand two accidents inside, but today was a much better day.

Cooper has quickly become accustom to his crate, even went in to take a nap in his crate this afternoon all on his own.

We discovered some old stitches on the bottom back of his knee looks like 4 or 6 that have been there for some time. kind of a weird spot, and the vet never mentioned seeing them when he was neutered this week. He does not seem to favor the leg, he allows me to touch the area but Deb couldn't.

He gets pretty nervous when we all go our own way, Deb to her office me in the family room and Molly in her bedroom , he wanders nervously between the rooms. He has had a few moments with the cats but they are working it out. Overall better then expected.

Cooper The Curlydog

2009-01-14T21:40:00.002-05:00

What a great first night, Cooper(of course after surgery today) was an absolute joy on his first night home. He seems to have had more training than he showed at the County Kennel, he is interested in the cats but only wants to say hi. He has fallen asleep laying by Deb's chair and the cats have been wandering by. Here's another couple shots..........

Cooper Is Home!!!

2009-01-14T18:51:00.005-05:00

Cooper the new "Curlydog" is Home!!!!!

Cooper is going to be a wonderful addition to the family, he is a friendly lovable young fella who just needs a little direction in life, I am just sitting and watching Molly and Deb get him settled, he is a little nervous but doing great. He feels safest when he is next to me so I kicked back in my chair and I am letting the girls get to know him.

Cooper is a little bit darker then Maggie was, currently weighs in at 70lbs, has an ear infection, which we knew about & will be quickly treated and resolved. He seems house broken, at some point in time was taught sit and down but needs some work. He seems to be very nervous about a come command, but once he is feeling a little less nervous overall and recovered from the snip we will get working on that.

I want to send a special thanks to Sarah at CBRRescue.com for the lead on Cooper and all the support through the 10 day saga!!!

Thanks to the Citrus County Animal Services, it was a frustrating process at times, but they wanted to be sure the right thing was done and you have to respect that.

The Curlydog Odyssey Continues

2009-01-13T18:45:00.004-05:00

We are still on hold until morning, they have not heard anything yet.

The Orange County Animal Services did indicate they spoke to a neighbor that the
people who live(d) at the address did have a dog that meets Coop's description,
but no one has been seen at the house since the 1st.

The director at Citrus County wants to wait until morning to see if any calls come
in to the overnight voice mail.

If none do they hope to release for neutering in the morning....I think they are
paranoid because of the Dog Show in Brooksville....they fear being sued.

My theory is these people moved and decided they could not take Coop and were too embarrassed to turn him into Animal Services so they turned him in as a stray
at an animal hospital.

So let's keep our fingers crossed!

The Curlydog Odyssey

2009-01-12T18:41:00.001-05:00

I had hoped to be writing this evening about how excited we all were that our newest family was home with us, but alas, that was not to be.

I received a call this morning from the Citrus County Animal Services indicating that they had placed another hold on our adoption of "Cooper". (not sure how you place a hold on something that is already completed, but since I do not have Cooper and they sorta do, he is actually at the vets, we play by their rules.

It seems that there is a LARGE (23,000 entrents) dog show going on in Brooksville just down the road in Hernando County and there is some report of a missing dog. So they had just called the vet and placed the neutering on hold.

They had decided they needed to make sure they had taken every step to see if the dog could be returned. So they were going to have Orange County Animal Services place a 24 notice on the door of the last address they had for the original registrant of the microchip.

Now I really do not want to separate a dog from its family if at all possible, but I do have a few concerns, first the dog was recovered on the 30th of December, I first heard about the dog from CBRRescue on the 5th, I received only vague info as they were driving and did not have their notes handy, yet I found the dog within 7 minutes of browsing the Internet, how could they have not found their dog in 12 days? Second, the dog show angle makes no sense to me as the show started the 8th and ends the 18th, the dog was found the 30th and again if that were the case would it even remotely be likely that they(the owners) would not have found the dog. Plus the AKC shows no registration to the name that was on the original microchip registration.

I do believe they are doing the correct thing by placing the notice, I just hope it is not a case where someone who no longer wanted the dog suddenly feels guilty and obilgated to reclaim him. I also wish they had taken that step before allowing us to get so invested in the dog emotionally, we were all very excited and Molly is heartbroken.

Well it either will be oor won't be, now we just wait and hope that the best thing for "Cooper" is what happens.

We should know at the end of the day Tuesday.