40 bird species, but oddly no Red-shouldered Hawks or Barred Owls. 🤷♂️
Saturday, July 25, 2026
When Data Is Inconvenient, Just Lose It
Suppose a politician told you (loudly!) that the US was not running a deficit, but then he mumbled, under his breath, and so softly that no one could hear for sure, “provided you don’t count military and homeland defense spending”
“WHAT?? What did you say,” you ask?
“Oh nothing,” is the reply.
Right.
But it’s not nothing, is it?
In 2025, the U.S. federal budget deficit was $1.78 trillion (yes, with a T).
And just this week, the US House of Representatives passed a $1.15 trillion (yes, with a T) baseline defense spending bill, which has total framework costs rising to $1.5 trillion.
This budget does not include an additional $87 billion in a war funding request ($67 billion explicitly for countering Iran), nor does it include the $107.9 billion already allocated for the 2026 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget, or about $20 billion a year spent on foreign military assistance outlays.
Add it all up, and then subtract that number, and there’s no US deficit — just a very big asterisk.
Why do I tell you this?
Well, inconvenient data has a habit of simply being left off the books.
An example from my own colorful life:
Back when Ronald Reagan was in office, I had the White House convene a meeting of about 6 crack-shot demographers from the US Census Bureau, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Urban Institute, and the Population Reference Bureau. I was not working for the White House (I am a democrat), but everyone knew who I was, even if they did not quite know what the meeting was about.
I began, by noting that the assembled were the best and brightest in population and immigration data, and no one could argue if they said illegal immigration was 10,000 people a year or 10 million.
BUT…. and I took a three beat pause for effect … the Census Bureau was using the One Number everyone Knew Was Wrong …. ZERO.
It seems because the Census Bureau could not definitively determine how many illegal immigrants (or undocumented workers, if you prefer), were coming in every year, they were using the number Zero in their projection calculations — the one number they knew was WRONG.
Shortly afterwards, the Census Bureau changed the number to a net addition of 200,000 people a year.
Some years afterwards, I was at the Lyon Village Giant grocery store in Arlington, Virginia when the fellow in front of me turned out to be the Census Bureau’s immigration expert — one of the people in that White House meeting some 12 years earlier. We recognized each other immediately, and I averred that the 2000 Census numbers, which had just come out, were quite interesting — the Census Bureau had counted 281.4 million people, exceeding official projections by roughly 6 million. All of these "extra people" were foreign-born.
Jeff mumbled something about there being “less emigration of the foreign born out of the US” than the Bureau had calculated.
I am sure he was right, but my point was not lost on him either. He was a bit embarrassed and slipped away — no doubt a pressing appointment that he was already late for.
What does this have to do with dogs?
Well, a bit.
You see, yesterday’s post about canine life expectancy by breed had a lot of people confused. It seems most people do not know what life expectancy is, or how it is calculated. My apologies. I am a demographer by training, and I sometimes forget that not everyone knows the difference between cohort and period data, or how to do simple regression with four variables.
Let’s start with the basics: Human life expectancy has dramatically improved, quite rapidly, in developing countries all over the world. And yet, there has not been a matching increase in terminal longevity.
We all know why. Infant, maternal, and early childhood mortality has plunged with access to clean water, soap, antibiotics, indoor bathrooms, and vaccines. These five interventions alone account for most global life expectancy increases in the last 200 years, 100 years, 50 years, and 10 years.
How bad was it in “the good old days”?
Well, in first-century Rome, one quarter to one third of all infants died within their first year of life, and roughly half of all children died before reaching puberty.
Yow!
What’s the data for Italy today?
Well, Italian infant mortality rates have declined from 250-330 deaths per 1,000 live births in Caesar’s Rome to about 2 deaths per 1,000 live births today.
To bring us back to dogs….
Canine life expectancy at birth has nothing to do with terminal longevity of any breed, anymore than life expectancy at birth has anything to with terminal longevity of humans.
Life expectancy of dogs, as with humans, has a LOT to do with neonatal mortality, or what in the dog world is called “fading puppy syndrome”.
Canine neonatal mortality is very high, with 15-30 percent mortality quite common. Numbers vary depending on breed, with morphology and weight at birth being two key drivers. Very small dogs and brachycephalic dogs have higher than average neonatal mortality (ie higher than 15 percent).
Now, here’s where it gets interesting: the common failure of breeders and veterinary care data bases to chalk up neonatal mortalities.
Puppies born at home, and which die in a day or two, are generally never seen by a vet, and with exceptions “runts” are a bit problematic in the sales and overhead cost department. Six pups are born, five survive, and a runt dies without a $2,000 veterinary bill? Most breeders will count that as an acceptable outcome.
To be clear, none of this is new. Humans too have been historically slow to tally up perinatal and early childhood death; better to simply count it as “just one of those things”.
And so, both the Talmud and Aristotle do not count a zygote as having a human soul until 40 days after conception — the “quickening”. Spontaneous abortion then, was softened as a psychological blow. Prior to 40 days, the Talmud describes the loss as "mere water" or fluid. Loss?? What loss?
After giving birth, according to the Law of Moses (Leviticus 12) a woman was unclean for 7 days after bearing a son, followed by 33 days of purification, totaling 40 days (note that the required “purification time” was double for daughters).
Forty days of postpartum confinement and “purification” was common across the ancient world, and may have been a cautionary quarantine (a term which means 40 days), to reduce interaction with people and things that could increase infection or disease transmission during periods of open wounds and/or lower immunity and weakened or recovering constitutions.
Bottom line: a lot of newborn humans once died!
In Judaism, a baby boy is not given his jewish name until eight days after birth — it can be an even longer period of time for baby girls.
In the Bible, it’s only after 40 days of life that baby Jesus was presented to the public at the Temple in Jerusalem. Think of it as a “coming out” public announcement that a viable human being had entered the polity, and you have the right idea.
When children died wholesale in their first week or two of life, no one was presenting their great joy too soon
The point here, is that even with human babies, there is a long-standing tendency to both recognize the huge potential for perinatal and neonatal mortality AND to shield, soften, and minimize the loss through language, ritual, and delay.
And is it different with dogs?
It is not.
Data by breed for “fading puppy syndrome” is hard to find, and the very high numbers for dogs in general is rarely discussed, nor is the probability that these high numbers are actually an underestimate (for reasons previously stated).
When data is presented, perpetual apologists for inbreeding and deformity swoop in, clucking that the data must be wrong, because it does not fit neatly into their folder of ignorance and breed club silence.
Besides, it’s all “backyard breeders” fault they say, apparently oblivious that almost every Kennel Club breeder is breeding their dogs in their own backyard.
As I have noted in the past, the same phenomenon is observable when you raise any uncomfortable issue: denial, what-about-ism, attempts to define away, furious typing, ad hominem attacks, and opinion and anecdote presented as if that’s responsive to expertise or data.
Think I am wrong? Then you have not spent much time with the folks minimizing church or Epstein pedophilia, or Israeli genocide, or US civil rights violations, or…. pick your issue.
Whenever there is discomfort with data, the folks feeling uncomfortable almost always minimize and reject the data, a point I have made several times before, including when writing about dog training and pedophilia (see end notes, but also read “Don’t Think of an Elephant” by George Lakoff).
OK, but what does Jesus Christ’s presentation at the temple 40 days after his birth have to do with terriers?
Well, a bit.
Groundhog day and Candlemas (the Feast of the Presentation) are the same day for a reason.
See >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2005/02/happy-groundhog-day.html?
And YES, everything is connected, even fantasy and denial, life and death, blood and stars.
Let us prey.
———————-———————-
END NOTES
▪️See “When Pedophiles Write In” >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2022/10/pit-bulls-and-pedophiles.html?
▪️See “The Power of Frames” >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-power-of-frames.html?
▪️See “Your Arguments are Invalid” >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2011/10/your-arguments-are-invalid.html?
▪️See “Anecdote Is Not Responsive to Data” >>
https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2026/07/longevity-ignorance-and-lies.html?
▪️See “An Inconvenient Truth” >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2006/08/inconvenient-truth.html?
Battling the Japanese Stilt Grass
In this picture, I have string-trimmed the Japanese Stilt Grass to the right of this fallen 90-foot pine, but not yet trimmed the Stilt Grass to the left.
Stilt Grass is an annual, which means control is about cutting it down before it seeds, which is my goal here. Over 3-4 years, I hope to reduce the Stilt Grass coverage in the lower forest to near-zero so that native brush and trees can come back to the extent deer will allow it.
I am not a native-species purist; I may plant 1,000 daffodils in this forested area in the Fall. They are deer-resistant, but die back in May, so they are no barrier to native understory trees and shrubs.
The Stilt Grass along the mostly-dry creek bed is not being cut to give rabbits and fawns a place to tuck in, but *everything* will be cut to the ground in late August before September seed production.
Japanese Stilt Grass was accidentally introduced to the United States 100 years ago when it was used as a packing material around imported porcelain. Today it is an aggressive colonizer of forest floors and floodplains in the East, as it is disliked by deer.
Friday, July 24, 2026
An Old-Girl Box Turtle
While string-trimming the incredibly invasive Japanese Stilt Grass in the lower forest this afternoon, I came across a pretty large (and therefore old) Eastern Box Turtle.
This Box Turtle was, no doubt, on this property 30 years ago when it was part of a 120-acre Girl Scout Camp.
Pretty sure this is a female based on eye color and shell bottom. Males have redder eyes and a hollow scoop in their plastron (ie shell undercarriage).
When I was a kid, Box Turtles were fairly common -- we would find them under the hedges and under the grape arbor at my grandparents place in Kansas -- or in the woods along the river closer to my old house in Virginia.
Now they are very rare.
The decline of Box Turtles is largely due to the tremendous rise of roads in the U.S., and the increasing habitat fragmentation these roads have produced.
A turtle's hard shell can withstand examination by a dog, but not the crushing load of a car.
Kids collect a lot of turtles as well. Invariably these animals die in salmonella-soaked aquariums, or else they escape from the confines of a backyard and are run over by a car.
Box Turtles live longer than any other wild species in the United States -- 100 years or more is certainly in the cards.
The Box Turtle is not like the sea turtle or the snapping turtle -- this is an animal that lays only four or five eggs a year, and these eggs -- and whatever young actually hatch out -- must survive the onslaught of raccoon and possums, fox and dogs, disease and the ever-present gauntlet of cars and kids.
Turtles have a high degree of fidelity to relatively small areas, living out their long lives in a few dozen acres of woods. This little patch of woods will supply the box turtle with all the worms, insects, leaves, berries, mushrooms, and slugs it needs to survive.
The trouble is that very few other turtle-ranges may overlap this little patch of woods. The result is that if even a single male or female box turtle is removed from a parcel of woods, that loss may effectively kill off all reproductive capacity of other turtles in the area.
Unfortunately, transporting a turtle to a new patch of woods generally dooms it. Turtles may not be brilliant animals, but they are dogged, and if moved to a new patch of woods they will spend years wandering about fruitlessly looking for their ancestral homes. The long-distance excursions these animals invariably take result in turtles crossing roads and being killed by oncoming traffic.
The bottom line: if you know of a child that has removed a box turtle from forest or farm, find out exactly where the turtle was collected, and release it back to the wild in the same location.
The precipitous decline of Box Turtles in the United States was finally recognized in the early 1990s, and in 1995 all U.S Box Turtles were formally protected from collection and trade under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).
CITES does not save turtles from cars or kids, however -- only education can do that. If you have kids, or have access to a classroom of kids, please pass on the fact that Box Turtles are an endangered species and should NEVER be collected from the wild or transported out of the woods of their birth.
The Box Turtle is a tough animal, but a fragile species. For those of us who grew up playing in the woods, it is an icon of our youth -- a great treasure found rummaging through the leaves.
Like so much of what we treasure about this great country, however, it is on the verge of being destroyed by human population growth and the development that such population growth invariably engenders.
For those wondering, I have left a 100-foot by 30-foot patch of tall Stilt Grass along the lower creek shed to provide cover for rabbits, Box Turtles, and fawns.
I am also happy to report that this is not the first Box Turtle found on this place, and if the two found on my three acres is par for the local population density, we may have over 600 Box Turtles in the connected forest and fields.
Has the World Reached “Peak Bulldog”?
The world may have reached “Peak Bulldog” except for the US, where cruelty, stupidity and pedophilia has its own political party.
“In the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and countries throughout continental Europe — including the French bulldog's namesake, France — the tide has turned, in some locations, dramatically. Pet owners increasingly are shunning flat-faced (technically known as brachycephalic) breeds like French bulldogs, English bulldogs and pugs amid mounting evidence that they have, on average, shorter lives than other dogs and cost their owners more in veterinary bills.“One big country, though, is conspicuously bucking the trend.“In the United States, the French bulldog was the most popular purebred dog in 2025, its fourth straight year at the top since it dethroned the Labrador retriever in 2022, according to the American Kennel Club.”
A reader on Facebook cheered the news (as do I, with the obvious caveat), noting that “Education is a WONDERFUL thing.”
Yes, it is. So too is water, the giver of all life. But neither can penetrate a stone.
I responded:
I used to think people simply needed opportunity to get educated.This was back when you had to drive or bicycle to the library or book store and spend life and cash to pry out a fact or two, and a week or a month of work to answer three questions.I dreamed of the day all human knowledge would be in our pockets for free.
And then the iPhone and Google showed up, Youtube, Google Scholar, the Way Back Machine, etc.And then I realized the error of my thinking.So many people are both lazy *and* incurious.More recently, I discovered there’s a word for the Other Big Thing, which is the incurable condition of willful ignorance.
The word is *amathia*, and it describes a stubborn refusal to learn or consider evidence, “often seen in capable people who choose delusion over truth”.Yep. That’s a Big Thing in the world of dogs.
Still, lazy and incurious covers most of it. Amathia takes a wee bit of work, while most people are simply too lazy and incurious even for old-fashioned denial and delusion.
Thursday, July 23, 2026
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Yard-work Ahead
Tomorrow I split the Stella D’Oro Daylily bed and start to move the overage into the wetter part of the orchard.
The crowns of the daylilies will sit high (and mostly dry) on dirt mounds, with a thick layer of leaf litter between the long dirt mounds, and with wood chips on top. The daylilies will have “wet feet” if they need it in the driest parts of a summer drought, but the dry crowns should keep rot at bay.
A similar set-up should help the bee balms and rudbeckia prosper as well.
White Ash
White Ash is a good, often straight, clear, hard wood used for everything from baseball bats to lobster traps and floors to furniture.
Unfortunately, Emerald Ash Borer beetles are devastating American Ash, and one of the big trees taken out two years ago on this place was a likely victim.
To give some idea of the scale of possible Ash tree destruction ahead, U.S. forests contain approximately 8.7 billion ash trees and saplings. Think they could never get wiped out? Go look up American Chestnut.
Tree loss, tree colonization, and tree replacement is an often repeated theme in American forests. It’s an unhappy rolling story with changing characters.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Black Cherry
We have a lot of native Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) in my small forrest. The fruit brings in a lot of wildlife — birds in particular.
This is a quick-growing pioneer species often found in groundhog, fox, and raccoon-rich field hedgerows, cheek-to-jowl with its other dark friends, the black walnut and black locust.
Larger Black Cherry trees were once prized as cabinet and veneer wood, and if you’re buying an old piece of American-made “cherry” furniture, it’s made of Black Cherry, not an old orchard tree.
A Triple Dog Dare to the UK Kennel Club
Jemima Harrison has a nice, but quite shocking, autopsy of the recent abysmal change at the UK Kennel Club, where a brave and educated reformer intent on fixing problems was replaced by a charlatan doggy hair-dresser whose life has been spent inbreeding dogs that he parades around on a string lead.
My words.
See >> https://pedigreedogsexposed.blogspot.com/2026/07/exclusive-story-behind-boardroom-coup.html? for Jemima’s.
I had hopes for the UK Kennel Club. As I wrote in January of this year, going through the history up to that point:
“As skeptical and cynical as I always am, I have to say this (new) report is terrific, and Allison Skipper deserves all the roses, as does new Kennel Club Chairman Ian Seath. Full applause here. This is Herculean-level stable cleaning.” See >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2026/01/moving-immovable.html?
Alas, it was not to last 6 month, as the top rungs of the Kennel Club are emotionally, economically, and intellectually diseased due to 150 years of Inbred Thinking.
Yes, I got it right back in 2006. See >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2006/05/inbred-thinking.html?
Where to now?
May I suggest a participation challenge by the British Veterinary Association to the new Chairman and Vice-chair of the UK Kennel Club?
▪️Let Gavin Robertson, the new Chairman of the Kennel Club, and a dog show judge who issues Challenge Certificates in more than 70 breeds, select any UK champion English Bulldog and French Bulldog — two breeds he is said to be “well-known for his expertise in” — for x-ray examination by the British Veterinary Association. Skull and full-body x-rays will be taken, and the unaltered radiographs will be released to press and public to demonstrate the 150-year success of Kennel Club breeders.
▪️ Then let Kennel Club Vice-chair Yvonne Rawley, a breeder of Shih Tzus and Pekingese, select any UK Kennel Club champion in her breeds (they can be her own dogs, or someone elses). Again, the British Veterinary Association will do skull and full-body x-rays of both dogs, and the unaltered radiographs will be released to press and public to demonstrate the 150-year success of Kennel Club breeders.
The Kennel Club is a SHOW proposition.
Jemima Harrison SHOWED the dogs in her award-winning documentary, Pedigree Dogs Exposed.
Now the Kennel Club’s new leadership needs to be formally challenged to SHOW US their success, five generations later, with breeds near and dear to their hearts.
The Kennel Club is an association of expert breeders of dogs?
SHOW US.
I triple-dog dare ‘ya.
Great Moments In Poultry Production
Read the whole article, especially the last sentence.
From the Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington, KY, Oct 21, 1892.
Feeding Wolves at a Common Table
“Before I set out to travel this world, 12 years ago, I used to believe that the human race as a whole was basically a few steps above wolves.“That given the slightest change in circumstances, we would all, sooner or later, tear each other to shreds. That we were, at root, self-interested, cowardly, envious and potentially dangerous in groups. I have since come to believe – after many meals with many different people in many, many different places – that though there is no shortage of people who would do us harm, we are essentially good.“That the world is, in fact, filled with mostly good and decent people who are simply doing the best they can. Everybody, it turns out, is proud of their food (when they have it). They enjoy sharing it with others (if they can). They love their children. They like a good joke. Sitting at the table has allowed me a privileged perspective and access that others, looking principally for ‘the story’ do not, I believe, always get...“I am not a journalist. I am not a foreign correspondent. I am, at best, an essayist and enthusiast. An amateur. I hope to show you what people are like at the table, at home, in their businesses, at play. And when and if, later, you read about or see the places I’ve been on the news, you’ll have a better idea of who, exactly, lives there…“People, wherever they live, are not statistics. They are not abstractions. Bad things happen to good people all the time. When they do, hopefully, you’ll have a better idea who, and what, on a human scale, is involved.“I’m not saying that sitting down with people and sharing a plate is the answer to world peace. Not by a long shot. But it can’t hurt.” — Anthony Bourdain
Genocide: This is what Israel did to Gaza.
Monday, July 20, 2026
Black Gum
There’s a mature Black Gum tree, maybe 80-85 feet tall, at the top of my driveway.
Black Gums rot a bit too fast, and are hard to split, but it’s an otherwise tough wood, often used when making wood palettes.
Black Gum and its dark friend, Black Locust, are both major sources of honey production in the Spring.
Black Gums often develop hollows used as hives by wild bees, and early beekeepers used to cut similar sections for honey production prior to 1852 and the creation of the modern box hive.
Sensible Skills Needed
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. “Specialization is for insects.”
—- Robert A. Heinlein
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Mockernut Hickory
Mockernut Hickory can get 100 feet tall and can, on occasion, live 500 years.
For purposes of thought, 500 years ago was 1525. In 1525, Virginia and Maryland were entirely under Indigenous control, primarily by Algonquian, Iroquoian, Piscataway, Nanticoke, Susquehannock, and the Eastern Siouan people. At this time, no Europeans had settled in the region, though Spanish explorers had begun mapping parts of the Atlantic coastline.
I think I shall look around for a few pieces to use as a possible stick. Not that I need another stick….
Saturday, July 18, 2026
When The World Was Still Young, And …
Going to start every story to my grandsons this way. Second grandson turned one today.
Safe Travels, Little Oned
“A little French refugee clings to her dog through thick and thin. Driven from their home by the invaders, she and her parents came to the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris, where all refugees are received and — with aid from the American Red Cross — are fed, cared for, and helped on their way. She is waiting for the American Red Cross ‘camion’ to take her to the station, where the journey will be resumed.” June 8, 1918.
Friday, July 17, 2026
The Secret Friend of Trees
I collected a few forest mushrooms in the forest garden this afternoon.
Nothing edible here. I do not actually like eating mushrooms, though I have studied them in college, grown them, and collected them. They’re interesting.
The mushroom itself is the water-driven fruiting body of often very large colonies of mycelium unseen in the soil or in rotting wood or leaf litter. Most mushrooms fruit in the fall when it just begins to get wetter and cooler, though there are some important ones that fruit in the Spring, and even the Summer. Many mushrooms are rhizomorphic (root loving), and many trees and bushes get a large portion of their minerals and even water from their symbiotic fungal friends. In exchange, the tree feeds the fungi with sugars and carbohydrates, created through photosynthesis, which the fungi cannot produce on its own.
Amathia Is Not Curable
AMATHIA: The ancient Greek word for willful ignorance or "intelligent stupidity" is amathia. Unlike simple lack of knowledge (agnoia), amathia describes a stubborn refusal to learn or consider evidence, often seen in capable people who choose delusion over truth.
Thursday, July 16, 2026
The Way Out
Leo McGarry (John Spencer in The West Wing):
“This guy's walking down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep, he can't get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you, can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along, and the guy shouts up ‘Father, I'm down in this hole, can you help me out?’ The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. ‘Hey Joe, it's me, can you help me out?’ And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, ‘Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.’ The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I've been down here before, and I know the way out.’”
Ukraine’s “Kill House” Drone School
We need this in the US.
Franchise it, site it in warehouses. Partner with drone companies.
From >> https://www.businessinsider.com/ukrainians-want-to-fly-drones-first-survive-killhouse-2026-6:
“Inside a warehouse strewn with hanging tires and metal hoops, a small quadcopter lifted off the floor and crept slowly toward a fake Russian tank. The drone cleared several hoops, then drifted toward a tire and clipped the rubber, sending it crashing into the dusty concrete floor.
“In the Killhouse, it was a lesson. On the battlefield, that same loss of control could mean losing a drone before it can cripple Russian armor, reach a trench, or deliver supplies to soldiers fighting for their lives in the kill zone.”
“The revolution will not be televised.”
Everything You Are Came From Africa.
To substantiate great replacement theory, racist authoritarians seem to be claiming White people are indigenous to this nation.
Nope.
No White people are indigenous to North America.
No White people are indigenous to Central America.
No White people are indigenous to South America.
No White people are indigenous to the Caribbean.
No White people are indigenous to any part of Africa, from North Africa to South Africa.
No White people are indigenous to the Middle East.
No White people are indigenous to Southern Asia.
No White people are indigenous to Central Asia or East Asia.
No White people are indigenous to Australia, New Zealand. or any Pacific Island.
I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this: Mexican, Central American, and South American people are indigenous to the Americas, and White people are the actual immigrants.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Four Types of People
This is where we are.
This is the answer a Nazi would give in Germany in November of 1938.
We now have massive detention camps (of sizes built for citizens, not “criminal illegal aliens”) and ICE funding levels larger than the budget of the US Marine Corps.
Thousands have been disappeared, and now a work-authorized Colombian has been shot in the head in front of his wife and three-year old child by a posse of nameless, faceless, masked men.
All of this has been given the Big Wink by the billionaire-funded right-wing politicians and their bot-like astro-turf supporters.
Silence tells the world what we tolerate.
There were four kinds of Germans in 1939: Those who supported the Nazis, those who rationalized their silence any number of ways, those who were silent due to terror, and the resisters.
Who are you is determined by what you say and do now.
You can no longer say you have no idea how Germany got to Kristallnacht.
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Big Baler Working In Wet Heat
A Kuhn large square baler going down the road in front of the house. Extra wide on a two-lane road.
The water tank on top is apparently for application of a buffered propionic acid solution (safe for livestock), which discourages hay mold.
Lots of rain last week and 102+ degrees today (39 Celsius), so no doubt required unless you’re in the mushroom business.
Monday, July 13, 2026
Good News Sunday
LINDSEY GRAHAM IS DEAD, MITCH MCCONNELL IS DEAD, all of Russia’s refineries are burning, Russia’s oil tankers are being destroyed as soon as they leave port, racist rapist Conor McGregor lost his last match and crippled himself, Fox News is in free fall with a 43 percent ratings drop, and a new poll from The Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center finds New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has a higher favorability rating among Jewish Americans than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The world is healing, and Felix the Cat asked me to share his story with you. Enjoy! 😃 ⬇️😀
Sunday, July 12, 2026
The Deaths of Three Men
“I remember clearly the deaths of three men. One was the richest man of the century, who, having clawed his way to wealth through the souls and bodies of men, spent many years trying to buy back the love he had forfeited and by that process performed great service to the world and, perhaps, had much more than balanced the evils of his rise. I was on a ship when he died. The news was posted on the bulletin board, and nearly everyone recieved the news with pleasure. Several said, ‘Thank God that son of a bitch is dead.’
“Then there was a man, smart as Satan, who, lacking some perception of human dignity and knowing all too well every aspect of human weakness and wickedness, used his special knowledge to warp men, to buy men, to bribe and threaten and seduce until he found himself in a position of great power. He clothed his motives in the names of virtue, and I have wondered whether he ever knew that no gift will ever buy back a man's love when you have removed his self-love. A bribed man can only hate his briber. When this man died the nation rang with praise...
“There was a third man, who perhaps made many errors in performance but whose effective life was devoted to making men brave and dignified and good in a time when they were poor and frightened and when ugly forces were loose in the world to utilize their fears. This man was hated by few. When he died the people burst into tears in the streets and their minds wailed, ‘What can we do now?’ How can we go on without him?’
“In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror....we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world.”
— John Steinbeck, East of Eden
When Americans Start Firing Back
Americans are a hunting people and we make no apologies about it.
How many guns are in private hands in America now?
About 400 million guns, or 120 guns for every 100 people.
Ask people why they support the Second Amendment, and a lot of folks will tell you it’s to fight off the communist Russians, or to thwart the rise of fascism should it appear on the horizon.
Nearly every American will tell you they would kill Hitler if they got the chance.
We believe in democracy so much, we will kill other people in other nations until they embrace it.
Yet the Russians are here, votes at home are being systematically suppressed, and fascists are ripping immigrant children from their parents and throwing them into cages without soap or even room to sleep.
And who has the guns?
And what direction are they pointed?
Where is Walter Mitty now that we need him?
And yet…. and yet.
Am I glad there are 400 million guns in private hands in the US?
I am, and for the simple reason that this current paroxysm of fascism will only go so far before American citizens will stand their ground and fire back.
No, we will not be fighting a war against B-1 Bombers and tanks.
Like every other country where creeping fascism slithers out of the drain, we will be fighting a police state where masked thugs “disappear” people.
When ICE shows up with 15 people and finds 200 people with guns, or 600 people without guns, what do you think they will do next?
And the answer is…. RUN.
These masked thugs are cowards, and it will only take a dozen dead to change the equation and the conversation.
Is that coming?
You bet your damn life it is.
And when it’s all over, it will be payroll records who tell us who the collaborators and traitors were.
It will not matter if there are trials, because names and faces will be on the Internet and those records will be one of the data bases a prospective employer, landlord, or date might check.
Today’s thugs will fall under a pencil, victims of an unblinking and never-forgetting computer culture.
The ICE thugs are already scared of this — it’s why they wear masks.
And yet the masks are already slipping as citizen activists match names to pictures, with the promise of addresses to follow.
Imagine names, faces, and addresses, cross-tabbed to employers, churches, mortgage holders, credit card files, and bank records, all of it easily accessed and housed on 20 servers in as many countries.
How many pictured and named ICE agents need to be on wheat-paste posters afixed to the sides of mailboxes and the back of street signs for the sense of impunity to dissolve?
When American fight back, we will not lose, and the only question now is the one there’s always been: “What side are you on, brother, what side are you on?”
Full Load
Buy the man a drink, give the dog a bone. It’s all about ‘da bass.
My father once brought a full-size bass as “carry-on” luggage from Europe to Africa. He was quite a fellow, my old man.
Saturday, July 11, 2026
Real Experts Have Data
A couple of days ago, over on Facebook, I posted a few pieces about snake bites on dogs.
One post on Copperhead snake bites (links at bottom) attracted a few Facebook experts with very confident opinions on the subject.
Cool.
More on that later, but let’s review the Copperhead basics to start.
While Copperheads account for *far* more venomous snakebites than any other species in the United States, their venom is quite mild, and fatalities of both humans and dogs are quite rare.
Even prior to the development of antivenin, the human fatality rate for Copperhead snake bites was approximately 1 in 10,000 bites (0.01 percent).
For comparison, Bee stings have a far higher human fatality rate; an average of 62 to 72 deaths per year in the United States compared to just 1 fatality every five years for Copperheads.
Compare that to Rattlesnakes, which account for over 90 percent of fatal snakebites in the US.
Eastern Diamondback bites — the flavor of Rattlesnake in my area — have a 20-40% human mortality rate if left untreated.
What about Copperhead bites on dogs?
Whether people or dogs, Copperhead venom is still the weakest of any administered by a US venomous/poisonous snake.
In Virginia and Maryland, where I have lived for over 40 years, Copperheads are common, and the likelihood of a dog getting bitten by a snake increases substantially in the warmer months.
If a dog comes in to a vet’s office with a venomous snake bite, there’s a 99.9 percent chance it’s a Copperhead bite.
OK, that’s the basics.
Now let’s go to the published experts and see what they say.
At the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association four veterinary experts write that:
“Copperhead envenomation is common within the US, and no studies exist describing the clinical course of copperhead envenomation in dogs. Almost all treatment decisions regarding those bites are extrapolated from retrospective studies evaluating the clinical course of rattlesnake bites. Because copperheads and rattlesnakes produce venom with different potency, assumptions that treatment of the different envenomations should be similar may be incorrect.”
Excellent.
But did you notice what was implied in the opening statement?
Copperhead envenomination of dogs and cats in the US is very common (the majority of the 150,000 dogs and cats bit by venomous snakes in the US every year), but there are NO clinical studies describing Copperhead envenomination in dogs.
Huh.
Serious problems generally get studied. If Copperhead bites are killing a lot of dogs, you’d think there would be stacks of published data demonstrating the scope of the problem, if only to sell a putative cure.
But there isn’t.
OK.
Now re-reead the next sentence.
Copperhead envenomination is NOT parallel to or even slightly similar to rattlesnake envenomination.
OK. That sounds right.
But can we put some numbers on that?
Yes, it turns out we can.
From the same article in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association:
“Medical records of 52 dogs treated for copperhead envenomation were reviewed, and owners were contacted regarding outcome. The most common clinical signs associated with copperhead envenomation included swelling, pain, and ecchymosis [ed: a fancy word for bruising]. Clinicopathological abnormalities (e.g., thrombocytopenia, elevated clotting times, leukocytosis) were mild, and red blood cell morphology changes and coagulopathies were rare. Most dogs were treated with antimicrobials, analgesics, and fluid therapy. No dogs in this study required the use of antivenin and all survived to discharge. This study found that the clinical course after copperhead envenomation is generally limited to local rather than systemic illness. Copperhead envenomation in dogs is largely self-limiting and responsive to supportive care with hospitalization for monitoring.”
Huh.
So scores of thousands of dogs are bitten by Copperhead snakes every year, but a review of documented medical interventions over 8 years found very few of them treated by veterinarians, and *none* of those treated by veterinarians were fatal even without antivenin treatment?
Huh.
Scores of thousands of bites a year.
Little veterinary intervention.
No deaths even without antivenin of any kind.
In my previous post on Copperhead bites, I noted that the treatment protocol I and others follow is not antivenin, but the administration of 2 mg of Benadryl per pound of dog every 12 hours to reduce swelling.
But, says veterinarian Sherrie Hartke in the comments section of my original post, Benadryl does not deal with the systemic reaction of Copperhead venom.
And guess what? She’s correct, but not exhaustively so. You see, there is little or no systemic reaction from Copperhead bites.
As the AAHA article notes: “This study found that the clinical course after copperhead envenomation is generally limited to local rather than systemic illness. Copperhead envenomation in dogs is largely self-limiting and responsive to supportive care with hospitalization for monitoring.”
Huh. Self-limiting. That means the dog gets better on its own.
OK, but Copperhead bites DO cause a medical reaction. What is it?
And the answer is localized swelling.
Ms. Hartke says “Giving benadryl is a complete waste of time. Swelling is due to cytotoxic effects and not histamine.”
OK. Big words. Sounds like science. But is it?
I asked Ms. Hartke whether a Bee sting was cytotoxic, and what the go-to treatment for a Bee sting was.
No answer.
Can you guess why?
Yes, that’s right. Bee stings are also cytotoxic, and yes Benadryl is the go-to remedy for Bee stings.
Swelling is the primary effect of Bee stings and the primary effect of Copperhead bites as well. If swelling gets too bad in a very small dog (like mine), it can impact breathing. Reducing the swelling with a 2 mg dose per pound of dog seems to work, costs nothing, and does no harm.
Oddly, none of the experts in the comments section said they themselves had a dog struck by a Copperhead. The two that did have actual experience with their own dog said antivenin was not necessary. I have had dogs bitten by Copperheads three times over 25 years. No antivenin, and no deaths.
I was told, in the comments section, that I needed to go to a Facebook page on snake bites where the real experts were to be found.
Cool, but perhaps folks could just as easily point me to actual data on Copperhead bites in dogs published by the AVMA, AAHA or some other reputable numbers- and science-based publications? Had any of the experts on the Facebook page written anything about Copperhead bites in dogs that had been published in these kinds of veterinary publications? Please post a link!
No responsive links about Copperhead bites in dogs was forthcoming. Instead links were provided where rattlesnake data was co-mingled with Copperhead data, human data was presented (no dog data at all), or generalized fear mongering was presented with no data and often — again — a conflation of Rattlesnake and Copperheads as if they were the same.
In my original post, I had noted the incredible cost of Crofab antivenin.
Ms. Hartke offered that there were cheaper treatments now, and she quoted wholesale prices of Venom Vet, and Rattler of under $300.
Cool, I replied. Could she give me the actual *total* cost of Venomvet treatment at a vet’s office, including multiple vials of antivenom, administered on a slow IV drip, and overnight care from vet staff, etc.?
No answer.
OK. No problem. I had the answer as reported by a reporter for the Roanoke, Virginia Times: $4,000 to $6,000.
Ouch.
And guess what?
Most pet owners cannot afford that kind of financial hit, and most turn down that costly Copperhead “treatment” protocol as a result.
And guess what? None of those dogs die if they are otherwise healthy, and if they are given 2 mg of Benadryl per pound every 12 hours.
What? How is that possible?
Well, let’s review the basics again: a Copperhead bite is not a Rattlesnake bite. The comparative toxicity of the venom delivered is so vastly different it cannot be graphed.
Though Copperhead venom is hemo-toxic (i.e. destroying red blood cells), that’s a word that translates into little more than swelling and perhaps a little localized (and temporary) tissue loss at the bite location.
Benadryl to reduce swelling, and over-the-counter antibiotics to prevent bite infection, is all that’s needed.
But hey, if you want to shell out $5,000 or more to “Rescue Ranger” your dog, I’m OK with it. So too is every vet fanning the flames of worry about a Copperhead bite.
Just don’t ask to see the epidemiology numbers. They have numbers, of course, but those numbers are the veterinary bill.
—————————-
▪️Original Facebook Post >>
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CwnxzjKrD/?mibextid=wwXIfr
▪️Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) Envenomation of Dogs: 52 Cases (2004–2011), 2014 in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association
https://jaaha.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/aaha/50/5/article-p338.xml
▪️ Copperhead bites can cost you thousands in vet bills, Roanoke Times >>
https://roanoke.com/news/state-regional/business/article_78d3c25d-8802-565b-b1bd-41b326b067c7.html
▪️ Epidemiology of fatal snakebites in the United States 1989–2018, Science Direct >>
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675720307774?via%3Dihub
▪️ 52% of U.S. Pet Owners Skipped or Declined Veterinary Care. Financial considerations are biggest deterrents to getting veterinary care >> https://news.gallup.com/poll/659057/pet-owners-skipped-declined-veterinary-care.aspx
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