Animal Rights Extremism + Duck Dynasty = Hilarity

One of my favorite things is when someone takes a stupid position on something and the rest of the world makes hilarious fun of it. I do it. Sometimes it’s done to me. Either way it’s good.

duckdynasty

Duck Dynasty is one of the best shows on TV. My entire family loves it, and you can rarely get all of us to agree on anything. Virtually all of the cast members come across as genuinely good, moral folks. Things I’ve read and heard about them off-camera are consistent with that impression. The Smiths were pretty cool. A long time ago. Post-Smiths Morrissey, not so much. So when Morrissey decided to cancel his appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show because the Duck Dynasty crew was appearing, hilarity ensued.

Here’s the thing. Animal rights activism suffers from the same malady politics and gun control debate suffers from. There are very few logical, middle ground voices to be heard in the chaos of stupidity and extremism. I am generally inclined to favor reasonable animal rights. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to eat some of them (though close to half my meals are meat-free), but I generally get it. Nothing, however, makes me want to shoot some animals as badly as 99% of the things PETA publishes.

So props to Jimmy and the Duck Dynasty crew for making fun of Morrissey. I get it. If you’re going to cancel this appearance because hunters are appearing, you better have a very small circle of friends and business associates, because if these guys violate your sense of righteousness, so does most of the rest of the population. On the other hand, if the cancellation is really just about you being you, maybe it doesn’t matter so much.

Under Cover: Friend of the Devil

hawksinla

I really like good covers of good songs. I have a large (and excellent) Spotify playlist centered around cover songs.

So when I saw someone with the Grateful Dead say that this was possibly the best Friend of the Devil cover they’d ever heard, I stopped in my tracks for a listen.

This may be the first time I’ve talked about I See Hawks in L.A. But it won’t be the last time. That is one great cover. Here’s their web site.

So It Turns Out that Your Cash May, in Fact, Be Nothing but Trash

First, a musical interlude.

I remember singing that song on Sugarloaf Mountain when I was a kid. I have no other context to that memory, but there you go.

I’ve been under the deeply held misunderstanding that all commercial endeavors were required to take cash. You know, money. I’ve actually yelled at people who wouldn’t take my legal tender, in lieu of a credit card that inserts banks, merchant charges and interest rates into my desire to acquire.

Whoops.

Turns out that they were just kidding about that legal tender for all debts, public and private stuff:

[The Coinage Act of 1965] means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.

I don’t drink much or buy overpriced headphones ever, so while I have noticed the airlines announced no-cash requirements, I’ve always thought that if the need to booze it up overcame me on a plane, I could force my will and logic and dollar bills on them.

Thank goodness I never decided to try.

Scary Business

cassidydrives
There are scary things out in the country. There are feral dogs, hogs, coyotes, bulls, yuppies, the occasional mountain lion. But nothing short of a Chupacabra is as terrifying as this…

Trees and Water and Saving the Planet

It’s still heartbreaking to drive around in Bastrop and see all the dead trees, from the 2011 fire.

Today I read about an effort by Texas A&M students to replant trees in the area.

Fire-ravaged Bastrop State Park and its fabled Lost Pines area got a big boost this weekend on a quest to regain its lost beauty and ecological vitality, thanks to hundreds of Texas A&M University students who came to plant pine seedlings — thousands of them — under the watchful eyes of Texas A&M Forest Service and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department personnel.

This is truly awesome. I hope planting trees becomes a big thing, across all of fire and drought plagued Texas.

While we’re saving the planet, I also read an interesting article today about how much water can be saved by simply turning the faucet off while you’re brushing you teeth.

What if we turn off the tap while brushing, turning it on only to wet the brush and then to rinse? Say 15 seconds in all? Under these assumptions, you would only use 230 gallons per year, a savings of 1170 gallons per year or 84%. Now, what if all 314 million of us – today’s population of the United States – changed our behavior? Whoa. All of a sudden, we’re talking about saving 370 billion gallons of water a year.

Between my concern for both ends (well and septic tank) I always turn off the water at the farm. In town, not so much…until now. I’m in, and I hope you are too.

Valentine’s Day

Goodness. Gracious.

Is this the Best Song Ever?

Or just one of them. That’s the only question. Well, maybe there’s just one more question…

If I can’t trust you with a quarter, how can I trust you with my heart?

zoemuth

Zoe Muth.

When you moved a little closer
I had no intention of saying “no sir”
Then you asked my for a quarter
That’s when it all went wrong.

Oh, there’s more.

When you said you’d never heard of John Prine
Well I knew right away you weren’t worth my time
And I’m sorry to say hon before we’d begun
We were already through.

Buy this record. Now. Amazon. Google. iTunes.

Zoe is battling Fred Eaglesmith for playlist domination on all my devices.

Evening Reading: 1/30/13

I can, sort of, understand why someone might voluntarily choose an Android phone over an iPhone. I have a harder time understanding why someone would voluntarily chose a Windows Phone, but I can get there. But I cannot in my wildest dreams understand why someone would voluntarily choose a Blackberry. Here’s a good review of the new (years too late) handset.

I gave up my virtualization software when I finally admitted that my Windows Live Writer days were behind me. But if I hadn’t, I would read every word of this. If you have a Mac and want to run Windows programs, start there.

I guess there’s some part of me that is a little old lady in disguise, because I have to tell you that I would never, ever buy something off of Craigslist. Sorry, but the whole place seems like a scam for all.

spacemonkey

So Iran sent a monkey to space. Space monkey, space monkey, whatcha doin’ up there….

My buddy Will wants to go hunting, but he doesn’t like guns. So he wants to use a slingshot. OK. We can do that. Here’s one.

Here’s some dude named Abe’s list of 50 essential science fiction books. I can’t list 50, but the Hyperion Cantos, the Pelbar Cycle and Star Man’s Son would be at the top.

Rumours, 35 Years and the Night I Almost Got Killed for Changing a Record

fmrumours

Hitfix has a great read about Fleetwood Mac’s excellent Rumours album, released 35 (actually 36) years ago. There is a new deluxe edition, that I’ll have to check out (here’s the Spotify link). Though my favorite Fleetwood Mac era was the earlier, unknown by most yuppies, blues era, there is no denying that Rumours is one of the best records ever made.

The quintet took a year to record “Rumours” in Sausalito, Calif. at the Record Plant. While they were in the studio, their self-titled 10th album (and the first to feature Buckingham and Nicks) was gaining traction and was a clear sign that moving from the blues-based sound of the previous efforts to a pop-oriented sound was the right move commercially. That was only confirmed with “Rumours,” which spent 31 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Along with Frampton Comes Alive, Europe ’72, At Fillmore East and Hotel California, Rumours constitutes a material part of the soundtrack to my high school years. We played the absolute heck out of those records.

In fact, Rumours (and, more importantly, Stevie Nicks) was so beloved by my crowd that some cat actually tried to stab me one night for talking it off the turntable at a party. The turntable arm was up and one side (side 2, the one with The Chain and Gold Dust Woman) had played repeatedly for hours and hours. Fortunately, another dude tackled him from behind before he could complete his honor killing.

I think we put Hotel California on after that. Only dudes in that band, and no one’s going to try to kill anybody over Don Henley.

Evening Reading: 1/28/13

I don’t always want to be a cat, but when I do, I want to be a Canada Lynx.

Speaking of cats, my cat wouldn’t cross the street to come back to us (literally, I’m not kidding), but this cat travels 200 miles?

It’s been a long time since I played computer games, but I can tell you that I’m intrigued by the forthcoming SimCity reboot. SimCity was one of the first computer games that really got me hooked. Actually it was the mostly forgotten SimFarm first, and then SimCity. The fact that the new version will be released on Mac doesn’t bode well for my free time.

I was a boss sim farmer — I was a boss SimFarmer back in the day

RIP Leroy Bonner. When my kids want to talk to me about the non-music they listen to and how lame daddy’s music is, I make them watch this.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, on the radio today rocks like that.

Speaking of old things. I am bewildered by the gems that Raiders of the Lost Walmart uncover. My first digital camera was a Sony Mavica. You can have your own, for a mere $269. You’ll also need an ancient computer with a floppy drive.

If there is one thing that should never be consumed, it’s non-diet soda. I go postal on the rare occasions when my kids ask me if they can have one.