Sadness

Malign Neglect

We've not done too well with pets. We've lost three hermit crabs and four goldfish, and just last night, a tadpole.

The tadpole's death is my fault. He'd been living off of his tail in a goldfish bowl, slowly growing legs, and doing well with our benign neglect. Then we got another goldfish.

I bought a 2 gallon tank with a filter and circulation system, so we wouldn't have to clean the bowl as much. The goldfish don't like dirty bowls, but the tadpole didn't seem to mind.

But I moved the tadpole into the new tank with the goldfish. He seemed fine Monday and most of yesterday. The water was not calm, like before, so I think he became tired. It looked like the suction got him, and tore out his intestines, unless this a Case of the Vicious Goldfish.

The incident reminded me another sad case.

10:51:58 AM # Google It!
categories: Family, Sadness

Search, and DESTROY

Crooked Timber wonders

Why is state-organized torture a less topical issue than state-imposed limits on political free speech, or individual ownership of firearms?

Because we're way too disturbed.

9:52:21 PM # Google It!
categories: Sadness

Childhood's Television Fades

Captain Kangaroo, 1927 - 2004

3:15:22 PM # Google It!
categories: Sadness

No Hope

A young Palestinian mother of two, a 3-year-old son and an 18-month- old daughter, made her way to the front of a line of workers at the heavily fortified Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip Wednesday morning, feigned a medical problem and then detonated a bomb that was strapped to her body, killing herself and four Israelis -- three soldiers and a civilian security inspector, Israeli authorities said. She also wounded seven people, four were Palestinians. —[via MyFreePress.com, emphasis mine]

9:49:51 AM # Google It!
categories: Sadness

Tree Huggers

Have you hugged your tree today? It might not be there tomorrow.

Palmeries are the communal oasis farms in the desert, planted thick, almost like a jungle, vibrantly green, full of people winding their way between the fields, over the water ways, and under the outstretched palm fronds. It is hard to convey how beautiful these places are, how magical they feel; they put the emotional impact back in the word oasis. I will always remember the day we spent wandering the palmery near Todra. [LaughingMeme: Who Kills Orchards?]

As Mike James said,

There are very few things in life that could move me to violence, but destroying my family’s orchard would likely be one of them. [Tread lightly on the things of earth: Bulldozed lives, palms and people]

6:01:20 AM # Google It!
categories: Sadness

I Have a Dream

Cockburn, Andrew, "21st Century Slaves," National Geographic Magazine, September 2003.

4:38:28 PM # Google It!
categories: Sadness

Let's Go Visit the Neighborhood of Make-Believe

Fred Rogers, 1928 - 2003 [AP] [PBS]

Today I wil be very sad for Fred Rogers has died. [The Campin' Guy's Radio Weblog]

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Fred Rogers, who gently invited millions of children to be his neighbor as host of the public television show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" for more than 30 years, died of cancer early Thursday. He was 74.

9:51:16 AM # Google It!
categories: Sadness