Friday, January 07, 2005
The Year Of The Rat - Revisited
Breakfast with Bwana
JANUARY 6, 2005
THE YEAR OF THE RAT - REVISITED:
Happy New Year to all. A little belated perhaps, but well timed for the Chinese new year which will occur soon enough, for us to be timely. In any event, I don't like those cards shamelessly proclaiming one's tardiness in sending greetings late, usually for the recipient's birthday. Not only has one succeeded in making the well wished feel neglected to begin with, but the well-wished is older than s/he would have been. The crime is compounded.
So, let's celebrate the Chinese New Year in the year of the RAT. Okay, okay, I know this is the year of the ROOSTER and I certainly know that Bill Clinton was re-elected in the year of the RAT the last time that rolled around. Oh, for those curious about such things, Bush XLIII was first elected in the year of the DRAGON and re-elected in the year of the MONKEY.
But it sure feels like the year of the RAT.
Out of Kenya comes the story that worker's at Nairobi's main fresh food market killed some 6,000 rats and trucked away 800 tons of garbage in the first major cleanup in 30 years. Officials deny that the cleanup was in celebration of BaRAT Obama's swearing in as US Senator. This story, out of Kenya, would probably have been titled Out of Africa if one were a movie producer. What? That's taken? You don't say? Amazing, isn't it, that in the electoral triumph of the Red states, all the Republicans could do was find Alan Keyless to run a ratty campaign in opposition.
The Nairobi story is interesting because the cleaner-uppers reported that garbage was piled some 7 feet deep and after 42,269 gallons of water were used for the cleanup, some traders were reportedly surprised that there was tarmac underfoot, beneath the 30-year old accumulation. If one is eclectic and cares about such things, the amount of water used was 160,000 litters.
The saga of the rats continued when Baseball's Hall of Rats nominated Wade Boggs on the first ballot. Now, I know Boggs played fabulous baseball in a Boston Red Sox uniform as well as in the pinstripes and much of his fabulous career was a well-honed display of how prima donna hitters should misbehave. But, how many of you know that Boggs, who earned millions for playing rat-a-tat-tat with the baseball bat, also plays rat-a-tat-tat against defenseless animals with firearms? And, I'm talking about big game and threatened species. After killing a hippo, he joyously recounted how the locals thought he was the Great White Hunter. What a miserable human being to get pleasure out of hanging trophies of animals he has killed. One wonders if this gutless jerk would have been willing to face a leopard (yes, he killed one of those beautiful cats which are an endangered species) with just a baseball bat in his hand. I'd take Roar vs. Wade on that one.
DemocRATS were terribly upset that President Bush nominated AlbeRATo Gonzales to be RATtorney General of the United States, particularly because he ostensibly sanctioned torture and opined that the Geneva Convention should not apply to enemy CombRATants. It's amazing, isn't it, how these guys get religion once they are under public scrutiny. It seems to me that somehow we lost sight of the fact that the Geneva Convention was designed to protect one's own prisoners of war -- a reciprocity gained by protecting the other side's prisoners. When Al-Qaeda and their ilk capture prisoners, they usually behead them. Does that excuse torture? No. But not because of the Geneva Convention. Rather, because decent human beings shouldn't behave that way and that was the genesis of the Geneva Convention in the first place. But, never fear -- Gonzales has proclaimed that he is a decent human being -- I mean what else would you expect from someone who has lived the American Dream?
The good news is RATS are not all bad. Again, Out of Africa comes another story -- rats bred in Tanzania, are being used in Mozambique to sniff out land mines. Rats have a very strong sense of smell which helps them sniff out the scent of the explosives used in land mines. Their light weight prevents the mines from setting off.
The bad news is that Out of Nairobi came the added observation that although 6,000 rats were killed, a like number escaped. Obviously, one of them ended up playing baseball in Boston and New York. I'd like to harness him to sniff out land mines instead of snuffing out endangered game.
Oh what a game is this baseball. Oh what heroes rats can be when they sniff out landmines. Oh what rats baseball heroes can be when they snuff out defenseless animals.
Rats!
Cheerz.....Bwana
JANUARY 6, 2005
THE YEAR OF THE RAT - REVISITED:
Happy New Year to all. A little belated perhaps, but well timed for the Chinese new year which will occur soon enough, for us to be timely. In any event, I don't like those cards shamelessly proclaiming one's tardiness in sending greetings late, usually for the recipient's birthday. Not only has one succeeded in making the well wished feel neglected to begin with, but the well-wished is older than s/he would have been. The crime is compounded.
So, let's celebrate the Chinese New Year in the year of the RAT. Okay, okay, I know this is the year of the ROOSTER and I certainly know that Bill Clinton was re-elected in the year of the RAT the last time that rolled around. Oh, for those curious about such things, Bush XLIII was first elected in the year of the DRAGON and re-elected in the year of the MONKEY.
But it sure feels like the year of the RAT.
Out of Kenya comes the story that worker's at Nairobi's main fresh food market killed some 6,000 rats and trucked away 800 tons of garbage in the first major cleanup in 30 years. Officials deny that the cleanup was in celebration of BaRAT Obama's swearing in as US Senator. This story, out of Kenya, would probably have been titled Out of Africa if one were a movie producer. What? That's taken? You don't say? Amazing, isn't it, that in the electoral triumph of the Red states, all the Republicans could do was find Alan Keyless to run a ratty campaign in opposition.
The Nairobi story is interesting because the cleaner-uppers reported that garbage was piled some 7 feet deep and after 42,269 gallons of water were used for the cleanup, some traders were reportedly surprised that there was tarmac underfoot, beneath the 30-year old accumulation. If one is eclectic and cares about such things, the amount of water used was 160,000 litters.
The saga of the rats continued when Baseball's Hall of Rats nominated Wade Boggs on the first ballot. Now, I know Boggs played fabulous baseball in a Boston Red Sox uniform as well as in the pinstripes and much of his fabulous career was a well-honed display of how prima donna hitters should misbehave. But, how many of you know that Boggs, who earned millions for playing rat-a-tat-tat with the baseball bat, also plays rat-a-tat-tat against defenseless animals with firearms? And, I'm talking about big game and threatened species. After killing a hippo, he joyously recounted how the locals thought he was the Great White Hunter. What a miserable human being to get pleasure out of hanging trophies of animals he has killed. One wonders if this gutless jerk would have been willing to face a leopard (yes, he killed one of those beautiful cats which are an endangered species) with just a baseball bat in his hand. I'd take Roar vs. Wade on that one.
DemocRATS were terribly upset that President Bush nominated AlbeRATo Gonzales to be RATtorney General of the United States, particularly because he ostensibly sanctioned torture and opined that the Geneva Convention should not apply to enemy CombRATants. It's amazing, isn't it, how these guys get religion once they are under public scrutiny. It seems to me that somehow we lost sight of the fact that the Geneva Convention was designed to protect one's own prisoners of war -- a reciprocity gained by protecting the other side's prisoners. When Al-Qaeda and their ilk capture prisoners, they usually behead them. Does that excuse torture? No. But not because of the Geneva Convention. Rather, because decent human beings shouldn't behave that way and that was the genesis of the Geneva Convention in the first place. But, never fear -- Gonzales has proclaimed that he is a decent human being -- I mean what else would you expect from someone who has lived the American Dream?
The good news is RATS are not all bad. Again, Out of Africa comes another story -- rats bred in Tanzania, are being used in Mozambique to sniff out land mines. Rats have a very strong sense of smell which helps them sniff out the scent of the explosives used in land mines. Their light weight prevents the mines from setting off.
The bad news is that Out of Nairobi came the added observation that although 6,000 rats were killed, a like number escaped. Obviously, one of them ended up playing baseball in Boston and New York. I'd like to harness him to sniff out land mines instead of snuffing out endangered game.
Oh what a game is this baseball. Oh what heroes rats can be when they sniff out landmines. Oh what rats baseball heroes can be when they snuff out defenseless animals.
Rats!
Cheerz.....Bwana
