Ping: JC

"OmManiPadmeOmelet" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

JOLINDA RANEY said:

"Luna" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
"JOLINDA RANEY" <[email hidden]> wrote:

> "OmManiPadmeOmelet" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
> news:[email hidden]...
> > In article <[email hidden]>,
> > [email hidden] (Lass Chance_2) wrote:
> >
> >> Hey, she's a beauty!
> >> LOL, Myabe y'all remember my saying I fell down my 17 deck stairs
> >> last
> >> summer, LOL...the reason I fell was, one of those black and yellow
> >> spiders had built a magnificent web using the railing and attaching
> >> to
> >> a
> >> bannister at the stair landing. I had been especially careful to
> >> remember to not disturb her web and I liked to stand on the landing
> >> and
> >> watch her work, close up. But....that one day, I did forget, and
> >> going
> >> down the first three stairs to the landing, I felt my hand drag
> >> thru
> >> the
> >> web. I stopped to look to see if I had damged it, forgot where I
> >> was....and stepped back-----and right down the last 17 stairs.
> >>
> >> I can say that I was damn lucky to not break my neck....but the
> >> experience doesnt justify my killing the spider. it does however,
> >> serve
> >> to remind me WHY I cant go forgetful while walking down stairs!
> >>
> >> Lass
> >>
> >
> > Last summer one had spun a monster web next to my front porch. ;-)
> > I actually put up a printed sign that said "Please do not disturb
> > the
> > spider". People respected the request. She lived there all summer,
> > laid
> > a large egg sack up in the eaves, the died.....
> >
> > <sigh>
> >
> > Those spiders always die after they lay an egg sack.
> > --
> > Om.
> >
> > "My mother never saw the irony in calling me a
> > son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack
> > Nicholson
>
> Om!!! You *must* stop this. Lol. [censored], I am so terrified of spiders,
> and
> do
> not find them pretty, at all! I search my room every night for them
> before
> hitting the hay.

Hmm. I look at it this way: imagine you're a spider. Pretty much all
you want to do is eat bugs and make more spiders. Then this thing,
this
big giant thing, whose hand is even bigger than like, 10 of you, comes
and squashes you flat out of nowhere. Most spiders can't even hurt
you,
Jolinda. Being afraid of them makes no sense. Instead, be afraid of
the portugese man-of-war, the bears, and the birds. Much more
reasonable.

--
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

Okay, Luna. Whatever.

Are you telling me what to be afraid of? That is what seems unreasonable.

Jolinda,

I respect anyones phobias as I've probably got a couple myself,
but I try to figure out why.

Why are you afraid of spiders? :-)
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack
Nicholson

That is a loaded question, really. I just don't like them. I have had some
bad spider bites, and my mom nearly lost her hand to a recluse bite. I know
a lot of people who don't like spiders, men included. Some people are afraid
of snakes, some ghosts, some heights. I am afraid of spiders. I don't find
them one bit pretty. Of course, to each his own, but I don't like to be told
it's unreasonable to be afraid of something. Oh, I am also afraid of bees.
I am allergic to them. I can think of a lot of things I dislike and am
afraid of. I have dissected cadavers and it did not bother me a bit, but
spiders freak me out.

"Bob (this one)" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Coyotes will take any small critter, on up to human kid size.
<http://tinyurl.com/aevcj>

Nature isn't benign.

In southern Calif, where I formerly lived, there were a number of instances
of coyotes approaching small children and babies, but being scared off. So
fortunately no fatalities that I am aware of. They would definitely be
capable of carrying off or killing an infant or small child. They were
regulars in our suburban neighborhood, and many people lost house pets from
their yards, both cats and small dogs. Not strays, just pets hanging around
outside in the yard. Coyotes are apparently good with fences.

The problem in southern California has been steady encroachment of large
housing development on formerly undeveloped land, and consequent limitation
on the amount of food available to wild predators, most notably coyotes and
cougar. Not the animals' faults of course, but still you can't have coyotes
snatching babies at the park, either. There were also a number of cougar
attacks on mountain bikers on a trail in the Santa Ana mountains I used to
hike regularly, and I know there was at least one death in California, a
trail runner as I remember.

HG

"Luna" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:lunachick-

Quoted message said:

There's nothing inherently special about Native Americans either.

As to native american's respect for the land, there is as much or more trash
and junk strewn around on some reservations as in downtown inner city areas.
Really unsightly. So much for "native americans respecting the land...."

Surprisingly enough, they are just about like the rest of us. Given the same
enducements, or lack of same, they'll do about the same things anyone else
would.

HG

Lass Chance_2 mentioned in passing :

Quoted message said:

The Native Americans are one notable exception. They understood and
revered the Balance of Nature, taking only what they needed, wasting
nothing and giving something back....living in harmony with other
living beings.

The only thing notable about the native tribespeople (as concerns
pollution) is that they did not have the technology to support a large
society. They polluted, per capita, as much as you and I do. When they did
manage to form a larger city, they polluted more. Unfortunately for them,
they didn't have sewage treatment plants, landfills, and air scrubbers

The typical method of tracking a village, which I did for several
tribes, is to follow their trash mounds up river. They would create a
village, live in it until the river was too polluted with their waste to
drink out of, then move upstream.

Finally, when the stream was too small to support their needs, they
would jump over to another river and do it again.

It only took a few years to pile up enough bones, shells, trash, dead
people, wood ash and excrement to totally ruin a small river for human use
for decades. If they had the technology to support a larger population, it
would have happened much quicker and the damage would have lasted longer.

It is true that some forms of their religion supported a reguard for the
"spirits" of our cohabitants. But, like every other culture in the world,
some people followed their religion, some people didn't. Even those who
followed the religion were -willing- to over-harvest, strip-harvest, waste
and abuse as much as any other human in history if it would feed their
children or protect them from disease and death. Only thing is, they usually
couldn't. They didn't have the technology. They hadn't even invented the
wheel.

BTW, your conception that they "understood and revered The Balance of
Nature" is not supported by my reading and by my investigation of their
actual villages. In daily life, it was expressed more as a primitive form of
Animism, where they simply feared angering spirits. No understanding, just
dogma passed on by authoritarian leaders.

Al in all, nice people when they weren't enslaving their neighbors,
treating women and children as possessions, or [censored] in the rivers, but
hardly a role model for conservation. Unless you are willing to kill off 80%
of our population, destroy 99% of our knowledge and technology, and submit
to a form of society where the strongest man tells you where to live and
when to die, I don't think we can use their method.

"Luna" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Yet most animal rights activists don't seem to have a problem with
people keeping dogs and cats as pets

Actually, Luna, many of them do have a problem with people "using" animals
as pets. It's one of the things that the PETA crowd argues about internally.

HG

"Lass Chance_2" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:24867-433448B6-

Quoted message said:

Last week my boxer, Sundance, killed my Jack Russel terrier. Shook him
and broke his neck. I was pretty distraught. At first, I was mad at
Sunny, who showed no remorse, of course.....and I realized that in Doggy
Politics, it is ok for a big dog to kill a little one. So, I pointed out
to him that I was bigger than HIM.....and that IF he hurts my cat or my
other smallish dog, I will personally take him into the yard and shoot
him.

Lass, this is simply not normal behavior in a properly-trained house pet dog
.. Dogs must absolutely be *trained* to treat ALL other members of the
household, including cats, smaller dogs, and children, with ZERO agression.
There are some dogs that are so naturally agressive that they essentially do
not have the ability to be reliably trained, and IMO they should be
destroyed rather than kept as a pet. If a dog would do that to another dog
it lives with, it is fully capable of doing something similar to a small
child that happens to cross its path and annoy it, and that is EXTREMELY
DANGEROUS.

If it's a non-neutered male, that would be the first place to start. I
personally find non-neutered male dogs to often be problematic in terms of
training and agression. Many trainers recommend neutering for that reason.

HG

In article <[email hidden]>,

JOLINDA RANEY said:

"OmManiPadmeOmelet" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

JOLINDA RANEY said:

Um... Will not do that. You can email me and I will tell you exactly why.
You want to hear a sad story---I got one for you. It is pathetic. We also
have a puppy. He is 4m old and lots of work at the moment. Cute as can
be,
though.

I'll pass. ;-)
I have enough going on to make me cry at the moment.

So what kind of puppy???
--

Springer Spaniel and lab.

Cool...
Gonna be cute AND smart! :-)
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack Nicholson

In article <[email hidden]>,

Luna said:

I was funnin' with Jolinda about her spider phobia, which I thought was
apparent in the fact that I listed "birds" as a reasonable thing to be
afraid of. That's just my own weird phobia, because I think birds are
creepy, even though I know intellectually that they're probably not
going to attack me. But man-of-wars (men-of-war? cripes) and bears are
really frikkin' scary, no funnin' at all.

The man-of-war, the thing has really long tentacles. Three feet?
That's nothing! The tentacles can be up to 165 feet long!! And, the
thing looks like a plastic bag floating on the water, you can't really
tell where it is until you're up close, but by then, it's too late!
You're in the tentacles!! And, even if a tentacle breaks away from the
main body, it can still sting you! Also, they're not one organism,
they're a colony of four polyps. Which, I have to say, is creepy.

Yes, they are a colonial polyp colony.
The tentacles are not neurologically associated with the floatation
bladder at all. They are independant entities.

Quoted message said:

Ok, now bears. Well, we know they can kill you. But so can big cats
and wolves, so why am I more afraid of bears? I suppose it's because
cats and wolves have body language, they communicate their intent pretty
clearly. You know when they're not interested, you know when they are.
Bears, now, bears on the other hand, a bear can be just sitting there
calm as a lazy Sunday morning, and then out of nowhere . . . WHAP!!!
Takes your head off. Even trained bears do this, with absolutely no
provocation at all. And in all the advice about what to do when you
encounter a bear in the wilderness, anything you read you're bound to
find someone else saying to do the exact opposite. Run. Don't run.
Play dead. Stand tall. Look it in the eye. Don't look directly at it.
The reason for all the confusion is that bears are unpredictable and no
one ever knows what they're about to do. That's what's so scary about
them.

Funny. Bears are also something I am afraid of due to their
unpredictability.

I'm also afraid of sharks due to their sheer mindlesness.
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack Nicholson

Hannah Gruen <[email hidden]> wrote:
:> "Luna" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
:> news:lunachick-
:>
:>> There's nothing inherently special about Native Americans either.
:>
:> As to native american's respect for the land, there is as much or
:> more trash and junk strewn around on some reservations as in
:> downtown inner city areas. Really unsightly. So much for "native
:> americans respecting the land...."

This was true many, many moons ago. The Native American of today live in
very different situation than their ancestors did. I think the notion of
"respecting the land" in today's environment and in this country is silly -
few really live off the land anymore....

:>
:> Surprisingly enough, they are just about like the rest of us. Given
:> the same enducements, or lack of same, they'll do about the same
:> things anyone else would.

Exactly. Old notions fade...

Lass Chance_2 <[email hidden]> wrote:
||
|| The coyote is probably the most misunderstood, wrongly
|| maligned, over-hunted and needlessly destroyed animal in
|| north America. The wholesale slaughter of them, yearly, not
|| out of real need, but out of superstitious fear and illogical
|| blind hatred and pure ignorance ....is shameful.
||

Coyotes can also be a big problem when in inhabited suburban
areas. They are a threat to domestic animals and small children.

--
The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want,
drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not. -- Mark
Twain

No, I think JC holds that title. ;-)

--
Cheri

Quoted message said:

Lass Chance_2 <[email hidden]> wrote:
||
|| The coyote is probably the most misunderstood, wrongly
|| maligned, over-hunted and needlessly destroyed animal in
|| north America.

OmManiPadmeOmelet <[email hidden]> wrote:
|| In article
|| <[email hidden]>,
|| Luna <[email hidden]> wrote:
||
|||
||| I was funnin' with Jolinda about her spider phobia, which I
||| thought was apparent in the fact that I listed "birds" as a
||| reasonable thing to be
||| afraid of. That's just my own weird phobia, because I think
||| birds are creepy, even though I know intellectually that
||| they're probably not
||| going to attack me. But man-of-wars (men-of-war? cripes)
||| and bears are really frikkin' scary, no funnin' at all.
|||
||| The man-of-war, the thing has really long tentacles. Three
||| feet?
||| That's nothing! The tentacles can be up to 165 feet long!!
||| And, the
||| thing looks like a plastic bag floating on the water, you
||| can't really
||| tell where it is until you're up close, but by then, it's
||| too late!
||| You're in the tentacles!! And, even if a tentacle breaks
||| away from the
||| main body, it can still sting you! Also, they're not one
||| organism,
||| they're a colony of four polyps. Which, I have to say, is
||| creepy.
||
|| Yes, they are a colonial polyp colony.
|| The tentacles are not neurologically associated with the
|| floatation
|| bladder at all. They are independant entities.
||
|||
||| Ok, now bears. Well, we know they can kill you. But so
||| can big cats
||| and wolves, so why am I more afraid of bears? I suppose
||| it's because
||| cats and wolves have body language, they communicate their
||| intent pretty clearly. You know when they're not
||| interested, you know when they are. Bears, now, bears on the
||| other hand, a bear can be just sitting there
||| calm as a lazy Sunday morning, and then out of nowhere . . .
||| WHAP!!!
||| Takes your head off. Even trained bears do this, with
||| absolutely no provocation at all. And in all the advice
||| about what to do when you encounter a bear in the
||| wilderness, anything you read you're bound to
||| find someone else saying to do the exact opposite. Run.
||| Don't run.
||| Play dead. Stand tall. Look it in the eye. Don't look
||| directly at it.
||| The reason for all the confusion is that bears are
||| unpredictable and no
||| one ever knows what they're about to do. That's what's so
||| scary about
||| them.
||
|| Funny. Bears are also something I am afraid of due to their
|| unpredictability.
||

They are also big, every strong and have teeth... :-)

--
Godwin's law: As an online discussion grows longer, the
probability of a comparison involving Nazis or [censored] approaches
1. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

In article <[email hidden]>,

BJ in Texas said:

Lass Chance_2 <[email hidden]> wrote:
||
|| The coyote is probably the most misunderstood, wrongly
|| maligned, over-hunted and needlessly destroyed animal in
|| north America. The wholesale slaughter of them, yearly, not
|| out of real need, but out of superstitious fear and illogical
|| blind hatred and pure ignorance ....is shameful.
||

Coyotes can also be a big problem when in inhabited suburban
areas. They are a threat to domestic animals and small children.

Oh lordy...

This is a REALLY old post!

Pay attention!!!!!!!!!!!!
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack Nicholson

In article <[email hidden]>,

BJ in Texas said:

OmManiPadmeOmelet <[email hidden]> wrote:
|| In article
|| <[email hidden]>,
|| Luna <[email hidden]> wrote:
||
|||
||| I was funnin' with Jolinda about her spider phobia, which I
||| thought was apparent in the fact that I listed "birds" as a
||| reasonable thing to be
||| afraid of. That's just my own weird phobia, because I think
||| birds are creepy, even though I know intellectually that
||| they're probably not
||| going to attack me. But man-of-wars (men-of-war? cripes)
||| and bears are really frikkin' scary, no funnin' at all.
|||
||| The man-of-war, the thing has really long tentacles. Three
||| feet?
||| That's nothing! The tentacles can be up to 165 feet long!!
||| And, the
||| thing looks like a plastic bag floating on the water, you
||| can't really
||| tell where it is until you're up close, but by then, it's
||| too late!
||| You're in the tentacles!! And, even if a tentacle breaks
||| away from the
||| main body, it can still sting you! Also, they're not one
||| organism,
||| they're a colony of four polyps. Which, I have to say, is
||| creepy.
||
|| Yes, they are a colonial polyp colony.
|| The tentacles are not neurologically associated with the
|| floatation
|| bladder at all. They are independant entities.
||
|||
||| Ok, now bears. Well, we know they can kill you. But so
||| can big cats
||| and wolves, so why am I more afraid of bears? I suppose
||| it's because
||| cats and wolves have body language, they communicate their
||| intent pretty clearly. You know when they're not
||| interested, you know when they are. Bears, now, bears on the
||| other hand, a bear can be just sitting there
||| calm as a lazy Sunday morning, and then out of nowhere . . .
||| WHAP!!!
||| Takes your head off. Even trained bears do this, with
||| absolutely no provocation at all. And in all the advice
||| about what to do when you encounter a bear in the
||| wilderness, anything you read you're bound to
||| find someone else saying to do the exact opposite. Run.
||| Don't run.
||| Play dead. Stand tall. Look it in the eye. Don't look
||| directly at it.
||| The reason for all the confusion is that bears are
||| unpredictable and no
||| one ever knows what they're about to do. That's what's so
||| scary about
||| them.
||
|| Funny. Bears are also something I am afraid of due to their
|| unpredictability.
||

They are also big, every strong and have teeth... :-)

There are plenty of predators that fit into that category,
but they are IMHO easier to predict.

Bears are about as moody as sharks I think.

YMMV
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack Nicholson