Twix: February 17, 2013 - April 11, 2015

We lost our big girl, Twix, yesterday morning. To be more precise, we had her put to sleep.
She was a very loving rattie, very forgiving and affectionate. Whenever she started licking you, she would carry on for several minutes. It's as if your hand was part of her body, something that had to be groomed!


Twix had several problems. One, she was very overweight. Despite our best efforts, she just ballooned to the point where she would even be comfortable on her back, not normally a position rats are fond of!
But, by the end, Twix had lost a lot of that weight, and, as such, she wasn't comfortable on her back anymore. She was able to rest like a normal rat, but had trouble eating or moving about.
Two, she was riddled with tumors. Lumps on her side, in her abdomen, and, most devastatingly, one in her pituitary gland. She could not eat nor drink. Steroidal medications helped for a week or two, but ultimately, it was clear to us that she would not survive the ten days required to try another steroid.
During the last couple of days that we had her, she would gently bite us whenever one of us held her up to clean her. Previously, she would've just forcefully licked us. The biting told us that she was in a bad way.
She needed us to do what all pet owners are called upon to do. Part of keeping and loving an animal is to have the bravery to euthanize them. Squirrel and I have been through this more times than we care to talk about, but we do not lack the courage to say good-bye for good.
The rat in the background of the photo is Twix's natural sister, Crunchie, who is doing fine. So is their step-sister Gwen. Both are over two years old and still very active, all thanks to God.
We will miss Twix though. She was a unique character. We're grateful to her Creator that she at least made it past the two-year mark.

Gay bullies: The First Amendment is discriminatory

Bonjour, ladies and gents. Hope you had a pleasant Easter. And now the news:
Have you had enough of the gay mafia running this country yet?
Mike Pence, who is one of the stars of the true conservative class of Republicans and the Governor of Indiana, elected just this past November, has taken considerable heat for signing into law the state's Religious Freedom act. Twenty states already have religious freedom laws, including two New England states, Connecticut and Rhode Island (if you can believe it). Ten other states are proposing the same. It's been Federal policy since 1993 when Bill Clinton signed it into law. Futhermore, Indiana's act that Pence signed is the same version of that which Barack Obama voted for Illinois as a Senator for the state in 1998.
The religious freedom law simply emboldens and clarifies the First Amendment rights of religious Americans. According to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, supported by Chuck Schumer and Ted Kennedy, "ensures that interests in religious freedom are protected." The bill passed unanimously in the House and was opposed in the Senate by only three members and President Clinton signed it.
How did freedom of religion become in the space of only twenty years something the Left was happy to support to what they now believe is a poisonous charter? Because the law extends to businesses run by Christians or other people of faith the right to decline a service to someone based on any objections they may have, the Left is referring to it as an "LGBT discrimination law".
Predictably, the White House has registered its dissatisfaction, claiming that it is different than the Illinois law as Indiana's "seems to legitimize discrimination, it's important for everybody to stand up and speak out," according to spokesman ... spokesperson Josh Earnest, who answered the question of Obama's former support of similar legislation by announcing, "If you have to go back two decades to try to justify something that you're doing today, it may raise some questions about the wisdom of what you're doing."
Since the signing of the law, several organizations have protested including but not limited to Apple, Yelp, the NCAA, the NBA, including the Pacers, the city of Seattle, Twitter, GAP and Subaru.
"Is tolerance a two-way street or not?" Governor Pence parried. "There's a lot of talk about tolerance in this country having to do with people on the Left. But here Indiana steps forward to protect the constitutional rights and privileges of freedom of religion for people of faith and families of faith in our state, and this avalanche of intolerance that has been poured on our state is just outrageous."
Is this all about religion though? What about property rights? What about the right of a private business to establish what it will tolerate and what it won't? For those of you who believe I am a homophobe because I support Indiana and Governor Pence, I have something for you to consider.
In 2011, the Sircuit Bar in Melbourne, Australia won the right to ban females from its premises as they had a habit of harrassing its gay male clientele. According to the establishment's general manager, "predatory" females would try to turn homosexual men straight, making them feel uncomfortable. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal found in Sircuit Bar's favor, finding that the business's proposal to ban women "is to ensure that gay men are not subject to attempts to change their sexuality, which reduce their comfort in the venue, which includes being fully accepted for who they are."
How do I feel about this decision? I am in full support of it. Sircuit Bar is a private business. Its customer base was unhappy. It did what it had to do and the law rightfully had their back. It was a refreshingly common-sense decision by the VCAT.
This furor over Indiana's religious freedom law is the worst sort of hokum. The gay militants and their Lefite masters are lying about it and convicing Americans that this is akin to a Jim Crow-style backlash against members of the LGBT community and lifestyle. They are so obsessed with discrimination against them that they cannot see that they are the proponents of discrimination themselves.
As proof, consider the recent experiment by comedian Steven Crowder in which he pretended to be a homosexual looking for a gay wedding cake at a Muslim-owned bakery in Dearborn, Michigan. They declined with one baker saying, "No, no, I don't want it." It, of course, referring to the job of baking the cake. Mr. Crowder was obviously attempting to show that it is not just Christian bakeries that are turning down gay wedding cake orders.
In response to Crowder's prank video, Blue Nation Review's John Paul Brammer said, "There are bigots in every religion and we gay people should just consider ourselves lucky that we're not being lynched for being gay. Even though plenty of gay people have been lynched in this country, it's swell that it's not happening everyday anymore."
I'm sorry, Mssr. Brammer, but do you have any examples of gay lynchings that occurred every day in America? Or even once? If you're going to tout that nonsense, do us the courtesy of providing examples. And don't give us Matthew Sheppard, who was tortured and killed by young men who already knew him, one of whom had even shared his bed as an occasional sexual partner. Sheppard's killing was about a drug deal gone wrong, not him being gay, despite what gays and progressives want you to believe because, golly gee, Sheppard's story and what you're expected to believe about it wouldn't involve an agenda, now would it?
Back to the point, gay people should feel lucky that they're not being picked up off the sidewalk, taken away and beaten or lynched? It used to happen every day and, apparently due to the unyielding militancy of the Pink brigade, it doesn't anymore? Talk about fictitious victimhood. Honestly.
It's such a shame that a good man, a man of principle, like Governor Mike Pence has to suffer the indignity of having his name tarnished forever due to the inane histrionics of the progressives.

Nightdragon's March-April news smörgåsbord

Another of the Nightdragon's infamous news smörgåsbords! Away we go:

Curt Schilling's daughter and the trolls

This is a bit of old news—because it took place last month—but for those of you who have not heard about it: Former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling, he of the bloody sock, recently pursued two internet bullies who had abused his daughter Gabby on-line.
Soon after Schilling posted news on Twitter that Gabby was going to be a pitcher on Salve Regina University's softball team, a torrent of vile tweets ensued. It was revealed that two living test cases for the idea of selective breeding to be taken seriously, Adam Nagel and Sean MacDonald, were responsible for the sexually and violently explicit responses.
MacDonald was a ticket-seller for the New York Yankees. He lost his job upon being exposed by Schilling. Nagel was a student and DJ at Brookdale Community College in New Jersey. He has been suspended from the school.
Please peruse the article that I linked to. All I'll say is that Adam Nagel is actually worth his considerable weight for something. He has shown me—and many others—that it is probably impossible for a human being to be more physically repulsive than him. I'm no oil painting myself, but day-uhm! The Cthulhu beats this guy hands down in the aestetically gifted department.

 

Only Adolf Hitler could love a face like this

After finding out who these two trolls were, Schilling exposed them. In a post in his "38 Pitches" blog, Curt Schilling wrote of Nagel, "how do you think that place feels about this stud representing their school?" On MacDonald, he opined that if anyone had a Montclair State University handbook, he would like to see it, "because I am pretty sure there are about 90 violations in this idiots [sic] tweets."
Predictably, many liberal-minded people got on Schilling's case, asking why he couldn't ignore the tweets. Did he really have to get someone fired and another suspended from college? They were just words, don'tcha know, and ain't they got freedom of speech?
When it comes to free speech, you can cross a line. Gabby Schilling is Curt's little girl and always will be. As a father, he has a duty to protect her. That's exactly what he did by exposing those two imbeciles. Good for him. The only way you could not cheer on Curt Schilling is if you don't agree with his conservative politics.
As for Nagel and MacDonald, they need to consider themselves very lucky that Schilling did not announce to his family the sudden need for some personal time on the road and take care of this situation in a considerably different way.

Give 'Em Enough Rope

Didn't The Clash say this with their second album in 1978? Well, it neatly sums up my attitude concerning prison suicides.
I stumbled across this charming story earlier this week. Notice how it tries to convince you to feel sorry for the Nigerian prisoner, Boniface Umale? A man on trial for rape and three counts of sexual assault. But, of course, what seems to matter most, according to the story, is that he was recently a Masters student at Northumbria University and failed to pick up anti-depressants prescribed to him by prison health workers.
Sorry, you jour-whore-nalistic twits, but it didn't work. I don't feel sorry for Boniface Umale. Any sympathies I have with the depressed are offered to innocent, law-abiding people only. Good riddance, Boniface. One less foreign rapist to have to pay for with my tax money. It's only one, but at least it's a start.
Talk-show host Avi Nelson has said that if word was to filter down to prison authorities that a rapist, murderer or other violent criminal intends to take their life, then the response to that ought to be an immediate supply of rope to the prisoner concerned. I couldn't agree more.

No sunset for the threat posed by "liquid" food

Consider the following, dear reader:

Passengers at airports are falling foul of the fact that food can count as a banned liquid. Airports are reporting that items such as jam, Marmite and baked beans are being confiscated from unwary travellers who attempt to take them through security checks. London City Airport said items seized in the last 12 months included food jars from London stores Harrods and Fortnum & Mason. Stansted Airport in Essex said litter bins in the security area were regularly filled twice a day with surrendered items. LCY said that in the last 12 months its top five confiscated food items were jam/marmalade, marmite, Lyle's golden syrup, Nutella chocolate spread and Heinz baked beans. It said it had donated 300 items collected between January and March to NewhamFoodbank in London. These included 34 jars of Fortnum & Mason jam, marmalade and lemon curd and 22 jars from Harrods.

Normally, any chance I get to pick on people for ignorance I will enthusiastically take. But not in this instance. I actually feel sorry for these travelers. Items from Harrods or Fortnum & Mason are not cheap. They were looking forward to taking these quirky British foodstuffs home to show to friends and family. You have to feel for them.
However, to touch upon the larger issue, it makes you wonder—when is this madness of banning liquids, even water for Cripes' sake, going to end? I understand the initial reasoning behind it, but it was supposed to be temporary. This ban demonstrates all too well that when a government agency comes up with an excuse to further bully and inconvenience people, it will not let go.
People who believe that government edicts and enactments can, once implemented, ever be temporary are the same fools who believe politicians when they say that revenues from such-and-such a tax will be "earmarked" for a specific purpose (for instance, "for the children").
If liquids are such a threat to the security of air travel, then how come airlines serve little plastic containers of water or orange juice, or little plastic cups of tea or coffee? How come you can buy beer or wine on most flights? Why is it that passengers are not expected to choke down what they are expected to believe is eggs au gratin and chicken fricassee on a dry throat because, you know, fluids are verboten? Anyone? Bueller?
Don't be further fooled that there is a "sunset provision" for this inane no-liquids policy on the airlines. It makes regular people's lives all the tougher while putting idiots in the workforce, e.g., the TSA, which of course stands for "The Stupid Apply". Ergo, there is no chance in hell that this policy will ever go away.
Just remember, baked beans can be lethal. LETHAL, I tell you!

Mad Mullahs say 'thanks for making your demise much easier to achieve'

They're celebrating on the streets of Tehran. The leaders of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the halal nuclear scientists, are ecstatic. They can, quite rightly, claim a victory over the "Great Satan".
I don't have to tell you what you already know and what's already been written about in volumes. You already know that Barack Obama and John Kerry gave away the store to the Iranians. It is only a matter of time now until Iran gets the Bomb. Israel's survival is at stake; the Sunni powers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey are furious. Yet the Dear Leader thinks his legacy will be a peaceful new dawn of positive relations with Iran and that this will somehow stabilize the Middle East.
It is just a rumor, but I heard that Michelle Obama has to practically drag Barack to bed at night because he stays up talking to the portraits of past presidents. One, why would he want to converse with them? They were typical white people. Two, it only confirms what we already realize. We have an absolute madman in the White House.
The Prez, who is incapable of accepting defeat, is making it his mission to vilify Bibi Netanyahu at every turn and endanger the lives of Israelis for having the nerve to vote him back into power and ignore his efforts to meddle in their election. He wants to embroil America further into the madness of the Middle East by tying our fortunes with that of Iran. Once Iran has taken care of Israel, and most likely Saudi Arabia along with it, they will come for America. Goodbye Los Angeles, farewell Chicago, bon voyage New York City.
And talk about cleaning up Washington, D.C.? The average American citizen and voter has proven ineffective at doing that job, but the Iranians will absolutely take care of that chore for us. In fact, once they're through, voting will be the least of any American's concern.
I say, focus on survival techniques. You'll need them.  Take advantage of your Second Amendment right to self-defense while you still have it.