Yesterday was a bad day for Feisty, my petulant little puppy. We awoke at 6 am to empty her young bladder, but on our way to the backdoor she took a shortcut on the living room rug. Later, annoyed with me for paying more attention to Kirby Wilbur than to her, she made every effort to voice her opinion on the air. The difficult behavior continued. She chased the cat. She dug a hole in the backyard, caking herself with mud. And when not chewing on my hands, ankles and feet, she destructively masticated whatever piece of furniture or household object was most convenient.
Finally, at the end of this long, tiring day, I returned Feisty to the family from whom we had adopted her, locked her in the kennel with her last remaining litter mates, got back in the car, and drove off.
Assuming dogs have the ability to reason (and for rhetorical purposes we’ll leave that assumption unchallenged,) one could hardly blame her for having the impression that, angry and exasperated, I had abandoned her. That would be a logical conclusion… at least, for a dog.
Likewise, one can hardly blame ardent Dino Rossi supporters for believing that Democrats stole the gubernatorial election. After twenty years of Democratic governors, it looked like the GOP had finally found their champion. Rossi came out ahead in the first two counts, only to lose a heartbreaker of a hand recount by the tiniest of margins. And in the aftermath of the election it was revealed that there were hundreds of errors and illegal votes statewide, including felons voting, mishandled provisional ballots, uncounted valid ballots, and an inability to entirely reconcile ballots cast with voters credited.
To be honest, if the shoe were on the other foot, I’d be suspicious too. Just like poor, abandoned Feisty.
But what the unhappy puppy doesn’t realize, is that I had long planned to be out of town this weekend to attend my niece Ariel’s Bat Mitzvah, and had arranged to return Feisty for a few days as a condition of the adoption. Tuesday morning she will be back at home, happily peeing on the rug and chewing my limbs and furniture.
I think you all know where I’m going. My dog’s conclusion, however logical, was misguided. Likewise, so is the fervor of Rossi’s dogs of war. Whatever empathy I might have for them, their suspicions have simply not been proven by six months of investigations and two weeks of courtroom non-drama. There were errors. There were illegal votes. But there is absolutely no evidence that any of these advantaged one candidate or the other.
That the margin of victory was too far within the error rate to confidently determine the winner was never in doubt — that is true of all extremely close elections. What is lost in all the rhetoric is that the legal question at stake in this trial was never about whether errors occurred in King County or elsewhere… it is about whether these errors demonstrably changed the outcome. Dino Rossi lost the election by the rules in place… rules that anticipate that no election is perfect. And as in all elections, the winner was determined by the ballots counted, not the ballots cast.
That may strike some as unfair, but that is reality.
My guess is, that whatever her current state of mind (again, assuming she has one,) upon my return Feisty’s understandable suspicions will be quickly forgotten. And that, I’m afraid, is where my admittedly tortured analogy ends.
Maybe Feisty is an honest Republican dog and just couldn’t take it anymore? LOL.
We have now heard the 1001 excuses from King county election workers as to why they get paid but never work…….but they TRY….
Oh, brother…..
Goldy==
Um, as a father of 4 and a grandfather, I would suggest you immediately discuss this with your 9 year-old daughter and reassure her you won’t abandoned her. Seriously….
Kids that age watch our actions closely. Don’t assume just because you did this for reasons you feel you can justify that she will automatically see things the way you do….especially since she is a child of divorced parents. Abandonment is a horrible thing for a kid. You told us previously she loved that dog. If so, suck it up…go back and get the fucking dog back.
Funny to hear the democrat blather now is that it is the votes counted, not the votes cast … gee, I seem to remember a mantra of “count every vote” … who said that again?
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….
I missed the part that this was only a temporary abandonment.
Feisty is lucky to have a 9 year-old who loves her and who has a father who cares enough to get her a puppy.
Geez Goldy—For a brief second, I felt some respect and admiration toward you. I’m sure it will soon pass….you will certainly say something extra stupid on Carlson today….just like every day!
Typical liberal. Jumps into something like rearing a dog, finds out it is work and then dumps his problem on someone else!
You should get government funded afternoon puppy care.
Are you going to reimburse the original owners when fiesty pees on their rug?
Dog Start would be a program to help build healthier, happeir families. Then get dog stamps to pay for the food. Free healtchare for the dogs.
then mandatory training of owners
the list / analogies could go forever
Typical conservatives. They want every embryo to become a human being, but then they don’t want to deal with the problems created by overpopulation and unwanted babies, and certainly don’t want to help keep them alive with research, stemcells or AIDS vaccines.. Then when the human being is ready to leave this mortal coil; they are forced to stay alive as a hopeless vegetable.David T.
Man… I welcome the criticism — even the insults — but guys… please read what I wrote first. I’m retrieving the puppy on Tuesday. Every kid deserves a dog.
Typical conservatives… They either can’t read or can’t comprehend what’s plainly set in front of them.
DAVID T@9…….i know you have your talking points and all but do you realize that most countries are at, or nearly at zero population growth. some, like australia and japan are actually losing population and are paying people to have kids. i know that this whole “the world is overpopulated and is going-to-hell-in-a-handbag” mantra is near and dear to every liberals heart….but, sadly, for you, the whole thing never came true.
and ,goldy, i did read through the whole thing because i figured you were baiting everyone and hoping they wouldn’t read all the way through. you sneaky devil ,you……LOL.
THe dog pees on the carpet because he is misunderstood. He has low self esteem. What did you do to him Goldy that would give him such terrible self esteem?
You Reps are brain damaged. Big news. John Wayne was not a cinematic genius.
Vietnam Airlines to Buy Boeing Dreamliners
[Goldy And DON Can Fly the Friendly Skies Of Hanoi!!]
Posted By: Dreadnought – 6/3/2005 3:49:10 PM Post Reply
HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam Airlines will buy four Boeing 787 Dreamliners as part of a plan to expand its fleet to meet increasing travel demands, an airline spokesman said Friday. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has instructed the state-owned airline to complete the contract, which is expected to be signed during his visit to the United States on June 19-25, said spokesman Nguyen Chan.
Believe me, Xmasghost, if every embryo in existence produced a baby that would be a BIG problem.
my catchup post on the last couple of days, including today’s morning session, here.
As I mention in that post, over the weekend I’ll be publishing the results of an intercept survey I did the last two days, while I was in Seattle. The results are what I expected in some ways, other ways not. So check back before Monday.
wrongo @ 8 “Dog Start would be a program to help build healthier, happeir families. Then get dog stamps to pay for the food. Free healtchare for the dogs.”
Typical neo-con mentality. Comparing children to dogs.
Goldy,
Have you ever had a dog before? I would suggest keeping Feisty in a kennel/cage for the first couple of months with closely regulated playtimes of 15-30 minutes every few hours. This speeds the housebreaking process and will make the next 10 to 20 years with her easier on your carpet.
As for housebreaking us R’s, well, some are easier than others…
Christmasghost @ 12
”I know you have your talking points and all but do you realize that most countries are at, or nearly at zero population growth. . . . i know that this whole “the world is overpopulated and is going-to-hell-in-a-handbag” mantra is near and dear to every liberals heart….but, sadly, for you, the whole thing never came true”.
Umm . . . I hate to break this to you, CG, but you are wrong. Most countries have a positive growth rate. The world average is a growth rate of 1.2 (note that a growth rate of 0 means no population increase).
From the United Nations: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/dem.....b/dyb2.htm , here is a table of average growth rates by regions (these are demographic projections for the period 2000-2005, published in 2002).
Region________________rate
AFRICA_________________2.2
LATIN AMERICA__________1.4
NORTHERN AMERICA_______1.0
ASIA___________________1.3
EUROPE________________-0.1
OCEANIA________________1.2
WORLD TOTAL____________1.2
Europe is the only region of the world where population is shrinking, but Europe only makes up 12% of the world’s population. What affect does the overall population growth have on world population? Here is a handy table from the same source plus the last two figures are from http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/popclockworld.html
Year___Pop (millions)
1950_____2,519
1960_____3,021
1970_____3,692
1980_____4,435
1990_____5,264
2000_____6,071
2002_____6,225
7/1/2004_6,376
6/1/2005_6,445
Indeed, progress has occurred in slowing down growth, but we still have a long way to go to make our presence on earth sustainable in the long run.
david t…oh, please just call me ghost. i know you probably think that because i’m a conservative, you putting the X in christmas would be really offensive to me…but i’m not a christian so there ya go……
anyhoo…..it’s actually biologically impossible for every embryo to grow into a child. statistically the odds are very much against that.i am not against stem cell research at all…i am only against using abortion as a birth contol method.
i am pro-responsibility…….
Ha! Ha! Fraud, Fraud, Fraud! Ha! Ha!
Ha! Ha! More Fraud! Ha! Ha!
Ha! Ha! We will win! Monday! Ha! Ha!
Ha! Ha! The preshiouus will be ours forever! Ha! Ha!
Xmas Ghost @ 22 “i am only against using abortion as a birth contol method.”
Then don’t have one!
Durkin and judge lay useless “voting crediting” to rest:
Democratic attorney Jenny Durkan is attacking allegations of illegal votes based on county voter records. She said the judge has already ruled that those records, called voter “crediting” records, are not proof that someone voted.
Donnageddon @ 22…..well, if you follow that logic i guess animal cruelty would be okay too as long as i didn’t beat and starve MY DOG, right?
can you give me any reason why abortions are taking place except for sheer stupidity and laziness?
didn’t think so………
Ghost @26, rape, incest, lack of education (since sex ed has been taken out of some schools), lack of condoms (teen pregnency has increased in schools that quite distributing them).
BTW, the x in xmas is a chi (a greek letter that starts the word Christos), the term xmas and xtianity are christian in origin.
Goldy: Mazel tov to Ariel!
Goldy, that was the best post I’ve ever read on your site. Very good.
Xmas ghost Abortions are taking place for no bodies business but the woman who has it and her doctor. You my dog starving friend can keep your fucking nose out of it!
And the reasons for appendectomies are none of your business either Xmasghost.
Comment on 19
No, neocons think more of their dogs than they do of other people’s children.
Wow donna, appendix and fetus the same? G
Donnageddon…anger management classes ever occurred to you? you sure go off for nothing…don’t you?
Goldy….
You’ve just established yourself as irresponsible in your kids eyes.
Unfortunately abondoning a comittment is never and excuse.
When you took ownership of that dog, you welcomed it into your family.
PRR
Goldy,
Nice job on the post. After reading it I figured this comment thread would include the special treat of those with attention deficit disorder outing themselves. :-)
dj @36,
Think I should demand a retraction from prr?
Goldy @ 37
Naaaa. . . don’t bother. He is still probably scratching his head with one hand and scratching his ass with the other trying to figure out what the hell we are talking about. :-)