About me

A Man In Transition

Recent comments

karol on A Gentle Reminder
karol on Cat Question

Helen Thomas, Lynne Stewart, a vat of anchovies and me ... indeed!
-Glenn Reynolds

Passover Post: When is a Synagogue Burning Not Really That Bad a Thing?

Look, I'm against arson.  It's a damned stupid thing to do and it often kills people, even when no one is inside the building.  Cleaning crews, maintenance people, vagrants, mischievious children, pets and, too often, firefighters are hurt or killed when fire is set to supposedly empty buildings.  Neighboring structures often catch fire, power lines, telephone lines, water pipes and other infrastructure is sometimes destroyed, inconveniencing thousands.  People who set fires are dumbasses and, if caught, should be prosecuted (how's that, AG and AD, is that a sufficient condemnation of firebugs?).

I am also, as a rule, against torching synagogues.  The reasons for this should be pretty obvious. 

All of that said, if I met the schmuck that set this synagogue fire, I might give him a smack upside the head, yell at him (yeah, I know that I'm assuming a bit) and would think about turning him in ... but I would probably also put his drinks on my tab. 

Oh, and I'm also generally against assault and battery.  Generally.

Posted by: Jheka at April 02, 2007 13:02 | link | comments (2) |
mensches, schmucks

The Amazin's Have The Best Record In Baseball

I'm just sayin' ...

Posted by: Jheka at April 02, 2007 01:49 | link | comments |
sports

Cat Question

OK, I need some input.  Very late last night, I was walking home in Washington, DC when I suddenly saw a cat near a parked car on a fairly busy street.  What made this skinny, light orange cat different from the many other cats that I normally see around the neighborhood is that it had a blue collar with a tag on it.  Figuring that it belonged to someone, I called it and it came right over to me and let me pick it up.  I was able to read its collar and saw that there was a name and phone number on it.  Even though it was an hour when all normal people are asleep, I figured that if they had lost their cat, they'd want a call, so I dialed the number from my cell but only got voicemail.  Well, then I had a dilemma since I couldn't reach the owners and didn't want to just release it into the street in case they were looking for it.

I decided to carry it to my place where it could be safe until I figured out what to do with it so, in spite of mild protests from the cat (but no biting or scratching), I carried it the four or so blocks to my apartment. 
When I put it down, it saw Rummy and made a sound that I did not know cats could make (imagine a jaguar getting its tail caught under a rocking chair), scaring the daylights out of the much bigger Rummy, who took off running.  Well, not wanting to see a catfight or having the new cat hide somewhere, I locked it in the bathroom with some food, water and litter.

After unsuccessfully trying the owners again, I decided to call animal control, figuring that I could not simply keep it with me and that they could contact the owner and take care of it until they found him.    Surprisingly, animal control came right over at about 5 in the morning (just minutes after I called them) and the friendly officer took the cat away.

I figured that I had done my good deed for the day but when I called the owner again this afternoon to follow up and he cheerfully told me that, yeah, they let the cat out to play on the street and not to worry about it.  Predictably, he was pretty pissed when I told him that I had called animal control and that they had the cat.

Questions:  Should I have done something differently?  What would you have done?  It seems to me that if you put a tag with a phone number on the collar of your pet, you're implicitly asking whoever finds the animal to call you and suggesting that it is a domesticated animal that doesn't belong in the street (especially in the middle of a city; I suppose that the country, where there are less cars and other man made dangers, is different).  I know that if Rummy or Bogie ever got out, I'd want whoever found them to take them in and call me immediately, day or night, and not assume that I had simply let them out to wander the streets but maybe I was wrong in assuming that other pet owners think the same way.

Posted by: Jheka at April 01, 2007 17:25 | link | comments (6) |
miscellaneous musings