Month: May 2009

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Geriatrics for Dogs

Son&Heir’s dogs are 16 (or 17*) and 13 years old. The older one’s a medium sized mutt that looks like a Heinz 57 that’s predominantly some sort of herding dog and beagle. Weighs maybe 45 pounds. The younger is a German Shepherd/Yellow Lab mix. And there lies the tale…

Saw “young fella”–Leo–“rabbit hopping” when running the other day, and I’d already noticed that he’s become more clumsy on our vinyl tile floor in the kitchen (where we feed “the boys”). Yep. Weakened back legs, probable hip dysplasia exacerbated by arthritis. Immediately changed the boys’ diet. Since the older guy (Buttons) was still very energetic (I think “bouncy” is the word I’m looking for :-)) but just taking longer to start getting moving, after checking some dog health sites manned by veterinarians, I made up a batch of supplements for them to be fed in some canned food mixed with their dry. (Note: I know both dog foods we feed have some C, D and other supplementation but dogs do not synthesize D-3 and get it from prey in the wild, and C&D do work together in dogs, as in humans, in joint and bone maintenance, soooo… just keeping things within the general guidelines here )

  • some canine-allowed pain meds apportioned according to their weight/size
  • some glucosamine supplements for Leo
  • vitamin C (yeh, I checked to be sure it was a calcium ascorbate form and in very small amounts)
  • vitamin D (again, much smaller doses than for a human of their respective sizes)

So far–three days in, well before I could get a non-emergency vet appointment–I think the pain meds have had the most immediate effect. Leo’s pretty much stopped dragging his back legs and rabbit hopping. Buttons is just as energetic, but still takes about as much to get him started moving. We’ll see what the vet has to say as this progresses, but to this point I’m very pleased with Leo’s response. Oh, I also have started “brewing” some relatively weak decaffeinated green tea for their water dishes. COX2 inhibitors and anti-oxidants, you know. Weak as it is, even though “decaffeinated” does not mean “cafeine free” it doesn’t seem to have caused any problems in the last three days, and from mmy own joint pain experiences, I know the COX2 inhibitors aren’t hurting…

I just wonder if Leo could use a beer now and then… 🙂

Continue reading “Geriatrics for Dogs”

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Repost: Mending Walls: “holes and gaps, lacks and losses”

[N.B. I originally posted this in July of 2006 and reposted it about a year ago. Here it is again, with some minor redaction. And do note the reference to the fides covenant meme post below. It briefly outlines another portion of the wall that needs mending as well.]

In an earlier post I made allusion (allusion, heck: I linked the thing) to the (musical) Principles of Classicism in “Seven”. But first, for those who will not click the link, an excerpt from Principles of Classicism *heh*

One of the primary reasons I am a fan of Classical (and even much classical) music is not just because the music is complex, beautiful and compelling but because it is the expression of a particular ethos which our society sorely lacks.

Aside from technical matters of form, the principles of Classicism as found in Classical Music were

  • balance
  • clarity
  • accessibility
  • expressiveness
  • edification

Although two of these principles are still found in abundance in contemporary music (though not in contemporary “serious” or “academic” music, IMO) it is the lack of the others, especially the last, that has seriously harmful effects upon our society.

The email exchange that led to this post included an excerpt from William Blake’s Laocoön that I think points up several “holes and gaps, lacks and losses” in our society today:

A Poet a Painter a Musician an Architect: the Man Or Woman who is not one of these is not a Christian

Caveat: Blake’s view of Christianity was idiosyncratic. If we take not only the rest of his Laocoön inscriptions but the whole of his body of work into account, what Blake seems to mean when he refers non-ironically to a “Christian” is more in line with his thinking on “true” or “whole, complete, authentic” man (which to Blake in this sort of context meant simply human, male and female).

Strangely, for Blake, his thought in this and other of his Laocoön inscriptions (viz., “The Unproductive Man is not a Christian, much less the Destroyer” et al) are quite closely aligned with traditional Christian theology as it relates to the concept of imago dei.

Think for a few secs: the traditional Christian view of the imago dei (loosely, the image of God in man) includes the expression of God’s eternally creative nature in mankind. Thus in this model, all human acts of creative nature are indicative of God’s continuing creation… and all destructive or harmful acts are indicative of a marred, damaged, imperfect mankind.

Understanding this fundamental principle as embedded in Western Civilization (and lacking almost entirely in other so-called civilizations–and I use “so-called” in a deliberately challenging tone) leads us to see some of the critical elements that are fading from today’s society, elements we sorely need in abundance to prevail in The War Against the West being waged on many fronts both at home and abroad.

Look, folks, once the fides covenant meme began to fade in our society, many of the other foundation stones supporting our society began to crumble as well. The idea that creation is better than destruction came under assault as soon as good and evil were dismissed as culturally relativistic phenomena. I’ll not continue the litany of woes perpetrated by postmodernism and post-postmodernism *sigh* and their progeny in the multiculturalists and others. Dig for a few on your own.

Suffice it for this relatively short post to simply point out: absent the values derived just from the Creator/imago dei meme alone, we have scant chance of turning the tide of barbarism that has resulted in the Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries, the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind and the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade steadily chipping away at our society’s foundations.

Continue reading “Repost: Mending Walls: “holes and gaps, lacks and losses””

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Now, I Wouldn’t Go This Far, But…

I saw an anonymous comment at CPSIA – Comments & Observations and felt a twinge of agreement:

“I think we need to update the dat[a] on lethal dosages for lead and other toxins by force feeding them to congress until they all die. We will then have useful data, and end the harmful effect of congress.”

While I wouldn’t go that far, I do feel that Congress might find a collective interview with Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether to be enlightening…

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We Don’t Need an Open Racist on the SCOTUS

I’ve heard all the bluster about the 0!’s nomination of Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Believes judges “make policy”–the Constitution says that’s the job of the legislature–believes discrimination against whites is “justice” and etc. All that is moot in the face of her membership in the latino (no, I will NOT capitalize “latino”–not when using the word in reference to La Raza) KKK, La Raza. No one–and I do mean NO ONE–who is a member of that organization or in any way, shape, fashion or form supports it belongs in office, on the bench or in the employ of ANY government agency able to affect policy in any way.

Sotomayor: racist bigot. That’s enough to disqualify her. I’d as soon have an open member of the Nazi party or a KKK member as anyone associated with La Raza. There’s no substantive difference among the three, IMO.

Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, and DragonLady’s World, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Polls, Schmolls…

Rabbit trail…

I generally look at polls of the general populace as simply information about what the pollster is seeking from folks who range from well-informed to complete know-nothings (sadly, more of the latter in recent years than ever before, it seems). Polls of persons selected for critical knowledge in a field often yield more interesting information. Of course, there’s also peer pressure to account for even in areas where knowledgeable folk are polled on a topic in which tghey have and exercise expertise, but still, I found one poll that I can at least generally agree with those polled about the top five selections (although I’d argue about the order of ranking :-))

Classic CD (United Kingdom)
June 1999

Top Singers of the Century (Critics’ Poll):
1) Jussi Björling 2) Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau 3) Kirsten Flagstad 4) Tito Gobbi 5) Maria Callas

Classic CD (United Kingdom)
December 1999

Now, while I might argue about the relative placement of numbers i and 2 (Björling’s utterly amazing, but Fischer-Dieskau’s range of artistry is/was greater, IMO), I can accept that ranking as agreeable in general. But while I agree with the inclusion of the other three in the top five, Callas is FAR too far down on the list, IMO. Number three is as low as I’d place her, even as much as I appreciate Kirsten Flagstad’s contributions. I’d be happier with a 1) Fischer-Dieskau 2) Björling 3) Callas 4) Flagstad 5) Gobbi ranking of the top five, but on different days, I might swap my 1-2 and 3-4 spots (Gobbi was a great baritone, but couldn’t really touch Fischer-Dieskau, IMO, and I’d choose either Flagstad or Callas over his admittedly wonderful baritone voice any day, even as much as I am NOT drawn to most soprano voices *heh*).

Just search for some performances by each of these real artists (as opposed to the crap “artists” played on most radio stations) on YouTube for an intro to their world. Worth some time, IMO.

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Third World County Dreamin’

What if…

…All the DC politicians (OK, perhaps three or four exceptions–I’ll negotiate with y’all about the exceptions :-)) were “given” a large portion of the “feddle gummint” lands in Nevada (appropriately fenced with sniper towers in a nicely-designed “crossfire” pattern :-)) and assigned to pound sand for the rest of their unnatural lives?

…All the Prisons for Kids (A.K.A. “public school”) administrators (again, I’d be willing to negotiate a 1% exception) and “schools of education” educraps (no exceptions allowed) were given lovely chains and assigned the task of breaking rocks into sand for the D.C. politicians to pound?

…And parents of children who refused to act in a civilized manner in school and DO THEIR WORK, learning how to read (and to read), do maths, etc. were put to work carrying rocks to the Prisons for Kids administrators and educraps?

…And teachers who failed to teach kids to read, etc., were FIRED?

Well, I’ll tell you “What if”–wake up, you’re dreaming!

*sigh*

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Memorial Day Weekend 2009

The Mansions of the Lord
lyrics, Randall Wallace; music, Nick Glennie-Smith

To fallen soldiers let us sing
Where no rockets fly nor bullets wing
Our broken brothers let us bring
To the Mansions of the Lord

No more bleeding, no more fight
No prayers pleading through the night
Just divine embrace, eternal light
To the Mansions of the Lord.

Where no mothers cry and no children weep
We will stand and guard though the angels sleep
Through the ages safely keep
The Mansions of the Lord.

And to all those who are serving or who have served in our armed forces who are not among the fallen, God bless you as well.

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Go placidly amid the noise and waste…

…And remember what comfort there may be
In owning a piece thereof.

The internet is often very nearly a grab bag of stupidities, false “information” and outright lies, but if one has a decent basic education (a rarity nowadays *sigh*), the ability to read and actually comprehend the language of ones birth and the rudiments of research and filtering capabilities, it is also a rich, rich resource for learning. No, not Wikipedia, although it too has its uses for folks with enough basic knowledge and filtering skills to be able to throw the bullshit flag with authority. No, I’m talking about such gems as the MIT Open Courseware, Project Gutenberg, The University of Chicago Press online books and a myriad of other less easily found but profoundly enlightening sites.

A new discovery for me is the “education” links Gary Garriton has posted at his website that promotes his sample libraries and software. Imagine: a resource anyone who writes music can find valuable, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Principles of Orchestration, available as an interactive tutorial, complete with sound samples that are drawn from the score samples in the book. Anyone who writes music would almost have to salivate over the prospect of having an interactive Principles of Orchestration right on their desktop! Oh, my! Nice! Sure, the book’s now in paperback (not so in my days as a student) and remarkably inexpensive, but the setup at Garriton’s site, complete with forum for discussion, is much more valuable than isolated study.

Anyone interested in learning how to write better music would be well served by hieing themselves over there and getting on with it.

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Testament of Freedom

Rosemary’s post, “Religion and Politics Don’t Mix?” brought Randall Thompson’s setting of some Thomas Jefferson letters to mind the other day, and I thought I’d post a short snippet of a performance of the first number in the work to hopefully entice some readers into purchasing copies of their own. Yes, I’ll link to an Amazon.com page featuring a decent recording of the work, but no I’m not including my Amazon.com linky stuff to get credit for any purchases… because I just want folks to look and perhaps buy and listen to the piece.

I have some small quibbles with the otherwise very credible performance I’ll link, but I cannot be certain whether the sloppy consonants are the vocalists’ fault or something lost in the performance/recording space or lossy compression in the download. So, I’ve included the text to the music Randall Thompson scored both above the snippet and below the fold in order that the text be clear.

Here’s the snippet of “The God Who Gave Us Life, Gave Us Liberty”–the signature opening number of Randall Thompson’s The Testament of Freedom

“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.”

Or, if the media player doesn’t work for you, here:

The God Who Gave Us Life, Gave Us Liberty at the Same Time

Continue reading “Testament of Freedom”

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“Consider the dandelions of the field… “

A repeat of this post from my old Blogspot third world county blog (it’s been imported here as well… somewhere *heh*) is long overdue, IMO.

A brief exposition on Matthew 6:28-29

01_dandelions1

“Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Weeds are mostly in the eye (and heart) of the beholder. Let me submit for your consideration the lowly dandelion.  Was there ever a more beautiful yellow, a more deliciously luscious green? What a feast for the eyes! And yet, our culture considers the dandelion to be a pest plant; not merely useless, but something to be eradicated. *sigh* Useless? Every part (excepting the seed puffball) of the dandelion is edible.  The greens cleaned and steamed or boiled are not only tasty but highly nutritious.  The root, after cleaning, peeling and then blanching, boiling or roasting is also highly nutritious and useful in many ways. And even the yellow bloom is nutritious and a treat for both the eye and the tastebuds in salads.

And what can I say of dandelion wine? 🙂

And, as much as our society spends to eradicate this nutritious food and lovely flowering plant, it thrives in spite of all the poisons thown its way.  And have you ever attempted to pull a dandelion to get rid of the “weed”?  Unless you get every last piece of the root, it’s more than likely to simply grow back. Lilies of the field? Nah. 

“Consider the dandelions how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

No matter how our society’s warped values may deem the dandelion to be an obnoxious weed, children who are as yet unpolluted by the depraved value system that would deem such a radiently bold and beautiful flower a weed, bring their mothers glad bouquets of dandelions every spring.