Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Visibilities at the BU Bridge, numbers 353 and 354

Marilyn reports:

There were lots of drivers and pedestrians, even some cyclists, taking the flyers Monday and Tuesday, July 16 and 17, at the BU Bridge. There was a good number of thumbs-up as people drove by.

Some people who stopped to talk were mystified why anyone would want the project there. Others commented that it was the usual cynical stuff.

I try to tell people, briefly, that we've paid almost $4 billion to clean up the Charles River (this is the figure I got from the Charles River Watershed Association) and now Cambridge taxpayers are paying $1.5 million to pollute the river at Magazine Beach.

Chemical runoff from the 6 acres of commercial sod at the Ebersol Red Sox Fields at Lederman Park caused the algae bloom last August and September. Now Cambridge will be installing 7 acres of the same at Magazine Beach. We'll have astronomical algae blooms even farther upriver every year if Cambridge gets its way.

And our water rates that include the costs of the Charles River cleanup have just gone up.

Pit Bulls and the Aggressive Destroyers of our World

Bob La Trémouille reports.

1. A nice visit, July 17, 2007.
2. Application.

1. A nice visit, July 17, 2007.

I practice law in an office in a modern building between Harvard and Central Squares in Cambridge, MA, USA (across from the "People's Republik" bar).

I am frequently in the office late working on various projects. Last night, July 17, 2007, there was a group of three people and a dog on our front steps for half an hour to an hour at least.

I first encountered them on the way out. I had things I was doing in the neighborhood, so I went by several times after that.

The dog was a black shorthair, intermediate in size between a small dog and a medium sized dog, in excellent physical condition, not the slightest fat and appropriately muscular for his size.

I said hello to the people and the dog, being very careful the first time to properly introduce myself to the dog.

Each time I went by, I happily pet the dog and briefly spoke to the folks. He was clearly a pleasant, friendly being, out in the world and very pleased to meet the inhabitants of his world.

I asked during the first discussion whether he was a baby Labrador Retriever.

The response was that he was a adult black pit bull, but that he commonly passes for a black Lab, and the master clearly indicated that that was to his advantage.

At that point, I had been in the process of going my way, but I reversed myself to look at the dog's face, clearly not a Lab, clearly a Pit Bull.

2. Application.

The general group that the enemies of this beautiful, friendly animal belong to is the same sick people who are fighting to destroy all wildlife on the Charles River.

These destructive people use whatever lie or false analogy (lie, lie, lie) they can get away with to destroy anything and everything that has a semblance of nature in our world.

The destructive people cannot get away with killing all dogs, as they are aggressively trying to kill the Charles River White Geese, so they regulate them to death, and they try to restrict dogs to bizarre "sanctuaries" as in the sick situation on the Charles River.

Not all attackers of pit bulls are aggressively destroying our world. The tiny minority of world destroyers manipulate people all over the place.

I was in the legislative hearing a few months ago on the latest attempt by this sick organization to attack nature at whatever weak links these sick people can find. This was an attempt to apply bizarre restrictions on pit bulls.

The testimony at that hearing mentioned the tendency of the press to identify a pit bull as the aggressor in all bad situations involving pit bulls, but to downplay attacks by other dogs.

One example of a difficult attack mentioned in that hearing was an attack by a large size Golden Retriever. My brother has a large Golden. The most minimal thing that can be said about her is that she is an excellent example of extreme but intelligent pleasantness.

Nevertheless, I had one incident in which I scratched the ear of my brother's Golden and she responded defensively and quite rapidly and aggressively. Apparently she had some sort of infection and was defending herself.

I am a dog patter. My brother's Golden walks around the world intelligently looking to be friends with every human and every dog she encounters. I am the same way with dogs.

I had a situation in Central Square, Cambridge, in which I encountered a Golden with a face similar to that of my brother's dog. I pet her and, as with my brother's dog, did something inadvertently to hurt her. She defended herself. The owner's reaction went from pleasure to surprised mortification. I tried to placate her explaining that I must have hurt the animal in some way.

In the case of the attack I mentioned above by a Golden Retriever, I can imagine some fool tormenting that poor dog and the dog defending itself.

Similarly the folks fighting against the legislative attacks on pit bulls report similar fact patterns involved in pit bull attacks, problems with humans, not dogs.

We live in a world which is generally very, very good. There is a truly reprehensible minority aggressively destroying our world while piously claiming sainthood.

This reprehensible minority includes Cambridge pols and bureaucrats and their friendly pols and bureaucrats at the state level.

In order to prevent the destruction of our world, we must stand up to these reprehensible people, particularly those, such as nine Cambridge City Councilors, who abuse their power and lie about which side they are on.

We should regulate the destroyers of our world. We should not regulate their victims.