An Animal Welfare Advocate and an HSUS executive (an unlikely pair, I agree; but bear with me) were walking down the street when they came upon a homeless person and his dog. The Animal Welfare Advocate gave the homeless person his business card and told him to come to his business for a job so he could earn a living. Then he could afford food & shelter for himself and the dog. He then took twenty dollars out of his pocket and gave it to the homeless person and a coupon for dog food so they could get by till the homeless person could start that job.

The HSUS person was very impressed, and when they came to another homeless person with a dog, he decided to help out as only he could. He walked over to the homeless person and gave him directions to the local animal "shelter" and a coupon for euthanasia, because he knew the homeless person would be better off without the dog; and besides, dogs are better dead than in the company of humans. He then reached into the Animal Welfare Advocate’s pocket and got out twenty dollars. He kept $19.50 for administrative fees and gave the homeless person 50 cents.
If the homeless man refused this kind offer, the HSUS executive would make sure that he was cited for failure to license, failure to sterilize, and failure to provide food and shelter for the dog. And then he would take it to the "shelter" himself.

Now you understand the difference between Animal Welfare Advocates & the Humane Society of the US

It seems like every time I turn around there are warnings about animal food and human food made in China for consumption in the United States.

I am very careful to give nothing from China to my dogs. Read the alert below:

It seems there’s another dog snack from China to worry about: sweet potato treats.

According to the Veterinary Information Network (VIN) 1, vets are now reporting health problems linked to sweet potato treats similar to those related to chicken jerky treats also made in China.

Test results on sick dogs show kidney problems similar to the symptoms of Fanconi syndrome. Most dogs recover, but there have been some deaths related to the chicken jerky treat problem.

Symptoms may show up within hours or days after a treat is eaten and include decreased appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, and increased thirst and urination.

If you’ve fed your dog either chicken jerky treats or sweet potato treats made in China and your pet has fallen ill, I recommend you contact your veterinarian – especially if the symptoms persist for more than 24 hours or are severe.

Read the full story here: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/07/20/sweet-potato-dog-treats.aspx

I just lost my Wendy.  I will blog more about her and the grief associated with losing her.  A friend sent me the following and I feel that it really introduces the themes of grief, dogs and other pets going to heaven, and the rainbow bridge which will appear in subsequent blogs.
A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high,white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate,and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, ‘Excuse me, where are we?’
‘This is Heaven, sir,’ the man answered.
‘Wow! Would you happen to have some water?’ the man asked.
‘Of course, sir. Come right in, and I’ll have some icewater brought right up.’
The man gestured, and the gate began to open. ‘Can my friend,’ gesturing toward his dog, ‘come in, too?’the traveler asked.
‘I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t accept pets.’
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

‘Excuse me!’ he called to the man. ‘Do you have any water?’
‘Yeah, sure, there’s a pump over there, come on in.’
‘How about my friend here?’ the traveler gestured to the dog.
‘There should be a bowl by the pump,’ said the man.
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself,then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree. ‘What do you call this place?’ the traveler asked.
‘This is Heaven,’ he answered.
‘Well, that’s confusing,’ the traveler said.
‘The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.’
‘Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That’s Hell.’
‘Doesn’t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?’
‘No, we’re just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.’

The following vignette emphasizes the honor we owe our servicemen.
I put my carry-on in the  luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned  seat. It was going to be a long flight. ‘I’m  glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will  get a short nap,’ I thought.

Just before take-off,  a line of soldiers came down the aisle and  filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding  me. I decided to start a conversation.

‘Where are you headed?’ I asked the soldier seated nearest to  me. ‘Petawawa. We’ll be there for two  weeks for special training, and then we’re being  deployed to Afghanistan    After flying for about an hour, an announcement was  made that sack lunches were available for five  dollars… It would be several hours before we  reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch  would help pass the time…

As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if  he planned to buy lunch. ‘No, that seems  like a lot of money for just a sack lunch.  Probably wouldn’t be worth five bucks.  I’ll wait till we get to base.’    His friend agreed.    I looked around at the  other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked  to the back of the plane and handed the flight  attendant a fifty dollar bill.  ‘Take a  lunch to all those soldiers.’ She grabbed my  arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with  tears, she thanked me. ‘My son was a soldier in  Iraq ; it’s almost like you are doing it for  him.’  Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the  soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and  asked, ‘Which do you like best – beef or  chicken?’ ‘Chicken,’ I replied,  wondering why she asked. She turned and went to  the front of plane, returning a minute later  with a dinner plate from first class.    ‘This is your thanks.’

After we finished  eating, I went again to the back of the plane,  heading for the rest room.  A man stopped me. ‘I saw what you did. I want to  be part of it… Here, take this.’ He handed me  twenty-five dollars.

Soon after I returned  to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down  the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he  walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but  noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my  side of the plane. When he got to my row he  stopped, smiled, held out his hand and said, ‘I  want to shake your hand.’ Quickly unfastening my  seatbelt I stood and took the Captain’s hand.  With a booming voice he said, ‘I was a soldier  and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought  me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never  forgot.’ I was embarrassed when applause was  heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the  front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A  man who was seated about six rows in front of me  reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He  left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.    When we landed I  gathered my belongings and started to deplane…  Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man  who stopped me, put something in my shirt  pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a  word. Another twenty-five dollars!
Upon entering the  terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their  trip to the base. I walked over to  them and handed them seventy-five dollars. ‘It  will take you some time to reach the base.   It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.’  Ten young  men left that flight feeling the love and  respect of their fellow travelers.    As I walked briskly to  my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe  return. These soldiers were giving their all for  our country. I could only give them a couple of  meals. It seemed so little…

A veteran is someone  who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank  check made payable to ‘The United States of  America ‘ for an amount of ‘up to and  including my life.’    That is Honor, and  there are way too many people in this country  who no longer understand it.’

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.”The young clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.But too bad we didn’t do the green thing back then.We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room.And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.But we didn’t have the green thing back then.Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person…We don’t like being old in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to tick us off.

Grey-Haired Brigade
   
They like to refer to us as senior citizens, old fogies, geezers, and in some cases dinosaurs.  Some of us are "Baby Boomers" getting ready to retire.  Others have been retired for some time.  We walk a little slower these days and our eyes and hearing are not what they once were.  We have worked hard, raised our children, worshiped our God and grown old together.  Yes, we are the ones some refer to as being over the hill, and that is probably true.  But before writing us off completely, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration.
   
In school we studied English, history, math, and science which enabled us to lead America into the technological age.  Most of us remember what outhouses were, many of us with firsthand experience.  We remember the days of telephone party-lines, 25 cent gasoline, and milk and ice being delivered to our homes.  For those of you who don’t know what an icebox is, today they are electric and referred to as refrigerators.  A few even remember when cars were started with a crank.  Yes, we lived those days.
   
We are probably considered old fashioned and out-dated by many.  But there are a few things you need to remember before completely writing us off.  We won World War II, fought in Korea and Viet Nam.  We can quote The Pledge of Allegiance, and know where to place our hand while doing so.  We wore the uniform of our country with pride and lost many friends on the battlefield.  We didn’t fight for the Socialist States of America, we fought for the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave."  We wore different uniforms but carried the same flag.  We know the words to the Star Spangled Banner,  America ,and America the Beautiful by heart, and you may even see some tears running down our cheeks as we sing.  We’ve lived what many of you have only read in
history books and we feel no obligation to apologize to anyone for America.
   
Yes, we are old and slow these days but rest assured, we have at least one good fight left in us.  We have loved this country, fought for it, and died for it, and now we are going to save it.  It is our country and nobody is going to take it away from us.  We took oaths to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that is an oath we plan to keep.  There are those who want to destroy this land we love but, like our founders, there is no way we are going to remain silent.
   
It was mostly the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic Congress.  You fell for the "Hope and Change" which in reality was nothing but "Hype and Lies."  You have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you don’t like it after all.  You make a lot of noise, but most are all too interested in their careers or "Climbing the Social Ladder" to be involved in such mundane things as patriotism and voting.  Many of those who fell for the "Great Lie" in 2008 are now having buyer’s remorse.  With all the education we gave you, you didn’t have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank the ‘Kool-Aid.’  Now you’re paying the price and complaining about it.  No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom.  This is what
you voted for and this is what you got.  We entrusted you with the Torch of Liberty and you traded it for a paycheck and a fancy house.
   
Well, don’t worry youngsters, the Grey-Haired Brigade is here, and in 2012 we are going to take back our nation.  We may drive a little slower than you would like but we get where we’re going, and in 2012 we’re going to the polls by the millions.  This land does not belong to the man in the White House nor to the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  It belongs to "We the People" and "We the People" plan to reclaim our land and our freedom.  We hope this time you will do a better job of preserving it and passing it along to our grandchildren.  So the next time you have the chance to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Stand up, put your hand over your heart, honor our country, and thank God for the old geezers of the "Grey-Haired Brigade."
   
Author, Anon. Grey-Haired Brigade Member

   
Footnote:
This is spot on.  I am another Gray-Haired Geezer signing on.  I will circulate this to other Gray-Haired Geezers all over this once great county.  Can you feel the ground shaking???  It’s not an earthquake, it is a STAMPEDE.

God Bless America

WHY OBAMA WILL BE RE-ELECTED IN 2012!
 
Dr. Williams’ prediction:  Maybe you have read some newspaper articles written by Dr. Williams a conservative economist who happens to be Black. He has taught at several Universities and is currently teaching at George Mason University .
  
No Matter What

By Dr. Walter  Williams

Can  President Obama be defeated in 2012?  No.  He  can’t..    I am going on record as saying that  President Barak Obama will win a second term.
The media won’t tell  you this because a good election campaign means hundreds of millions (or in Obama’s case billions) of dollars to them in advertising.

But the truth is,  there simply are no conditions under which Barak Obama can be defeated in 2012.The  quality of the Republican candidate doesn’t matter.   Obama gets reelected. Nine percent unemployment?   No problem.  Obama will win.  Gas  prices moving toward five  dollars a gallon?  He still wins.  The economy soars or goes into the gutter.  Obama wins.  War in the Middle East ?  He wins a second term.

America’s role as the leading Superpower disappears?  Hurrah for Barak Obama! The U.S. government rushes toward bankruptcy, the  dollar continues to sink on world markets and the price of daily goods and services soars due to inflation  fueled by Obama’s extraordinary deficit spending?  Obama wins handily.

You are crazy Williams.  Don’t you understand how volatile politics can be when overall economic, government, and world  conditions are declining?  Sure I do.

And that’s why I know Obama will win.  The American people are notoriously ignorant of economics.  And economics is the key to why Obama should be defeated.

Even when Obama’s  policies lead the nation to final ruin, the majority of the American people are going to believe the bait-and-switch tactics Obama and his supporters in the media will use  to explain why it isn’t his fault.  After all, things were much worse than understood when he took  office.

Obama’s reelection is  really a very, very simple math problem.  Consider the  following:

1) Blacks will vote for Obama blindly.  Period.  Doesn’t matter what he does.  It’s a race thing.  He’s one of  us,
    
2)  College educated women will vote for Obama.  Though they will be offended by this, they swoon at his oratory.   It’s really not more complex than that,

3)  Liberals will vote for Obama.  He is their great hope,
 
4)  Democrats will vote for Obama.  He is the leader of their  party and his coat tails will carry them to victory nationwide,
 
5)  Hispanics will vote for Obama.  He is the path to citizenship for those who are illegal and Hispanic leaders recognize the political clout they carry in the Democratic  Party,

6) Union  members will vote overwhelmingly for Obama.  He is their  key to money and power in business, state and local politics,

7) Big  Business will support Obama.  They already have.  He has almost $1 Billion dollars in his reelection purse gained  largely from his connections with Big Business and  is gaining more every day.  Big Business loves Obama because he gives them access to taxpayer money so long as they support his social and political agenda,

8) The  media love him.  They may attack the people who work for him, but they love him.  After all, to not love him would be racist,

9) Most  other minorities and special interest groups will vote for him.  Oddly, the overwhelming majority of Jews and Muslims will support him because they won’t vote Republican.  American Indians will support him.  Obviously homosexuals tend to vote Democratic.  And lastly,

10) Approximately half of independents will vote for Obama.  And he doesn’t need  anywhere near that number because he has all of the groups previously mentioned.  The President will win an  overwhelming victory in 2012. 

–  Dr.  Walter Williams

IN ADDITION TO THE VOTING BLOCKS HE MENTIONS, THERE IS ANOTHER HUGE GROUP: THE NEARLY ONE-HALF OF ALL ADULTS DO NOT PAY ANY TAXES AND, IN FACT, MOST OF THEM RECEIVE MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT. THESE PEOPLE DO NOT WANT TO "SHAKE THE BOAT" TO DO ANYTHING TO STOP THE FLOW OF TAXPAYER MONEY TO THEMSELVE
  

It’s  believed the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of   democracy, with some forty  percent of the nation’s population already having reached the  "governmental dependency" phase. 

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal  invaders called illegal’s – and they vote – then we can say goodbye to the  USA in fewer than five years. 

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much  is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest  danger to our freedom 
  
The stats given by Dr. Williams are true.  And daily there is a burgeoning increase in hispanics who want something for nothing, along with our own who have been getting something for nothing. And if you have seen the hidden video of the Minnesota’s voting registration where anyone can vote as many times as they want even without proof of identify, you see how they stuffed the ballot for liberals. So unless we find some sanity, our Republic just may be a memory.     lds

---

MY WORDS:  I love our country. It was built through the efforts of patriotic great men and women.  Now our freedoms are being threatened and it looks like we will do nothing about it.  The next election will decide our future path.  Read the following and decide: can we still save America.

There is an annual contest at the University of Arkansas calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term.

This year’s term was: "Political Correctness."

The winner wrote:
"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end."

This has been around before but – remind, remind, remind – we must keep people thinking. 

If any other of our presidents had doubled the national debt in one year, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years,would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents had criticized a state law that he admitted he never even read, would you think that he is just an ignorant hot head?

If any other of our presidents joined the country of Mexico and sued a state in the United States to force that state to continue to allow illegal immigration, would you question his patriotism and wonder who’s side he was on?

If any other of our presidents had pronounced the Marine Corps like Marine Corpse, would you think him an idiot?

If any other of our presidents had put 87,000 workers out of work by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on offshore oil drilling on companies that have one of the best safety records of any industry because one foreign company had an accident, would you have agreed?

If any other of our presidents had used a forged document as the basis of the moratorium that would render 87,000 American workers unemployed would you support him?

If any other of our presidents had been the first President to need a Teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If any other of our presidents had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take his First Lady to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents had reduced your retirement plan holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVD’s, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought it a proud moment for America?

If any other of our presidents had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents had visited Austria and made reference to the nonexistent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If any other of our presidents had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents had stated that there were 57 states in the United States , wouldn’t you have had second thoughts about his capabilities?

If any other of our presidents would have flown all the way to Denmark to make a five minute speech about how the Olympics would benefit him walking out his front door in his home town, would you not have thought he was a self-important, conceited, egotistical jerk?

If any other of our presidents had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, wouldn’t you have winced in embarrassment?

If any other of our presidents had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he’s a hypocrite?

If any other of our presidents’ administrations had OKd Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

If any other of our presidents had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If any other of our presidents had created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America, would you have ever approved?

If any other of our presidents had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can’t think of anything? Don’t worry. He’s done all this in 24 months so you have that much time to come up with an answer.

Every statement and action in this email is factual and directly attributable to Barack Hussein Obama. Everything is a matter of record and completely verifiable.

AND NOW– HE ACTUALLY WANTS US TO RE-ELECT HIM. WAKE UP AMERICA 2012 IS UPON US. WE CANNOT AFFORD TO TAKE A CHANCE ON THIS GUY FOR ANOTHER FOUR YEARS .. . .

"All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

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