The lawsuit is pending in federal court in San Diego and purportedly was brought by five killer whales as the plaintiffs.  The court held a hearing yesterday to determine whether the lawsuit could proceed.  The BBC article above quotes the lawyer for the killer whales as saying:  “For the first time in our nation’s history, a federal court heard arguments as to whether living, breathing, feeling beings have rights and can be enslaved simply because they happen to not have been born human.  By any definition these orcas have been enslaved here.”

I was sorry to read these news articles, because the principal point of such lawsuits seems to be to attract media attention.  No rational person, or lawyer, could really contend that our constitutional protections were written to protect, or should be read to extend to, killer whales or any other animal.  But such provocative lawsuits allow advocacy organizations, for the price of a filing fee, to gain a platform from which to espouse their views and then hope that any resulting news coverage will encourage like-minded people who read such articles to contribute to the cause.

The news media would do us all a favor by ignoring this kind of legal grandstanding.  I suppose I should, too.

This AP article discusses some of the reaction to the ad from various points on the political spectrum and quotes Eastwood as saying the ad was not intended to be political, but rather just about job growth and the spirit of America.

Interestingly, some people apparently construed the ad to be a pro-President Obama endorsement of the federal government bailout of Chrysler and GM.  I guess I’m just dense, but I didn’t get that message if it was intended.  In fact, if I were the President I don’t think I would want that ad, with its emphasis on tough times and America needing to come from behind, to be associated with me.  If President Obama wants to highlight what he considers to be positive accomplishments during his term, you’d think he would be able to come up with a better subject than poor, broke, decimated Detroit.

I don’t bark much.  It’s tiring and hard on my throat.  I don’t feel like I need to say much to the other dogs in the neighborhood.

Other dogs around here bark all the time.  Marley is a big barker.  So are Tiger and Sassy.  I think they’re just showing off to the other members of their packs, acting like they are big deal watchdogs.

There is another dog the old boring guy calls Barkington who barks whenever we walk by in the morning.  He is a big dog, but his bark is high-pitched.  It’s embarrassing to hear it.  Whenever he starts barking, I shake my head.  If I had a bark like that, I wouldn’t bark at all.

Then there are the sneaky barkers.  Ms. Beagle down the street is one of those.  When we walk by her house and she is outside, she will stay quiet and run up behind us as fast as she can.  Then she will start barking and howling as loud as she can.  It always makes the old boring guy jump, and makes me laugh.  Ha ha!  Well played, Ms. Beagle!

I expect that the most talked-about commercial from the Super Bowl is the Chrysler ad featuring Clint Eastwood.

In the commercial, the gravelly voiced Eastwood says that just as it is halftime in the Super Bowl, it’s halftime in America, too.  Times are tough, he says.  We’re down and out of work, we don’t understand each other, and we’re stumbling in a fog of discord and recrimination.  But you can’t knock out America with just one punch.  We need to come together to figure out how to come from behind because the second half is ready to begin.  Detroit is showing us it can be done, Clint says.

Huh?  America as a whole is supposed to follow Detroit’s lead?  For the record, Detroit is on its knees.  The city is losing money and deeply in debt, and the city government and the state of Michigan are trying to figure out whether the city can avoid being governed by an emergency manager who would have the ability to revise union contracts, restructure government, and sell off city assets like parks.  I’m hoping Detroit can pull through, but let’s not kid ourselves — Detroit is no model and no inspiration.

I recognize that the Chrysler commercial provided an excuse to hear the welling music and to see the by-now-standard shots of courageous firefighters, mothers and children, and families standing strong.  But it cheapens our country and its circumstances to compare America to a football game, and it’s jarring to receive a commercial message about coming together and sacrifice in close proximity to an over-the-top Super Bowl halftime show featuring Madonna.

Can’t commercials just stick to selling products, rather than trying to send us irksome, ankle-deep inspirational messages about our country?

This year’s Buckeye basketball team has to be the deepest and most athletic team Thad Matta has put on the court during his time at Ohio State.  One of the more spectacular athletes is Sam Thompson, who seems like he could jump out of the gym if he really put his mind to it.

Thompson, who is just a freshman, has had some astonishing dunks this year.  Here’s a personal favorite that occurred at Indiana.  Of course, the Hoosiers came back to win the game — but Thompson’s capabilities should make all Ohio State fans feel pretty good about next year.

The Ohio Highway Patrol would prefer that the speed limit stay at 65; it contends that higher speeds result in more accidents and more serious injuries.  Some legislators note, however, that the Ohio Turnpike recently increased its speed limit to 70, without an increase in fatalities.  In addition, the speed limit on rural freeways in neighboring Michigan, Indiana, and West Virginia also is 70 m.p.h.  Why should Ohio be different?

I spend a lot of time driving on I-71 and I-70, Ohio’s principal east-west and north-south freeways, and I’m supportive of a higher speed limit.  For the most part, the Ohio countryside is flat (and boring) and the freeways are straight.  We don’t have mountains or winding roads that might counsel in favor of lower speed limits.

There are always going to be drivers who ignore the speed limit, whatever it is, and drive as fast as they want.  For those drivers, the posted speed limit is meaningless.  Why not let the rest of us law-abiding drivers make better time when we are driving through the rolling farmland between Cincinnati and Cleveland?

Earlier this week the iMac screen went opaque.  I turned it off, hoping it was just a rebooting issue, but I couldn’t turn it back on.  Yesterday I took it to the Apple store and the blue-shirted folks at the Genius Bar opened it up.  It was weird seeing the iMac with its innards exposed — like being present in the operating room when a family member is getting an appendix removed.

The Geniuses took one look, saw that the capacitors were blown out, and advised, with appropriate respect and regret, that nothing could be done.  Our iMac is so old — or, as one of the Apple Geniuses said, “vintage” — that they don’t even make replacement capacitors for it anymore.  We removed the hard drive so that I can try to retrieve stuff from our iPhoto and iTunes folders, closed it up, and I carefully carried it back to the car.

The demise of the iMac leaves a physical void on the desktop in our study, and I think wistfully of its 8+ years of steady reliability and service.  But life goes on.  I’d welcome any suggestions from readers about Apple desktops that can fill the void and try to fill the big shoes left by the iMac.

Jared Sullinger was a beast on the inside; he scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Wisconsin really had no answer for him.  Deshaun Thomas showed why he is one of the best forwards in the Big Ten, grabbing many rebounds and making some clutch buckets.  Aaron Craft played a standout defensive game against Badgers stud point guard Jordan Taylor, and made some key free throws to help ice the game, Lenzelle Smith, Jr., played a fine floor game, and William Buford — poor, much maligned William Buford, who just could not get a shot to go down — made a three-point dagger in crunch time.

This is the kind of game you expect to see in a balanced conference like the Big Ten, where road wins are like pearls of the highest price.  Wisconsin played its normal deliberate game and its in-your-face defense, but today, the Buckeyes were just a little bit better. Winning at the Kohl Center is a huge step forward for Ohio State, because winning in an intimidating atmosphere says a lot about your team’s mental toughness — and there are a lot of challenging games yet to be played.

I’m happy for Mr. Tressel (although I will always think of him as Coach Tressel) and I have no doubt that he will do a good job for one of Ohio’s largest universities.  The NCAA “tattoogate” scandal that led to his resignation as Ohio State’s coach involved some unfortunate lapses in judgment on his part, but it shouldn’t mask his accomplishments with the Buckeyes.  Tressel not only took a moribund football program and quickly turned it into a powerhouse, he also made tremendous progress in the academic performance of his student-athletes.

I still respect Tressel’s efforts and achievements, even if I regret his missteps at the end of his tenure at Ohio State.  I suspect I’m not alone in that regard, and that many Ohioans will be interested in meeting with Tressel and hearing his ideas for the future of the University of Akron.  He’s an intelligent, hard working individual who dedicates himself to his job, and I’m sure he will bring those attributes to his new position.

I know one person who is thrilled to have Tressel in Akron:  Buckeye Bebe, who always has been one of his biggest supporters.  Aunt Bebe will be very happy to share the air of the Rubber City with the man who led the Buckeyes for so many years.  Who knows?  Perhaps they can meet and talk about football — or even strategic engagement.

There are some curious aspects to the report, and some negative news as well.  For example, the BLS made an adjustment that simply eliminated 1.2 million from the workforce, which of course affected the statistics.  In addition, the labor-force participation number fell to the lowest level since 1983.  These statistics may indicate that some people have just given up after looking for work for years — which is a sobering thought.  If true, that may mean that the unemployment rate will jump again if those people decide to once again start hunting for a job.

Despite the cautionary aspects of the report, I’m glad to see that our economy is producing jobs.  I’m sure there are some people who regret the timing of the good news for political reasons — they know that many Americans vote on the basis of their pocketbooks, and they believe that voters will be more likely to favor the Republican candidate over President Obama if the economy stays in the doldrums.  Such people should keep those thoughts to themselves.  We should be happy for every one of those 243,000 news jobs and for the people who were hired to perform them, and we should hope that next month’s report is even better.

The Wrestling Fan and I were up in that area so he could run an errand, and we decided to stop to see what the Goody Boy had to offer.  On the inside there’s a bar and a large, open seating area with the kinds of ’50s signage you’d expect from a diner.  I had a cheeseburger and fries, pictured above; the Fan had the fish sandwich special.  The cheeseburger was a half-pound of beefy, cheesy goodness, and the fries were hand-cut and well seasoned.  The Fan didn’t comment on his fish sandwich, which was huge — but that probably was because he was too busy gobbling it down to mutter any words of praise.

The cost of my sandwich?  Less than $10.  The Wrestling Fan and I agreed that we would be back.

The Buckeyes have enjoyed great success under Coach Matta — but not at the Kohl Center.  There, they are 0-6, and many of the losses have been of the last-minute, heart-breaking variety.  Last year, Wisconsin was the first team to beat the Buckeyes, winning a bruising battle behind the heroic efforts of stud point guard Jordan Taylor.  It also was a game marred by controversy.  Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger said one of the Wisconsin fans who rushed the floor spit on him; the Wisconsin faithful denied the charge and called Sullinger a crybaby.  During Saturday’s game, expect Wisconsin fans to razz Sullinger unmercifully — and perhaps wear a raincoat or two.

Why does Ohio State have such a tough time at the Kohl Center?  Is it, as some Buckeye fans contend, that the refs are just horribly biased in favor of the Badgers when they play at home?  Or, as I believe, is it because Wisconsin has tough, well-coached teams and a loud and proud group of basketball fans that just make playing the game in that place a grueling challenge for the visiting team?

In either case, this year’s rematch should be a great game.  Wisconsin struggled to score points at the start of the Big Ten season, but has righted the ship and reeled off six wins in a row.  Taylor is still around — it seems like he has played forever — and he is the main cog in the Wisconsin machine.  But the Badgers also have a hard-nosed inside-outside player in Jared Berggren and a slew of other versatile players who can shoot the three and crash the boards.  Under the tutelage of their great coach Bo Ryan, Wisconsin also plays a deliberate offensive game that means every possession counts.

At the Kohl Center, you know every game is going to be tough.  The Buckeyes are hoping that they can finally come away with a win tomorrow.

But now my bird-sighting hopes are up, because there are reports that Snowy Owls have moved south from the Arctic Circle en masse and are being seen all over northern America. Every few years these magnificent, milky white, carnivorous birds have an “irruption” and fly south in large numbers.  In the Arctic Circle, they feast on lemmings.  Farther south, they look for mice, rabbits, and even ducks to provide sustenance.

The New York Times reports that they have been seen in the Great Lakes and the Ohio River Valley, which means they might just show up in New Albany, Ohio.  So, on my walks around the neighborhood, I’m keeping my eyes peeled for a flash of white as a Snowy Owl swoops down to grab its prey and carry it off for supper.  And if they want to snatch a Canadian goose or two, I won’t object.

Sonar has located a curious disk-shaped object on the floor of the Baltic Sea, between Sweden and Finland.  Enthusiastic treasure hunters and UFO buffs say it looks like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.  (I think it looks more like Pac Man.)  It’s about 200 feet in diameter and lies at the end of a churned up track of sea floor.  No one knows for sure what it is, and the speculation is that it might be a Russian spacecraft or a UFO.

The discoverers don’t think they can get investors to underwrite exploration of the object, because there is no promise of lost gold or silver.  So, they’re hoping a TV production company will shell out for a Geraldo Rivera-type expedition to find out what the object is. Of course, in all likelihood the result would be as disappointing as the show where Geraldo opened an old safe and didn’t find anything of note.

It’s wildly improbable, and it sounds like a trite and fantastic science fiction plot — but let your mind wander for a moment, and imagine the reaction in the world if we discovered a spacecraft burrowed in the silty bottom of the Baltic Sea.

With the passing of Don Cornelius yesterday I’m sure everyone was reminded of the show he hosted. Soul Train first aired in October 1971 and ran through March 2006 featuring mostly R& B and Hip Hop music. It still ranks as the longest running syndicated program in television history.

Who can forget the scramble board with the letters of a music artists name you should know and the highlight of the show the Soul Train Line Dance. Don only participated in the line dance one time during the entire running of the show (shown below).

Today at work us old folks were talking about our skin tight bell bottom jeans, silk shirts, platform shoes and bright colored outfits. The seventies and eighties were a fun time to be young with not a care in the world.

At the end of each show it would be – Bet your last money it’s gonna be a stone gas honey ! I’m Don Cornelius and as always in parting we wish you love, peace and soul.

Filed under: Music Tagged: Don Cornelius, Hip Hop, R & B, Scramble Board, Soul train, Soul Train Line Dance ]]> http://webnerhouse.com/2012/02/02/its-souuuuuuuuul-train/feed/ 0 webby2440