UNBELIEVABLE

[editor]

H---

You know, I don't really believe it's true that cats are America's favorite pet. I think what makes it appear that way in shear numbers is that a lot of cat owners have 3 or 4 cats, while the average dog owner has only one. Then add in the old woman at the end of the block with 35 cats and the averages really get thrown off.

I would agree with you concerning cats though. They seem to lack the faithfulness a dog has. Dogs really appear to have emotional feelings, which cats seem to be void of. Dogs will be genuinely "happy" or "sad" according to the way you speak to them--if they sense disapproval they truly appear to be sorry. A cat will just run at the sound of an angry voice, whereas a dog will take it to heart, put their tail between their legs and look ashamed for what they have done to anger you. They truly are man's best friend.

Of course, this is coming from a dog lover.

--Joe

We have one of each presently.  A few months ago we had two cats and one dog, and in a week we will have 2 dogs and one cat.   I like both of them, but cats are way less hassle.

BTW, they are not dependent on us for food.  They can catch stuff pretty well.  However, coyotes seem to be dependent on us for food....they caught one of our cats!

Brent

[Scott McCumber]

H---

You know, I don't really believe it's true that cats are America's favorite pet. I think what makes it appear that way in shear numbers is that a lot of cat owners have 3 or 4 cats, while the average dog owner has only one. Then add in the old woman at the end of the block with 35 cats and the averages really get thrown off.

I would agree with you concerning cats though. They seem to lack the faithfulness a dog has. Dogs really appear to have emotional feelings, which cats seem to be void of. Dogs will be genuinely "happy" or "sad" according to the way you speak to them--if they sense disapproval they truly appear to be sorry. A cat will just run at the sound of an angry voice, whereas a dog will take it to heart, put their tail between their legs and look ashamed for what they have done to anger you. They truly are man's best friend.

Of course, this is coming from a dog lover.

--Joe

We have one of each presently.  A few months ago we had two cats and one dog, and in a week we will have 2 dogs and one cat.   I like both of them, but cats are way less hassle.

BTW, they are not dependent on us for food.  They can catch stuff pretty well.  However, coyotes seem to be dependent on us for food....they caught one of our cats!

Brent

I like cats. They taste like chicken.

I have a 75 pound Boxer that enjoys rolling truculent Pit Bulls up and down the beach when they steal his ball.

Oddly enough, he likes cats, too. No really. Loves to play with them gently. It's embarrasing.

He's a little retarded, I think.

[Mark Kisla]

" You know you're a Redneck, if your front porch collapses and 15 dogs die"
Jeff Foxworthy

My Sisters family has the Swiss version of a St. Bernard it's well over a 100 lbs and we became 'friends'. Unfortunately when we spent the night it was determined to share the couch with me, aggravating but funny.

[sfortescue]

BTW, they are not dependent on us for food.  They can catch stuff pretty well.  However, coyotes seem to be dependent on us for food....they caught one of our cats!

Brent

I've heard that sometimes cats are caught by owls.  Are you sure it wasn't an owl instead?

Dogs really appear to have emotional feelings, which cats seem to be void of.

They express their feelings in less obvious ways, but that doesn't mean they don't have them.

I noticed that even ants have feelings when I was watching one under the microscope and accidentally slightly injured it with the microscope slide.  It was bent over in pain for about 20 minutes then seemed to recover enough to start walking around again.  While it was sitting still I was able to examine it more carefully under the microscope.  I could see the slight dent in its abdomen from the injury.  I could see the blood flowing though veins in its head, its brown hairy exoskeleton being thin enough to be transparent.  I felt sorry for it and put it back on its trail and let it go home.  These ants are commonly called little black ants and frequently invade kitchens.  They seem black and shiny because they are too small for their brown color and hair to be seen clearly without magnification.

Field crickets are more expressive of their emotions.  They seem to me to be smarter than most insects, something like the geniuses of the insect world.  Their intelligence is probably why they are so hard to catch since they aren't really all that fast.  They seem to be very proud of their long antennae.  They seem unhappy when their antennae are shorter due to damage from the normal wear and tear of life.  Being their primary sense, their antennae are very important to them.

[d3z]

I've heard that sometimes cats are caught by owls.  Are you sure it wasn't an owl instead?

My sister has several cats taken, most likely by coyotes.  An owl tried to take a small dog of hers, but dropped it a short distance away.  She found the dog up in a tree, with claw marks in its back.

They express their feelings in less obvious ways, but that doesn't mean they don't have them.

The core of emotions is something shared by most animals that have brains.  They mostly seem to be survival mechanism.  The underlying emotions, such as fear, happiness, are very evident, at least in other mammals.  (Insects demonstrate a behavior that looks much like sorrow or fear when they are trapped or hurt).

What distinguishes us so much as humans, isn't the feelings, but our ability to reason about them, and especially, our ability to act contrary to our feelings.  It is very hard to tell what other animals "reason" about, though, since they don't possess language.

When I come home from work, my dog is very happy to see me.  When she does something wrong, she acts guilty.  I personally don't think these are the same as in humans, though.  Happiness is probably similar, but I think the guilt-behavior is more of a reaction to disapproval from the leader.  Humans can certainly feel guilty for the same reason, but we can experience conviction, which I think is deeper.

Enough rambling.  Maybe I should research canine ethics :-)

Dave

[al Hartman]

     You wanna talk about smart insects?  All I have to do is turn off the kitchen light, and the cockroaches rush out & clean the floor!

     Arachnids?  The spiders in my house are on the web more than I am!  (OK-- I'm not Joe Sperling, but I try!!)

     But for animal intelligence, you want to look at porpoises.  Some scientists believe that porpoises, dolphins and whales may be as intelligent as man or moreso.
     The reputation of porpoise intelligence is so great that George tried to start an assembly about 47 miles WSW of Santa Catalina.  No Kidding.  He used to go out in a glass-bottom boat and hold seminars.  The porpoises are so intelligent that they'd disperse as soon as they saw him coming!  

 ;Dal

[Oscar]

BASKETBALL STARTED IN ALMONTE ONTARIO

Almonte, ON where I was born and the home of basketball.

http://www.town.mississippi-mills.on.ca/about/naismith.asp

http://www.town.mississippi-mills.on.ca/tourism/places.asp

Hmm. Kind of a stretch, but you Canucks need everything you can get, so go with it!

S

This afternoon I was on my way home from the swimming pool where I swim laps.

I saw a young fellow driving a car with some stickers on the back.  One of them said, "Blame Canada".

Now that sounds like a good idea to me.  

Southern Califorinia has some air pollution.....Blame Canada!

American politics are getting pretty nasty....Blame Canada!

Al Gore almost won...Blame Canada!

GG turned out to be crooked...Blame Canada!

This has possibilities.  

Tom Maddux

[H]

In any world menu, Canada must be considered the vichyssoise of nations --it's cold, half French, and difficult to stir. -Stuart Keate

[H]

Marcia, hope I didn't offend you (or any other Canadians) by posting the Stuart Keate quote. He was a Canadian journalist, by the way. Haven't been able to find any other quotes by him, so I don't know what he may have said about the USA.

In order to give the USA equal time, here is a quote from an American (Fred Reed):

"I reckon I've figured out why everybody's brain in the Untied States is getting soft, like grits with too much water in them. It's because of Star Trek. You know, that space opera about how the world's worst actors set out to go where no man has gone before and, with any luck, stay there."

This quote is taken from his column "How Star Trek Turns Your Brains To Grits" (or "Kirk, Spock, And Scotty:  The Case For Drowning"), which I found hilarious, but which some people might be offended by:

http://www.fredoneverything.net/StarTrek.shtml

 

[editor]

Here is a quote from

Mary Ann Carlson
State senator in the U.S. state of Vermont

http://www.conservativeforum.org/authquot.asp?ID=1414

The quote is copyrighted you will have to go there to comment.

What does this remind you of?

This reminds me of Hitler.  How this woman got elected is beyond me.  Are people in Vermont really that stupid?

Brent

[Oscar]

Here is a quote from

Mary Ann Carlson
State senator in the U.S. state of Vermont

http://www.conservativeforum.org/authquot.asp?ID=1414

The quote is copyrighted you will have to go there to comment.

What does this remind you of?

This reminds me of Hitler.  How this woman got elected is beyond me.  Are people in Vermont really that stupid?

Brent

Brent,

She got elected because there are millions of totally secularized, urbanized, relativists who think just like her.

The percentage of Americans that have a meaningful religious faith is declining rapidly.  Around 90% will say they believe in God, but when you include a behavioral component like regular church attendance the percentage is more like 40%.

By 2020 it is expected to have declined to 25%.  This is because this group tends to be older, including many people who grew up before 1950.  Although Evangelical Christians are very visible in our country, we are only about 11% of the population. (when you include behavioral components in the definition of evangelical)

There is much talk among evangelicals of the "Principles our country was founded upon" and talk of a return to those principles by America.  Don't hold your breath.

There are some good signs too.  Evangelical leaders are casting off their anti-intellectual, anti-science attitudes and beginning to meaningfully engage the secularists in discussion.

The Intelligent Design movement is one evidence of this.  

Dr. J. P. Moreland, who is a professor of Philosophy at Talbot Seminary, decided a few years back to do something about the problem.  So he and some other professors made an ambitious goal: To place 100 Christian students with M.A. Philosophy degrees in Ph.d programs at secular universities.  As of this year, they have placed 120!  Some of these Christian intellectuals are already teaching at secualr colleges and universities.

More of this kind of thing is needed.

God bless,

Thomas Maddux

[Oscar]

Marcia, hope I didn't offend you (or any other Canadians) by posting the Stuart Keate quote. He was a Canadian journalist, by the way. Haven't been able to find any other quotes by him, so I don't know what he may have said about the USA.

In order to give the USA equal time, here is a quote from an American (Fred Reed):

"I reckon I've figured out why everybody's brain in the Untied States is getting soft, like grits with too much water in them. It's because of Star Trek. You know, that space opera about how the world's worst actors set out to go where no man has gone before and, with any luck, stay there."

This quote is taken from his column "How Star Trek Turns Your Brains To Grits" (or "Kirk, Spock, And Scotty:  The Case For Drowning"), which I found hilarious, but which some people might be offended by:

http://www.fredoneverything.net/StarTrek.shtml

 

H,

I found it hilarious too.

Thomas Maddux

[outdeep]

I think it even got worse when the crew of Star Trek got the idea they could sing.  I have a sound clip of William Shatner's ludicrous attempt at singing "Mr. Tamborene Man" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".  Leonard Nemoy made a sad attempt at "Proud Mary".

If you want a good laugh, rent Tim Allen's "Galaxy Quest".  It is a funny satire about trekkies and over-the-hill space actors.

[Scott McCumber]

Here is a quote from

Mary Ann Carlson
State senator in the U.S. state of Vermont

http://www.conservativeforum.org/authquot.asp?ID=1414

The quote is copyrighted you will have to go there to comment.

What does this remind you of?
 

That's one of the most asinine things I've ever heard!

Isn't Vermont Howard Dean country?

[Joe Sperling]

We need to know who the stupid people are before they say something stupid. By registering stupid people we can do that. If people are stupid and get elected, they are pretty likely to say stupid things.