Mail Carrier Cats...and Ultrarunning

[image and article credit--where else but Boing Boing?]

I for one think it's about time my kitties started earning their keep.  The data from 1877 is as relevant today as it was 136 years ago.  This is an idea whose time has clearly come:

A variety of animals have been used to deliver mail over the years, from camels and dogs to horses and pigeons. But cats? According to a 19th century article in the New York Times, around 1877 the Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat tested 37 cats for the task by taking them far from the city of Liege where they "promptly proceeded to 'scat.'" Within 24 hours, they had all returned home.

This result has greatly encouraged the society, and it is proposed to establish at an early day a regular system of cat communication between Liege and the neighboring villages. Messages are to be fastened in water-proof bags around the necks of the animals, and it is believed that, unless the criminal class of dogs undertakes to waylay and rob the mail-cats, the messages will be delivered with rapidity and safety.
 

The fact that we do not now have this service means only one thing: just as the 1877 investigators feared, a criminal class of dogs must have undertaken to waylay and rob the mail-cats.

Maybe if the NRA armed cats and encouraged them to stand their ground....?

The link to Ultrarunning is this: I have certainly have had some bad encounters with dogs over the years, but never a confrontation with a cat.  Just another side benefit of the plan.

 

Another Reason To Go On Living...and Ultrarunning

Via TPM LiveWire come the following news:

The National Rifle Association will serve as the title sponsor for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in April, the Associated Press reported.

Under the one-year agreement, the race scheduled to be held April 13 at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas will be known as the "NRA 500."

Double whammy here.  Not only do we have a non-sport masquerading as a sport, we have a sociopathic corporate sponsor.  One that would rather consider the death of children a sad but necessary price of maintaining the freedom to possess any type of weapon you damn well choose.  And when rational people want to have an informed discussion about gun safety, the NRA fans the flames of fear and hysteria.

This obviously is a hot-button issue for me.  I'm sure that many Ultrarunners are safe and responsible gun owners, and I don't want to alienate those folks.  But to cast your lot with the NRA is over the top, in my humble opinion.

 

Business as Usual, After a Pause

Via Melissa McEwan at Shakesville on 11 Feb, with her "Quote of the Day:

"We have a strong agenda coming up for next year, but of course a lot of that's going to be delayed as the Connecticut Effect has to go through the process."—NRA Lobbyist and former Wisconsin state senator Bob Welch (R), explaining at the NRA's Wisconsin State Convention this weekend that the NRA will "resume its push to weaken the nation's gun laws" just as soon as everyone gets over the Newtown school shooting.

 

 

20 dead kids = mere collateral damage associated with the nation's gun fetish. 

 

As a friend--who should know since he has lost a child (to an accident, not gun violence)--recently observed on the Newtown shootings:

"Why would you not want to do everything you could to perhaps save a child's life?"