the mellow tigger's musings

I keep missing topics that I intend to write about, because the firehose of absurdities keeps flowing.

Kids in cells made for bad optics last time around, so this time we seem to be going for an Abu Ghraib / Guantanamo Bay style of exported incarceration. It's a lot harder to monitor the truth when you export it outside of the national border. What could go wrong with that plan?

The intake began with slaps. One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.” I believed him. But maybe it’s only because he didn’t look like what I had expected—he wasn’t a tattooed monster.
- Time.com

Knowledge is a threat to fascism. (me) Reality has a well-known liberal bias. (Stephen Colbert) Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny. (Robert Reich)

It's only 8:40am local time, but I already feel unreasonably happy today.

The guy from Wolf Pest Control showed up promptly at 8am this morning. He sprayed the hornet nests, using his ladder to climb on top of my front porch to reach the 2nd one. The 1st one is easy to reach, near the ground. He had a bulky full-body suit like a firefighter that he wore for the work. He said to give it at least a week before trying to seal them up. He recommends people just wait through the winter too. I'll try clearing up the brush next week, at least, so the painters have clear access to my house later. I shouldn't be bothered by hornets by then. It was definitely worth the $240 for 30 minutes of work this morning.

He was surprisingly nice to talk to, while I wrote out a check afterward on the front porch step. He said he doesn't exterminate bumblebees, which are more regulated than hornets, even if they're the infestation, "because pollinators are good". Maybe he liked my pollinator-friendly yard? Appropriate to the business name, he definitely had the "wolf" look with a full beard, from the bear terminology. I have no idea if he's family, but I'll hope that he is.

The mood in Minneapolis is gearing down for winter. I didn't get everything done that needs to be done for the house, but I got the first floor painted, with plans for the second floor this year. I got the 4 worst windows replaced, with only 1 more to go. I bought the latest new smart phone generation, replacing the broken one I had for years. Thanks to a generous gift from my parents, my bank account didn't even suffer from all this spending. It's still growing into what for me is a large nest egg, so I could easily withstand another year or two of unemployed job hunting, if it came to that.

I'm going to encourage this good mood today and avoid the news.

Today's theme song arrives here thanks to news from Texas, where a judge ruled that a school district can restrict the length of hair of its male students. This ruling contradicts the recent CROWN Act in Texas that banned race-based hair discrimination. Minnesota passed a Crown Act recently too. A Texas judge has now ruled against a key feature of their law in that state.

I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again before we're finally through these troubles, but please find a way to move somewhere safe. Heed the signs. Until then, enjoy this song in the spirit of longhair solidarity.

And the sign said, "Long-haired freaky people need not apply".
So I tucked my hair up under my hat, and I went in to ask him why.
He said, "You look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you'll do."
So I took off my hat, I said, "Imagine that. Huh! Me, workin' for you!"

Whoa! Sign, sign, everywhere a sign!
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind!
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

And the sign said anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight,
So I jumped on the fence, and I yelled at the house, "Hey! What gives you the right?"
"To put up a fence to keep me out or to keep Mother Nature in?"
"If God was here, he'd tell you to your face, Man, you're some kinda sinner."
...
And the sign said, "Everybody welcome. Come in, kneel down, and pray."
But when they passed around the plate at the end of it all, I didn't have a penny to pay.
So I got me a pen and a paper, and I made up my own little sign.
I said, "Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me. I'm alive and doin' fine."

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I know that a lot of luck has kept me here in this world for so long. Today is nearly done. I kept my belly full all day, my skin warm, and my cat purring in my lap, so I know that today was a good day for me. I wish the same for everyone else in my troubled part of the world and places like it elsewhere. I don't yet have any good ideas for how to make it happen, though.

Stay safe out there.