actually, for me that goes well beyond "sad." Don Jr. (who "made his bones" by pissing in other people's beds) is quite beyond the pale...a human only in the most basic biological sense.
actually, for me that goes well beyond "sad." Don Jr. (who "made his bones" by pissing in other people's beds) is quite beyond the pale...a human only in the most basic biological sense.
I don't think I'd let my mind go that far as to how sad it is until I read your comment, but I hear what you're saying and I completely agree. It's really awful to think of RFK Jr. with those people, that he's just lost all perspective, and to think of how awful it must be for his siblings, who have gone through more than anyone should have to go through--the assassination, the deaths of, I think it's two of their siblings, and now this. AS sad as this is, somehow I think it's important for me to know, so thank you.
It is sad. HeтАЩs a mess and hanging out with a bad crowd. I donтАЩt want to minimize the horrible trauma of his dad and uncleтАЩs assassinations in any way. I can only imagine how it affected family as it was incredibly traumatizing to our country. And some, maybe not everyone have childhood trauma that we go through and either go through life blaming everything on a traumatized childhood, get help or counseling and let go and heal, or just go looking for something and trying to grab the brass ring. RFKJr might be in the 3rd group. IтАЩm not an expert by any means but IтАЩm in the 2nd group.
I'm not an expert on this stuff but I don't think the description of the third group quite fits, although maybe I'm not fully understanding it. RFKJr is damaged, and I get the impression his mother was lacking in a big way (and of course she also had her own loss to deal with, but I get the sense that she did not do a great job with her kids, and somehow, most of the others pulled themselves together, but RFKJr couldn't or didn't. Maybe its' especially hard to bear the name. But it is damn sad to see him in the company of such POSes.
It's also damn sad for the country that RFK was killed because I can't help thinking we'd be living in a much better country and world had he served out two terms.
I made this mistake in 2008 of telling people we had finally won the election of1968 - which I meant the spirit of RFK had won. The last time I saw him live was the speech in Union Square in San Francisco in May 1968 when he said "some people look at things as they are and say why - I look at things that never were and say why not?" It really would be a different world if he had lived. He'd have won in a landslide.
Your second to last sentence--my sentiments exactly. And I agree with what I think you're saying--that Obama was no RFK. Like I may have said here, and definitely said on Today's Edition, I've been disappointed by every Democratic pres until Biden. While I have one major area of disagreement with him, the good he's doing far outweighs it.
Exactly - Obama was no RFK, though I mistakenly thought he was, till a week after the inuguration when he announced @#$%%##@@#!@!! Rahm Emanuel was going to be his CofS. At that point, I knew I had made a terrible mistake (though that year there wasn't an alternative that wasn't a worse mistake).
a funny thing I just remembered is that when RFK was running for the Senate (in, I'm pretty sure, '66), I kept finding myself in the same place he was. once at Jones Beach (of all places), once in Columbus Circle and, strangest of all, outside J&L Luncheonette two blocks from mine in Kew Gardens Hills. I remember it was a very hot day and he was sweating through his suit jacket sleeves. but Kew Gardens Hills? the only other time the place was in the news was when Mayor Lindsey came after a huge blizzard and everybody was cursing him out so thoroughly you'd have thought he created the blizzard. NOTHING ever happens in Kew Gardens Hills. NOTHING.
but RFK??? one of the strangest moments in my life.
and it wasn't even the coolest of the three available luncheonettes. the coolest was Jasol's, run by two Jewish gangsters from Montreal. the place was always full of middle-aged Jewish guys who wore stingy brim hats and were fixated on the many pay phones in back, which would ring and which they'd run to answer.
it was years later when I realized the place was what you could call an Informal Turf Accountancy.
She's doing fine. And she seems to have gotten even more outgoing with strangers--major compared to when she first came to live with me. She spent the first three days after Polly left her, in the coat closet. She was wary of me, and wary of other people. Now she just loves going up to strangers to get the love, and she seems even more that way than she was last fall. Such a lovable dog!
our preferred breeds are particularly interesting. every one of them I've ever encountered has a strong and interesting personality. I've never considered not talking to ANY of my ESs (and, needless to say, BCs) in anything but proper English sentences. friends of mine have always insisted that I'm confusing them by doing this, but when I first started my friendship with Jubal's breeder, I asked her about this and she said that she'd never consider talking to any of her dogs in anything but coherent sentences and paragraphs. in the ES Society FB page, someone recently talked about leaving her dog in the company of a good friend while she was away for the weekend.
her "simple instructions" went on for PAGES. mainly, she said that if the dog seemed reluctant to follow a command, when the reasons for that command were explained logically and thoroughly, the dog would "get it," but that she was acutely sensitive to any trace of condescension. I know exactly what she meant. I bet you do as well.
in my experience, our breeds are especially wonderful with small children and start to perform a wide variety of protective herding behaviors right off the bat to a degree that still astonishes me.
four years before Natalie came to live with me, I was visiting a friend on an island in Puget Sound who has two border collies. He told me they understood English. And I quickly found it was true with Natalie.
And, yes, Natalie definitely has a strong and interesting personality.
question David: what's your experience of Natalie as far as eye contact goes? I'm asking because I remember rewading in many places that dogs in general (and herding breeds in particular) tend to be very choosey about when they make eye contact, and with whom they do so.
the thing is that my experience is the opposite. ALL of my ESs make a LOT of eye contact all the time. I was wondering if Natalie was the same because BCs uniquely herd by eye, so it occurred to me that they might be more sparing and/or selective about eye contact.
of course, since the dogs I know about most directly have been MINE, I can't really generalize, even though all of my friends (who also know my dogs extremely well) have the same experience.
if anything, my dogs have tended to LOCK eyes with people.
I have a four-year-old next door neighbor and whenever Jubal sees her, he locks eyes immediately, presses his nose against hers and then positions himself to make sure she can't go anywhere until he can make sure there's no danger.
I assume Natalie does a lot of the same stuff.
every time I see it, it's so beautiful I get a little tearful.
She makes eye contact. But she had no experience with little kids before I got her (and very little with any humans except for Polly and people who helped her on the farm. There was an incident once where we ran by a playground and she immediately went to herd some little kids but she's had very little experience with little kids, and most of it fleeting (running by them). Her major thing is to go up to strangers to get the love, and while she's done that for a few years now, she's done that distinctly more in the last week, and I'm hearing the adjective, "friendly" in reference to her a lot from people we've just met, all the sudden.
it took Jubal a year or so to realize that around here, he wasn't going to get shipped off to anywhere else and was in his forever home, so he could relax.
Natalie's first major breakthrough was after I'd had her for a little over three weeks. We'd driven down to the DC area. where both my siblings live. My sister had a big party. Until then, Natalie had been very wary of people she hadn't met. At the party, she started going up to each person, in turn. A few days later she did the same thing in coffee house.
when I brought Jubal home, he'd never seen a stairway, but he handled it.
the next day, we took him to a street fair in the East Village and he aced it, including a long visit to The Strand, which is a very dog-friendly bookstore.
...and before that, in 2000, I actually got points from the rescue group for taking on Meg and Jo, who were considered "feral." and they were incredibly sweet from day one.
actually, for me that goes well beyond "sad." Don Jr. (who "made his bones" by pissing in other people's beds) is quite beyond the pale...a human only in the most basic biological sense.
I don't think I'd let my mind go that far as to how sad it is until I read your comment, but I hear what you're saying and I completely agree. It's really awful to think of RFK Jr. with those people, that he's just lost all perspective, and to think of how awful it must be for his siblings, who have gone through more than anyone should have to go through--the assassination, the deaths of, I think it's two of their siblings, and now this. AS sad as this is, somehow I think it's important for me to know, so thank you.
It is sad. HeтАЩs a mess and hanging out with a bad crowd. I donтАЩt want to minimize the horrible trauma of his dad and uncleтАЩs assassinations in any way. I can only imagine how it affected family as it was incredibly traumatizing to our country. And some, maybe not everyone have childhood trauma that we go through and either go through life blaming everything on a traumatized childhood, get help or counseling and let go and heal, or just go looking for something and trying to grab the brass ring. RFKJr might be in the 3rd group. IтАЩm not an expert by any means but IтАЩm in the 2nd group.
I'm not an expert on this stuff but I don't think the description of the third group quite fits, although maybe I'm not fully understanding it. RFKJr is damaged, and I get the impression his mother was lacking in a big way (and of course she also had her own loss to deal with, but I get the sense that she did not do a great job with her kids, and somehow, most of the others pulled themselves together, but RFKJr couldn't or didn't. Maybe its' especially hard to bear the name. But it is damn sad to see him in the company of such POSes.
It's also damn sad for the country that RFK was killed because I can't help thinking we'd be living in a much better country and world had he served out two terms.
I made this mistake in 2008 of telling people we had finally won the election of1968 - which I meant the spirit of RFK had won. The last time I saw him live was the speech in Union Square in San Francisco in May 1968 when he said "some people look at things as they are and say why - I look at things that never were and say why not?" It really would be a different world if he had lived. He'd have won in a landslide.
Your second to last sentence--my sentiments exactly. And I agree with what I think you're saying--that Obama was no RFK. Like I may have said here, and definitely said on Today's Edition, I've been disappointed by every Democratic pres until Biden. While I have one major area of disagreement with him, the good he's doing far outweighs it.
Exactly - Obama was no RFK, though I mistakenly thought he was, till a week after the inuguration when he announced @#$%%##@@#!@!! Rahm Emanuel was going to be his CofS. At that point, I knew I had made a terrible mistake (though that year there wasn't an alternative that wasn't a worse mistake).
I remember that as soon as I heard about the assassination, my immediate (and accurate) thought was "we are SO fucked."
a funny thing I just remembered is that when RFK was running for the Senate (in, I'm pretty sure, '66), I kept finding myself in the same place he was. once at Jones Beach (of all places), once in Columbus Circle and, strangest of all, outside J&L Luncheonette two blocks from mine in Kew Gardens Hills. I remember it was a very hot day and he was sweating through his suit jacket sleeves. but Kew Gardens Hills? the only other time the place was in the news was when Mayor Lindsey came after a huge blizzard and everybody was cursing him out so thoroughly you'd have thought he created the blizzard. NOTHING ever happens in Kew Gardens Hills. NOTHING.
but RFK??? one of the strangest moments in my life.
and it wasn't even the coolest of the three available luncheonettes. the coolest was Jasol's, run by two Jewish gangsters from Montreal. the place was always full of middle-aged Jewish guys who wore stingy brim hats and were fixated on the many pay phones in back, which would ring and which they'd run to answer.
it was years later when I realized the place was what you could call an Informal Turf Accountancy.
Gambling is the Great Vice of the Hebrews.
And sadly, the most likely reason he was assassinated
Yes, I think our country would would have been in a better place, and sadly we were not given that option. Changing the subject how is Natalie?
She's doing fine. And she seems to have gotten even more outgoing with strangers--major compared to when she first came to live with me. She spent the first three days after Polly left her, in the coat closet. She was wary of me, and wary of other people. Now she just loves going up to strangers to get the love, and she seems even more that way than she was last fall. Such a lovable dog!
our preferred breeds are particularly interesting. every one of them I've ever encountered has a strong and interesting personality. I've never considered not talking to ANY of my ESs (and, needless to say, BCs) in anything but proper English sentences. friends of mine have always insisted that I'm confusing them by doing this, but when I first started my friendship with Jubal's breeder, I asked her about this and she said that she'd never consider talking to any of her dogs in anything but coherent sentences and paragraphs. in the ES Society FB page, someone recently talked about leaving her dog in the company of a good friend while she was away for the weekend.
her "simple instructions" went on for PAGES. mainly, she said that if the dog seemed reluctant to follow a command, when the reasons for that command were explained logically and thoroughly, the dog would "get it," but that she was acutely sensitive to any trace of condescension. I know exactly what she meant. I bet you do as well.
in my experience, our breeds are especially wonderful with small children and start to perform a wide variety of protective herding behaviors right off the bat to a degree that still astonishes me.
four years before Natalie came to live with me, I was visiting a friend on an island in Puget Sound who has two border collies. He told me they understood English. And I quickly found it was true with Natalie.
And, yes, Natalie definitely has a strong and interesting personality.
question David: what's your experience of Natalie as far as eye contact goes? I'm asking because I remember rewading in many places that dogs in general (and herding breeds in particular) tend to be very choosey about when they make eye contact, and with whom they do so.
the thing is that my experience is the opposite. ALL of my ESs make a LOT of eye contact all the time. I was wondering if Natalie was the same because BCs uniquely herd by eye, so it occurred to me that they might be more sparing and/or selective about eye contact.
of course, since the dogs I know about most directly have been MINE, I can't really generalize, even though all of my friends (who also know my dogs extremely well) have the same experience.
if anything, my dogs have tended to LOCK eyes with people.
I have a four-year-old next door neighbor and whenever Jubal sees her, he locks eyes immediately, presses his nose against hers and then positions himself to make sure she can't go anywhere until he can make sure there's no danger.
I assume Natalie does a lot of the same stuff.
every time I see it, it's so beautiful I get a little tearful.
She makes eye contact. But she had no experience with little kids before I got her (and very little with any humans except for Polly and people who helped her on the farm. There was an incident once where we ran by a playground and she immediately went to herd some little kids but she's had very little experience with little kids, and most of it fleeting (running by them). Her major thing is to go up to strangers to get the love, and while she's done that for a few years now, she's done that distinctly more in the last week, and I'm hearing the adjective, "friendly" in reference to her a lot from people we've just met, all the sudden.
that's lovely.
it took Jubal a year or so to realize that around here, he wasn't going to get shipped off to anywhere else and was in his forever home, so he could relax.
Natalie's first major breakthrough was after I'd had her for a little over three weeks. We'd driven down to the DC area. where both my siblings live. My sister had a big party. Until then, Natalie had been very wary of people she hadn't met. At the party, she started going up to each person, in turn. A few days later she did the same thing in coffee house.
when I brought Jubal home, he'd never seen a stairway, but he handled it.
the next day, we took him to a street fair in the East Village and he aced it, including a long visit to The Strand, which is a very dog-friendly bookstore.
...and before that, in 2000, I actually got points from the rescue group for taking on Meg and Jo, who were considered "feral." and they were incredibly sweet from day one.
She is a beautiful friend