*Shudder*

There are very few living things that I fear, and I believe those fears are mostly legitimate. I don't have an irrational fear of spiders, even though an arachnid did send me to the emergency room back in May of 1998.

But scorpions just plain freak me out. And this story makes my skin absolutely crawl. While I was on Maui cleaning out the side yard and working on cars that most people would consider "scrap", I found two scorpion corpses and saw two live ones scampering. I killed one and smashed the area that the other one squeezed into. The next day, Mom was stung on her right hand while clearing some palm brush from the back corner of the property (Dad found it and killed it).

Scorpions I can do without.

The Enviro-Wackos: At it again?

So now I don't know what to think.

Mouse Frustrates Endangered Species Policy

A while back, I raged about the idiots who wrongly identified a "new" mouse as a distinct subspecies worthy of Endangered Species protection, stalling development across much of Colorado and Wyoming. While I don't encourage development, especially across natural wonders like Rocky Mountain states, I do bridle at the misuse of the ESA solely to prevent it. It's like crying wolf, and I don't dig on it. It weakens efforts to legitimately protect other animals.

Anyway, now this jumping mouse ("Preble's Mouse") has been found, by another group, to be distinct from the "Bear Lodge Mouse" after all.

"It seemed to me from the get-go, he wanted to find that this was not a taxonomically valid subspecies," Hallerman said.

Correct me, please. Isn't "hypothesizing" part of the scientific method? And did this second group not "want to find that this was a taxonomically valid subspecies?"

No, Seriously, GO AWAY!

I've known 3-day-old babies that cry less than this.

Bonds Doesn't Want to Hit 2nd

I've said it before, YOU NEED TO GO AWAY. Hang 'em up, it's been a great career. Retire, go away, go fishing, golfing, I don't care, just go away. You were tiresome when I liked you. Good night. Your dad is turning in his grave, plugging his ears so as not to hear his son whining.

You and Dusty sure do make a great pair for African-American boys to look up to.

No, seriously, I don't want you on my team anymore.

An Extra Toasty Spot For You

So I read the first few paragraphs of this article in the Wall Street Journal today (there was a copy in the breakroom at work). Side note: Since when does BugMeNot not work for the WSJ?

So anyway, if you have access to the WSJ, make sure you read this article:

Audacious Defense: Enron's Moves Were Legal

When the trial of former Enron executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay begins Jan. 30, defense lawyers will make a bold argument: Everything their company did was legal.


I wonder how all of those Enron employees feel about their lost retirement plans. I wonder how Skilling and Lay feel about their former employees' lost retirement plans. Seems to me that there's an extra toasty spot in The Warm Place for these guys, but I'm not one to judge.