Parrot Fever

lately i've been thinking, as i'm sure you have too, about psittacidae, or psattacine animals .....

i know you're asking yourself, why is that, dr. pete? and how can we help?

well, let me back up and say that i used to have a number of those darling old psittacidae, that i like them a lot, and that i've also lately been reading about animals in rain forests ..... you know, those endangered creatures in those rapidlly vanishing areas that exist in tightly knit systems of support and nurturance, that are falling like a house of cards before corporate needs, so we can have nice toothpicks and good veneers for our executive homes, while enhancing the corporate bottom line and returns on investments .....

funny, how keeping nature intact is so ...... unnatural .....

and why is it that proponents of 'intelligent design' only apply it to human beings, the stupidest things around, and don't see the beauty and intricacy of ecosystems?

well ...... my parrots were microcosmic messes: way more half of what they ate ended up on the floor, either before or after they ate it ..... that's kind of how it works in the wild: they spread seeds and fertilizer, wherever they go ......

twins are kind of like that: there's a feeding area that has a debris-filled perimeter, mouldering organic material that somehow gets ground into my bokhara ..... to keep it down i bought a small vacuum, a little hand-held job for sucking up the orts and bits that get scattered all around .....

the problem is that what it sucks up is organic; it's wet and it decays and it starts to smell and and it becomes an ugly stinking mess kind of like bush and his policies and it turns into its own little ecosystem that we would prefer not to have, so i went out to get more little bags and filters for it .....

this being america, the america that is "open for business" for those who want to fight turrishm by shopping, those bags aren't available anywhere ..... i ordered some from a local vacuum store but, this being the america that etc., i've never heard back from them .... so i went on-line and immediately got confused by my options ..... i called the 800 number, and here's the point of all of this: this is a number that i've never called before, a company that i've never had any dealings with, and i'm looking to buy a vacuum cleaner bag .....

and they knew my name, my phone number, and my address ....

do you think that, if al quaeda were to buy vacuum cleaner bags to keep those afghani caves clean of dust and bomb debris, this company would have them busted?

and if someone working for minimum wage at a vacuum cleaner company knows all this stuff, do we really need more surveillance, done by government agencies, who are clearly interested in monitoring terrorists, judging by how they're monitoring quakers, greenpeace, and the american civil liberties union .....

i guess the answer is yes .....

speaking of mold and other lower life forms, i've also been thinking about democrats and how they mill around, bleating and moaning about whether or not they'll fillibuster the alito nomination ....

i wonder what it's like, being an invertebrate?

i just spent a morning on the phone, calling senators, asking that they support a fillibuster .....

this is a real character builder .... you get to speak with interns who are arrogant, hostile, indifferent, and perfunctory ..... why, the vacuum cleaner bag salesman was more animated than the representatives of our representatives .....

of course i called diane feinstein's office ..... i was told that, while di-fy was going to vote "no," she couldn't support a fillibuster because she felt it "wouldn't do any good ....."

i replied that she had voted to authorize the pre-emptive and illegitimate invasion of a sovereign nation (because she "knew things that we didn't know" ..... "if i were to vote the way my constituency wanted me to vote, i'd vote 'no,'" she said, but added that "because i know things that they don't (i know things that you don't .... i know things that you don't ..... you're a dummy, i'm not .... yada yada yaaa daaaaa ..... nyaaa nyaaa nyyaaa nyaaa nah nah) i'm going to vote in favor ....") but, as far as i could tell, that hadn't done any good .....

the intern replied, "i'll pass that on ....."

invertebrates, psittacidae; psittacidae, invertebrates .... it's a rich and textured world, isn't it?

best thing to do is just pave it all over .......

that way we'll never have to worry about rain forests or ecosystems again .....

next: dr. pete pulls up that hoary old chestnut, "going home ...."