The Run

This past weekend, Miki (our one year old male field spaniel) entered his very first competition of any kind: an all-breed conformation show being held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. This post covers the first “run” on Saturday afternoon, which was also the first time that Debbie had ever run her own dog in a conformation show. Before the show, Debbie relaxed and prepared a bit with her friend Tammy O., who owned the only other field spaniel entered in the show. One of the things they practiced was “stacking up” the dog (posing him), as you see here with Miki…

There is a schedule for the show that gives the approximate time that a particular breed and class of dogs will run. From what I can observe, in practice these times are the unreasonably optimistic best-possible-case. What actually happens is that there are lots of delays, unexpected events, etc., and when you arrive at the designated show ring on time, you’ll be waiting for a while before you actually get to make your run. This was the case on Saturday, in spades: Miki was originally scheduled for 8 am, but the judge he was supposed to have was delayed back East somewhere by snow, and another judge had to be found. The new schedule was for 12:30, and Debbie and Miki were there in plenty of time — but they didn’t actually get to run until nearly 1 pm. So they waited, and pondered, and practiced, and paced, until it was time.

But finally it was time to go into the ring! I couldn’t hear what the judge was saying, but she directed Debbie and Miki to make a first run around the ring, then to stop right where they had started and stack the dog up. Then the judge carefully observed Miki, including a lot of hands-on checking (to make sure all his parts were present, for one thing — and I’m not sure what else). Miki played the part of the puppy during this inspection very well — he was very curious about the judge, and wiggled around something fierce. Luckily for Miki, the judge took all this with great good humor. Debbie — an expert at agility, but a complete novice at conformation — got both advice and encouragement from this very nice judge.

After this hands-on inspection, Debbie and Miki made another run around the show ring, and then posed for one last inspection by the judge. During this phase, Debbie and Miki (who were in a class all by themselves) were joined by the only other field spaniel in the entire show: Onyx, owned and showed by Tammy O. I can only guess what was going on there — I suspect it was a “best of breed” exhibition, showing the winners amongst field spaniels for each of the classes. In our case, this was a bit ridiculous, as Miki was the only dog in his class, and Onyx was the only dog in his class! After this little ceremony, both Miki and Onyx made one more run around the show ring, and then the judge handed out the prizes: Miki won first prize in his class! If I understand the rules correctly, since he was the only entry in his class, and since the judge pronounced him “qualified” (as a breed-standard field spaniel), the first prize was more-or-less automatic. He could have been disqualified by the judge, however — but he wasn’t. Onyx also took first prize in his one-dog class. But despite having won first prize, the contest today didn’t help either Miki or Onyx advance in the rankings — as they didn’t beat any other dogs. Really we have to chalk this one up as fun and practice. And pretty ribbons!

Below are all the photos I took of this run, in chronological order…

Light Blogging

Blogging is even lighter than usual this weekend, because I’m spending most of each day at a dog show - a “foo foo” dog show, no less!

Miki, our one year old field spaniel, is in his very first dog show. He’s too young for agility (where he is destined, we hope, to be the very best field spaniel ever seen on an agility course!), but he’s just old enough to be entered into a traditional dog show. Allegedly these dog shows are all about the dog’s conformation to breed standard. When you walk through one of these shows, it looks like a gigantic beauty salon, with all the accompanying chemicals, brushes, hair dryers, etc. All around you, dozens and dozens of dogs are being groomed, bathed, powdered, and dried. Some of them, I think, are also being dyed, lacquered, or painted.

Given all the effort that goes into this “prettifying", I think it’s fair to say it’s really a beauty show more than a conformation show. So we’ve nicknamed them a “foo foo” show. And we never thought we’d be entering a dog in one!

But…Miki came from our favorite breeder (Sheila Miller) with a condition: we could have him, but only if we agreed to show him in these foo foo shows. So there we were yesterday, entering Miki in his very first foo foo show.

And he won first place! First place, that is, amongst 12 to 18 month old field spaniels in the show. He had lots of competition — himself. I’m told that the first place ribbon isn’t an inevitability in a one-dog show; the dog has to meet breed standard, behave in some acceptable way, and apparently the handler (which was Debbie, of course) also has to meet the handler appearance standard. But she and Miki met all the applicable requirements, so they took a first place ribbon home!

Chaparral Chuckle

Sent along by SimiL:

The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one’s gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them.

So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206.

Speedbird 206: “Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of active runway."

Ground: “Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven.” The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.

Ground: “Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"

Speedbird 206: “Stand by, Ground, I’m looking up our gate location now."

Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): “Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?"

Speedbird 206 (coolly): “Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark — and I didn’t land."

Chaparral Chuckle

GeorgeK sends along this story:

In some foreign country a priest, a lawyer and an engineer are about to be guillotined. The priest puts his head on the block, they pull the rope and nothing happens — he declares that he’s been saved by divine intervention — so he’s let go. The lawyer is put on the block, and again the rope doesn’t release the blade, he claims he can’t be executed twice for the same crime and he is set free too. They grab the engineer and shove his head into the guillotine, he looks up at the release mechanism and says, “Wait a minute, I see your problem…"

If you don’t see what’s funny, then you’re not an engineer or the spouse of an engineer…

T-Shirt

While I was in our local Post Office yesterday, picking up my mail, I spotted this T-Shirt sported by a winsome young lass:

I just neutered my dog.

Now he’s French…

Something tells me she didn’t vote for John Kerry!

Chaparral Chuckle

Submitted by SimiL:

While taxiing at London 's Gatwick Airport , the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727.

An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming: “US Air 2771, where the hell are you going?! I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it’s difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!"

Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: “God! Now you’ve screwed everything up! It’ll take forever to sort this out! You stay right there and don’t move till I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour, and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?"

"Yes, ma’am,” the humbled crew responded.

Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high.

Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking: “Wasn’t I married to you once?"

Disaster in Jamul

With permission, I am reprinting this email sent by a Jamul resident to the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Voice of San Diego:

Disaster in Jamul

I found it very interesting while I was doing some research on Southern California Intertribal Court Judge Anthony Brandenburg that on the web page for the Intertribal Court of San Diego it lists under Member Tribes only Pala, Pauma, Rincon, San Pasqual, La Jolla, Mesa Grande and Santa Ysabel. I do not see the Jamul Indian Village any where on the site so why would the Sheriff’s office support an eviction notice from this “Court” when it appears they do not even have jurisdiction? This is information Sheriff Deputies or Captain Chambers could check just like any other citizen. I certainly can understand why Walter Rosales and Karen Toggery, their attorney plus concerned friends would expect Sheriff Deputies to protect them from unlawful home invasion that led to violent, illegal evictions and their homes being unjustly demolished.

Shame on the Sheriff’s Department for supporting the “Mafia” like tactics of the Jamul Indian Village and Lakes Gaming.

Linda Ivy

Jamul, CA

This is yet another example of how the country-within-a-country nature of America’s relationship with the American Indians complicates seemingly ordinary events, and leads to results that look crazy. Who would have believed that the sheriffs and police would just look on as Americans were clubbed and pepper-sprayed by hired thugs?

I have no expertise on the great, entangled mess that is the body of law and regulation controlling this relationship. My own investigations into the actual status of the Jamul Indian Village are completely inconclusive — authoritative-sounding people on both sides of the issue make contradictory claims, and support them. I have trouble getting excited about who is right or wrong on this issue (and I suspect the answer is somewhat plastic anyhow). What I could get excited about is a movement to remove the distinction, so that it no longer mattered whether the tribe was “certified", whether Walter Rosales had the “right blood” to be a Jamul Indian tribe member, or any of the other crazy questions that arise because we’ve made this artificial distinction between classes of Americans.

But it may well be that the fate of the casino rests on the answers to questions like the one that Linda Ivy raises in her email. For that reason, it behooves us all both to raise the questions (as Linda has done) and to try our best to follow the maze of headache-inducing rules and laws that determine the answers.

I think I’ll order a big bottle of aspirin…

A Chaparral Morning

We’ve been going for a walk most mornings — Debbie, myself, and our three field spaniels. The weather has been just gorgeous; the mornings are cool and crisp. In the photo at right, if you click to look at the large version, you can make out the “cage” that my beautiful wife is wearing around her broken ring finger on her left hand. She’s smiling anyway! The dogs are of course their usual happy selves; there is nothing they like better than a walk. From left to right, it’s Miki (our puppy), Lea (the princess), and Mo’i (at the moment, the number one agility field spaniel). You might have noticed the strap across the muzzle of Miki and Lea — that’s a kind of harness called a “Halti”. They’re wearing that harness because they’re BBDs (bad brown dogs) when we’re walking — every time they spot a quail, hear a rabbit, or smell a coyote, they completely lose their minds (and being spaniel owners, we know very well that there’s not a lot of mind to lose!). The result is that we get towed all over the County, through the chaparral and whatever else was in the way. The Halti stops that, without causing any pain to the dog. It’s a clever device — if the dog tries to pull at the leash while wearing it, it pulls the dogs head back toward you. Mo’i is the only GBD (good brown dog) we have on a walk. He rarely strains at the leash; he just plods happily along with us…

One of our favorite local flowering plants — ceanothus — has just popped into bloom. It’s several weeks earlier than usual this year, most likely due to the combination of a drenching rain a couple of weeks ago, and a week of warm weather afterwards.

We have four species of ceanothus that are common locally; two with blue flowers and two with white. Both blue species and one of the white are in bloom right now. One of the blue species' flowers are highly variable in color, ranging from intense, saturated dark blues to much lighter shades; this species has particularly nice foliage as well, with dark green leaves and dark gray bark that both have an interesting texture to them. The other blue species (seen at right) has a much more consistent color, large, smooth lighter green leaves, and a very light, smooth bark. These are often so full of bloom that there is no foliage visible. The white species that’s in bloom now has flower clusters that lie close to larger branches, making an interesting spiky effect.

I’ll leave you with a selection of photos from our walk this morning…

Word of the Day

Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

Casino Update

This morning, Lakes Entertainment (the company backing the Jamul Indian Village’s attempts to build a casino) released their financial results for fiscal 2006. The press release announcing the results contained this nugget:

Based on recent meetings between the Jamul Indian Village (“Jamul Tribe”) and the State of California, Lakes and the Jamul Tribe are currently re-evaluating the Jamul Tribe’s alternatives for its casino project. Depending on which direction Lakes and the Jamul Tribe decide to take, the proposed gaming facility will be reduced in size and scope. As a result, during the fourth quarter of 2006, Lakes recorded unrealized losses on notes receivable related to the Jamul project of approximately $6.3 million, which reduced the overall 2006 net unrealized gain on notes receivable related to this project to approximately $2.0 million.

I’m no expert on corporate finance, and certainly not on the financial ins-and-outs of gaming companies — but here’s my stab at translating that into plain English:

First, the Jamul Indian Village has borrowed some amount of money from Lakes Entertainment, in one or more loans, which at some point in the future they will have to repay. My presumption would be that this money is to be used to promote, get clearance for, build, and operate the casino. My further presumption would be that the use of this money is essentially controlled by Lakes; I can’t imagine they would simply hand it over to the Jamul Indian Village. But — key point — repayment of this money will depend on the existence and profitability of the casino. The more profitable the casino, the more likely (and the faster) this note would be repaid.

For the purposes of their financial statement (which is the public disclosure of their financial condition), Lakes can’t simply record the loans (the “notes receivable") as if they are certain to be repaid. Obviously there is considerable risk to these loans, and that must somehow be disclosed. The conventional way to do that is for the firm’s financial officer (and auditor) to make a judgment about the probability that the note will be repaid, and to record current profits or losses based on that judgment. In most companies there would be a bias toward overstating the positives in such judgments, so when you look at numbers like this — pure judgments on someone’s part — generally it’s smart not to think of them as having been objectively arrived at. These judgments are what we’re seeing here with the recording of a $6.3 million loss. Since I don’t know the size of the entire loan, I don’t what percentage of it has been written off now as a loss — but it would have to be a huge loan for this to be an insignificant portion of it. I can’t quantify it precisely, but it sure looks to me like this was a significant write-down.

In other words, it looks to me like Lakes Entertainment isn’t very optimistic about their investment in the Jamul Indian Village Casino. If you’re a typical Jamulian, that’s very good news indeed — for who would know better than Lakes what the actual situation is?

Also interesting in that press release is the statement about reduced size and scope of the casino. Part of that, surely, is the recent announcement by the Jamul Indian Village that they’ve dropped out of the negotiations with the state, and that they’re going to switch to games not covered by the compact. This statement in the press release implies that the size of the casino may also be reduced. I don’t want to see the casino at all — but if the casino does get built, the smaller, the better. So I’ll take that as good news, too.

We certainly don’t see in this year’s statement of Lakes Entertainment financial results the same buoyant, upbeat assessment of the Jamul Indian Village Casino that we saw last year. Another difference you can see is that Lakes is making good money in other areas now — especially the televised poker tournament — and I would bet that leads the management team to focus more on those profitable areas, and less on the risky or unprofitable areas. That would also be good news…

Patrick Webb (attorney for Walter Rosales and Karen Toggery) made a statement the other day about things coming down to the wire from the perspective of the Jamul Indian Village. This financial report from Lakes Entertainment looks like validation of his musings…

Stretching the Truth

My regular readers know that I rant occasionally (ok, frequently) about the anthropomorphic global warming hypothesis that the Goreacle and his fellow afflicted are trying to turn into this century’s new hit religion. One of the topics I have repeatedly written about is how climatology funding is selectively directed to those scientists and organizations who hew to the politically correct position (i.e., they agree with the Goreacle).

Cox & Forkum routinely produce some of the best “cartoon commentary” around. Here’s their take on the funding issue. As usual, they have more discussion on their site.

Sheesh

Just yesterday, I wrote this:

Leon Acebedo, the tribal chairman, is known to some locals as “Lying Leon”. I can’t help but wonder whether he actually did warn the opponents on Saturday about this possibility. I also can’t help but wonder to what degree the executive council is under his thumb, and their “override” was engineered…

Today, Rob Davis (writing for Voice of San Diego) reports:

Jamul tribal chairman Leon Acebedo told me yesterday that he’d warned opponents that he didn’t have the authority to make such an agreement, that his 51-member tribe’s executive council could overrule him. They unanimously did Monday morning.

Jacob said that no such warning was given Saturday, when the agreement helped diffuse a tense standoff between tribal security and casino opponents. The agreement, which Acebedo signed, said the tribal council would meet Monday to “affirm” the d´etente.

In an interview today, Acebedo said that he, in fact, had not told opponents that he could be overturned.

"I was very aware that I could be overridden,” he said. “I didn’t talk to them (the opponents) about it. I just wrote what was requested of me."

Looks like Leon is living up to his moniker.

Joe Gets It

Senator Joe Lieberman spoke at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) National Policy Conference on Monday. It was a good speech over all, and notable (sadly) simply because a Democrat was expressing these sentiments. One passage in particular resonated with me:

Our fate is now inextricably linked to Iraq’s. And our divisions cannot be allowed to become so deep that we cannot find unity in the face of Islamist extremism. Suicide bombers who kill civilians to make a political statement should not be allowed to triumph—in New York or Tel Aviv or Samarra. We must stand strong and united against barbarism—and, with your help, we will.

I understand the anger about Iraq, but I am deeply troubled by how this anger, and the feelings of animosity that many people have for President Bush, have begun to affect the way we talk and think about what is happening in the world beyond Iraq and America’s role in it.

There is something profoundly wrong when opposition to the war in Iraq seems to inspire greater passion than opposition to Islamist extremism.

There is something profoundly wrong when there is so much distrust of our intelligence community that some Americans doubt the plain and ominous facts about the threat to us posed by Iran.

And there is something profoundly wrong when, in the face of attacks by radical Islam, we think we can find safety and stability by pulling back, by talking to and accommodating our enemies, and abandoning our friends and allies.

He’s talking about what’s wrong in his own party.

As he wrapped up his speech, another passage jumped out at me:

The esteemed historian of the Middle East, Bernard Lewis, was in Washington this past week. He said that, when he looks at the world today and the threats we face, it reminds him of the 1930s—and that he hears far more voices that sound like Chamberlain than like Churchill.

Indeed. In fact, the more one reads of Neville Chamberlain’s fantasy-filled appeasement pronouncements, the more one is reminded of today’s mindless, plan-less Democratic “response” to the war in Iraq.

So far as I can observe, Senator Lieberman is the only Democrat serving at the federal level who is able to look at the threat from radical Islam as a national issue rather than as a political issue — and he does it with great eloquence and clarity of thought.

How sad is that?

And what does it portend, should the Democrats win the White House in 2008 while keeping their House and Senate majorities?

Your terrifying Wednesday morning ponder…

Word of the Day

Intaxication, n.: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

Quote of the Day

By James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, in today’s edition of “Best of the Web Today":

By the way, have you noticed that Cindy Sheehan has fallen off the face of the earth since she disrupted some Democratic events in early January?

As the puppy-blender would say: heh!

Word of the Day

Reintarnation, n.: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Brief Outage

A reader (thank you, BillS) wrote me this morning to let me know that the blog was down. I did a quick check of my systems (my blog is hosted on a server that I own), and discovered that the blog was attacked — this hasn’t happened for almost a year. The attacker used a means that I won’t disclose (but which I am now protected against) to knock me off the air for about a half hour.

From the details of the attack, I know that the attacker was (a) from Iran, and (b) offended by the cartoons that I published last February. The cartoons are still published on my site, and they will remain published on my site. These are the cartoons that the mullahs of Denmark went on a world tour of hate about, fomenting violent demonstrations that killed hundreds of people. They’re worth looking at, so you can see for yourself the utter hypocrisy of the mad mullah’s position. They are screaming with hate and rage over cartoons that are absolutely nothing compared with the vile anti-American, anti-Jewish, and anti-(anything not radical fundamentalist Muslim) stuff that comes out of their press every day.

Dètente Canceled

Just two days after promising to leave the homes of Walter Rosales and Karen Toggery untouched for at least a week, the Jamul Indian Village has destroyed them. Via Rob Davis, writing in the Voice of San Diego:

After years of delays, the Jamul tribe followed through on its plans to demolish the homes of Toggery and Walter Rosales, who lived on the reservation but are not members of the legally recognized tribe.

In doing so, the Jamul tribe reversed course on promises its chairman gave to casino protestors over the weekend. At a Saturday standoff where casino opponents were clubbed and pepper sprayed, tribal chairman Leon Acebedo helped resolve the confrontation by assuring opponents that no construction would happen until Friday.

But Monday morning, the Jamul tribe’s executive council unanimously rejected the temporary reprieve offered by Acebedo, who said he warned opponents Saturday that he didn’t have the authority to issue such a delay.

Leon Acebedo, the tribal chairman, is known to some locals as “Lying Leon”. I can’t help but wonder whether he actually did warn the opponents on Saturday about this possibility. I also can’t help but wonder to what degree the executive council is under his thumb, and their “override” was engineered…

An aside: isn’t Rob Davis' reporting and writing on this story a refreshing change from the pap that the Union-Buffoon has been serving up? I stole the headline for this post straight out of his article…

Later in the Rob’s article, there is this thought from Patrick Webb (the attorney for Walter and Karen) about why the Jamul Indian Village is suddenly breaking off negotiations with the state, and acting to clear the buildings off the land:

"I think it’s down to the wire for everybody,” Webb said. “We have yet to decide what’s putting the pressure on them to do this. We can only assume it’s coming from Lakes Gaming, which has the money up."

Webb’s notion that there is pressure on the Jamul Indian Village to get something done sounds right to me. I can’t think why else there would suddenly be this outbreak of dramatic and rash actions on their part. And his suspicion of Lakes as the source certainly makes sense — for what other entity has any sway on the Jamul Indian Village at all?

Finally, here’s the last paragraph of Rob’s article (but go read the whole thing), with a quote from Karen Toggery:

"You can’t sit here and cry, it’s not going to help,” she said. “I’m not going to give up, if that’s what they think. Land is the most precious thing you can have."

Karen’s not crying, and she will keep fighting. So will we all. I have a fantasy about a future ceremony, jointly held by a new Jamul Indian Village administration and the local residents of Jamul, wherein we burn every last shred of paper related to the monstrous casino.

After we get a burn permit, of course.

JAC

The webmaster for the JAC (Jamulians Against the Casino) web site contacted me today to let me know that their web site, while still under construction, is up and running. There’s useful information up there, especially (at the moment) with regard to the history of the Jamul Indian Village and their efforts to build a casino here.

Go take a look!

Word of the Day

Bozone, n.: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.