Hayley Sweet has died. About an hour ago.
She hadn’t been eating for eight days, and I thought it was a virus of some kind, like a bad cold and she didn’t feel like eating. So I got her to the vet and the cancer had come back, and it all through her body. It was visible outside her fur, hard and grey and evil looking. The vet said she would live a few days until she wasted away, and I would probably have to bring her back in to have her put to sleep. I stood with her and stroked and kissed her little furry face until the drug took effect. The most striking thing was how gentle it was. She just relaxed and well, died. The cliché ‘just went to sleep’ is apt. No pain or struggle. There is nothing to fear in death if it comes like that.
I don’t know.
I’ll be all right, I always am.
HAYLEY SWEET NIELD-MARCH 1999-30TH MARCH 2009
SONG TO END THE WEEKEND ON : ‘THE ENTERTAINER’
This weekend’s song is a tune played on piano; ‘The Entertainer’, written in 1902 by Scott Joplin, who was born in 1868, the first non-slave generation of black people born in the US. It was brought back into the light of popularity due to the rediscovery and resurgence of ragtime in the early 1970’s. Recorded by Marvin Hamlisch at the piano in 1973, and theme tune to the film ‘The Sting’.
Even though it has no lyrics, I think it is brilliant. The tale goes it is very difficult for a natural right-hander to play on the piano due to the left hand being favoured.
So,
As always,
Enjoy, and,
A good week whether you can be entertaining by playing ‘The Entertainer’ or not.
NIPPLES? NOT ALWAYS
Did you know that only mammals have nipples? That frogs and toads and turtles and iguanas and collared lizards and goldfish and trout and angelfish and sparrows and cardinals and parakeets and owls and snails and common house flies and butterflies and spiders and every other member of every other animal group don’t have nipples?
I know I have no life and I’m easily impressed, but I read or heard this astounding fact somewhere a bit back and it blew me away. I keep thinking about it. When I really consider it, it makes me slightly dizzy, the idea of it.
NO OTHER LIVING THING EXCEPT MAMMALS HAVE NIPPLES.
That’s the one sure way you can tell that the creature you are studying is of the animal group mammal.
So if you managed to get on the right side of a big reptile or even a small amphibian, and you examined it, you wouldn’t see a double row of nipples on it’s underside. If you gently held a bird and blew on it’s feathers you wouldn’t uncover nipples. If you got a fish and put your face right close to it’s tank or wherever it’s watery home is, the one thing you would never find was nipples.
Every mammal, of either sex, have nipples. Gorillas and elephants and domestic cats and gerbils and Arctic hares and bears and wolves and whales and wolverines and stoats. All of them. Almost all male mammals have nipples, in fact they have all the necessary equipment needed to suckle their young, but because nature has seen to it that the female who actually give birth almost always exclusively cares for the young, they have like fallen out of use.
Because, of course, only mammals give birth to live young, ie not eggs. And they have to suckle their young.
The only exception to this in the animal kingdom are monotremes, the duck billed platypus and the enchidna which are officially mammals but lay eggs. They don’t have nipples, though. The platypus has glands on her side and the babies (platypups) suck at them and they produce the life-sustaining milk. The enchidna has tiny patches of skin inside the pouch where she carries her babies and the babies (puggles) prod it and it produces milk for them to lap up.
WERE YOU THERE? (RIGHT. . .)
One of the best* arguments that creationists used on behalf of their idea that Biblegod created the world, and all the species as they are, and evolution never happened.
‘Were you there?’
That’s right.
‘How can you say you evolved from other species? Were you there? How can you say god didn’t create everything? Were you there?’
Honestly. This is what passes as logic and reason in the mind of the creationist. I mean, a small child in the playground logic, or what? How can you say I never ate a full bag of toffees on Saturday? Were you there? No. Well, shut up. I did eat a bag of toffees!
Anyhow. . .
No, I wasn’t there. But then were you there when your god formed all the living things are they are today? No. You weren’t. So, we have to fall back on evidence.
Before you ask, evolution is a completely different discipline than how the universe, the earth, life itself, was formed, so don’t let the theists get you tangled up in lumping life being formed and evolution together and saying that one is the same as the other. It isn’t. I am going to concentrate on what is provable, what has been proven, to show that the creationists have made a mistake.
The evidence for evolution;whenever you are given antibiotics not all the bacteria (germs) are killed because they were born with a certain gene that protected them from the antibiotic. Then they reproduce with that gene and the antibiotics won’t harm them and that it was why have superbugs now, that wend their merry way through and do all sorts of damage to and even kill their host. See? That is evolution. Same as elephants. Those born without tusks are not hunted by the ivory hunters, so they reproduce and their children don’t have tusks, etc. So they slowly become the majority while the poor tusk-laden beggars are wiped out. This can be observed. On a longer, larger scale, it explains the diversity of life on earth. How? Because, say you get a certain bird or small mammal and one of either of these is born say with a hooked beak or a longer nose than the others, resulting in them being able to find a new supply of food in the places the straight-beaked bird or short-nosed mammal can’t, and they have babies and the babies have babies and then slowly, over the millennia, the long-nosed mammals or hooked-beaked birds branch off and eventually they can’t mate with the original straight-beaked bird or short-nosed mammal. Eventually, and I mean over millions of years, you can end up with a totally different species. You can even have a reptile turning into a bird. Or a fish into an amphibian. Or a tiny furry fluff ball rodent type into a primate.
See? That’s all evolution is. It’s not scary and dangerous. It’s glorious and wonderful. It can be very challenging when you first come across it. (This concept it worthy of a whole post in itself). There is evidence for this. Some creatures have died, like mid-change, and ended up in the fossil record and those who study such things can tell by examining one they are looking at what is known as a transitional fossil. There is endless evidence for evolution.
Now, the evidence for an involved creator who made each according to it’s kind on earth at one time;
Ready.
No, there isn’t non, you ageing cynic.
Ready. . .
The Bible said it.
That’s it.
Again.
The. Bible. Said. It.
That’s it. Nothing else. No fossils or observations or scientific reasoning. Just. . .the Bible said it.
I’m not even saying take my word for it. I’m not even saying take evolution on board because it’s more logical or reasonable. I am saying, objectively look at the evidence. There is no need for the involved god of the scriptures. No matter what the scriptures.
No, none of us were there when living things were formed. But we know. Because there is overwhelming, undeniable evidence available for evolution according to natural selection which explains why we are how we are, and why there are so many different species alive today.
*Come on, it’s their best argument, and like the rest of the creationist ideas, it can be dismissed as totally illusional. In fact, it’s not so much an argument as a desperate gasping at the few straws piled up a few inches high that proves their claim, while turning their back on the Everest mountain sized evidence for evolution.
BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY! (?)
I’ve been thinking about the death penalty, and especially, should it be brought back for a certain category of murder. The great majority (mob) say yes. I bet you can guess what I am going to say. . .
The death penalty should not be reintroduced. Yes, that’s right. Hanging should not be brought back. If a person murders, they should be given life in prison, without possibility of parole. And then if a miscarriage of justice has been discovered to have been done, they can be released alive. Otherwise, they never see outside again.
It is shocking how many people say ‘they don’t deserve to live after what they done’. Scary. I wouldn’t like to live in a world with capital punished and to be accused of something involving say, the sex murder of a child that I didn’t do and end up in court with some of these representatives of the great British public on the jury. I might as well write my will out and put my affairs in order while I’m in the holding cell waiting to go into court for my trial, as I’d be condemned just on the accusation alone.
And yet, capital punishment should not be reintroduced, not because of a possible Barry George or Sean Hodgson or Stefan Kiszko or Judith Ward being sent to the gallows. As I see it, it shouldn’t matter if the person is guilty of the most heinous crime, that disgusts and offends everyone who hears about it. The death penalty is wrong because I believe that everyone deserve life.
I wonder, how many of these who cry ‘hang ‘em!’ would be willing to pull the lever on the condemned one? Seriously. It’s all right standing at a distance from the whole mess and calling for ‘an eye for an eye’, but would any of them watch the condemned through the peep-hole in the condemned cell, then at the appointed moment head in, pinion them, steer them onto the gallows and then pull the lever and watch the body shoot down and the rope go taut as the body gently sways from side to side, life extinguished due to what they have just done? Did you know, when hanging was at it’s height, one of the categories that was sure to get you refused the job of hangman was if you wanted to be a hangman. Killers come in all shapes and forms, and the Home Office representatives who looked into such matters knew that a hangman might just get some sort of pleasure from being allowed to legally murder.
Of course, I might feel different if it was my sister or Mother or niece or someone. But then I’m sure most of those who want hanging to be brought back would feel different if it was their sister or Mother or niece or someone in the condemned cell.
BECAUSE IT’S IMPORTANT AND NECESSARY
For some reason, the page ‘Who I Am And Why I Do This’ has stopped functioning, so this intro is going to be at the head of my blog, probably for as long as the blog lasts. Newer rubbish will from now on be posted below it.
Now. . .
An update dedicated to ME!!!
I am a middle-aged female deist Mancunian, an oddball loner with misanthropic tendencies.
I live in a terraced house with cats Domino Basset and Lyra Tab in a small town on the East Lancs (Greater Manchester) border of the Manchester conurbation.
THE CATS
DOMINO BASSET
LYRA TAB
This blog is for my entertainment only.
The motto of my blog is ‘There is no god, so don’t worry about it’, which just about says it all, for as soon as we can shake off the idea that some being in the sky is watching us and wants us to live our lives according to his word, whatever it is, and we have only ourselves to rely on, the better it will be. For everyone.
I have no problem with believers believing in their chapels and temples and things, but when they put it out on the street, and try and make or alter laws according to the tenets of whatever fairy tale they follow, then I have a problem.
But then I have a problem with human beings in general.
I has have mentioned already, I am an irredeemable misanthrope, with a low opinion of my fellow humans (this, of course, includes myself.) and an endearing, unusually powerful respect for members of other species. I’ve never had any other reason to be any other way. Because, where human beings have harmed me, other species haven’t.
If you’re still around by this point, that means you are interested enough in my mumbling on to maybe want to send me fan e-mail. In that case, then here’s the place to send it;
jessica9909(AT)hotmail(DOT)co(DOT)uk
MORE RUBBISH BELOW
DIABETIC SWEET
My baby boy Oliver is a diabetic.
A bit back, when I was still in mourning from Jessica Moonbeam’s death, I noticed that Oliver Cat was eating and drinking much more than usual, so much so he emptied his food and water bowls twice or three times a day then went after Domino and Hayley’s share. But he was losing weight, so his bones were visible through his skin. So I got him to the vet and he was given blood tests and was diagnosed with diabetes.* The insulin-dependant type. He will need insulin injections twice a day, at nine a.m. and nine p.m., for the rest of his life. He had his first one this morning. About half six just gone in the surgery I was shown how to do it, and the vet was pleased at my dexterity. I hate doing it, but it will keep him alive.
He has to go in for twenty-four hour blood tests in about a month, and I have to take him back on Friday to see if the dose he is on is the right one for him.
But he is home, and he is alive. And he is coming around to what he was again. For a while now, his voice was different, dry and cracked, and today for the first time in weeks, he spoke and he sounded like his old self again. He is home and I am not going to lose him like I did with Jessica.
Knowing he is not going to die will be more than compensation for having to give him his twice-a-day jab.
*Everyone I have mentioned it to has never heard of a diabetic cat. But it must be a common thing, otherwise they wouldn’t have special insulin (‘caninsulin’ it’s called) and needles crafted for mammals other than human.
SO, WHERE?
The theist have been known to ask, ‘where do your morals come from if you don’t believe in a god. You freethinkers/atheists have no moral anchor because you don’t believe in a god.’ A godless world is an immoral world. Without Biblegod watching over us and keeping us on the narrow path, we have no reason to be, well, decent towards others.
All right then. Fair enough. So, where does our sense of right and wrong come from. If we ignore Biblegod’s tenets because we don’t believe in him, why be helpful and kind? I’ll tell you as far as I understand why we put ourselves out for others even though we know we aren’t in danger of being judged.
Because in nature if you are altruistic, then others are altruistic back.
That’s right. It’s in-built in the genetic make-up of most of the species that inhabit this planet. The only way we are going to be able to get on, and survive, and manage, and spread our genes to the next generation, is to give others a hand up, because in return they will assist us. Even bats and insects do it. It’s no good standing by and watching others be hurt, or purposefully hurting others, because people will start to realise that we are not good material for helping propagate the species. Look at Ted Bundy, for example. He went about killing female members of his own species and he was judged and destroyed. Not just him. Dennis Nilsen, John Haig, Peter Kurten, Peter Sutcliffe, Aileen Wournos, Fritz Haarmann, Mary Cotton, Eddie Gein, Lucian Staniak, Andrei Chikatilo. And many more. Because they killed others, they had to be stopped, according to the laws of the time and the nation. You can’t say that they were caught and stopped due to the dictates of Biblegod’s word. They were stopped by secular laws bringing them down because they were killing others, therefore stopping the carrying on of the genes from one generation to the next.
I’m not saying it’s laws that stop most of us from killing. Those I mentioned above are aberrations, freaks of nature. Most of us know that harming anyone else is wrong, because it’s built into us, a deeper-than-feelings current that has us staying our hand when it comes to hitting out and causing hurt.
See? You don’t need a god, no matter what his title and name, no matter how powerful and what a hold he has on us, stopping you from harming others. We are capable on our own of maintaining moral laws and decency because at the centre of our being we know that if we didn’t we would soon die out.
SONG TO END THE WEEKEND ON : ‘BABY MINE’ FROM ‘DUMBO’
This weekend’s song is ‘Baby Mine’ from ‘Dumbo’, written by Frank Churchill and Ned Washington and it’s in honour of all those Mothers, no matter what their species.
Walt Disney was supposed to have said, more than once, that sometimes he preferred animals to people. It shows, especially in clips like this. It’s an absolutely beautiful example of Disney’s gentle philosophy. See how much you can watch before you dissolve into blubbering. I start when Mrs Jumbo is all chained up, called mad for defending her baby in an earlier scene, and her expression when she realises her dear baby Dumbo has come to see her.
As always,
Enjoy, and,
A good week whether your eyes sparkle and shine, or not.
MOTHER’S DAY WISHES
To all mothers, biological or adopted, best wishes on this Mother’s Day. You are all appreciated more than you know. Thank you for everything. And. . .
All the best!
IN MEMORIAM
Jessica Moonbeam Nield 21st March 1999-23rd January 2009.
Remember you with love and sorrow and the agony of loss on what would have been your tenth birthday.
Sleep well baby girl. You’ll never be forgotten as long as I live.
THE CAMPIEST FILM VILLIANS?
Only Dirk Bogarde and Gary Oldman can play psychotic, copper-killings villains camp.
Ref: ‘The Blue Lamp’ and ‘Léon’.
DOING IT FOR THE MONEY
I recall being asked one time if I would eat a beefburger for a million pounds.
My answer then : ‘No, because it would be going against what I thought was right’, ie killing creatures for food is one thing that shouldn’t be done, and for me to support it would be totally wrong and hypocritical.
Of course, I was a new vegetarian then, bursting with an idealistic desire to fight for the rights of other species to live in safety and freedom their natural lives. Nineteen years or so down the line, I was asked that question again and my answer? Again; ‘no’. For a similar reason to last time.
Now to be honest, I could do with the money. Who couldn’t? All I’d have to do was eat the burger (cooked and generally prepared, with or without fries, in a bun if I thought it would feel less well, like devouring the flesh of a creature who was killed so I could eat it).
But I could never live with myself. I’ve not got the £1000,000 now, so it’s not like it’d be taken away from me. But even if it would be, I would not eat the flesh of a fellow creature.*
Yes, even if somehow some person managed to get hold of my bank account and would drain it if I didn’t eat a burger, and reduce me to living on a pittance as now, from a millionaire to virtually sod-all, no I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.
I recall the first time I was asked, I was mocked and told ‘yes, you would’, but I knew then and I know now, I couldn’t. Even if no one would find out, if the money would just appear and I could pass it off successfully as having sold one of my stories or having won a lottery of some kind or had a massive success with the gambling. I would know. And the self-hate I would feel would make being a millionaire a total misery. Every time I spent any of it, or looked at my bank account, I would recall how, and why, it got there.
You know, you know you really are a sad bugger with no life when you are reduced to a one-sided arguing of moral points on the Interweb.
Never mind. . .
Coming soon, (honestly) third and last instalment in my series ‘And The Why Is’, as to why people become Christians. First was out of fear, second out of a feeling of wanting to be a winner for once, and third when the grief of loss cripples you.
*No, I am not going to add the obligatory, gratuitous comment about, ‘if it was human flesh I would’, as that would be silly and totally expected.
