March 22, 2009

• I’m still here… and “here” is still Alaska.

  Can you stand just a little bit of Palin?  She’s still here, alas and alack, and as lacking in brain function as ever.

  On Thursday, the idiot who runs this state (when she’s not Outside somewhere meddling in some other state’s affairs or setting herself up to run for empress of everything) said she, “would accept just 55%,” of the stimulus money the state was offered by the federal government.  Reporters questioned her and she expanded on the statement, revealing that part of what she was rejecting was targeted at education, specifically for low income and special needs students.

  Early Friday, the Superintendent of the Anchorage School District, Carol Comeau, expressed her opposition to that decision.  Later on Friday, media reported that the legislature was moving to pick up any money the governor had turned down.  Later still, the barracuda in lipstick said she never said she was rejecting any money.

  I really appreciate the way Alaska’s media have turned on her since she showed her true colors as McCain’s running mate.  For a while, most of them seemed dazzled by her, for reasons I could never grasp.  Some time ago, after Sarah had been making noises about maybe running for the U.S. Senate, I heard one reporter gleefully, and rather cattily, I thought, especially for a man, say that Senator Lisa Murkowski had warned her to keep her hands off her Senate seat.

  Hey!  It’s not so cold today.  The temperature is approximately as far above zero this morning as it was below zero yesterday, about a thirty degree difference.  It feels so warm in here that I didn’t bother to put on my hooded sweatshirt this morning.  My feet were cold all day yesterday, and I took a hot water bottle to bed with me last night to help thaw the feet and ease some of the knots in my muscles, put there by the cold.  Then warmer air moved in — dumped some more snow, of course, but at least my shoulders aren’t up around my ears today.

  If you have not yet entered, or nominated anyone el$e, for the gift$ of Premium Xanga I am trying to give away at my other $ite, or if you have already entered but know of $omebody el$e who$e $ite might look better without the ad$, plea$e GO HERE and tell me where to look for conte$tant$.  Rule$ are few and flexible, it co$t$ nothing to enter, and $o far there i$ not a lot of competition.  I way overe$timated the intere$t in thi$.  You guy$ all love ad$?  …keep them on your $ite$ for the bright color$ and brilliant ad copy, and not becau$e of the co$t of making them go away?

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  Doug is scheduled to get on here for some online gaming this afternoon, at the same time that the Iditarod Awards Banquet is scheduled to start in Nome.  Unless his game is canceled, I won’t be able to report on the awards until tomorrow, or possibly tonight if I’m up to it when he is finished.

  There is one little story [edit:  okay, two or three and a picture, since I still have the machine for a while and I picked up some news.] I want to share today.  Jen Seavey (here with her husband Dallas), near the back of the pack throughout the race, with a team of pups in training, seems to be making her move to get to Nome to attend the banquet with Dallas (who finished 6th) and her father-in-law Mitch, who finished two positions ahead of Dallas last Thursday.  She dropped one slow pup at Eagle Island four days ago, and immediately picked up the pace.  Yesterday she dropped another one in Koyuk and the team gained about 1 MPH in speed. 

  Jen left White Mountain this morning just before six AM with her remaining 14 fast puppies (they are yearlings, but “puppy” sounds sweeter, is the common musher term, and I’d bet they still are eating rich puppy rations).  Can she make it to Nome in time for today’s banquet, which starts in about five and a half hours from now, nine and a half hours from when she left White Mountain?  She would need some flying puppies for that, I think.  Average time White Mountain to Nome for the top 3 finishers (Mackey, Schunelle, and Baker) was ten hours, five minutes.  Average time on that run for the latest three finishers yesterday (Karin Hendricson, Cindy Gallea and Mike Williams) was 12 hours 53 minutes.

  I don’t know what her puppies can do, and I don’t think she does, either, because she would not be pushing them.  That wouldn’t be a prudent strategy at this stage of their careers.  She will let them run.  I’m guessing that whenever they get to Nome there will be a large and distinguished crowd there to greet them.  She is next up, in 43rd position, nobody on the trail between her and the Burled Arch, Tom Thurston’s team more than two hours behind, Osmar, Scdoris and Wade Marrs not eligible to leave White Mountain until after the banquet begins, and every team that has finished the 2009 Iditarod, just about everyone who is anyone in distance dog mushing, is in Nome for that banquet today.  I’d be there too, if I could.

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  Photo above by Al Grillo of AP, shows winning lead dogs Larry, on the right, and Maple, looking sweet as maple surple on the left.  Lance Mackey, their buddy there in the middle, says that Maple is the new star leader of his kennel, after Larry committed several “boner” mistakes this year.

  Info in indented text below is from adn.com.

  David Sawatzky of Healy scratched late Saturday afternoon only a few miles from the finish in Nome. Sawatzky, 56, had about 15 dogs and was walking ahead of the team for several miles after leaving Safety before deciding to call it quits at about 5 p.m., officials said.

  Wow!  So near and yet so far….   Apparently, his dogs weren’t enthusiastic about going along with him, and he decided to go along with them.

  Omen and Maynard, the two dogs that died late this week in the Iditarod, had fluid in their lungs, race marshal Mark Nordman reported Saturday.

  Necropsies showed that both dogs had pulmonary edema, possibly because cardiac abnormalities prevented their hearts from moving fluid out of their lungs. Further tests are pending, Nordman reported.

  In light of the latest dog deaths, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals escalated its annual letter-writing campaign to persuade Iditarod sponsors to withdraw their support. More than 2,700 people have participated, according to spokeswoman Desiree Acholla.

  “Racing dogs to their death is indefensible, yet the death toll rises year after year [UNTRUE!] and the race continues with business as usual,” she said.

  One vital part of the usual business of everyone involved in the Iditarod is progress — advancements in veterinary medicine, canine nutrition and the routines of dog care.  People have already learned a great deal in those areas, and continue to do so.  This year the death toll rose over last year’s, probably because of extreme weather.  Five deaths is not as many as were suffered in earlier years of the race.  It would be stupid to view this as a trend.

  Nobody in the Iditarod or on the support staff is as callous as PETA tries to make them out to be, or as hypocritical as PETA is in criticizing the few deaths of canine Iditarod athletes, while killing large numbers of unwanted dogs on a regular basis in the shelters they run.

  At least one animal welfare group — the Humane Society of the United States — no longer actively campaigns against the Iditarod, although officials aren’t endorsing it either.

  They acknowledge, however, the event’s significance in commemorating the work of dog teams that were sent on the trail in 1925 to bring diphtheria serum to Nome to combat a deadly outbreak.

  “I would like to see the Iditarod celebrate the history and culture of the event and not be just a timed event, but they’re trying to make it as safe as they can for both the animals and humans,” said Dave Pauli, the humane society’s Western region director.

  

  • 2:08 pm
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