Natalie Tootie » Bleeding Heart Liberal

Rescued Puppy Pictures

Matt — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:13:21 +0000

Here’s a link to a set of photo albums from The Washington Post of the rescue operation at the puppy mill.

My favorite dog food:

1000 Dog Puppy Mill

Matt — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:57:27 +0000

You probably heard about the puppy mill that was recently raided. There were about a 1000 dogs and most were Dachshunds. There was some controversy around the raid because the puppy mill was cleaner than most and the dogs were mostly not starving. But the point is, dogs should not live this way. Puppies should not be born this way. And female dogs should not be used as puppy factories being forced to have one litter after another. It wouldn’t matter if this was the most clean place in the world, it’s just wrong. But as you can hear in the video, it turns out it’s not the most clean place.

My Brain

Matt — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:40:58 +0000

You know, my brain is always thinking. I don’t know what other people think about but for me it’s always meaning of life type stuff. What do I want my life to be, what should life be, is there a God, do I care? When I was a kid and I heard about racism, I just thought the whole concept was ridiculous and that it must be going away soon. I thought we all wanted everyone to be happy. I was wrong. I know that I am different. I’ve always been different.

But I don’t know what goes through some people’s minds. What’s their motivation for starting wars, approving of torture, putting a friend’s personal financial gains over the need of a whole group of people. I don’t understand these people. Are they confused? Naturally evil? Mentally ill?

The other day I saw a small set of photos of the prisoners of concentration camps when they were finally liberated at the end of World War II. There was a warning, but I wanted to see, so that I could remember what could happen. One of the photos was of a man who’s eyes looked to have been gouged out. His eyelids had healed all messy and it looked like just dark empty space inside. And I asked myself, could there really be a God that would let this poor man go through the torture he went through?

Well, if there is a God he’s not doing anything about it, which means we have to. But people are known to be tortured all over the world today, and we the people don’t seem to care. But maybe that’s just my funny brain again, thinking we all agree on that, but clearly we don’t.

Lucky

Matt — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:37:15 +0000

At the gym today Michal and I got on the topic of what it was like to live in communist Czechoslovakia. They only became capitalist in 1989 because all the workers went on strike. Before that, it was truly communist in the worst possible way. They got no newspapers or television or radio from outside the country. In school they would learn about the Eiffel Tower, but not anything about what life was like in France, for instance. When people went to the store there would be one kind and size of milk, a couple of different kinds of meat, and produce was very hard to come by.

But the most touching thing to me was when Michal told me that at Christmas the stores would get in special fruit. Maybe the store would get 50 pineapples for the whole town. And you would have to have a friend to reserve you one, or you just wouldn’t get one. And you’d put it in the bag in the back of the store so other people wouldn’t see you getting it, because they might just take it from you. But that one pineapple is what would make Christmas special. Sometimes it would be other fruits like oranges. It was just amazing and wonderful to everyone, because they knew they were so lucky to get it, and only once a year.

Another thing Michal told me was that there were people who were allowed to leave the country, maybe truck drivers and such, that had to go other places and get stuff that was needed. These people were very closely watched by the government and not allowed to talk about the outside world. Inevitably these people would smuggle in goods to sell. Michal’s dad once bought him and his brother each one can of Coke. Michal said he made that can last two weeks, taking one sip a day and then putting it back in the fridge. It was totally flat after the first day, but it was such a big deal and so special. Even flat, it was a treat. Then he would keep the can, and show it to all his friends. He would say, “It’s Coke, it’s from Germany!”

Bleeding Heart Liberal

Matt — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:47:18 +0000

So about a year ago or so I was tired of all the plastic bags I was saving in vain so I purchased a number of PCC reusable bags. I started using them for everything and just keep them in the car at all times. (They are great for carrying those Costco purchases into the house, by the way.)

I used to think these bags were so lame. I would always joke about the people with World Wildlife Fund bags going into PCC. Well now that’s me, but without the World Wildlife Fund bag. But not for long. I decided that since I was almost already there that I wanted, I mean needed, a WWF bag. They don’t make the classic totes anymore, which is a bit of a disappointment. Now they are styled to be even gayer and are called “jute bags” to be even gayer than that. Perfect!