Straighten Up and Fly Right

Perhaps, a great many of you have seen, or, at minimum, heard, about the tragic events that have taken place this week, in Zanesville, Ohio.


 


Due to human greed, and ignorance, as well as Ohio's lax laws regarding the ownership of exotic animals, fifty-plus animals were slaughtered.


 


Tragic, sad, and utterly depressing.


So, here's a "Shout-Out", to all those wonderful animals, that if only they could have lived out there lives as mirthful as this tune ...


Nat King Cole - Straighten Up and Fly Right





UPDATE


Photos, Video: Surviving Ohio Exotic Animals Settling In At Zoo, Details On Owner's Death

Retro Garlic: Hey, We Had That Idea First!

This isn't the first time a news event has converged with something we had here on The Garlic, and, we love it, everytime it happens.

Today's installment is a doozy!



Could Airborne Bears Catch Bin Laden?

Could parachute-wearing bears sniff out Osama bin Laden?

That's one suggestion the Pentagon has received from someone who noted, quite correctly, that a bear's sense of smell is much more powerful than a bloodhound's.

"Overnight, Parachute some bears into areas [bin Laden] might be," the innovator wrote. "Attempt to train bears to take off parachutes after landing, or use parachutes that self-destruct after landing."

The bears-in-the-air idea, and scores of others, came from people who clicked on the "contact us" button on the Defense Department's Web site, which allows the general public to ask questions or make suggestions.

Not that the Pentagon needs any particular help in the idea department. Not long ago, for example, the agency spent $2 million to find out whether honey bees could be relied upon to sniff out roadside bombs.

Go check out the article, as there is more off-the-wall suggestions.

And, we should note, perhaps, inadvertently, the Pentagon let out a clue to a long-standing problem.

There were experimenting with honeybees?

Ah, yes, The Retro Part;

Developing Story - Polar Bears Added To Iraq Options ...Bush Administration Wavering On Polar Bears; Considering Employing In Iraq, War Against Terror ...Rove Claims He Also Has “The Science”, Says Bears “Will Do Fine In Desert Heat”

Bonus Riffs

Andrew Sullivan: Colbert Bait

Balk, at The Awl: Send In The Ursine Parachute Brigade!

Breaking News! ... With DisneyBaghdad, Bush Says “Nobody Wins Hearts and Minds Better Than Disney ...Disney, With Secret Contract, Working With White House, Military On Building Baghdad Moats ...‘Pirates of the Caliphate’, Other Attractions To Mask Security Measures; State Dept. Touts “DisneyBaghdad Will Pay For Itself”

Retro Garlic: We Called It, On The Terrorist-Killing Bears!

Once again, almost unfathomably, life has imitated The Garlic

We've had a handful of these instances, and on Tuesday, yet another.

Bear kills militants in Kashmir

A bear killed two militants after discovering them in its den in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say.

Two other militants escaped, one of them badly wounded, after the attack in Kulgam district, south of Srinagar.

The militants had assault rifles but were taken by surprise - police found the remains of pudding they had made to eat when the bear attacked.

It is thought to be the first such incident since Muslim separatists took up arms against Indian rule in 1989.

"Police found the remains of pudding ..."

I guess, despite all those terrorist training films, of jumping jacks and jungle gyms, the boys never gathered around the campfire, to read "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".

They would have know, the bears would be pissed off to find "pudding", instead of porridge.

Michael Stickings, over on The Reaction noted;

Oops. Not a smart move. How can these militants be expected to take over Kashmir if they can't even run their own cave without, you know, getting killed by a bear?

Don't they watch Animal Planet over there?



Anyway, here's the The Retro Part, from late 2006;

Developing Story - Polar Bears Added To Iraq Options ... Bush Administration Wavering On Polar Bears; Considering Employing In Iraq, War Against Terror ...Rove Claims He Also Has “The Science”, Says Bears “Will Do Fine In Desert Heat”

Bears Just Wanna Have Fun

This was a welcome, and most enjoyable post, to espy early in this morning

It comes from Yves Smith, over on his Naked Capitalism blog;

Antidote du jour. From reader Robert, who says this occurred 15 miles from his house:

A family that lives on the outskirts of Milford, PA… in Pike County decided to build a sturdy, colorful playground for their 3 and 4 year old sons. They lined the bottom with smooth-stone gravel all around to avoid knee scrapes and other injuries. They finished building it one Friday evening and were very pleased with the end product.

The following morning, the mom was about to wake up the boys and have them go out to play in their new play center. This is what she saw from the upstairs window…

Major Cool!