As IF Times

link German fans want revenge grilling of oracle octopus | Reuters.

As my occasionally sober friend who crystal ball gazes for a living pointed out to me about this story, “tough crowd!”  The poor octopus presciently picks all of the winners in the recent World Cup soccer matches and the reward for picking eventual winner Spain over the octopus’  hometown Germans qualifies him for what treatment?

“…Throw him in the frying pan,” wrote the Berliner Kurier newspaper, and

“…Nothing beats grilled octopus,” said Dolores Lusch, a Germany fan who works on a Berlin fish stall. “Cut him up in thin slices and grill him on all sides with a dash of lemon juice, olive oil and garlic on it. Delicious!…”

Talk about your tough crowd as well as shooting, or in this case, grilling the messenger.  According to people who would know these things, octopi are among the most intelligent of invertebrates.  If in fact this particular one is representative of the entire species, it would make more sense to harvest them and turn them into bookies.  With marginally more training, they can be harnessed to become stock market forecasters or even weathermen. 

They can even be brought into the legal process, quickly assigning guilt or innocence without the protracted legal shenanigans in place today.  If this poor creature, Paul, is destined for a fiery end, what message will that send to other aspiring invertebrates who yearn to evolve out of the sea?  What right do humans have to impede the path of evolution? Sure they may be slimy with as many arms as Warren Beatty on a date, but if spotted owls can be saved, so can octopi. 

Imagine if a dog were able to spell or recite verse.  Would we rush to throw it onto a spit because he started throwing out political opinions?  Okay, bad example, but you get the point.  There should be no glass ceilings for animals or inverterbrates.  Where is PETA when you need them?  This is all about harnessing green solutions to the world’s problems.

Not only that, but there would be enormous financial benefits  If octopi came into common use; the cost is only a few clams, snails or miscellaneous small fish, far below the rate charged by any union to perform the same task. 

On the other hand, grilling the messenger if applied to those humans involved in the prediction business could vastly improve the records of those in that racket, or at the very least, thin them out.  Next time your broker gives you a stock pick, you can literally hold his feet to the fire.

link FOXNews.com – Ex-Official Accuses Justice Department of Racial Bias in Black Panther Case.

As kids, we all remember watching horror movies which seemed to follow set formats for creating wide eyed, on the edge of the seat suspense for viewers.  Typically, a young girl or young girls are in a house at night and often there’s a storm raging outside.  Over the course of the film, one by one, the girls are killed off.  Naturally the phone lines are out and the remaining heroine hears strange noises.  The curiosity gets the better of her as she searches for the source of the sound.  It seems to be coming from behind….a….particular…..door….   Of course, by then, the viewer is imploring her not to open that door as the increasingly suspenseful music ramps up….  The viewer knows that the end result won’t be good since there’s been ample evidence and hints throughout the movie.  Somehow, the heroine and future victim, is oblivious to the clues so apparent to us the viewer.

This is the same plot line unfolding  in American politics today.  When you step back and assess the actions and inactions of the Obama White house, you can virtually hear the urgent pitched music ramping up in the background, REENH REENH!

The story reference in the link above is the most egregious of recent actions implemented by this administration.  From all accounts in this case, the attorney general, Eric Holder (a dead ringer for Stedman, Oprah’s BF in case no one noticed) decides to call off the case against some  Black Panther intimidators during the 2008 election despite compelling video and eye witness evidence in support of conviction.  According to the Justice Department, wearing para military gear, wielding black truncheons and spewing racial slurs at whites on camera wasn’t sufficient evidence to press on with a sentence, even though the suit was won.  Laws that are on the books are clearly being ignored or overruled in favour of certain groups.   We have yet to hear of any outrage by minority groups over the blatant reverse racism involved here. 

Just the other day, the administration decided to pursue a lawsuit against the state of Arizona for enforcing federal laws on illegal immigrants in that state.   Again, these are not really new laws, they are laws which only emphasize long standing existing Federal regulations.  Once again, laws are already on the books and once again, they are being ignored or overruled in favour of certain groups.

Oh, and on a recent post, we noted that the incoming NASA head states that reaching out to the Muslim world would be the prime goal of that agency.  !!! As if that’s the mandate of NASA, to bring religion into the space program.  Can anyone hear the pitched music blaring in the background yet?  Does all this sound reasonable??  On the financial front meanwhile, it was announced that the U.S. budget deficit would be over one TRILLION dollars in June.  REENH! REENH! More scary music. 

Do the viewers at home not see the unfolding of the horror show?  The evidence is stacking up for anyone paying attention. Aren’t Americans collectively the young girl about to open the scary door?  Or has the door already opened? When the President campaigned for the “fundamental transformation of America”, did he really mean that existing laws would be set aside in favour of ones that fit his vision of society?  It looks more and more like executing an agenda instead of innocent policy errors.  As George Orwell may have noted, some people have become more equal than others. Naive Americans have become the young girls in the horror movies.  Sadly, in the horror flicks, she usually meets an unfortunate end.  Doubly sadly, this isn’t a movie.