The Westminster Kennel dog show was on a couple of channels. And the delightful little beagle, Uno, has been in the news a lot. Got me to thinking about pets and their meaning in life and the universe.

There are a bunch of things that give us pleasure. Our families, of course. Over the millenia, evolution has bred that into us. National Geographic had an article on gorillas. Family was everything. Ditto the meerkats. And almost all critters. And our homes and cars give us pleasure. They represent security and comfort, freedom and mobility. And of course, status. And there are some other things that give us pleasure but that is another blog at another time.

But why do dogs and other pets warm our hearts so? It could go back thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years to where animals were our helpers and saviors. Is it in our genes, nature or nurture? How about the animal cruelty situations, does Michael Vick disprove or is he just a pervert? Some societies practice dog fighting regularly. Dogs and cats and horses could just be co-passengers on our earthly vessel. But the turkey buzzards on the water tower behind the house are too and they are certainly not lovable.

Not my dogs. Just went to "lovable dogs" on YouTube.

And music gives us such pleasure. Why is that, do you suppose? Is there something in our genes that recognizes certain resonant frequencies? If you listen to music from different civilizations, there are dramatic differences. But there are remarkable similarities, too. It does not seem reasonable to me to relate music to speech communication which has been such an important tool for human predominance. Some mothers exposed their fetuses to music but a lot did not. A puzzlement.

Tuvan throat singers. Richard P. Feynman never got that chance to go to Kyzyl

But, of course, the bottom line is that dogs and music certainly are fun.

An epiphany visited me while contemplating the meaning of life and the universe while seated on my cogitation throne (you produce epiphanies on your cogitation throne, don't you?). My wonderful Dad, God rest his soul, was born in 1903 and died in 1976. So many discoveries and advances during his lifetime. From horses to trips to the moon. TV. Medical. So many things.

What brought this on was that it looks like one of my computers has a fatal illness. The four year old Dell had given me a warning a while ago when it had trouble getting up to full power. A computer geek friend told me it was an intermittant mother board problem. That prompted me to take advantage of getting a second one, a Shuttle, from a friend moving overseas and networking it. And then yesterday, the keyboard and mouse on the Dell started to intermittantly not do anything. Again very possibly the motherboard. Oh, dear, oh dear. Woe is me. Glad I got the Shuttle. So I could continue blogging regularly.

What a part of life a computer and the internet are here in the 20th Century (But wait, it really is the 21st Century, isn't it? What happened to the 20th ?) . In my retirement, it has become very much a part of my everyday life.

I tutor online somewhere around four hours a day. Seven days a week when not otherwise engaged. Really enjoy it and get a few bucks also. Some neat kids out there. Would miss it, and not just for the money, if it went away.

Really enjoy my cyber-associations. When I finish my morning chores, the first thing I do is my computer stuff. Do a couple of sweepstakes. Read the news. Check emails and respond. Emails are definitely not a replacement for handwritten letters and phone calls. But they have become a real part of 21st Century communication. Our daughter who programs for a banking organization does a major part of her job through emails. Where would we be in 2008 without emails? Well, we did it before and we could do it again, but it does add a real dimension to our lives.

And then it is time to cruise blogs. Who would have thought that writing your cogitations onto pages on the internet would become such a significant thing to do? Whether anyone reads those cogitations or not, it is enjoyable. And who would have thought that having fellowship with folks you can not see and know few facts about would become so rewarding? Blogging gives a level of intercourse that did not exist before blogs, before the internet, and before computers. Giving it up would cause some serious dt's.

And I did not even mention researching neat stuff. And buying neat stuff.

My kids can reflect on a father who grew up before TV. Did not see a TV until I was in college. And before computers. I started messing with computers back in the days of a PDP11 and Apple II's. But I was still well into middle age when that happened. And I can remember when they said that the still developing world wide web would be like “letting the tiger out of its cage.” That was shortly before my retirement.

Suffer future shock about a lot of stuff these days. But certainly am glad it was not from computers. And am certainly glad for all that my computer and the internet bring me.

When I was a tyke, my folks had some records of Lily Pons which they particularly liked, including the epitome of coloratura pieces, the Queen of the Night from the Magic Flute. Could not find it, or much else from Lily so that must wait for some more research.

And then, I cruised through Mr. Ornery's blog (http://orneryisback.blogstream.com/) and he has a positng about New Zealand.

That brought to mind one of my favorite singers, Dame Kiri te Kanawa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiri_te_Kanawa):

She is a half Maori, half European New Zealander. Modern civilization has some remarkable things. One is being able to share blogs with folks half way around the world, like New Zealand. Another is that stellar opera singers comes from such a variety of backgrounds. Along with Dame Joan, we have Dame Kiri.

Made a comment to Tall Pockets (http://tallpocketsforprez08.blogstream.com/) about what my plank would be. An excellent thought. The choice between serious or smart-ass? Only the serious muse struck. Some nails in the plank:

Have only public funding for presidential campaign costs. And a committee which would cancel funding if ads become negative.

Balance the budget quickly. First, eliminate waste and corruption (see below). Second, once the hemorrhage is stemmed, get taxes to pay for it. Sales tax or income tax? A reasonable combination. And compartmentalize the income. Social Security gets and keeps their funds. Highway ditto. Medical, etc.

Political action groups and influence peddling would be restricted to make their effect no more significant than what the rest of us have. Something like 1:1 employee to ordinary citizen ratio for amount of money spent by the group. And some public support for action groups for ordinary citizens other than things like AARP, NEA, NRA, etc. With a strigent bipartisan oversight by someone other than Congressmen.

Line item veto on any spending bill. Who does this is a big question. A single member of either party, even if it is the President, is not a good vetoer.

Make the medical industry competitive. Insurance companies. Pharmaceutical companies. Etc. Let citizen groups negotiate and find the best price. Promote citizen groups that include the presently uninsured and under insured. Everyone must have medical insurance. All children are insured.

Start pulling out the troops and put pressure on the Iraq government. Syria, Iran, Lebanon, too. Increase diplomatic efforts in Middle East.

Implement one year public required service. Hospitals. Child care. Elderly. Support in armed forces. Etc.

Required child care at kindergarden or below.

Implement the carbon equations and do it without corruption.

New push for educational excellence. Increase funding and increase accountability.

Citizen oversight of organizations that restrict or control freedoms. CIA, FBI, etc. Not citizens hired by the administration.

Abortion and homosexual policies are up to the state.

Immigration? Make a reasonable but strenuous path open to those good members of our communities who deserve a path to Citizenship. Shut down the borders, both overland and oversea. Hang (not literally) all law breakers.

Make waste handling the responsibility of the industry that produces it and the cost a part of the purchase price.

Make some of the gasoline tax go to development of alternative fuels.

Increase the Armed Forces and keep Congress out of Defense spending.

Would you support this? Why not? Write your own darned plank then.