So I’m a Bad Dog Owner…
Yeah, I’m a bad dog owner. We can just get over it now.
I always find it amusing when I go on hikes, and when I do Stella is almost always with me, and maybe Roxy and possibly “our” other dog Esther, and Erin also frequently if she’s available. I like going for hikes with Erin and/or the dogs. It seems to make them (okay, from here on out I’m just talking about the dogs, not Erin because that’s a whole other post) happy, they like to get out and they’re nice company.
Stella almost always gets to go. The two small dogs can’t always handle the heatt, or the cold, or the terrain if there is a lot of scrambling. Stella can and will do almost anything, and she just stays fairly nearby. No worries, no hassle, no fuss. Climbing up a 5 foot rock face, Stella has already done it before you get there, probably 3 different ways. She’s a great hiking dog and she loves it.
Now, legally, and I would never break the law of course, I’m supposed to have her leashed on all hikes within the state of Nevada. But really when it comes right down to it, if there ain’t a road nearby, what’s the point? It’s less work for me if she’s not, she’s happier, and she ain’t hurting anything (she does try to catch hares but that’s never going to happen because as fast as Stella is, the hares are easily twice her speed. Though she did go for some picnickers caviar on Xmas. Oops.)
Normally this isn’t much of an issue as we tend to hike out of the way areas, but sometimes our starting spots or an area we’re hiking has lots of tourists. These people tend to get a bit freaked. After all, this is a mean vicious pit bull off a leash. Ah well, they can just chill. Stella doesn’t get leashed unless absolutely necessary, and she does very well that way.
In the meantime, when we’re a mile or more from anywhere and there is a sign about leashing your dog, I’m just going to laugh, because really, that’s just ridiculous.
Not to mention, I usually don’t even have the leash with me or in the car, and I ain’t gonna stop walking for some silliness.
Healthcare Coverage – An Open Letter
Senator Reid and Representative Titus,
I would like to start by saying that I highly support a healthcare bill being passed that is both fiscally responsible and effective at bringing health insurance to those who need it. I believe it has many benefits for this country and all of it’s citizens.
As representatives of the people of Nevada, and thank you for performing that often thankless job, you are both, ultimately, temporary or contract employees of the people of the State of Nevada. As all Representatives and Senators are for their respective states. Since you are not full-time employees, but temporary contract employees I don’t believe members of Congress should receive healthcare benefits through the federal government. This practice should be ended immediately. I would also suggest ending healthcare support for the staffs of representatives as they are also ultimately temporary employees, though I would like to see their current coverage float till 2012 so they have time to find suitable other coverage or jobs. I would like you both to support or introduce bills to bring an end to this practice.
The removal of such an unusual benefit, healthcare for temporary employees, could bring about several useful changes. First and foremost it’s fiscally responsible. It is a rarity indeed for temporary employees to ever get healthcare benefits. I’m sure there would still be plenty of people interested in taking the job without this extra fiscal burden being place on the federal budget.
Secondly in theory the government is “of the people, by the people, for the people,” but it can never truly be so unless the representatives of the people face similar problems as the rest of the people. As long as our representatives in Congress receive special perks it will never be part of the general citizenry at large but will instead occupy a special higher place, a place elite and superior to the people that the representatives claim to represent.
Thirdly for any reformed healthcare system to work, members of Congress are going to have experience it’s successes and failures and have a stake in it. If the only stake representatives have is fielding phone calls we will end up with the nightmare scenario that the Republicans have painted. We must all be stakeholders in whatever the new system is, or in the current system if it remains, from those citizens who buy into healthcare coverage on the open market to those who represent us in Congress.
I have appreciated both of your efforts in regards to healthcare reform, I thank you for that effort, and I hope you will support a bill to bring yourselves in as participants into the plan that you are creating for the rest of us.
Josh Hawkins
