2/18/12 GOOD COP, BAD COP

PAROLE VIOLATOR

P INES AND SUMAC IN THE SNOW

ASPEN IN THE MORNING SUN

Saturday, 8:30 AM.  26 degrees F. Up from 16 earlier.  Wind W, calm.  We received several inches of new snow since yesterday morning and everything looks pristine again.  The roads are icy and it was a Yak Track morning.  The sky is mostly clear and the barometer predicts partly cloudy conditions.  It should be a nice night for the annual ski and snowshoe trek from Ashland to Washburn across the ice, called “Book Across The Bay,” so named because it is a library fund raiser.
        Buddy violated his parole yesterday. The cops finally apprehended him way over by the city cemetery.  They let me know where he was and when I got there he was cornered between two cops.  He looked confused.  They did not have their weapons drawn, but I almost asked them to taser him.  When I blew the horn he came running and jumped in the truck as soon as I opened the door.  I think the episode scared the heck out of him, as he has been awfully quiet since.  He ate supper and went right to sleep.
        I guess I will just have to work harder with him, play ball with him more and get him more exercise.  The police thought it was great fun to help catch him this time, as they had nothing else to do in a small town on a Friday afternoon, but I suspect they will tire of the game rapidly. 
        Had Buddy gone another mile out into the boondocks, he may well have been gone for good.  The wolves were probably watching and waiting, licking their chops.  He had better learn to mind, and quickly.
        Speaking of cops, have you heard about the federal lunch police, who inspected a four-year-old’s home packed lunch, consisting of a ham and turkey sandwich, banana, chips and apple juice?  They gave her Chicken McNuggets (hardly the epitome  of responsible nutrition) instead and billed the mother $1.25.  Is this government completely daft?  It would be laughable if it were not so sad.  Confuse a child, dis a mother, confiscate a perfectly good, lovingly packed lunch, …in the name of what? By what authority?  For what purpose?  We are a society of sheep, headed to the slaughter (we’ve already been sheared!).
        When I was in grade school, probably age ten or so, there was a rash of lunch filching (we all kept our lunch boxes or bags on shelves beneath which we hung our coats and caps).  It turned out that the culprit was a little crippled girl from a very large family, who was hungry every day.  I don’t remember exactly how the situation was resolved but she was well fed after that.  Feed hungry children, yes, by all means…but the police powers of the federal government poking its nose into their home packed lunch bags?  Give me a break!