The Georgian South Ossetia conflict

The Players
Georgia
Russia
South Ossetia
The World
The drama: The majority of the Ossetes living south of the main Caucasus range in Georgia wish to unite with the Ossetes living to the north, in an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation; and the Georgians, regarding South Ossetia as both a legal and an historic part of their national territory, refuse to accept this.
Russia's reaction
Taken from: Anatol Lieven New America Foundation The Times (London) August 11, 2008)
With absolute determination not to be defeated by Georgia and not to suffer the humiliation of having to abandon Russia’s South Ossete client state, with everything that this would mean for Russian prestige in other areas. Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin made it clear again and again that if Georgia attacked South Ossetia, Russia would fight. Georgian advocates in the West claimed that Moscow was only bluffing.
It wasn’t.
Russia is a county that reacts out of fear..It is not paranoia based...Fact is Russia has been invaded, occupied, re invented, so often it's no wonder she chooses alienation and bullyboyism as a means of protection..
Russia still seeks security in an old world mentality...Heavy governmental control within her borders and an obsessive compulsive desire to control those countries on her borders as added security measures.

South Ossetia: Can't get no satisfaction from the 'less than' attitude of Georgia..No doubt part of the feelings of alienation and lack of recognition South Ossetia is experiencing from Georgia is a result of the 'rift' of idealism between the to...
However, it seems apparent Georgia should change their tactics...There is still time for Georgia to help their own cause by showing them selves part of the global 'political right' in promoting diversity in their own back yard..
Unfortunately their recent course of action only views them to the world as a reflection of the Russian Federation's answer to unresolved territorial issues...
I wonder if Georgia is 'big' enough to publicly apologize for an hot headed decision and offer to begin serious peace talks with South Osstia with the intent of healing new and old wounds?...Promoting Christianity(to put in a very broad term) may well be the answer...

Georgia: South Ossetia lies smack in the middle of two main border crossings and trade roads to other countries...Plus there are two oil pipelines running through Georgia that 'infiltrators' from the north threaten to use as political terrorism to give Russia an excuse to invade Georgia under guise of protecting the world oil market..

Every body knows there is nothing worst than a paranoid Russia....
My recommendation to leaders of the free world is take away Russia's ability to manipulate...Don't 'chastise'...the Russian government...It will only make the bear 'grumpy'....The 'people' of Russia need to be considered here...The response of the free world must be one of action that is like a parent to a child...Take away the toys until it can behave it's self...My grave concern is that what we do to the Russian government, we do to the Russian people as well..
My recommendations are at the bottom of this article:

Ossetian's History:
Pushed out of their medieval homeland in what is present day Russia, Ossetians took refuge in Georgia forming three distinct territorial entities..Digor in the west came under the influence of the neighboring Kabard people, who introduced Islam...
Tuallag in the South became South Ossetia, part of historical Georgian principality of Samachablo where Ossetians found refuge from Mongol invaders..
Iron in the north became North Ossetia under Russian rule from 1767..
Is it just me or do Ossetians owe Georgia some 'respect' for saving their ass from the Mongolians?
Modern day South Ossetia was "annexed" by Russia in 1801 including Georgia proper...

'Colonialism'...In my humble opinion a true evil concept and the root of territorial conflict through out the world yesterday, today, tomorrow...It is the 'stuff' WAR is made of...
Tensions in the region began to rise amid rising nationalism among both Georgians and Ossetians in 1989.

'Nationalism'...Another pet peeve of mine..Hell bent on the separation and alienation of peoples around the globe...
Prior to this, the two communities had been living in peace with each other except for the episode in 1920.(Ossetian and Georgian Bolsheviks going at it.) Both ethnicities have had a high level of interaction and high rates of intermarriages.
South Ossetia Economy
Following a war with Georgia in the 1990s, South Ossetia has struggled economically. Employment and supplies are scarce. Additionally, Georgia cut off supplies of electricity to the region, which forced the South Ossetian government to run an electric cable through North Ossetia. The majority of the population survives on subsistence farming. Virtually the only significant economic asset that South Ossetia possesses is control of the Roki Tunnel that links Russia and Georgia, from which the South Ossetian government reportedly obtains as much as a third of its budget by levying customs duties on freight traffic. The separatist officials admitted that Tskhinvali received more than 60 percent of its 2006 budget revenue directly from the Russian government. In late 2006, a large international counterfeiting operation stretching from South Ossetia was revealed by U.S. Secret Service and Georgian police..

My take: Georgia's decision to attack South Ossetia is so typical 'Russian' in mentality...With George W. Bush lobbying to include Georgia and the Ukraine into NATO it seems the decision to attack a weaker foe (leaving Russian Federation manipulation tactics out of the mix)...reflects immaturity..
How difficult would it be for Georgia to try 'turning on the love light' for those South Ossetians over there?..
What exactly does Georgia have to lose by practicing a ethic of compromise and tolerance to the language and culture of South Ossetians?

Suggestions for a peaceful resolve: South Ossetia is a wasteland...It's a nightmare of exploited natural resources and soil contamination..Hazardous waste dumps, aging nuclear sites left from the Soviet 'industrial complex' that are categorized as "still generating pollution"...A major risk to local water supplies..Deforestation, overgrazed pasture lands...The area is isolated and suffers from a weak economy..(resource: http://www.americanresource.edu/ted/ice/ossetia.htm )
Create settlement areas in North Ossetia..Immigrate the South Ossetian people to North Ossetia..This is a population of approximately 70,000. The coordination and operation of such a project should be done through a neutral humanitarian entity...Cost of this project should be shared by the entire Global community that desire the end of conflicts such as this around the world...Georgia and Russia should equally participate in this funding effort..
Allow Georgia to retain South Ossetia as their land..However, both Georgia and Russia will agree to South Ossetia as a neutral zone and allow a United Nations peace keeping force to govern the area..This will create a buffer between the two countries and a security measure between the two countries...Roads will remain open to traffic however, traffic will be subject to search, and seizure, and due process per the specific governing laws created for this 'neutral zone' to be an effective deterrent to violence...
The environmental issues should be addressed and steps taken heal the land..Again another project funded by the Global community with interests in protection and recovery of the environment.
If either Russia or Georgia for that matter should elect to dismiss a peaceful resovle to the conflict then economic sanctions should be explored at that time..

Second Chance

I got this big fat letter in the mail today ...In big letters it says "HERE'S THAT SECOND CHANCE YOU HOPED FOR LooseCanon"...
I had to stop for a moment and check the return side of it....Make sure it wasn't from God or somebody important.....
It was from Mutual of Omaha....
That's an insurance provider right?.....I've never done business with them,...ever...
So it was with some amazement I stood there by my rickety mail box on this hot august afternoon with thunder heads towering up in the east, causing a slight back draft prevailing from my west...I'd been working under the house making a basement storage area ..Just me and my constant companion Violet...My one female cat...In fact...
....That's her kicking' back while I write this thing still fresh in my mind...
I came up from under the house for some air, and the breeze by the mail box felt fine as it dried up the sweat on my chrome dome and shoulders...It's one of those freebies in life I try to make note of when ever it occurs...
So, Mutual of Omaha claims to have the second chance I've been hoping for....Got to love modern technology...How those guys could manage not only to 'know' what the second chance I've been hoping for was,... but to fit it into an envelope small enough to slip inside my mail box....I am impressed...
I figure I am going to be even more impressed when I finally open the envelope up...Reminds me Johnny Carson doing Carnac the Magnificent....
Like I said I've never had any dealings with the company...
Yea, I know the obvious..They are about insurance...Security....Including life insurance...
The kind of insurance that some how appeals to our fear of death..
Insuring a kind of concrete knowledge that for at least while the benefactors are 'in the money', you are still ,'in the show',...beyond the grave...
....A positive haunting.....
It temporarily beats back the finality of death.......You know, the thing that scares the shit out of us and makes us 'governable'.....
Life of the party LooseCanon,.....
Only thing I know about Mutual of Omaha is they sponsor that 'Wild Kingdom' show on television....It originated in 1963 and the host was Marlin Perkins..
The show was great.....Lots of education about how the other beings on the planet survive and find fulfillment...
It seems to me strange logic that a insurance company would sponsor documentary style television promoting nature's natural selection process..If anything, a fundamental denominator of all creatures surviving the wild is the absolute knowledge life holds no security....
When an insurance company pays out a claim it's only the monetary portion of the loss that's covered..For example, when a subscriber loses their home to fire or flood the best case scenario would be the insurance funds cover complete rebuilding of the structure..
Insurance programs have no means to cover the emotional trauma such a disaster entails...
I was reading recently an article entitled, 'Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch' http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/science/14tier.html
that suggests we may in fact be living in someone else's 'Matrix'....This hypothesis is based on the current standard of virtual technology weighting it against the short time it has taken virtual technology to arrive at it's current state...
I figure it's just a matter of time before we see insurance companies advertising a policy that guarantees total protection from the events we now insure ourselves against...Initially the policy will be expensive, just to pay for all that software..
However in time, I expect it will become mandatory 'State law' for all citizens to carry such a policy...After all, the burden tax payers are shelling out to support 'social programs' would be eliminated in a flash if nothing 'bad' ever happened..
So, what you think?...Has the future of insurance already arrived?...
Is it possible the 'second chance' I've been waiting for is in fact the program I described, waiting for me inside this large envelope needing only my simple signature (and credit card number of course) on the dotted line?
I'm getting excited!..Are you getting excited? I am definitely getting excited!
I'm tearing this baby open man!...Oh shit...
I forgot...
I got laid off last week and my credit card is max'd out!
Opening this little slice of heaven is just gonna' get me all depressed...
Well, hell...Story of my life..And to think I missed my second chance by that....much...
It's ok though, cuz I bet you all are going to get one of these envelopes in your mailbox too!..Yeah, I mean come on, it's not like I am special or anything...I bet Mutual of Omaha wants everybody to get in on this deal!
Wow, I got to admit, I feel pretty good knowing there's so many folks out there going to get the 'second chance they have been hoping for'....

ROPER'S LAST RIDE

The Charles River racing track in Boston Massachusetts consists of an indoor one-third mile oval velodrome..
Safety precautions include sand filled crash zones immediately off track to break the fall of athletes and machines should they collide or lose control in the heat of competition..The sound of speed coupled with the smell of sweat lingers like stale cologne in the heavy summer air.
Young men in top physical and mental condition sport state of the art racing prototypes here...The ambience is acid.. Charged with a lethal mixture of testosterone and competition........
Envy eyed spectators and giggling frathouse groupies move their heads in unison left to right as the speedsters streak pass their immediate view..
The infield pits are crowded with mechanics making last minute fine tuning adjustments, as in racing, attention to detail is often the difference between winning and losing...
So are the goings on here, this fine first day of June...
Akin to all spectator style sport is a protocol of communal conscience..The link between those in the stands and those in the field...It is a moment in time when the dramatic occurs..All focus is gathered and placed upon a fixed point.....Life outside the experience is placed on hold....
However, this particular first day of June...Life chose, at it so often does, a protocol of its own design...
Charles River racing track's multiplying bubbles of communal conscience were mercilessly shredded and lay to waste by the sudden invasion of previously unknown, unimagined, alien sight and sound...
Like the confusion and chaos created aboard the 'Starship Enterprise' when a cloaked Klingon 'Bird-of-Prey' suddenly pierces the comm shrieking an uninvited message, "we have you in our sights"...
It was the same scenario playing out in a parallel universe known as June 1st 1896....The day Slyvester Howard Roper rode his steam powered motorcycle onto the wooden speedway surface of the Charles River Racing Track...
Previously cocky, over confident, Ivy League god-men, stood fixed in amazement. Their mouths, gaping canyons.
Spectators rose up in unison...Eyes glazed, brain activity flat lined like a freaked out Windows 'hour glass' icon stuck in computer hell...
The 'Free Wheeler' racing machines, only a moment ago, prized possessions, dropped in distraction.
Their sleek frameworks tumbling down the steep banked turns of the speedway, to the apron below...
Power pedals scraping and gouging at a wooden tarmac. Wheels spinning like crazed Big Ben clocks desperately trying to catch up to the apparent future that has materialized before the natural evolutionary order of things....
With the ferocity of a Mammoth Roper hit the boards...Thirty, then thirty five, then forty miles per hour the contraption burned up the speedway...Roper himself barely holding course against the constant semi- left turns of the straightaways and high end banks at the opposing corners..
The engine spat fire like a dragon and belched black menacing smoke mixed with erratic blast of back fire creating what may have been mistaken as a hiccup of God himself...
Not until the completion of several blistering laps did the exhibition end with Roper bringing the bike to a halt on the start/finish side straightway...
Initially there was only silence.
It was the spectators who began to recover first..Seeing the bike motionless from a distance perhaps made it easier to identify it for what it was...Soon there were chuckles, then a kind of relief filled murmur emanating from the stands..Even the periodic amused laugh could be heard.."Why, it's just a bicycle, with a miniature locomotive engine attached!"...
Roper stood by the silent motorcycle taking in the reaction..Listening to the process of the crowd, as he did from the beginning over twenty years ago...
Observing the human mind at work.. Watching the buffering process break down the unknown into simpler comprehendible components, there by protecting the sanity of the individual..
Soon the clapping of hands fills the silence..And as this wave of applause begins to build, Roper gives the crowd the final assurance it needs...Removing his cap and bowing to the stands in time honored showmanship style.
The athletes, having been closer to the action, are slower to respond...The sounds of approval from the crowd brings them around. Their reaction after the fact, is somewhat opposite the spectators. These are men unaccustomed to embarrassment or being 'up staged'..Especially by a showman, and an old codger to boot..Fledgling conspiracies begin to form in dark brooding minds..Gruffly taking to their mounts the Free Wheelers resume their rightful place on the track, however command of the crowd has been broken..And for that, the universe must some how be set back to its correct perspective.
Some are silent determination pushing their bodies and machines to the limit in an effort to emulate speeds displayed by Roper.
Others back build their shaken self esteem's by tactics such as sarcastic laughter, jeers, and profane comments directed at Roper as they speed by on their warm up laps.
Roper however is not a man of the moment..The exhibition is a means to an end, and not the end itself. It is simply a heads up to the world..A tangible representation of the future.
Like the motorcycle itself is a representation. An imperfect materialized reflection of what Plato speaks of..A place of perfection..Tapped into and conceptualized by a stellar mind.
Roper's response to the crowd is automatic..A result of years following circus acts for the occasional opportunity to promote his invention...
He is satisfied with the bike's performance today..There may be an opportunity to feature the bike as pace vehicle for the race starts of Free Wheeler competition here at the Charles River race track..
He could not help but notice though, the excitement was gone..He is admittedly, going through the motions..There was always too much to do and not enough time to do it..
And in the process of doing, the future dared creep in..
Even on the likes of Sylvester Howard Roper.... (It would be 11 yrs. ago now, 1885 two German inventors: Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach invented a motorcycle using petroleum fuel) .
..After twenty two years of inventing improving and re inventing, the Roper motorcycle was obsolete...Steam was not to be the future...The internal combustion engine would win the day.
Seemingly unaware of the young men's jeers, Roper's mind is elsewhere..Something happened out there..
On the course..Something that still held him as though hypnotized...During the third lap..
A doorway opened and he had peeked inside..His projects, all of them began rolling through his mind like a slide show..Ideas that originally had no names..Brought back from the infinite and forged into reality by Roper himself..Materialized through the process of written plans, raw materials, frameworks, connectors, fasteners, motors, until eventually they named themselves..
Hand stitch Sewing Machine....Hot-air engine....Steam-carriages (the precursor of the automobile)...
....Breech loading guns...Machine for manufacturing screws....Hot-air furnaces and ranges......An automatic fire escape....
"Mr. Roper"...........There was still so much to do, and the thought alone made him tired...."Mr. Roper?".....
"Mr.Roper!"......"Yes?"....It was the speedway's track supervisor..."Are you alright there, old boy?"
"Yes, yes of course"....
"That was some kind of show Roper! Your idea for using that contraption of yours may just work"
"Yes?...Oh, as starting pacer!....That would be fine..When would you like us to start?"
"I'll have to talk it over with the track manager of course..He has the final say...Meantime though, some of the regulars got their woodies all in a twist....They want to challenge you to a race!"
"To be honest I am feeling a bit under the weather, and this was to be a business visit."
"Look, Roper...The boys aren't the kind to take an embarrassment lightly...It puts a dent in
their manhood....Now if you was to beat them fair and square"....
"Yes, yes I understand....Of course I will be happy to oblige...I'll need to refill the water reservoir under the seat here...Can you point me to the nearest facility?"
The race itself was uneventful...Unchallengeable...Roper was over lapping the slower Free Wheelers by the third lap around the tiny course..
What was eventful was Roper feeling himself gravitate toward the mysterious door of perception again. By the third lap he had stepped through and was no longer aware of himself or his motorcycle..
All that remained was an awareness...An acute awareness of concepts...Infinitely beautiful...Undefinable, unimagined, untapped, and boundless...He sensed weeping....Not here, for both joy and sorrow were not of this realm....But somewhere, distant and yet near...A sense he was weeping,....in joy....
...The same sense of awareness knew, it had finally come home..All that remained back 'there' was a final gesture...

The newspaper article's account of the incident read as follows:

The Boston Daily Globe:
"The machine was cutting out a lively pace on the back stretch when the men seated near the training quarters noticed the bicycle was unsteady," the paper said. "The forward wheel wobbled, and then suddenly, the cycle was deflected from its course and plunged off the track into the sand, throwing the rider and overturning.
"All rushed to the assistance of the inventor, who lay motionless beneath his wheel, but as soon as they touched him they perceived that life was extinct," the paper added. "Dr. Welcott was summoned and after an examination gave the opinion that Mr. Roper was dead before the machine left the track."
It was later determined that a heart attack killed Roper, who left behind a legacy of steam motorcycles that dated back nearly three decades.
As with many inventors during the last part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries their work was not fully recognized or appreciated for it's true value...In many cases until long after their deaths..
This is of course a natural and logical condition, and one that will not change...
It is the unique gift of the inventor to bring forward from that place...The place Roper now calls home..
That which has not yet been idealized, forged, or fastened, into the present time...




.

Preferent Kinship Part 2

'The Future relationship of dog and man'

It causes me to ponder...The purview of the 'expendable'......The mind set of this generation....
...I blame it on the advent of the disposable razor...

Yep, that's what started the whole snowballing effect....

That and the 'virtual' age...

Something is happening to us as we gravitate toward the alluring easier softer road technology prognosticates it's self to be.
...I sense a condition has developed in our social value system that warrants scrutiny...
Like, for example, the outfit that releases new computer operating systems on the market then spends the next few years ironing out an already 'paid in full' product by casually posing 'bug fixes' as,......'updates'...
We have become accustom to jumping in head first and fixing the repercussions 'in the mix'.
In the case of the future relationship of dog and man,....

the repercussions that worry me are not just minor wake disturbances created by the forward progression of a large ship...
It is the ship itself that concerns me,..

and the path of it's navigation..

The virtual pet industry: http://virtualpet.com/
The 'Future of Virtual Pets' link on the site above was written in 1997....
Portions of that document are as follows:
Applications:
We see increased personalization of pets. Just as there are now many kinds of animals and many breeds of each animal used as pets, we think the virtual pet world will mimic the real world in terms of variety.
We see applications ranging from very light weight screen savers to heavy duty full blown virtual reality applications complete with goggles and sensing gloves. To highly developed physical "virtual pets"
We've long envisioned a remote controlled fish or shark that could be driven around in an aquarium by its owner. You could play with the other fish and amaze visitors.
Therapy applications for the mentally handicapped, those in prison, and other will abound.
The military and police might make use of physical "virtual dogs" in security and sniffing applications.
Physical virtual pets could be made to look like anything, including people.
Users:
We see young children being able to learn how to care for a pet before they get a real one. Those in constrained living conditions (hospitals, nursing homes, military duty, prisons, firemen, inner city apartments, college dorms) will be able to have some of the benefits of owning a pet without interfering with their environment. The elderly will have some companionship and something to regularly do. Some of more physical applications (tamagocchi) will allow non computer users to participate.
Physical virtual pets (dog and cat robots) will allow a fuller experience of pet ownership, and as mentioned in the applications section, could actually open a new realm of pet ownership as you control the pet and interact with other animals (real or virtual).

WowWee Robotics RoboPet

I pulled this off the Amazon site....Retail value new 99.00
What's interesting is the review comments from customers who bought it:

This is the ultimate pet. No messes, trainible, and fun! I dont have it, i just saw others playing with it at a store. In that store is the new Robosapien V2. V2 acually made this guy do tricks! And even better, my little brother told it to sit. It sat! I can asure endless hours of playing when he gets it for christmas. Again, GET THIS TOY! IT IS BETTER THAN A TOY!

I tryed this with friends and in stores it is soooooo much fun! I may have pets already but this is east to take care of no messes,no taking it out on walks,or watching after it every mintue! I love my pets so much but I really like this and I would say to any child who doesn't have a pet "This is the one for you,it is easy and fun!".

It's like he is a real dog!!! This toy, I mean pet, is great!! The only problem is that Robo Pet is rather loud, and sometimes when I play with it, my parents get a little mad because it is fun, but it makes a lot of noise, but I don't regret it, even though $80 is an outrageous price for this, but it is still awesome. Soooooooooo, go ahead. Buy it!!!

Looking back at the foundations of the Man and Dog friendship. I feel it is important to remember the benefit Man received at that time were of an enhancement in his basic struggle to survive...As Man developed commerce the versatility of the Dog coupled with the refinement of select breeding allowed Dogs to fill the spots of 'employment' as needed..
Granted pets today are a household item more so than any time in history.
I know many people have an emotional commitment to their animals that rates right up there with the love one experiences with a child.
So, what's the 'bitch' Loosecanon?...(Oh man,...busted by the 'pun' police)
Well it's not so much a bitch as a worry...I know how people 'are'..That's what worries me...The individual is smart...The individual takes the time to be well informed on interested subjects...It's the campaigns directed at the mass conscience of the uninformed that take their toll..

Rural to urbal living:
This huge change in the way Americans live their lives is a result of an economic game plan put into action more than fifty years ago..Relentless pressure has been placed on the backs of the working class.
The goal being to allow big business faster growth, bigger profits, with the end result being more opportunity for the working class in the form of careers, better paying jobs, working for the Corporation their tax dollar support fast tracked to success.....

I don't want to get started on this cuz I am just going to get pissed off.......

Instead, just use the relationship of ancient man and dog as described in Preferent Kinship part 1 as an analogy.....It's a 'win-win' situation..
I'll let you decide who gets to be the 'dog'....

As Americans become urbanized living spaces become smaller...The necessity for 'animal controls' becomes a new career opportunity...
Business is booming, however the working class is finding it harder and harder to 'get by'...This results in less 'quality time' affordable outside of work...
This is not a big deal for the immediate family unit....After all both husband and wife "love our career's" ....And it's so healthy for little Junior to get all those social contact skills at the Child Care Facility five days a week...
But the dog...The damn dog is just never satisfied...
Move over Rover, let Robo pet take over!....

Bottom line:

Give me a Robot Vacuum cleaner...Alright?
A dishwasher or a machine that does laundry, ok...
But don't turn my dog into a Robot...

Preferent Kinship

The earth split in two, and the men and beasts were

separated by a profound abyss..

In the great chaos of creation, birds, insects, and four-legged creatures sought to save themselves in flight-All but the dog.

He alone stood at the edge of the abyss - barking, howling, pleading. The man, moved by compassion, cried, "Come!"

And the dog hurled himself across the chasm to join them. Two front paws caught the far edge. The dog would certainly have been lostforever had man not caught him and saved his life.
-Mythology of 'the people'-

Through out my childhood years, and subsequently, the entire course of my life, there has always been a dog in the family...
This common link in my life has been so much a 'staple', it was not until recently, I realized just how taken for granite that unbroken chain has become...
This tradition is without doubt, an extension of my Father's side of the family..
The Hathaway's are outdoors folk...Fishing, hunting, camping, naturalists..
My Mom's parents,The Foley's, were....'art deco'....Spotless...Foley homes were always perfectly arranged inside and out...Like a food advertisement for a fancy restaurant...
... NO pet's allowed...
I guess the same Foley 'policy' applied to my Dad as well...
While courting my Mother he was driven off the Foley property time after time via a power nozzle attachment on their squeaky clean green garden hose.
Anyway, knowing my Mom's heart of gold, I can imagine her secretly wanting a pet while she was a youngin', but never confronting her parents....
Like a little girl living in Brooklyn who dreams of owning her own pony..
My parents' dogs were technically not allowed inside the house..There was always one of those little 'dog houses' provided however..Usually tucked in a far corner of the back yard..
I bet Mom used to scrub the dog house down once a week and I just never saw her do it....
We lived in western Washington State for a time. During those years our Golden Retriever made out fairly well..Do to the general dampness of the climate 'Buck' was allowed his own place just inside the back door. There was a definitive border marked by the unfinished sub flooring of Buck's room and the finished kitchen floor it interfaced...
Buck spent most days outside by his own accord..
Nights however were a constant battle of wills..All through the preparation and consumption of dinner, Buck would periodically inch his way into the kitchen until scolded.... back to his room.. Then the whole process would start over..
I developed a tangible imagery of the term 'give em' an inch and they'll take a mile' from good ole Buck..
When it comes to pet dogs ... It starts like this........

...And if not kept in check,..........ends up like this.....

A short history....

Modern day Mitochondria* DNA sequences support the hypothesis that wolves
were the ancestors of dogs...

However most dog sequences belong to a
divergent monophyletic clade* sharing no sequences with wolves...The sequence
divergence within this clade suggests dogs originated somewhere around 100,000
years ago..
A German burial site, Bonn-Oberkassel dating 14 thousand years ago is the oldest do date showing dog and man joined together...
America Danger Cave in Utah has a dog burial site that dates 11 thousand years ago..
China, 7,000b.c. and Sweden 5,000b.c....
The general scientific consensus is domesticated dogs appear approximately 13 thousand years ago...
* Mitochondria: An organelle containing enzymes responsible for producing energy.
*Clade:A group of biological taxa or species that share features
inherited from a common ancestor.

Dog attributes:

Dogs hear sound waves across the Hz frequency range far better than humans...Generally speaking, four times better than people..
This would account for my dog 'Buster' whining and carrying on at home, a full minute before I actually pull into my driveway..
My Grandson Shane advises me it's because Buster can 'smell' me coming a mile away...
Where in the world does this kid get the sarcastic wit from?....Anyway his remark provides a perfect segway to another dog attribute...

Sense of smell...
Human's have about 5 million smell sensitive cells...
That's plenty to get by on...Most of what we taste enjoying a meal is actually 'smell cell' based..
I may stand to be corrected here, however, I remember picking up some tidbit of information indicating our taste buds are generally sensitive to sweet and sour..
Point be, the rich bouquet and subtle distinctions of flavor are a result of our sense of smell.
Dogs have almost 220 million smell sensitive cells..
It is generally accepted that dogs use airborne scent to track recent targets, and ground scent to track older targets, as ground scent lasts much longer.. Dogs are smart!

Predators are quick learners in the natural world. The ability to survive prescribes a heightened awareness and the ability to react to fresh situations..This includes a keen sense of interpreting body language and sound..

Why Man and Dog stuck together:
I believe the corner stone foundation block of Man and Dog relationship lies in a mutual alliance of basic values...In a nut shell, both believe in the concept of "friends with benefits."
Some 12,000 years ago man realized the potential of befriending wolves and their descendents...Using canine attributes as a tool, man honed his skills as a hunter and tracker of game..The 'win win' situation is established when Man feeds Dog for Dog's services...The Dog is fine with it...Better than chasing down some ADHD rabbit..Plus the Man's food is better...

Three thousand years later Man is domesticating animals for his needs..Dog's versatility pays off cuz now he has two jobs...Can hunt and can be trained to protect Man's domesticated animals as........

...Guard dog!!!!!!!

About 1,500 B.C. Man begins to breed dogs with the intention of promoting certain dog's prevalent characteristics...Such as...

Or.....Everybody loves a clown!

Everybody loves a hero!!!!

By 1,400 A.D. dogs had become fashionable as pets....

(Note: I realize the pics are not an accurate depiction of the time line they are slotted in...As fortune would

have it, both my digital camera and my 'time machine' were in the shop all week..)

Today there are about three hundred and fifty,........one,......different breeds of Dogs! .....(Now that's got to make some folks nervous).....

As a member of the animal kingdom I have observed and tried to recognize ways to open lines of communication with........
I must admit do to the vast amount of knowledge required, proficiency in my lifetime is out of the question..
I have resigned myself to one 'communicative' goal in everyday interaction with animal life...

.......Present myself as a friend....

And so finally I am almost done with this blog....Hallelujah !!
However, There is one other matter that I feel I must address...

'The Future relationship of dog and man'

Part two of Preferent Kinship will probe the demands today's society places on individuals and how 'finding time' in our lives forces us to prioritize our daily activities...As this relates to our pets...How far down the list are our pets becoming prioritized?..Why are virtual pets and robotic pets becoming more popular? Are men and women becoming desensitized to the 'real' world, and is the 'virtual' world becoming the real world?....Where does that leave our relationships with our animal friends?