if you've ever had a golden retriever, you understand the psychological trauma that throwing a basketball is putting them through, even if they react like perfect stoics. it is little known that the first golden retriever was marcus aurelius, who was the offspring of an earlier emperor, and the horse that he married. after all, horses are just big, stupid dogs; when you mate a horse with a human, you backcross and implement dwarfism, creating golden retrievers. it's genetically obvious.

i've had a number of these creatures around. there was a goldie, a minnie and the unfortunately named lou, who didn't understand she was a dog. you know the type. well, she didn't have a dog name. what did anybody expect?

golden retrievers are hardwired to the innermost depths of their souls to catch and retrieve. they have to do it. it's an impulsive mental health issue, and when they start retrieving shoes, or food, or toddlers, it becomes an obsession that affects their day to day lives, and justifies seeking and requiring help.

when you throw a basketball at a golden retriever, what is going through it's mind is "i get to catch! i love to catch!", and so the dog jumps up to catch the ball, to satisfy this primal urge that it has to release. of course, it fails due to the physical reality that the ball cannot fit in the dog's mouth, which it lacks the mathematical education in geometry to calculate beforehand. this is a crushing level of failure.

as mentioned, the first golden retriever was marcus aurelius, and all goldens since then have been deep stoics. you will never know how crushed and devastated your golden is, unless in immense pain, and it will still kiss you. emotions are for weakling dogs.

please, people - throw your goldens things it can catch. stop torturing it like this. it's viciously cruel.

i'm waiting for paul calandra to ban people from parking in grocery store parking lots.

in fact, this is the 9th or 10th example of this in the last few months and there have been fatalities. ontario has a serious problem with elderly drivers that shouldn't be behind the wheel that needs to be addressed by evidence-based policies and not knee-jerk moralism.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/windsor/article/lasalle-woman-charged-after-car-smashes-into-grocery-store/

reagan, huh?

my understanding is that reagan was ideologically in line with thatcherism and it's elevation of liberal concepts of free trade over the traditionally mercantilist views of british conservatism, but that he would often use tariffs against economies where there was overwhelming government intervention. that said, reagan's massive defense spending as a form of economic stimulus, and the eye-boggling amount of debt he created via defense spending, was also extremely keynesian. reagan was more like the last tax and spend liberal in american history than the first thatcherite neo-liberal.

i don't regard ronald reagan as much more than a dumb cowboy that destroyed america, but i likewise don't think reagan would have much respect for donald trump, or that they have much in common, policy-wise.

trump is more like the love child of bill clinton and richard nixon mating.

i should get some pictures of the kitchen up by the end of the weekend.

unfortunately, i need to spend the next few hours writing court documents.