These Military Guy/Dog Reunions Get Me Every Time. Here's A New Best One

I love watching those military guy/dog reunion videos that are all over YouTube.  

 

Cila and Army veteran Jason Bos reunite at
Chicago's O'Hare airport last week.  

Now, there's a very nice new one that is among the best.

Retired Army Sgt. Jason Bos' most trusted partner when he was deployed to Iraq was Cila, the bomb sniffing dog.

Bos retired two years ago because of a back injury and figured, very sadly, he'd never see Cila, his best buddy, ever again.

It's obvious the two missed each other over those past two years.

Recently, however, it was Cila's turn to retire. Her handler posted that news on Facebook, and Bos saw that he could adopt Cila.

Well, that seemed like an easy enough decision.

Last week, Bos and Cila had their reunion at Chicago's O'Hare airport. It's unclear from the video who was happier about the reunion, Bos or Cila, so I'll let you judge when you see the beautiful video, below.

Note also that within a minute, Bos and Cila fell into their old habits, which seem to include lots of belly rubs for Cila.

Bos said the two will retire to their home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where yes, Cila will be allowed ot hang out on the couch.

Watch the video but especially for dog lovers, I do have to issue a major Kleenex alert:

You're Having A Better Monday Than This Guy

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down, so says the song, and it's drizzly out there as I wake up this Monday morning.

But, I'll have a decent day and you will too, I hope.

Better than the unfortunate scooter driver in Taiwan in the video below. He collided with a car, then, well, watch. No word on his condition, but I hope he recovers quickly.

Conservative Parents Go To Great Lengths To Prevent Anybody From Reading A Book They Hate, Fail Spectacularly

I never know whether to laugh or cry at ultra-conservative parents, who, when they object to a book that goes against their beliefs, try to prevent anybody from reading it.

A few conservative parents in Idaho tried to get
people to stop reading this book. The move
backfired spectacularly, as expected.  

Such was the case recently in a school district in Idaho, where the parents succeeded in getting the young adult novel "Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian," by Sherman Alexie off the school's reading lists and, says the Idaho Statesman. 

The book is popular among teens and critics and won a National Book Award.

However some of the parents in Meridian, Idaho say the well-acclaimed novel has problems such as language "we do not speak in our home," that it has "references to masturbation, and is "anti-Christian."

Whatever.

Now, I don't have a huge problem if a parent does not want their kid to bring home a particular book and read it.  Denying the kid a book might help stunt their intellect or craving for knowledge a bit, but parents do have the right to determine which reading material is in their home.

But I have a real problem with these parents trying to stop everyone else from reading it.  (The solution here would have been to get students to read another book if parents objected to this one.)

These censorship efforts usually backfire, though, and this one did, too. First of all, news media attention to this issue increased interest in the book.

Then, a local bookshop, Rediscovered Books, started a crowdfunding campaign to buy a book for each of the 350 kids who had signed a petition to keep the novel on the reading list. The campaign raised $3,400, enough money to pull this off, says the website Death and Taxes. 

From there, local kids and the bookstore began giving away copies of the novel to anyone who wanted it.

You go kids!!

When the ultra-conservative parents heard these kids were out there giving the book away, well, the horror! They called the cops on the kids to put a stop to that business.

Hilarious, I know.

Only trouble was, the cops didn't shut down the book giveaway because the kids weren't breaking any laws or causing any trouble. They do have the First Amendment right to peaceably hand out books and literature.

The police basically told the bookish kids to have a nice day, then left.

On top of that, the book's publisher sent the kids another 350 copies of the book. Another book giveway is planned, and any of the Meridian kids who still want to read the novel can go to Rediscovered Books and pick up their free copy.

The bottom line is, as always, the parents who didn't want anybody to read the book because it would somehow poison kids' minds managed, through their actions, to get a LOT of people to read the book.

The author, Sherman Alexie, should think about hiring these parents as his publicity director.

And maybe it's time I read that book, too.

"Human Chair" Cesar Larios Saves The Day For Elderly Woman In Stuck Elevator

Kudos go out to Cesar Larios, who works for College Hunks moving company in Tampa, Florida.

 Cesar Larios becomes a human chair for
Rita Young in a stuck elevator recently.  

The elevator broke at the Grand Court Senior Living complex in Tampa. Larios was in the elevator on a moving job. Rita Young, 79, was in the elevator, too.

Problem is, Young can't stand up for any extended period of time. And there tends to be no chairs in elevators. Even stuck ones.

So Larios improvised. He got down on his hand and knees and told Young to sit on his back. He became the Human Chair.

"Bless his heart. 'I could hold you for a least up to an hour,' he said." in a report by CNN's Jeannie Moos.

I also like the fact that we can have a headline involving "Florida Man" and not have it involve somebody doing sick and weird and criminal.

The headline for this incident is fittingly odd for Florida, but nice for a change:  "Florida Man Becomes Human Chair for Elderly Woman."

The elevator was fixed after a little while and nobody was the worse for wear.

Larios got a lot of attention for this when a photo of the incident went viral. And good for him for thinking on his feet hands and knees and giving Young a break.

Watch the Jeannie Moos report. It's fun:

A Bunch Of People Got Food Poisoning At A Food Safety Meeting

Last month, there was a U.S. food safety summit in Maryland where people from the government and the food industry came together to discuss how to make food safer, and less likely to make us sick.

Apparently, you need to avoid food safety
conferences if you want to avoid food
poisoning.  

The only problem was, many of the people who ate lunch at the food safety summit came down with food poisoning. 

As many as 400 of the 1,300 people who attended the conference got sick.

Health officials are still trying to determine which food at the conference made people ill.

The food service provider, Centerplate, was cited for one minor violation, so it doesn't exactly look as if  Typhoid Mary was the lead cook at the ill-fated food summit.

The bottom line: If you don't want to get sick from food, don't go to a food safety conference.

Russian School Custodian Makes Awesome Snow Art

I know many of us don't want to think about snow after a long, cold winter has finally ended, but this is too good to pass up.  

Russian school custodia Seymon Bukharin made
this snow art in a school yard with just a broom.  

Huffington Post recently featured photos of what a Russian school custodian named Seymon Bukharin did with just a broom after snowfalls.

He'd go out into the school yard and make beautiful art by sweeping snow away just so.

Maybe I'll hire him to clear snow from my yard next winter.

More snow art by Seymon Bukharin  

One more.  

Judge Says Woman Should Lose Home Because She Forgot $6.30 Tax Bill

A judge in Pennsylvania has decided a widow should lose her home because she didn't pay $6.30 in unpaid interest on a tax bill.  

Eileen Battisti might get kicked out of her
house because she didn't notice and didn't pay
 a $6.30 tax bill.  

Hey, they sent Eileen Battisti the bill. She should have noticed it. There are consequences for not paying the bill, the judge seems to say, ignoring his own lack of a sense of proportion.

As the lawyers involve note, yes, on a strictly legal basis, the tax authority can take the home because the woman didn't pay the $6.30.

But you'd think a little humanity would work itself in. Maybe make her pay double, or triple or even ten times that $6.30 as punishment.

According to the Associated Press:

"Joe Askcar, Beaver County's chief solicitor, said the judge got the decision right, based on the law.

'The county never wants to see anybody lose their home, but at the same time, the tax sale law, the tax real estate law, doesn't give a whole lot of room for error, either,' Askar said."

Yeah, and I'm sure nobody in the Beaver County tax department has EVER made a $6.30 error. And if somebody there DID make a $6.30 error, they were fired, right? Or better yet, taken to a back alley, beaten, then shot to death, right?

Because the punishment has to fit the crime, right?

The decision was described as right, based on the law. Why is the law so harsh and stupid? Why do tax authorities seem so intent on wanting to seize property on technicalities?  If the law is so off kilter, why isn't anyone moving to change it?

As for Battisti, she said her husband handled the paperwork for the property's taxes until he died in 2004.

"It's bad - she had some hard times, I guess her husband kind of took care of a lot of that stuff," Askar said. "It seemed that she was having a hard time coping with the loss of her husband -and that just made it set in a little more."

I wonder how much money the county tax bureau there in Pennsylvania has spent on legal costs for this case?  How many thousands of dollars over $6.30?

I know they'll make a killing if they succeed in seizing Battisti's house. But she's appealing the decision against her, and the legal fees will keep spiraling up.

But I guess tax authorities in Beaver County, Pennsylvania get their jollies out of kicking widows out of their houses and into the streets.

Gives them a sense of power, I guess.