January,2026

The Weather... A Cold Winter

It was autumn, and the Indians on the remote reservation asked their new chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was an Indian chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets, and when he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared. But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter was going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.

A week later he called the National Weather Service again. "Is it going to be a very cold winter?". "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter." The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later he called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?". "Absolutely," the man replied. "It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever." "How can you be so sure?" the chief asked.

"The Indians are collecting wood like crazy" responded the man at National Weather Service.

editor note: The forecasting to date has not improved much sense then !
 

If meat is murder, then salad is slaughter

Vegans love to climb up on their organic soapboxes and claim the high ground... because no animals die for their food.

But is it any better to kill plants?

Heck no... botanists have always known that plants--like the rest of us--have instincts, behavior and a will to live too... and a recent article in the New York Times offers some real food for thought.
I'll bet the vegans will have a hard time digesting this one!

Plants communicate. When attacked, they'll even defend themselves. Not enough to stop the average vegetarian from crunching on them, but they're pretty good at turning away insects and other threats. For example, a plant being attacked by a caterpillar can send out a chemical signal that calls out to insects and parasites that eat caterpillars.

This is backed up by science--talk to some botanists.

They'll tell you that plants can be ruthless competitors: They will move, shift and grow in ways to get the most sun for themselves while shading and even strangling others... and then suck up all the nutrients from the ground before neighboring plants can.

You could take all that and decide that we simply shouldn't eat anything... ever. Or you can be practical about it and realize that, as the dominant species on the planet, we humans can eat all the plants and animals we want.

To the victors go the spoils. For a few shining moments, that's us... but don't worry. The plants win--eventually, we all end up as fertilizer.

A carnivore with a clear conscience,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.