Okay, I know I’m just a stupid American and I simply don’t understand much more than consuming more products than most of the rest of the world (or something like that), but could someone tell me how this is anything but a bad practice? The Spaniards, thanks to an EU directive, are taking away an entire species’ main source of food.

There have been reports from across the French Pyrenees this year of a radical change in the way the region’s vultures behave. A programme to incinerate animal carcasses in Spain has deprived “les vautours” of food, causing them to become aggressive. Where once they scavenged, now they hunt, according to farmers.

And the result, according to farmers and tourists, are “mutant vultures” that are now hunting instead of scavenging.

When a French pensioner died of a brain haemorrhage during a walk in the Pyrenees this summer, vultures started circling low over the body.

“His three friends were really frightened,” said a local resident. “They were convinced the vultures were going to attack. They shouted and waved their arms and, in the end, they managed to scare the birds away. But they were in a complete panic.”

Mind you, I’m thinking the farmers may be exaggerating somewhat, but still, if you take away a major food source from an animal, well, it’s a no-brainer that that animal’s behavior is going to change.

Alain Larralde, a cattle breeder in Ilharre in the French Basque country, said that in May he saw dozens of birds circle and kill a cow. “There were so many of them that they covered the entire meadow,” he said. “Then I saw the cow slumped on the ground in the middle being devoured. It really hurt. You can’t image what it’s like to see an animal being eaten alive.”

So far this year officials have registered 42 demands for compensation from breeders who say their livestock has been attacked by vultures. There were 33 requests last year.

But ornithologists say it is collective hysteria. Denis Vincent, of the French Bird Protection League, said: “For the most part these stories don’t stand up. It’s impossible for vultures to fly off with animals bigger than them, as people have claimed, especially when those animals are alive.” He said that farmers were blaming vultures for killing sheep and cattle when, in fact, they were eating carcasses. Jean-Louis Venant, who collects birds of prey, added: “The habits of vultures haven’t changed for thousands of years.”

I’d be careful if you’re planning a trip to the Pyrenees.

But vultures may never have been hungrier. A 2006 European Union directive forced Spain to ban the practice of leaving carcasses in open trenches. In upper Aragon, on the French border, they ate an estimated 8,000kg (17,600lb) of rotting meat every day. These carcasses are now burnt and Aragon’s 10,000 or so vultures must look elsewhere. In June, 200 were spotted in Belgium, where bird-lovers put 200kg of pork out for them “to build up their strength” for the journey back to Aragon.

So let’s review: The EU, which is supposed to improve the collective European existence, is being blamed for causing the vultures of Spain to attack people and animals in Spain, due to the new rule forcing Spain to burn animal carcasses rather than leaving them to be cleaned up by—the ecosystem’s garbage collectors. This, mind you, is from the same EU that is banning genetically altered foods, saying that we don’t know what kind of damage there could be to the ecosystem, among other charges.

I guess messing with the ecosystem is okay when they do it.

Gracie went to the vet’s for the first time since her stitches were removed last winter. I’ve been avoiding bringing her and have instead called the vet after each period of time had pased before lowering her dose of Predinsone. She’s on a quarter-pill every three days now, which is 1.5 mg twice a week, as opposed to 10 mg a day when she was first diagnosed with IBD. She also needed her shots, and got her claws clipped. Too late to save my shirt, though. She did not want to go, and fought harder than she’d ever fought before. Well, there goes another shirt for the ragpile where she manages to sleep in the wintertime.

Gracie did not enjoy the vet, needless to say. But she didn’t do more than hiss at me while I put her in the carrier, and (sigh) rip my shirt. She’s gained about a pound and a half, and is back up to a comfortable weight for her. She weighs 11.4 pounds, but she’s a big girl and should weigh about 11 or 12 pounds. I think she’ll stay where she is until winter, and then put on a few more ounces, but hey, don’t we all do that in the wintertime?

The vet wants me to keep her on the quarter-pill twice a week. He said he’s almost never seen a cat recover completely from IBD, and that even the little amount she gets is enough to keep her immune system fighting the IBD. So, though she hates having a pill shoved down her throat twice a week, and believe me, I am sick and tired of shoving a pill down her throat twice a week, we’ll be continuing the process for some time. The vet told me that stopping the pills altogether might bring Gracie back to needing two pills a day. Considering that I can finally go away for the weekend without having to board Gracie, I think we’ll stick to the status quo.

I would like to thank all of you who contributed to getting our girl over the IBD. Thanks to those of you who contributed money, and thanks to the rest of you who sent emails or posted comments. I’m so pleased to tell you that Gracie is now happy, healthy, and running around like a cat half her age. We have a nightly routine at bedtime, where I stop at the bottom of the stairs and wait for her and say, “Want to race? One, two–” and she’s gone before I get to three. She flies up the stairs in no time at all, then waits for me to give her one last bellyrub before bedtime.

It’s a very pleasant evening routine.

The kassam rockets are still falling on Sderot, threatening kindergartens, and Olmert is talking about creating a Palestinian state with the man who can’t even stop his own people from trying to murder Israelis.

A rocket launched from northern Gaza landed in a kindergarten schoolyard in Sderot, moments after the completion of a Monday afternoon meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, took credit for the attack, which caused damaged to nearby buildings, including two other kindergartens and a public elementary school.

Since the structures were empty, due to summer vacation, there were no ensuing casualties.

Wow. Three schools with one shot. Of course the same groups that accuse Israel of war crimes will be protesting the bombing of three schools in one attack, right?

Take a look at most of the links I provide for terrorist incidents. Except for the kassams, the overwhelming majority of terror incidents are in the West Bank. Apparently, Olmert no longer believes that the Palestinians must cease terror before getting their own state.

Sorry, but all I see is Arafatism in a new suit of clothes. We’ve been here before. Nothing good will come of it.

There is no coercion under Islam—except when there is.

Fatah officials in Ramallah claimed over the weekend that Professor Sana al-Sayegh, who teaches at Palestine University in Gaza City, was kidnapped by Hamas militiamen who forced her to convert to Islam against her will.

The officials said the president of the university, Dr. Zaher Khail, had assisted Hamas in kidnapping the professor.

They added that senior officials in the office of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh played a major role in forcing her to convert to Islam.

“She was forced to convert to Islam against her will,” the Fatah officials said. “She was kidnapped and held for two weeks during which time she was not allowed to contact her family.” Sayegh is the dean of the Science and Technology Faculty at Palestine University. She has represented the university at numerous conferences around the world over the past few years and is considered one of the most prominent experts in her field.

So much for the much-vaunted claims of religious tolerance by the Hamas leadership. Say hello to Hamastan.

Two weeks later the family was summoned to a meeting with some of Haniyeh’s aides, who were accompanied by the professor.

At the meeting, which was held at the home of Hamas official Rafik Makki, the family was told that the professor had converted to Islam and married a Muslim man.

When the professor’s stunned mother asked her if this was true, she nodded her head, murmuring: “Yes, God has guided me through the right path.” The mother later claimed that her daughter made the statement under threats from Hamas gunmen who were in the room.

You think PCUSA is going to protest this? Or that the Methodists, currently gearing up for an Israeli boycott, will mention the forced conversion of Christians in the Palestinian territories, as perhaps something they might object to?

Nah, me neither.

Iran is now arresting children for listening to “satanic” music. Way to join the 21st century, Mullacracy!

Iran arrested more than 200 music fans at an underground rock concert that one official called a “satanic” gathering and authorities accused the youths of breaking Islamic law.

A witness said Sunday that police raided the concert as it was ending late Wednesday near the town of Karaj, some 30 miles west of the capital.

“Police detained the young people who had gathered to enjoy music in a private orchard,” said the witness, who requested anonymity for fear of government retaliation.

The arrests come during a recent crack down on “immoral behavior” in Iran, where holding mixed parties or concerts without permission has been forbidden since the 1979 Revolution that brought hardline Shiite Muslim clerics to power.

You simply have to drop your jaw at the mindset that comes up with this crap:

“Most of them were wealthy young people who were not aware of the satanic nature of the concert,” Farhadi told state television. “A female singer, who was performing, and some rock and rap music bands were among the detained.”

He said concert organizers had told young people to attend if they were eager to learn how “devil worshippers” perform music.

Go ahead, people. Tell me again how you’ll find extremists like this among Christians and Jews, and I will point out to you several things: Firstly, they are in the extreme minority, and secondly, they’re not the government, and they have no power to do more than speak harshly about behavior they dislike.

And yet, Israel is the Middle East nation that gets the worlds opprobrium. Yeah, we do live in Bizarro World, don’t we?

I’m starting to think I need a new category for the nutty things that Muslim nations arrest their people for. Oh. My. God. The kids were dancing together.