Pre-election prognostications

This upcoming supervisors race is getting increasingly amusing.  Some of it is very predictable.  Some of it, not so much.

I hear things. I never tell names and tales in the same breath.  It cuts off your source of information.  Information is gold to a blogger.  You can use it wisely and prudently or you can shot-gun it all over the place and blow folks out of the water.  I have seen both.  I try to follow the former rather than the latter path.

I find it laughable that the same person ran his own strong-arm candidate acquisition scam.   I think about 20 people got strong armed.  Not many people have the stomach for this game so many just said no.

It appeared that there would be one Republican candidate and one Democratic candidate for the BOCS chair.  Then along came a rival, yapping at Corey heels.  I question the wisdom of  Candland support so early in the game.  That sends a clear message to the current chairman that Pete Candland is an adversary and doesn’t plan to work with Corey at all.  Candland might as well have declared war.  Why would you want to send that message, just out of curiosity?  Is that smart to show your cards that early in the game to someone of the same party, sitting on the same board?

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The Plague: Black rats exonerated–blame the gerbils

black rat

Just when we found out that the hype about the Crusades was partially a myth, now we have another millennial myth blow up in our faces.  Rats have been exonerated for having killed a hundred   million people with the Black Plague.  Instead, scientists have discovered that this deadly recurring scourge was caused by rat cousins, the gerbils.  According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the  Washington Post reports:

After nearly eight centuries of accusing the black rat for spreading the bubonic plague, scientists say they have compelling evidence to exonerate the much-maligned rodent. In the process, they’ve identified a new culprit: gerbils.

It’s always the cute ones you have to watch out for, isn’t it?

gerbil

According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, climate data dating back to the 14th century contradicts the commonly held notion that European plague outbreaks were caused by a reservoir of disease-carrying fleas hosted by the continent’s rat population.

 

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