Some of the best (photo) shots you'll ever see...

Some of the best (photo) shots you'll ever see...  Lots like the example at right.  Via my lovely bride...

Spring beauty...

Spring beauty...  Claytonia virginica.  Via BPOD, of course...

How to tell if your dog is involved in a sex scandal...

How to tell if your dog is involved in a sex scandal...  Via my lovely bride, whose (dog owning) friends worry about such things...

This is for everyone who sends me those heart-warming BS stories...

This is for everyone who sends me those heart-warming BS stories...  Via reader Simi L.:

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Louisiana State University .

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee, inspected the elephants foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.

The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn't the same elephant.

The conquering of poverty...

The conquering of poverty...  My pistol-packing mama sent me a collection of “posters” (like the one at right) with factoids about how much the world has improved.  While they were all interesting, this one in particular got my attention.  The reduction in poverty is something I have personally witnessed over the course of my lifetime, thanks to two widely separated sets of travel around the world.  In the '70s, as an enlisted man in the U.S. Navy, I saw lots of places all around the world, especially Asia, Africa, and Australia.  Then in the '90s and '00s, as a business traveler, I saw a lot of those same places again, and Eastern Europe in particular.

The changes have been dramatic, almost incredibly so.  The Philippines, North Africa, Eastern Africa, South Korea, China, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and many more – all have been transformed from generally impoverished societies into vastly more developed societies.  Their citizens are indisputably enormously better off than they were just 20 years earlier.

What accounts for this?  Here's the part that drives the progressives and environmentalists crazy, because it's their enemy that has brought so much to these people.  It's capitalism.  Those countries have embraced different flavors of capitalism, aided by increased freedom of trade.  Nothing else can lay claim to the progress that capitalism's incentives brings to human society.  Nothing else even comes close.  Say that out loud in any gathering and watch the lefties cringe.  It's fun!