A new book has been released trying to show that all animals go to heaven when they die. It will certainly appeal to pet lovers everywhere. The author ought to make some good money soothing the sad feelings of children and people who treat their pets as children.

What really takes the cake is this line in the blurb of the news release, "How do we know? We look in the book that God left us – the Bible."

Well, I've read the Bible through a few times, and must have just missed all the tons of evidence that would justify a whole book being written on it. I must be a terrible Bible student for the blurb goes on to say --

"This is an animal question – no, it’s a spiritual question. It just fell threw [sic] the cracks!"

Ought to give you some idea of what the book will be like.

I missed it, but Vicki got to attend our closed community's official meeting this afternoon. Plenty of complaints, few suggestions, as per the human condition. Cleber told me today, when I took the kids to catch the bus to camp, that he recently witnessed a vote against more help by people who wouldn't lift a finger to do anything themselves.

Lesson on humanity number next: Button your lips, and do something constructive.

they say, do it yourself. But I imagine that, in this case, at least, right is in the eye of the doer. Nobody will cross the "t's" and dot the "i's" exactly like you. Whoever invented the original phrase must have been a perfectionist afraid of delegating anything.

There's nothing like the birth of a baby in the family to bring joy and new life to the house. That's true as well in a figurative or spiritual sense. In our Christian community, a young man made his intentions known and requested to be baptized. It's something that brings a lift to everyone and helps us renew our own determination to serve God.

I was sitting in a padaria eating a a couple of pieces of bread and reading an old issue of Brazil's main financial magazine, Exame. One of its staff writers said that, in a crisis, economists are useless and can't really tell you which way to turn.

Hrumph. Are economists good any time? If they can't help the country in a crisis, what use are they? And as much as they banter figures and numbers around as if it were a scientific field of study, why can't they agree?

My economic theory boils down to this:

1. Pay cash.
2. If you can't pay cash, do without.
3. If you can't do without, get a higher-paying job.
4. If you can't get a higher-paying job, pay through the nose on credit.
5. If you can't pay through the nose on credit, pay cash.