So, I got the email from True Majority.org about signing the petition about global warming today. At the bottom, they always let you leave a note for your Congressperson. Well, I went off. Now, I've done this previously, where I sent a forceful letter to my Congresswoman, Judy Biggert (IL-13), and she responded with some poorly crafted talking points. This won't surprise you, but she essentially told me that Republicans can't be held accountable.

So, I'm at it again. The letter quickly strayed from global warming issues, and onto how corrupt she is.

Anyway, I'll admit it's been a bad week in my personal life, but if this stirs me into action, so be it. Letter follows below.

To recap, sheddhead and I went to Chicago last Friday. While we were there, "birds" became a theme of the day. Let's start at the Daley Plaza (BTW, when you're in Chicago, you put a "the" in front of the place or the thing you're talking about, like this: "You jamokes gonna go to the Wal*Mart's ta pick up the fishin' bait or you want I should knock the tree a ya's upside the head?").

Back to birds, both real and imagined. In the Daley Plaza, where the working-class people gather for festivals, rallies, and protests, sits the Picasso. While not specifically identified as a bird, it always looked like a vulture to me. That is, until somebody told me the secret. Perhaps I'll show you sometime (hint: it's a woman).

Across the street from the Daley Plaza is another statue by Joan Miro called "The Sun, the Moon, and One Star". Which looks like a bird to me as well.

But I found lots more birds inside the Thompson Center.

"The Thompson Center?" you ask? Who would ever see that as one of Chicago's treasures?

I admit that the James R. Thompson Center (formerly the State of Illinois Building) isn't well-liked by architects. The interior is insufferably hot in the summertime. The roof leaks. And the interior colors are the distopian 1980's version of patriotic--tomato-soup red and slate blue. And I myself am no fan of glass buildings. I'll take a Louis Sullivan before a Mies any day. Observe the gothic antiquity in the very atmosphere of Chicago. Greek revival columns line the streets of the financial district. Romanesque skyscrapers unfurl and bloom, as their roots drink from the green Chicago River. I was born in Chicago, and the history of my great-grandparents are wrapped in the stone acanthus leaves that ornament the Indiana limestone and the soot from their labor and sweat from their brows accentuate the nooks and crevasses of the white towers.

But there's something about the Thompson Center that I just like.

By now, if you're a pet owner, you've probably read ChristieKeith's diary on the Rec List, FDA says pet food poison may be in dry food, too - and didn't rule out human food.

I own a cat. It concerns me when the cat food I purchase is tainted with rat poison and plastics. A lot. So what did I do when I first heard about this? I wrote the company whose cat food I purchase regularly--in my case, Iams, and voiced my concerns. When it comes to the potential death of my cat, and all the area pets in my neighborhood, I expect a thoughtful and serious answer.

What I got was a form letter that also doubled as an advertisement--and one, based on the information that I read today, that was full of lies. And those lies endanger the life of my cat. I'd post their response here in the interest of fairness, but as I have said, it's an advertisement filled with lies.

So what is my next step? I respond to their form letter with a personal letter of my own.  

I'd like to get some feedback from fellow Kossacks to help me decide if I should keep this image up on my site, inkyboy.com, or if I should get rid of it.

More below...