Sunrise — 7:25.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

"The right to publicly carry weapons is a centerpiece of Second Amendment advocacy and has emerged as a key issue in the shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti...."

"Bill Essayli, Los Angeles' top federal prosecutor and a Trump ally, received fierce blowback from gun-rights groups over his Saturday claim that there is a 'high likelihood' law enforcement will be 'legally justified' in shooting someone who approaches them with a gun. The National Rifle Association responded on X that this sentiment was 'dangerous and wrong.' Gun Owners of America condemned Essayli's statement, writing that the Second Amendment 'protects Americans' right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon.' Essayli claimed that condemnation 'mischaracterize[d]' his statement...."

From "Gun rights groups challenge shooting of legally armed Minneapolis man" (Axios).

And here's Jonathan Chait, in "What MAGA Really Thinks of the Second Amendment/Now Americans know" (The Atlantic)(gift link).

"He props his smartphone against a pile of books and adjusts the settings so the screen won’t go dark. He sets a timer. Then he waits."

"Eyes closed, Samuel A. Simon traces his breath from his ankles up through his chest, checking in with each part of his 80-year-old body before he begins. A purple binder holding a play script rests in his hands; the opening lines come from memory. Midway through, he falters. 'I’m getting all over the place,' he mutters, flipping a page. He finds his spot, then continues. Simon was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in 2022. As his memory has grown less reliable, he has turned his experience with the disease into a one-man play, 'Dementia Man: An Existential Journey,' performing it publicly as a way to hold on to a sense of self.... Remembering one’s lines before a live audience is daunting — even without a disease that steadily erodes memory. Simon has chosen to take on that challenge anyway. For nearly three years, he has performed 'Dementia Man' in small theaters and public libraries across the country...."

From "He’s telling his story onstage even as Alzheimer’s takes his memories/Samuel A. Simon, a former public interest lawyer who worked with Ralph Nader, performs his 'Dementia Man' play to help himself and others come to terms with Alzheimer’s disease" (WaPo).

"Most people just don’t have a human who wants to cuddle them twice a day and force them on walks."

But if you do, you might not need a dog to preserve your brain volume.

"The humane thing to do is not use an exterminator and save these little animals that are happy and want to live."

Said Frankie Floridia, president of Strong Island Animal Rescue League, quoted in "Rescuers saved 450 pet rats. Now they’re trying to get people to adopt them" (WaPo).

They were "pet rats" in the sense that they were the type of rats — domestic rats, "fancy rats" — that are bred to serve as pets, but these rats were no one's pets. They were just running around "in a now-condemned house in the New York City suburbs."

“They’re in the walls; they’re in the cabinets; they’re in the drawers; they’re in the couch,” Floridia said. “They were basically everywhere.”

Once captured, the rats are separated by gender to prevent further breeding. Females can give birth to eight to 18 pups every three to four weeks.

Separated by gender?! Who cares about gender, here? The problem is the rats are breeding like mad. It's a matter of hard-core sex.

We're told that it's hard to get people to adopt rats. First of all, people hate rats, but the hatred isn't justified against the fancy rat. We're told this type of rat is "usually smaller, more tame, more social and easier to handle" than those rats people loathe. Second, "they must be adopted in pairs or more, as they are social animals." You might think that you can be a lone rat's dear friend, but "Humans cannot mimic the kind of social interaction they need from another rat."

Ha ha. You might have thought human-style friendship would satisfy the rat, but you would need to "mimic" a rat, and the rat experts already know you will fail at that. That seems fair. I, a non-expert, would say that you are huge, you are unpleasantly hairless, and you are not tame, social, and easy to handle. What does a rat want with you? You should adopt a rat, because the rat is "social," but then your sociability toward the rat is not even the right kind. The rat needs another rat. And these rats were used to 449 other rats.

But these rats will be adopted. They've got a whole long article in The Washington Post about their need. And WaPo tells us "The rat rescue community is by far the kindest." That's quoting Erica Kutzing, vice president and co-founder of Strong Island Animal Rescue League, who has kindly ideas about that kindness:

"I think it is attributed to the fact that rats are the underdogs, and they can almost be a representation of the forgotten people; the people who don’t always fit in. People resonate with rats because they are kind of seen as an outcast.... We are not going to stop until we find placement for everyone. We don’t have any other choice."

Rats are the underdogs, but they probably do make a pretty good pet, perhaps better than the underdog dogs kindly people adopt as rescue pets. And yet, I think you'll look better to other people if you express your overflowing kindness toward a dog. You, with a rat... it will be more...

With a friend to call my own, I'll never be alone, and you my friend will see, you've got a friend in me....