"The Black Panther Betrayal" Online Book cont.

Let's continue with the online book, "The Black Panther Betrayal: Government At Work": "One deer came onto the road from the north side and nervously milled about on the road. She appeared not to know what to do. Her companion was waiting for her on the south side of the road, but she appeared reluctant to go into the jungle-woods too. She turned back toward the road but did not step onto it. Both deer were clearly upset and confused. I then flashed my lights at an approaching truck which was the first vehicle I had seen on the road. The truck halted, and both pickups waited until the deer on the road joined her companion on the south side. The truck moved up to me, and being such an extrovert, I hailed the driver saying, "Nice deer, aye?"
"Yeah, these deer are really upset about something. One almost ran into the truck a few yards back. Be careful."
He was about to drive off, so I quickly asked, "Tell me, have you ever seen a black panther?"
First he hesitated and then replied, "I've seen two in the past twelve years."
"When did you see the last one?"
"I saw him last fall."
"What was the situation?" I persisted.
"I was fishing not far from here in my airboat. I had been there a while. He came down to the river. It was a clean shot."
"Oh, I wouldn't shoot one!"
"I wouldn't either. I'm just telling you that I would see him perfectly clear."
"Are you sure it was black?"
"Absolutely. I know there's more than one in here."
His buddy then spoke up, obviously to show me that they were animal lovers as well as hunters and fishermen. Many non-outdoorspeople don't understand how that is possible, but it is true. His buddy said, "We've got two foxes that come into our campfire together. One's only got three legs. Some hunter shot the other one off."
We chatted a bit longer, and I gave them my card. I then proceeded to the end of the road. There was a public landing and the Ecofina River on the left side of the road with a closed lodge and campsite on the right. I turned off the radio to listen to the river and became very aware of how much noise my truck engine was making. Like my father, I am mechanically challenged. First, I thought it was a loose fan belt, but then I worked myself into believing something was wrong with my transmission. I was in the middle of nowhere. Oddly, a huge sign on the side of the road said that firearms were prohibited. Who or what was going to protect you then?
I turned around and headed for Perry, about thirty miles away. I was driving with the air conditioning on, but the window open. That way I was perfectly comfortable but had great vision for what was going on outside the truck. My left arm was resting on the door, and the high beams were on. I continued worrying about the racket coming from under the hood as I passed the spot where the jittery deer had stayed out in the road. I went around a little bend in the road and suddenly, just below my left elbow, I thought I saw a large, black animal with a small, square head tucked between two massive shoulders that rolled as the animal walked. It fit the description of a black panther completely except I didn't see a tail. With all the looking and talking about black panthers that day, I went for a null hypothesis, saying aloud, "It has to be a black lab." To Be Continued
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Bullets From Two-Guns: I was talking to my sister, Sarah, who has been a self-proclaimed socialist most of the life, though now she avoids that label. I said to her, "I look for the day when people are independent and successful enough that people with money are no longer forced to take care of them. I look forward to the day when everyone can either take care of himself or private charity will be adequate to help them. I look forward to people not being forced by the gun and prison to take care of others." Now what could my socialist sister say? She couldn't say, "Oh, I think people should be forced to take care of people period! There's nothing higher than that." You would have to have a very serious character defect to say that. On the other hand, Sarah did not want to admit that if was immoral to force people to take care of other people, so she confused the issue by saying, "You're talking about taxes not welfare." Unfortunately, I got into a discussion of apparently necessary taxes instead of replying, "Public welfare comes from taxes, Sarah."
I promised to give you the name of the very mannerly lawyer who nonetheless was very disrespectful in what he said to me. I tried to find his name, I would know it if I saw it, in the yellow pages, but couldn't. Next time I'm in Gainesville, I will to go by his office. It's very distinctive for it has the highest palm tree in Gainesville in the front.