July 31, 2005
Sunday Kitties
As promised, updated snaps of the kitties.
First, a picture of Nuclear Kitty after the radioactive iodine treatment:
She has slowed down quite a bit and has fattened up nicely. She has also become more affectionate. I am glad that we decided on the nuclear option.
Here is the regal kitty of the bunch:
She is in the first stages of renal failure... but you wouldn't know anything was wrong with her.
And the baby...
She also is in the first stages if renal failure. Again, you wouldn't know it. I can't believe she held still for the shot.
Update: Welcome all visitors of The Carnival of Cats.
July 29, 2005
Missing Girl
Blogger asking for help to find missing girl
This is a photo of Cheryl Ann Magner.
She has been missing since the beginning of June. She was last seen in Marin County, Ca.
Please ,anyone who has seen this 17 year old girl please call 415-472-2994. This is her mother’s phone number…please do not call unless you have information that would be helpful.
Or call the San Rafael police dept. @ 415-485-3000 or www.srpd.org
Any information or help would be greatly appreciated by the family.
With the constant bombardment of news regarding missing teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba, it seems that other missing children stories are just a mere blip on the radar. This is one such missing child story. Please spread the word and stay alert.
My thoughts are with the Magner family. May she be found soon, alive and healthy.
Hat tip: The Trenchcoat.
Friday Joe
Traveling can be hungry work for this country's finest.
Joe wasn't just hungry, but mighty thirsty as well. And nothing beats a smoke at the end of a meal. The smokes aren't mine, they were my traveling companions. Besides, Parliments always tasted more like ass than other brands.
July 22, 2005
Amen to that!
From IMDB:
Polanski branded dishonorable -
Shields attacked what he called "Roman's law of morality. This law knows of no rules - only violations of civilized conduct which, it appears, can be readily excused." He went on to add, "As to whether Mr. Polanski's reputation is capable of being damaged, sadly, we would say, it is beyond repair. An honorable man would come to this court, an honorable man would return to California, an honorable man would not behave the way he behaved - even in the swinging '60s." Shields challenged the jury to give Polanski, who lives in Paris, France, "the price of a cinema ticket or the price of the Eurostar train ticket that could have brought him to you. By that symbolic award, you can send a message across the (English) Channel about the moral values which decent people cherish." The 71-year-old film-maker has given evidence from France via video link to avoid extradition to America, where he's wanted for questioning on child sex charges dating back to 1977.
I also think that it is extremely dishonorable for certain other celebrities to accept awards in this dirtbag's honor and then fly to France to present them. (cough cough Harrison Ford cough cough.) Be a man Polanski and take responsibility for your actions...
and for bog's sake, quit your whining about the libel case. You don't mind raping a 13 year old girl, but you have issues about someone saying that you were hitting on women before your wife's funeral? What?
Ugh... I feel dirty just talking about you.
July 20, 2005
July 19, 2005
I have to do this
First of all, thank you to everyone who has left such nice supportive comments. It is greatly appreciated by me. I didn't write what I did as a "pay attention to me or I am running away" ploy, it was more a quiet desperation of the totally depressed. I'm in a funk. I know I am in a funk and it drives me absolutely bonkers. It makes writing anything coherent or rational almost impossible. Perhaps I should get really schoonckered (drunk) and verbally vomit on a page, perhaps then I will be published as the best thing since Hemingway. But probably not…
Anyway, the following is an email that hubster sent me. It originated on a message board and I have decided to share it here. I do warn my gentle readers however, there is some obscene language and if you aren't a gamer, it probably won't make much sense. But for those of you who have ever gamed, especially gamed on a public server, you will understand. You may not find it as amusing as I do, but that isn't my problem. Here goes:
If World War Two had been an RTS (Real Time Strategy) game, it would have gone a little something like this....
*Hitler[AoE] has joined the game.*
*Eisenhower has joined the game.*
*paTTon has joined the game.*
*Churchill has joined the game.*
*benny-tow has joined the game.*
*T0J0 has joined the game.*
*Roosevelt has joined the game.*
*Stalin has joined the game.*
*deGaulle has joined the game.*
Roosevelt: hey sup
T0J0: y0
Stalin: hi
Churchill: hi
Hitler[AoE]: cool, i start with panzer tanks!
paTTon: lol more like panzy tanks
T0JO: lol
Roosevelt: o this fockin sucks i got a depression!
benny-tow: haha america sux
Stalin: hey hitler you dont fight me i dont fight u, cool?
Hitler[AoE]; sure whatever
Stalin: cool
deGaulle: **** Hitler rushed some1 help
Hitler[AoE]: lol byebye frenchy
Roosevelt: i dont got **** to help, sry
Churchill: wtf the luftwaffle is attacking me
Roosevelt: get antiair guns
Churchill: i cant afford them
benny-tow: u n00bs know what team talk is?
paTTon: stfu
Roosevelt: o yah hit the navajo button guys
deGaulle: eisenhower ur worthless come help me quick
Eisenhower: i cant do **** til rosevelt gives me an army
paTTon: yah hurry the fock up
Churchill: d00d im gettin pounded
deGaulle: this is fockin weak u guys suck
*deGaulle has left the game.*
Roosevelt: im gonna attack the axis k?
benny-tow: with what? ur wheelchair?
benny-tow: lol did u mess up ur legs AND ur head?
Hitler[AoE]: ROFLMAO
T0J0: lol o no america im comin 4 u
Roosevelt: wtf! thats bullsh1t u fags im gunna kick ur asses
T0JO: not without ur harbors u wont! lol
Roosevelt: u little biotch ill get u
Hitler[AoE]: wtf
Hitler[AoE]: america hax, u had depression and now u got a huge fockin army
Hitler[AoE]: thats bullsh1t u hacker
Churchill: lol no more france for u hitler
Hitler[AoE]: tojo help me!
T0J0: wtf u want me to do, im on the other side of the world retard
Hitler[AoE]: fine ill clear you a path
Stalin: WTF u arsshoel! WE HAD A FoCKIN TRUCE
Hitler[AoE]: i changed my mind lol
benny-tow: haha
benny-tow: hey ur losing ur guys in africa im gonna need help in italy soon
sum1
T0J0: o **** i cant help u i got my hands full
Hitler[AoE]: im 2 busy 2 help
Roosevelt: yah thats right ***** im comin for ya
Stalin: church help me
Churchill: like u helped me before? sure ill just sit here
Stalin: dont be an arss
Churchill: dont be a commie. oops too late
Eisenhower: LOL
benny-tow: hahahh oh sh1t help
Hitler: o man ur focked
paTTon: oh what now biotch
Roosevelt: whos the cripple now lol
*benny-tow has been eliminated.*
benny-tow: lame
Roosevelt: gj patton
paTTon: thnx
Hitler[AoE]: WTF eisenhower hax hes killing all my sh1t
Hitler[AoE]: quit u hacker so u dont ruin my record
Eisenhower: Nuts!
benny~tow: wtf that mean?
Eisenhower: meant to say nutsack lol finger slipped
paTTon: coming to get u hitler u paper hanging hun cocksocker
Stalin: rofl
T0J0: HAHAHHAA
Hitler[AoE]: u guys are fockin gay
Hitler[AoE]: ur never getting in my city
*Hitler[AoE] has been eliminated.*
benny~tow: OMG u noob you killed yourself
Eisenhower: ROFLOLOLOL
Stalin: OMG LMAO!
Hitler[AoE]: WTF i didnt click there omg this game blows
*Hitler[AoE] has left the game*
paTTon: hahahhah
T0J0: WTF my teammates are n00bs
benny~tow: shut up noob
Roosevelt: haha wut a moron
paTTon: wtf am i gunna do now?
Eisenhower: yah me too
T0J0: why dont u attack me o thats right u dont got no ships lololol
Eisenhower: fock u
paTTon: lemme go thru ur base commie
Stalin: go to hell lol
paTTon: fock this sh1t im goin afk
Eisenhower: yah this is gay
*Roosevelt has left the game.*
Hitler[AoE]: wtf?
Eisenhower: sh1t now we need some1 to join
*tru_m4n has joined the game.*
tru_m4n: hi all
T0J0: hey
Stalin: sup
Churchill: hi
tru_m4n: OMG OMG OMG i got all his stuff!
tru_m4n: NUKES! HOLY **** I GOT NUKES
Stalin: d00d gimmie some plz
tru_m4n: no way i only got like a couple
Stalin: omg dont be gay gimmie nuculer secrets
T0J0: wtf is nukes?
T0J0: holy ****holy****hoyl****!
*T0J0 has been eliminated.*
*The Allied team has won the game!*
Eisenhower: awesome!
Churchill: gg noobs no re
T0J0: thats bull**** u fockin suck
*T0J0 has left the game.*
*Eisenhower has left the game.*
Stalin: next game im not going to be on ur team, u guys didnt help me for
****
Churchill: wutever, we didnt need ur help neway dumbarss
tru_m4n: l8r all
benny~tow: bye
Churchill: l8r
Stalin: fock u all
tru_m4n: shut up commie lol
*tru_m4n has left the game.*
benny~tow: lololol u commie
Churchill: ROFL
Churchill: bye commie
*Churchill has left the game.*
*benny~tow has left the game.*
Stalin: i hate u all fags
*Stalin has left the game.*
paTTon: lol no1 is left
paTTon: weeeee i got a jeep
*paTTon has been eliminated.*
paTTon: o sh1t!
*paTTon has left the game.*
The thread containing the above is here. I have not visited it since it is blocked from work, so I take no responsibility for what is written there. View at your own risk. However, I believe in giving credit where it is due, which is why I display the link in the first place.
July 13, 2005
Blame Game
'Cause it's always raining in my head,
Forget all the things I should have said.
- Staind
I've been watching with a detached interest how the world has been responding to the terrorist attacks in London. I knew it was merely a matter of time before the full blame of the bombings rested squarely on the US. I have always been fascinated with how people seem to love to lay blame everywhere but where it belongs. In case any of my gentle readers are wondering, it belongs on the dipshits that loaded themselves up with explosives and then wandered into areas crowded with innocent civilians to blow themselves the hell up. I honestly don't think I can make it any clearer than that.
I know, I know… there are many many people that like to blame Bush, Blair, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, Karl Rove, Condi, Rummy, Haliburtonchaneyroveinotbloodforoilevil corporations… it's just so much easier to blame them, isn't it? It's easier to make the boogeyman someone with lot o' money and power. It's easier to blame the "little Eichmanns*" who were mere cogs in the evil heinous corporate machines instead of blaming the animals that slaughtered the innocent. Why is that, do you think?
Nearly four years after the mass murder of work bound civilians, who were merely working to support their families and pay their taxes were blown up, burned up, or chose to jump from insane heights to reclaim some power over their own destiny, and the same argument comes around. And I try to remain the voice of reason, trying to lend some sanity to the decisive debate. My point has always been and will always remain that there are those that made the choice to hijack four airplanes, fly into three different structures to butcher the blameless and frankly, I am so freakin' tired of making it.
So, I have been contemplating whether or not I was going to keep blogging. Because, despite my belief system, I am tired of the echo-chamber discourse on both sides of the political aisle. And I am tired on the unending discussion on how the US is responsible for all the evil in the world. I'm tired of trying ot defend my country with logic when the opposing view will refuse to acknowledge even the most simplest of points, that the US didn't cause 9/11, that the Bush administration isn't responsible for it (as evidenced by the 9/11 commission report), that the terrorists acted out on their own. Those that were killed on that day did not deserve it. If I cannot convince anyone of that, then there is no longer any point in my blathering onward.
But since I am an exhibitionist, I don't know how long my self-imposed silence will last. Judging from previous attempts, probably not all that long. Because I will be honest with my gentle readers, I love the feel of the keyboard, I love the sound of my own inner voice and I adore the idea that there are people out there that read these page, including (and most especially) the hubster. And maybe, just maybe, if I shut up long enough, he will finally speak.
July 07, 2005
Attack on London
I just don't have the words to express how sorry I am to our allies in London. My deepest sympathies go out to all those who lost loved ones and to those who are injured from the attacks today. My thoughts are with all the folk in the UK.
For more details on the attacks, Instapundit seems to have rounded up (as per usual) a lot of useful sources.
July 06, 2005
More than Half
| You Are 65% American |
 |
It should be a higher percentage, except I cannot stand beer, I despise NASCAR and Wrassslin' and I loathe country music. (Sorry, worked in a country music radio station for over two years - I think it is enough to have given it a fair shake. I'm still not sure why I didn't off myself from the onslaught of depression...) Sorry to all my country music lovin' brethren, just a personal preference kind of thing. I also am not a huge fan of the typical July Fourth picnic foods. But I love apple pie. Am I redeemed yet?
Unabashedly stolen from Life.... Or Something Like It.
July 04, 2005
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.