Praise goddess, and more immediately cat-wrangler Marc, for some happy news to start the day:
The red kitten, who I called ‘Rusty’ has gone to his furever home. Ohana will be going home with my sister at Thanksgiving. As for the other three… I had two people (for different reasons) have to back out of taking a kitten, and then two people at work decided that they were no longer interested in getting a kitten. So, after Thanksgiving I’ll have Miri and three kittens. If I keep ’em much longer, I might as well accept this as my ‘crazy cat person’ starter kit. I’ve already named them, so that isn’t much of a leap.
Ohana
TiggerThey are still growing and learning by leaps and bounds. Tigger is the biggest of the bunch, but Sylk is still the leader when it comes to getting into stuff – she was the escape leader when I had them penned in the bedroom. They seem a little more rough and tumble when they play than when I did the video, plus I don’t have a place to feed Miri, since they are able to get up on the kitchen table where I’d been feeding her. They still sometimes kitten pile when they sleep, but they are getting too big to do it on the pet beds I have. Flynn and Tigger will sometimes sleep on their back, but the girls have yet to do so (at least when I’m around). Once in a while Tigger will sleep in the cat tree with his head over the edge and softly snore – very cute.
Flynn
SylkThe only areas still off limits are the Guest Bedroom (trying to keep it cat hair free), and the back patio. I don’t want them getting ideas about the outdoors, since I live next to a very busy street. So far, so good.
***********
Programming note: Some of the photos are going to show wrong-side-up on some devices… I reoriented the ones that Marc sent me from his cell, and last time I did that for a Garden Chat some people’s high-class iDevices flipped them back the way the machine wanted.
Apart from that much-needed respite, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Ask and You Shall Receive: Counter to Countering Terrorism Edition
ThresherK (GPad)
Sweet kitties. That is all.
Well, I am planning our Xgvs travels, aka What dessert do I bring where?
Chocolate and cranberry cheesecake for the dinner hosts. Cocoa stout cupcakes for the “second dessert” hosts.
ThresherK (GPad)
PS The blue eyes suggest Siamese in the family tree someplace. Very captivating.
OzarkHillbilly
Feeling just this side of disgusted with the Pants Wetting Party. France has less than half a weeks (I did the math) worth of good old USofA carnage and they are peeing all over themselves.
On the good side, the wife’s leg was feeling much better last night before bed, tho she woke me up several times during the night with “ouchouchouch” as she tried to roll over (she talks in her sleep) so I expect her to be in increased pain when I wake her up at 5. It probably is just a deep bone bruise, but she is still going to see her orthopedist today, just to be on the safe side.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: Bad phrasing up above, the “they” I am referring to is our own Republicans.
OzarkHillbilly
Russia’s FSB:
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: What happened to her leg?
mclaren
Here’s a cute vid of a hyper dachshund getting calmed down by a cool kitty.
After the Paris attacks, we could all use some calming down.
Betty Cracker
The two on the left in the bottom photo definitely look part Siamese. Every Siamese cat I’ve known has an unusual voice. I wonder if these kittens inherited that Siamese trait.
Gimlet
@OzarkHillbilly:
I suspect Cthulhu or the hand of Ming.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: She took a fall the night before last (I was outside so I didn’t see what happened) She thought she might have rebroken the fibula that she broke about 10 yrs ago (felt the same, same location) When she woke up yester morn she could hardly move it and was in tears the pain was so bad. Thought I was in for an ER morning. But after her shower (I had to help her in and out) and getting dressed it felt better and she decided to go to work anyway. Than by the time she made her lunch and headed out the door she was walking with a limp but not in need of her crutches at all.
Took me a half hour to dig them out of the loft in the shop-whine-.
Gimlet
After refreshing anyone else getting a very long load indicator after messages seem done?
Marc
@Betty Cracker: Miri has a soft ‘meow’, and all the kittens have inherited it. The only loud meow came from Rusty when he was leaving in the pet carrier – but his new home has two other kitties and a dog, so he isn’t lonely.
Mustang Bobby
Thank you for the kitten pictures; they are much needed after the past four days of carnage and uncontrolled bladders.
I wish I could adopt a cat but alas, the rental agreement on the house exacts a huge security deposit and I have furniture that has “scratching post” written all over it. I enjoy seeing pictures and videos and playing with the cats who own my friends, but that’s it; I have to settle for my 53-year-old Stieff kitten Snowball. Feed him a little cotton and he’s a friend for life.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh man, so sorry for her! About 5 years ago my bride tripped getting out of the van and broke hers. We were two hours from home and she was hurtin but we made it back and got her treated here. She’s never had to depend on someone else to drive and that was an illuminating 6 weeks! Glad she’s ok.
Betty Cracker
@Marc: Glad you found a good home for him!
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: My cocker hurt her leg this evening while trying to jump on the bed. I feel a bit guilty because she tried to jump up once and didn’t make it and I encouraged her to try again and she landed on her back leg wrong. She doesn’t seem in any pain but isn’t a happy pup.
Tommy
Speaking of cats, well two points. Love the three cats that crashed the G20 summit Second, been up for almost an hour and not seen my cat yet. Weird/rare. By this time she’d usually be nudging me so hard in my leg with her head she is about to spin me around in my office chair. Just her way of saying, “dude, I need some wet cat food over here!”
OK off to watch AMC’s new show, Into the Badlands before starting a day of planning for a new project, which my somewhat OCD seem finds one of the most enjoyable parts of a job. Just wonder of Badlands is as good as all the hype after the first show seems to indicate it is.
bemused
Watching msnbc now and as I expected Joe is just trashing Obama for being annoyed and not freaking out like he and the other pants peeing Republicans are.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Lil Bit is recovering well from her CCL surgery but jumping is dos def out. It’s a bitch keeping track of her and she’s spending a good bit of time in her kennel or even on a leash in the kitchen.
BillinGlendaleCA
@bemused: Joe seems to think Paris, France is a city in the US.
ETA: STFU DiFi.
Satby
@ Marc, yes, keeping the ones who don’t get adopted is how I ultimately ended up with 12 rescues, because after several months everyone has bonded. As long as they all get spayed /neutered, you should be fine. But get that done soon, because they don’t have incest taboos once the mating hormones hit.
Satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I wondered how she was, glad to hear it wasn’t broken!
BillinGlendaleCA
CLICK, can’t take any more of the pants pissing brigade.
David Koch
National GOP poll – UMass
Trump………….31%
Carson…………22%
Cruz…………….13%
Rubio…………….9%
Fiorina………….4%
¿Jeb?………….. 3% ◄
Can any stop the ¿Rubiomentum?
Mustang Bobby
@bemused: And if Obama did get the vapors over Paris, all the Republicans would be telling him to man up and stop being such a weinie.
Gimlet
After refreshing, anyone else having a load signal continue long after the messages appear?
raven
OK Gene, explains YOUR bitching about Obama’s TONE.
eta, Oh, what he said was correct, we just don’t like how it was said.
Tommy
@bemused:
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I saw a graphic somebody had put together on Facebook yesterday. It said:
I hardly ever go to Facebook, but I have a distant cousin that kind of lives in the middle of nowhere, on the top of a mountain in Calfornia, and she just lost her husband and is estranged from her kids. My parents worry about her and since she spent a week at my folks house this summer, first they had seen her in 30+ years, they asked me to reach out to her. She is a raging liberal like myself, so I guess parents thought we’d have common ground to start with :).
So went to track her down on Facebook, she is an active user. I have to admit all the posts in support of both France but even more posts about the fact we SHOULD accept as many Syrians as possible, well that warmed by heart.
Might be about the first time I can recall saying that about Facebook!
Anne Laurie
@Marc: Yeah, I think there’s quite a bit of Siamese (well, “oriental type”) in those kittens, even more than their mom! One thing to keep in mind: Meezers and part-Meezers are notorious for “coming into heat” (sexually maturity) at a ridiculously young age. If your vet hasn’t already warned you to get them fixed as soon as possible, be sure you take up the question with him. (I’m sure Miri’s already on the schedule for her ‘fix’, now that she’s no longer a nursing mum… )
Our vets neuter male kittens as soon as they weigh three pounds — the little guy we adopted after he accosted a Balloon-Juice commentor and her dog on the street probably wasn’t three months old when he had The Operation. It didn’t slow him down much; two years later, he’s a fine 15lb figure of a cat.
Gimlet
@David Koch:
Totaling up the percentages, “None of the Above” appears to be in third place.
bemused
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Gawd, only 15 minutes into show and it’s nothing but a howling tantrum fest. Obama is “emotionally disconnected” instead of running in circles, sobbing and screaming like Republicans are. I can’t even…
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: My wife was a real pain in the rear the first time she broke it too, starting with insisting for 3 days that “It is NOT broken!”
BillinGlendaleCA
@Gimlet: I did for one refresh, but it seems ok now.
bemused
@Mustang Bobby:
Absolutely. I’m amazed Obama is as patient as he is with these spoiled brat toddlers.
BillinGlendaleCA
@bemused: He gave a message of condolence and support on Friday. I’ll admit, I’ve been pretty disconnected from some of the comments over the weekend since I was busy setting up my new PC, so I might have missed some things.
Baud
@David Koch:
Looks like Cruzmemtum is real. Maybe he can pull this off.
Baud
What is Tim Ryan at MoJo smoking?
Mustang Bobby
@Baud: Okay, I’m stumped as to what “ferret-like journalistic questioning” amounts to. Does it chatter and climb up your leg?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mustang Bobby: I guess that was the tingle that Tweety was feeling on his leg.
David Koch
So yesterday they were whining that Obama wasn’t “engaged”. Today they’re whining his “tone” is too strong.
same ole. same ole.
Betty Cracker
@Mustang Bobby: It hides your socks under the dresser?
Satby
On the agenda today: updating pictures in my Etsy store and applying to every open job I can reasonably fit. Got the news yesterday that I am being laid off from my part time job due to lack of clients. Which wasn’t completely unexpected, as I only have one active now. But I was already stretched thin by taking my exchange students (and if I hadn’t, they would not have been placed at all this year, so I don’t regret it).
Hoping to land a seasonal job by the end of this week at least, then I can keep looking for a permanent one.
BillinGlendaleCA
Snow!!!
David Koch
Jesus of Nazareth
Christie of Jersey
Tommy
@David Koch: I saw those sets of quotes yesterday. The first one is spot on to say the least. Oh and Christie is a member of the “pro-life” party, so why don’t we turn away orphans/young children in need. That just makes total sense (clearly it doesn’t!).
Mustang Bobby
@David Koch: It would be really easy to make a snarky comment about how Gov. Christie himself could feed a family of four from his breakfast leftovers, but that would be childish and rude so I won’t do it.
bemused
@Tommy:
At least Joe paused his Obama rant to say governors have no authority to reject refuges.
The Republican governors freaking out about Syrian refuges should have to explain why they haven’t had their panties in a twist over all the refuges that have settled in their states in just the last few years. I think it was Wapo that has maps of states and refuge numbers, iirc.
“No room at the inn” is a great line to describe the anti-refuge attitude. Then there is the quote on the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free”. It’s not surprising they don’t want to extend a hand to refuges when they don’t give a rat’s ass about home grown poor, tired, huddled americans.
OzarkHillbilly
@Satby: Damn, woman…
Gloom despair agony on me
Deep dark depression excessive misery
If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all
Gloom despair agony on me
Gimlet
@bemused:
Moochers!!1!!
BillinGlendaleCA
@bemused: The Statue of Liberty is actually in New Jersey.
David Koch
See. They never cared about Christianity. It was just a ruse to dress up their various bigotries (ie “I don’t hate gays, it’s just that the bible says they’re wrong.”)
bemused
@Gimlet:
As opposed to hard working Republicans who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps with not a lick of help whatsoever!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone:)
Tommy
@bemused: Well I saw another good point on this I had not thought about yesterday, but stupid simple once you hear it. Many of the clowns running for POTUS say we should take in Christians, but not Muslims. OK first off I just have to say fuck them for even thinking this, much less saying it out loud!
But how do they think we can successfully vet the Syrians to ensure they are Christians, but we can’t vet them to ensure they are not terrorist? Their logic doesn’t compute on so many different levels. But I guess that isn’t nothing new to say the least.
David Koch
?
David Koch
–
David Koch
David Koch
Cervantes
@BillinGlendaleCA:
It’s surrounded by New Jersey (water) but administratively it’s part of Manhattan.
Kay
You have to admire just ignoring their bullshit and carrying on. I don’t even know if a ban is enforceable by a governor and if it is the governors should have to show where they’re deriving their authority to do this.
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/Politics/2015/11/17/Kasich-other-governors-say-no-more-Syrian-refugees.html#M4tq3jdjXlc078zu.99
Gimlet
@Tommy:
Secret handshake and holy water that sizzles on contact with an infidel.
Kay
Oh, okay so they have no actual authority to enact this:
But we’ll all pretend they do, so we don’t hurt their feelings.
Baud
@Kay:
That’s how most of us get through our work day.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I have read in a couple of places that governors have no say in immigration.
David Koch
Gimlet
Apropos of nothing, the Euro is down to 1.0667 dollars. That should make travel to Florida, Texas or some other foreign country significantly cheaper for the near future.
Baud
@David Koch:
Nor do liberals. Glass houses, you know.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: ThinkProgess have a very, very detailed overview about why governors have no say, including all the related court cases. Worth a read:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/11/16/3722628/no-state-governors-cant-refuse-to-accept-syrian-refugees/
The main takeaway is the last graph:
Germy
My favorite cat this week
Germy
The GOPers will threaten to shut down the government over the refuge issue.
how will the scaremongering affect the 2016 election?
Baud
What strikes me the most about the refugee “debate” and similar debates we have centered on compassion and empathy is how few strong religious figures there are on the left. Real change from my childhood.
David Koch
Iowa Old Lady
A friend of mine fostered a litter of kittens, and when they were old enough, they spent Saturdays on display at PetSmart, waiting to be adopted. An organization sponsored it all and vetted the families. Maybe Marc’s kittens can do that, because four cats is a lot. In some places, it’s not even legal to have that many.
Kay
@Baud:
I’m sure Mike Huckabee has a full calendar of tv appearances today where he can tell us how afraid we all are. He’s like a caricature of smarmy, grifting, conniving “preacher”- he could play that role in a movie without changing a thing.
Gimlet
@Iowa Old Lady:
If he dyes all fur the same color say black, when the neighbors see it in the window, they will think he only has one cat.
Baud
@Kay:
Remember after 9-11, the first people Fallwell and Robertson blamed were American liberals. It’s the same playbook — use fear to rally people against their domestic adversaries.
Kay
@Baud:
I think they’re at a genuine disadvantage because of the compassion and empathy. We had a Lefty religious as a congressional candidate a couple of cycles ago and she was incapable of black and white demonizing and therefore countering Righty religious people. Maybe it’s self-selecting like that. She would have had to turn into a completely different person.
bemused
@Tommy:
If there was actually a religion test for immigrants, must be Christian, I imagine there would be endless arguments among the different Christian churches about which brand of Christianity the test would be based on.
SteveinSC
@bemused: While MSNBC is running around with their hair on fire and Mika is clutching her pearls, there is news in France that Assad may be on his way out in a “political transition.”: http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/kerry-la-syrie-peut-etre-a-quelques-semaines-d-une-transition-politique-17-11-2015-1982312_24.php
But hey, why should a few facts interfere with MSNBC”s new found Fox-Lite format and GOP memes?
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I’m trying to think of a strong religious leader on the left (someone with significant stature in the US). Seems like most of them have been dead for decades. Unless you count Pope Frankie, and that would be debatable on many points.
Kay
@Baud:
It sounds like chaos and freaking out to me- not “strong” but weak and shallow- so hopefully it will sound like that to the general public. We sometimes over-estimate their political genius. They hit with one of these bullshit campaigns about 50% of the time- I don’t think it’s any better than “random”.
bemused
@David Koch:
Huh, Morning Joe read a whole list of quite different opinions on Obama, Krauthammer, etc, oddly, not one of these.
debbie
@bemused:
There have been more than a few protests voiced in Ohio about Somali refugees, even before 9/11.
Baud
@Kay:
I view it as structural. Compassionate lefty religious figures were a product of a white working class culture that used to be more economically liberal but since Reagan is now largely conservative. When you have a smaller point to draw from, you have fewer people who can excel.
debbie
@Kay:
Someone needs to ask Kasich if it’s his good, compassionate Christian heart telling him not to accept any refugees.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Nostalgia is a dangerous thing. I’m not talking about a single figure, but simply more lefty religious voices in the conversation. But I could easily be misremembering.
bemused
@debbie:
I didn’t know that but did the criticisms come from governors and legislators?
MattF
@David Koch: Oh, well… what’s the point of compassion, anyhow? Why give away anything to losers? Where’s the benefit to me?
Matt McIrvin
@David Koch: I think part of the problem is that, with inequality still terrible, Republicans in Congress and the states doing their worst to prevent improvement, and lots of people still long-term unemployed or otherwise hurting even under a conventionally “good” economy, it’s difficult for liberals to say that good times are here: it’s contrary to our basic message.
If Republicans were in charge of everything, they’d have no trouble taking credit. The people who matter to them are doing fine. But since there’s a Democratic President, they can simply ignore that and insist that the recovery is a hoax, and we can’t really hit back.
Iowa Old Lady
@Betty Cracker: Isn’t there a Sister Simone something who works with liberal causes? Of course, since we’re talking Catholic church, she’s not in a leadership position.
Baud
@Kay:
Me too, and I hope so too.
SteveinSC
Why the fuck is my comment awaiting Moderation?
debbie
@MattF:
I think mostly legislators. Governors prior to Kasich were Democrats or RINOs.
ETA: But plenty of citizens have expressed uneasiness all along.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: There’s certainly a bunch of liberal theologians in Europe. And in the US, I’d count Gary Wills and Karen Armstrong as liberal public intellectuals with a major religious thread in their thinking.
debbie
On a cheerier note, Obama’s gotten under McCain’s skin again. He’s objecting to the president’s statement about people “popping off” about what should be done about Syria. It was amusing listening to McCain do his own self-righteous popping off on NPR earlier this morning.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: Partly that’s a matter of evolving standards. During the era when there were major religious left figures, positions that are now ordinary and centrist on, say, gay rights were completely off the crazy radical end of the political spectrum.
Pope Frankie would have been considered unambiguously leftist 50 years ago (when the center on economic/distributional issues was actually left of where it is today). He’s right-wing on all the sex-related controversies, but in a standard Catholic way that used to be pretty much the norm.
Gin & Tonic
@bemused: Here’s what you want.
Baud
@debbie: That is good news.
Satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah. But you know, it could always be worse. I’m not a Syrian refugee, for instance.
It’s tough, but this too shall pass.
bemused
Gov Mark Dayton “has opened Minnesota’s arms fully to Syrian refuges” having been assured by WH all refuges subject to highest level of security checks.
Not so fast said Republican House Speaker Daudt who wants Dayton to call on President Obama to halt Syrian refuges until Homeland Security completes a full review of security procedures and clearances.
One thing I am sure of is that no amount of full reviews of security would pass the pant wetter’s test.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay:
My instinct is always, always to assume that these appeals will hit. I think it’s because, while my parents are pretty liberal, I grew up in the age of Reagan in a conservative neighborhood and went to a pretty right-wing college (it still is: I just saw an article using the place as an example of how few people notice when “PC” hysteria happens on the right). I’ve been seeing old college friends on Facebook expressing happiness that their governor is keeping the terrorist refugees out.
So I instinctively think of liberalism as an embattled set of attitudes that only I and a few weird friends and family members hold, and the social norm as super-conservative.
bemused
@Gin & Tonic:
That has to be my favorite religion joke. Truth too.
Gimlet
Not necessarily on topic, but worth a look (Editorial Cartoon Strip)
http://assets.amuniversal.com/bc5a00206ec901331d01005056a9545d
Satby
@Betty Cracker: Oddly, the Dalai Lama has cross appeal to both the conservatives and the liberals on my FB feed. Maybe he’ll say something soon about the refugees, after all, he was one himself.
OzarkHillbilly
@Satby: “It always rains before there is a rainbow.”
“It has been written that trouble came to pass, but no where has it been written that trouble came to stay.”
ET
For some reason that picture at the fridge is making me laugh.
Satby
@OzarkHillbilly: aww thanks!
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Glad the wife’s leg is better and that she’s going to the orthopedist. Has icing helped at all?
Suezboo
@Tommy:
Tommy, please fix spelling righthand column. “Donate” not “Dontate”. Thank you – it’s driving me crazy.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SteveinSC:
FYWP doesn’t like “naked” hyperlinks right now. Hopefully a temporary situation.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: We only put ice on it immediately after, the next morning was just getting her out the door, and when she got home the 24 hr window was over. Not about to put any heat on a bruise.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
They say once 24 hours has passed, it doesn’t matter whether heat or ice is used. But since you’re not sure what the injury even is, you’re wise not to try heat.
ET: I’m sure you know this, but I was told that after 24 hours, it’s whichever best eases the aching.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Desmond Tutu?
JPL
@ET: That one made me laugh also. The cats have certainly taken over.
Satby
@ET: @JPL: That was my favorite picture too. Typical kittens. When we fostered litters like that the kids complained that they had to shuffle everywhere, because the kittens always wanted to surround you and see every little thing that you did.
Suezboo
@Cervantes:
Hey, the Arch (Tutu) is one of our Good Ones. Get your own. Aren’t Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson etc all Revs? Or don’t they count because they are all up in the politix nowadays? Louis Farrakhan ?
SteveinSC
@Steeplejack (phone): O.K. I’ll just yank a chunk of text out next time.
PurpleGirl
@Anne Laurie: Some rescue/shelter groups have kittens spayed/neutered at 8 weeks and 2 lbs. That age and weight doesn’t seem to create problems and the kittens are safe around each other.
Suezboo
But I agree only The Arch, Dalai Lama and the Pope have worldwide morality cred.
sharl
Regarding the rightward shift of Christianity in the U.S. over the years, I wonder if there was a latent rightward movement just waiting to happen within most churches and specific sects, which was ultimately triggered by various external events.
There have been various initiatives to help encourage that rightward movement. Kevin Kruse (historian IIRC) has written about the U.S. business community co-opting churches starting in the 30s or so, in order to fight against New Deal regulations. There is something called the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) that encourages “conservative Christianity”. Left-oriented Christian opponents to the worst of the Dubya era brought that to my intention as a surfed the intertoobz back in those dark days. And of course Fred Clark (The Slacktivist) has been shining a light on the hypocrisy and casual cruelty in much of right-wing Christianity for years.
rikyrah
This is ridiculous! She is a THIEF!
She should not anything!
WTF?
…………….
Byrd-Bennett entitled to at least $140K in public pensions; cost CPS $900K
WRITTEN BY LAUREN FITZPATRICK
POSTED: 11/15/2015, 02:06PM
Chicago taxpayers paid almost $900,000 for three and a half years’ work by disgraced former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.
And though she’s a felon since pleading guilty in a contract rigging scheme at CPS, she still stands to cost taxpayers in districts that employed her more than $140,000 in annual public pensions.
Byrd-Bennett’s decades-long education career effectively ended in Chicago in April after federal subpoenas looking into her and a $20.5 million no-bid deal she gave a former employer, The SUPES Academy, became public. She resigned June 1, was indicted in October and pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud within a week of being charged. She faces prison time and has vowed to cooperate in the ongoing investigation
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/1099692/byrd-bennett-public-pensions
PurpleGirl
@BillinGlendaleCA: I spent the weekend visiting the cat/kitten rescuer I know in NE CT. She doesn’t have her TV hooked up yet and I didn’t bring my netbook, so I was pretty much cut off from the news.
There was a party (on line) for opening the gifts Cassie got for the new house (the Kitten Kastle). I was surrounded for the weekend by older cat and only one litter of kittens. But oh are those kittens something else. Only 5 weeks old and racing around and walking through the fence of their pen. Two kept climbing my leg. Two of the older cats still in Cassie’s care kept me company overnight.
Cervantes
@Suezboo:
Yes, for one thing, Sharpton, Jackson, and Farrakhan are not seen by a majority as primarily religious figures.
danielx
From that noted humanitarian Hermann Goering…..
There truly is nothing new under the sun, politically speaking.
danielx
Also, too, thanks to Marc for the kitten pics; I’ve been going through withdrawals. Badly needed these days.
PurpleGirl
@Iowa Old Lady: The rescuer I know brings various kittens and cats to a local PetCo on the weekends. She shows them on-line at a couple of pet adoption sites. I know in Manhattan there are several PetCo stores and each one has a deal with a rescue operation to feature cats and kittens.
Just One More Canuck
@ThresherK (GPad): you send them to a suburb of Toronto
Cervantes
@danielx:
In the same vein, here’s old friend Nicky Machiavelli:
danielx
@Cervantes:
A secret Jesuit, no doubt.
danielx
Have there been any reported sightings of Lindsay Graham wearing pee stained trousers? Just curious…
Cervantes
@danielx:
Very secret.
He was dead before (other) Jesuits existed!
rikyrah
Shadi Hamid
@shadihamid
I’ve been critical of Obama, but there’s something to be said for having a president who’s, well, not a bigot.
TaMara (BHF)
Great way start the mornin’. And nothing wrong with 4 cats, as long as you scoop that litter (and I recommend high quality corn litter to eliminate smell) every morning, no one will be the wiser.
Enjoy your clowder.
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: Ah, that reminds me — Sister Prejean. She’s a moral leader at any rate.
@Cervantes: I’m ashamed to admit I thought he was dead!
rikyrah
@Tommy:
that was too funny.
Just One More Canuck
@Tommy: My wife and I both woke up about 530 this morning to the sound of our cat throwing up – we haven’t found where she left this little present
I know you’ve received a lot of grief over the changes, but thank you for all your work
Suezboo
Why is nobody beating the drum for Jimmy Carter as an OK Christian-type public figure? I,a furriner, think he has cred.
Diana
sorry I come late to this thread and apologies if this has been suggested before, but can you persuade those few who are taking kittens off your hands to take two? that way they get to stay with a sibling and you wind up with fewer cats.
But thanks for the update. Some of us were wondering how Miri was getting along.
Elizabelle
Can a catio be far behind?
Lovely kits, Marc. Enjoy. Hope you find some more forever homes.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Betty Cracker:
I think Matt McIrvin is right — the Catholic Church used to take the “lefty” side when it came to poverty and refugees (I’m thinking of the Sanctuary movement of the 1980s), but between changing social mores about homosexuality, the child molestation scandals, and the swing to the right by US bishops during the JPII years, they squandered that moral authority. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been another organization that’s been able to fill that empty space. You Protestants are just too damn disorganized.
;-)
Also, if we’re making a list of The Good Guys, we need to add Fr. Greg Boyle (SJ, of course) to the list. He’s the guy who started Homeboy Industries here in Los Angeles, which helps gang members escape that life and get the counseling and job training they need to get a fresh start.
Matt McIrvin
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Some of the old mainline Protestant churches did/do as well, but their influence has declined as people deserted them either for non-religion or for right-wing evangelicalism.
Shana
OT, but I haven’t had a new post show up on my MacBook since John’s I’m Back post on the 15th. Any idea what’s going on and how to fix it?
kc
They are adorable! Thanks for the pics.
Steeplejack
@Shana:
I’m late to the thread, but, in case you come back, have you tried pressing your browser refresh button to explicitly make the front page get updated? That works on my Android cell phone.