Will it be a full blown earthquake?

Seems the political Teutonic plates began to shift on November 7th of this year. Now if you stop and listen carefully you can hear the rumble. It may not be a full fledged earthquake, but again, it just might be.

The more we hear the word “impeach” mentioned the more we should prepare for something big on the rector scale.

When you hear right wingers like Jay Severin, as he did on the Imus show yesterday, calling for bush’s impeachment you know something is changing.

***

I didn’t get to visit as many of your sites yesterday as I wanted because I had a domestic chore to deal with. I have French doors that refuse to clean their own panes of glass. So I had that chore plus all the other windows in my house. If you do Goggle Earth, you will most likely see a house with the shiniest cleanest windows on the planet. That would be my house and that would be me smiling inside that house.

Religious Hypocrisy or Religious Bullshit? It’s Both!

Even if you don’t believe in God or Jesus or any of the rest of it, you probably know a little something about the reputation of the Jesus character. I do, because I was sent to church and Sunday School as a little kid.

I learned that Jesus was a kind gentle person. I learned he cared for the poor and downtrodden. I learned that he taught people and did not judge people.

Okay, fast forward now to the compassionate conservatives. They are neither. Now let’s focus on the Christian Coalition. They may be a coalition, but they sure as hell don’t fit any definition of Christian that I’ve ever heard of.

If you are going to employ the name of Christ into your club’s name, shouldn’t you at least show some traits of that person in your actions?

Now we learn that the Christian Coalition doesn’t want to show any concern for the environment or the poor because it might be viewed as taking too liberal a stance. Damn, are they saying that Christ is too liberal for them? No wonder their only view of life seems to come from only the eye for an eye, Old Testament. The New Testament has too much of a liberal Christ-like liberal leaning for them.

The Christian Coalition is more concerned about remaining conservative than they are about the earth they say their God created or their fellow man who they believe was created by God in his own image. I call religious bullshit on all of them.

( If you aren’t familiar with what I’m talking about you can read about it here )

Now for some it's a Civil War

Several in the MSM yesterday decided that they will call what is going on in Iraq a “civil war”.

Before the war began many in the media were nothing more than messengers for the white house’s propaganda. They were the lap dogs of whatever the administration wanted them to say. There was little objective reporting and the average American believed what they were saying to be true because they were the “news”.

Perhaps some of those same voices of that time realize now what their cooperation with the administration has caused and they are feeling a tinge of guilt.

Since the same MSM was so helpful in getting the American people to support going into this war, might this admission of a “civil war” be their way of attempting to help the country see reality. They are basically defying the administration by using that term, and that may be the real turning point in this war, at least for the honesty and integrity of the media.

***
Happiness in a most unexpected place

Friday night we dropped in at our local Blockbuster to grab a copy of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. To my shock and dismay, all the copies were checked out. Where I live I would not expect that movie to be noticed or even acknowledged, but it was. It appeared that there had been at least 32 copies available and they were all gone. How great is that! Somebody is listening. Somebody cares.

These days, you take your happy moments wherever you can find them and I took this one and thought about it all weekend long. I thought you might want to share it too.

Report from the Frontline in the War on Retail

As we have been hearing for the past couple of days, there were a few injuries last Friday as many Americans fought bravely on the frontline in the War on Retail. We saw numerous pictures of shoppers camping out, sleeping on the sidewalk and waiting for the stores to open. They were doing this so they could punch and pull themselves to the counter to pay half price for something that will inevitably become landfill in the not too distant future. What courage they displayed.

Meanwhile, also worth mentioning, in the news was the fact that our soldiers are fighting and dying in Iraq for some drummed up reason, yet to be discovered. Also hundreds of Iraqis have met their death as well.

Perhaps the civilian retail soldiers who are willing to sacrifice so much personal time for a half-priced game, or whatever, could show the same level of sacrifice for their country if they truly support this war in Iraq and the man who sent our troops there.

The national news networks actually showed the hell that has become Iraq and then followed that story with the coverage of Americans fighting and pushing one another to cash in on the Black Friday sales. I don’t think they recognized the irony in putting the two stories back to back.

If people in other countries saw these reports, there is only one conclusion they could draw. They must see us as selfish, greedy, mean people who have no true heart or conscience. Maybe they’re right.

Cowboys Gobbled Up The Buccaneers!

My computer and I returned home today. The computer tubes have been repaired and it could come back home to recuperate. Our trip to Tampa and the dinner were for the most part uneventful and in a good sort of way.

Dinner came off without a hitch and it was delicious. Mr. Pop’s sister is not only a good veterinarian but she has become a good cook.

After the eating-a-rama on National Eating Day* was finished, it was time to watch football. All the Buccaneer family fans gathered around this one lonely Cowboys fan. The game began and the Bucs came out strong. Bippity, boppity boo, the Bucs scored. I was surrounded by cheering and yahoos. I sat politely and smiled. I left the room to refill my iced tea glass and returned to some sour looking faces. Uh oh, seemed the Cowboys had intercepted the Bucs and were going to capitalize on their good fortune. Sure enough, bippity, boppity, boo, the Cowboys put seven on the board. At this point it appeared likely that the Cowboys were sharpening their knives and forks and preparing to feast on roasted Buccaneers.

At the end of the first quarter the surrounding family of Bucs fans were poo pooing their team. Seemed all of a sudden it was time for them to hit the road. Perhaps their sour grapes needed attention. Mr. Pop’s brothers decided it was time to head home. As prearranged, Mr. Pop and I had to transport Mr. Pop’s mother back to her home.

Next I saw of the game was the fourth quarter and the Dallas Cowboys were just cleaning the meat off the last bones of the Tampa Buccaneers. The Cowboys had gobbled them all up.

I had a great Thanksgiving and I’m pretty sure all your good wishes helped make it so. Okay there was that sweet football game too. I hope your holiday was great and uneventful in a good sort of way. Was it?

*Yes, that term is my creation.

Thoughts from an idle mind

Less than an hour after I posted here yesterday my DSL service went down. I mean big time down. Since Mr. Pop’s lab uses the same service and his was also down, I knew it was a local problem. I called to report it and after listening to what seemed like a zillion recorded messages and hearing a zillion more recorded menu options, the final recording told me they couldn’t connect me to repair and I should call back later.
F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-O-N!

Since I was locked out of cyber-world. I had lots of time to think as I did my household chores and prepared for our holiday trip. Here are a few of my thoughts.

Norah O’Donnell should moderate her laugh. Or better yet, just keep her mouth shut.

Chris Matthews should stop having guests on his show and simply interview himself. His is the only voice you hear when he interviews someone. He talks over his guests. He will ask his guest a question and before they can say anything, he will answer the question. He should stop this aggravating habit. Or better yet, just keep his mouth shut.

I am really sick of hearing about the “battle” between Nancy Pelosi and Deny Hoyer. The press and the Republicans are great at making mountains out of something less than even a molehill.

The white house should keep george bush away from TV cameras for the rest of his term. We have already heard everything he has to say and we’ve heard it over and over. He is looking and sounding even more irrelevant and foolish. It’s not even comedic entertainment anymore. His is probably another mouth that should remain shut.

And finally….

Seems after all this time and all the deaths and all the money, we are now smothered with groups studying the problems in Iraq. We have the original Iraq Study Group led by James Baker. We have the president’s own, just whipped up, study group. And now we have the Pentagon’s own inside study group. After over three and a half years we have three study groups trying to figure out what we should do tomorrow. I guess better late than never is the theory, but what if it’s too late?

***
If you have emailed me during the past couple of weeks, I didn’t get your message. Seems Bellsouth has been doing maintenance on their email and as a result all the email sent to me during this time has gone down some dark well, never to be found again. So if you have sent something, please resend it. Hopefully the problem has been fixed.

My computer is going in today for some “tube work”. I should have it back tonight. But if I don’t , I’ll take this time to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. That wish comes from the whole Pop family, Fred the Cat and Murphy too.

21-14

Yes, I know the world is going to hell in a jet-propelled hand basket. Sanity is difficult to find. Politicians are all over the map on what to do about the war. Bush appeared on TV in a Vietnamese gown and I found that funny as hell for so many reasons. He finally goes to Vietnam and he puts on a dress. Make up your own joke on that one.

There was one highlight this weekend. My Dallas Cowboys blew out the candles on the Indianapolis’ Colts’ perfect season. I can’t get this smile off my face. I’m nowhere near smug about the Thanksgiving day game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Cowboys, but I have a better feeling about it now. I’m not as afraid as I was of being the real turkey at Mr. Pop’s, Buccaneers fans family holiday dinner, in Tampa..

ND-Anna

Who is she? See Fred the Cat's post yesterday for the answer.

Friday with Fred the Cat

Fred the Cat here. Wanna know a little secret? Of course you do. I have a lady friend. She is a wild woman, in that no human can get too close to her. She and her siblings were born in the woods nearby just before Hurricane Frances hit here in 2004. They lived through that hurricane and the next two. She says it was scary but they made it.

As time went by all of her family (the Hurricats) moved on, except her brother who passed away. No one knows what happened to him, but Mr. Pop found him laying in the yard. He was very sick He was almost dead, so Mr. Pop put him on a towel in a little box and softly petted him during his last breaths. Mr. Pop is a true animal lover and that little cat received a proper burial, complete with human tears.

My friend had one sister, who her highness used to call Daisy. Daisy decided to move away too. This little lady who remained looked just like Daisy. Mr. Pop used to get them confused, so her highness named this one, Not Daisy or ND for short. ND didn’t sound right so they added the name, Anna. My friend’s name is ND-Anna. Cute, huh?

So ND-Anna and I are screen friends. She comes to the back door every morning and waits for her food. While she waits, we catch up on things and rub noises through the screen. Since I’ve had all my shots, I don’t worry about catching anything from her.

ND-Anna thinks she can never trust humans enough to allow them too close to her. I try to explain the treasures of allowing that trust, but she just can’t be convinced. Maybe one day I’ll win her over. She says she has made it through three hurricanes, losing her family and close calls in the wild. She says she needs no humans. That’s when I remind her that she has depended on the Pops for food every single day or her life. This is about the time she just sniffs at me and prances off to who knows where. She sure is one hard headed cat, but I love her anyway.

I guess we each have to make our own decisions about what we do in our life. Her decision may not seem right to me, but perhaps she knows something about herself that I don’t. So I’m not going to judge her or her decisions. I’m just going to enjoy her friendship and remind myself that what’s right for me might not be right for every other cat. The thing that makes each of us so special is that we are not all alike.

***
Have a great weekend everyone! We have a big day next week. I get to go back and visit the evil doers at the veterinarian’s office. Ha! I bet they are already dreading my vicious return. Oh, and tomorrow I may post a photo of ND-Anna, the last of the Hurricats. Check and see.

Some things I want to share

I truly enjoyed reading your diverse comments regarding your plans for Thanksgiving. Some made me laugh out loud but I better not say which ones.

Your comments are always so interesting and oft times seriously insightful. Lots of your comments are shared with Mr. Pop, especially the funny ones.

The comments Fred the Cat gets are fun and they always make me smile. They make Fred smile too, one of his great big old kitty cat smiles.

The new bedding is beyond wonderful. The bed is now about 8 or 9 inches taller than it used to be. That makes such a difference with the sheets and bedspread. Luckily the last sheets I bought about two weeks ago have super deep pockets. The old bed was lost in them but on the new one, they are, to quote Goldilocks, “just right”.

This is a bed now made for sweet dreams.

A little post script on the old bedding. I asked the guys what would happen to the old bed. They said it would be donated to a church group who gives them to people who need them. I love knowing that and I also love knowing that my old bed won’t be landfill material just yet.

And now for a question that has been floating around in my head. Do you think if we had allowed Iraqis to rebuild their country from the very start, they would now take pride in it and wouldn’t allow anyone to come into their country to harm it? Had Halliburton not stepped in to run the show and had the professionals of Iraq done all the work, do you believe they would have a army now who wanted to protect what had been done?

Seems to me we all take more pride in and protect more, that which we ourselves have worked for and created.

National Eating Day

Next Wednesday Mr. Pop and I will be heading over to Tampa to share Thanksgiving with his family. Most all of them, including Mr. Pop, are Tampa Bay Buccaneers football fans. I am a deadly serious Dallas Cowboy football fan. On National Eating Day, also known as Thanksgiving, the Buccaneers will play the Cowboys and it’s on TV. We will all watch the game together. This could be interesting, huh?

What are your holiday plans?

Gradually, it went to hell

I bet this has happened to you. You wakeup one morning and say to yourself, when did my mattress become this saggy bag of rocks? It seems as though it happens overnight. One night the mattress is fine and the next, it’s terrible.

That’s what happened here last Saturday morning. I awoke feeling miserable. I’m laying there in the bed and feeling like I’m in a mattress taco shell. When Mr. Pop awoke I told him of my discontent and he agreed. Our mattress had met its demise.

Off to the furniture store we went. Lucky for us mattresses were on sale. We upgraded quite a bit from our old bedding. The old bedding was purchased within our financial means at that time. We upgraded accordingly. The new cushy mattress will be delivered today and the old one hauled away to a mattress graveyard.

Our mattress didn’t go bad overnight, it gradually broke down over the years and we unconsciously adjusted to the changes. Then came Saturday morning when the changes exceeded our ability to consciously or unconsciously adjust. Something had to change.

In my opinion, the story of our mattress is somewhat analogous to the story of this war in Iraq. The war didn’t go bad overnight, it has been steadily going bad for close to four years. The thing is, many Americans just didn’t notice the deterioration until they woke up one morning and realized how bad things had gotten, and they could no longer tolerate what they saw and felt. Some of us who are more sensitive realized and responded to our own discomfort much earlier. Others finally saw that something must be done to correct what they now recognize as a total disaster.

Sadly this problem can’t be fixed by simply going to the store and purchasing a replacement. Just because the Democrats now control the House and Senate, we can’t expect them to instantly correct the errors we have witnessed with a nifty new plan for a nifty new kind of war. If only it were that simple. The good news is that the general public is now awake and aware of the problem. I doubt they will rest comfortably until it’s addressed and some changes are made. The bad news is that there is only one person who can stop this war. He isn’t a Democrat and he doesn’t appear to show any intention of doing anything toward bringing our troops home anytime soon.

Different?

Was it just my feeling here in Pop world, or did the atmosphere in the country seem different this weekend?

The Smile Contagion

Fred the Cat here, and even I am smiling ear to ear and whisker to whisker. I’m not sure what the news was this week. We cats don’t pay much attention to that sort of thing, but whatever is was, it must have been good. Mr. Pop and her highness have been floating on a cloud ever since Wednesday morning. They were giving each other high fives and dancing around like children. Kind of frightened me at first, but hell, their smiles were so big I soon knew there was nothing to worry about.

They were saying things like, “Good riddance you bastards”. At first I thought they had lost it, because they were saying this and no one else was in the room with them. Then they would laugh and whoop and holler. These were some happy humans.

Like I said I don’t know what this is all about, but their smiles are contagious and I caught it too.

You guys have a great weekend and if you caught the smiles this week, enjoy it. We sure are!

Junior’s Most Deadly Folly

So Rummy is outta here. Good! Too damned bad it took so many deaths before bush admitted to himself that this Iraq invasion/war isn’t working out the way they told him it would. Seems it took a mid-term election and I’m guessing a little advice from his dad before he made this move. I don’t think it’s just a wild coincidence that he chose someone to replace rummy who is tight with his dad and has a long history with him.

What this looks like to me is that daddy has had to once again call on his friends to bail his lunatic son out of another mess. This time it’s not about oil or a baseball team. This time it’s about the “decider’s” insane decision to invade a county that was not a threat to the United States. This time it’s not about getting rid of oil rigs or baseball players. This time it’s a sea of blood that needs to be mopped up. This time junior’s folly killed hundreds of thousands of people and it’s gone on far too long.

Will a new face behind the desk make any difference in what is happening in Iraq? I don’t see how if the new face follows the same old play book.

Yes, we are all glad Rumsfeld is out. He was a pompous ass. The Generals almost all said so as soon as they were able. So, if we have a new Secretary of Defense, how is the future going to differ from the present? Unless the policy changes there will be no difference.

I know we are supposed to focus on the present and the future. I know we aren’t supposed to “look back”, but damn it, that’s where the dead bodies are.

***
It must have been quite disarming to hear the president say just last week that you were doing a terrific job and were going to be with him for the next two years and then only a few days later being told to resign.

***
According to what Paul Begala said yesterday on CNN, had bush asked Lieberman to take the position of Secretary of Defense and had he accepted, the governor of Connecticut could have appointed a Republican to take Lieberman’s vacated Senate seat. If for some reason the senate does not confirm Gates, I suppose this could yet happen.

Happy?

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.

So how did the elections work out for you?
Do you have a hangover?
Did you get any sleep last night?
Let’s talk about it.

Hope

To sooth your nervous soul today, I offer this from Miss Dickinson.

Hope is the Thing with Feathers
By: Emily Dickinson

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

State of unease

We took a ride to the beach yesterday to see the Atlantic Ocean in it’s state of confusion and unease as a northeast wind whipped in. This picture is symbolic of how I, and maybe you, feel inside this day before what may well be one of the most important elections of our lifetime.

Secret Agent, Hell Cat (Fred the Cat’s Dark Side)

Fred the Cat, here. Okay, this is just between us. You know that while the Pops were away I was stationed at the veterinarian’s office. They put me in a nice roomy enclosure and took great care of me.

Here’s the inside scoop on what happened there. I’m usually a mild mannered sort of cat. I don’t give the Pops a hard time…..most of the time. But when I go to the vet I become Secret Agent Hell Cat. If you recall, my first experience at the vet’s office resulted in some physical changes for me. I have to protect what’s left. So if anyone puts their hand into my space they risk pulling back a bloody appendage. Man, I scare the hell out of them. I growl and I spit at them as they pass by. My message to them is, don’t mess with Fred, the cat from hell.

When Mr. Pop came to retrieve me after they came back home, the employees at the vet’s office debated which of them would come to my cage and transfer me to my travel carrier. Ha! Not one of them wanted to do it. I had them scared, big time.

Mr. Pop just laughed at them because he’s never seen this side of my secret bad-assed personality. He said, “ I’ll go get him.” They all trotted along behind Mr. Pop as he approached my cage, unlocked the door and reached inside. Of course, as I saw them approaching, I quickly switched back to my kinder gentler self and allowed Mr. Pop to pick me up without a whimper or a single protruding claw. The office staff was aghast, as they peeked around Mr. Pop. They had expected significant carnage.

So, as far as the Pops know, I am a sweet and loving cat, but as the employees of the veterinarian’s office will attest, I can be bad. The kind of bad that no one in his right mind wants to encounter. In my line of work it’s important to be able to switch personalities on a moments notice, especially when dealing with the evil doers at the vet’s office.

***
Panzon, a cat belonging to Msliberty, asked me last weekend how to handle living with canines. Here’s how I handle living with Murphy, the bichon. His breed alone should tell you all you need to know. He’s French. I keep him in line by running past him at regular intervals and swatting him on the butt as I run by. He learned early on not to mess with me. He claims that he has a pedigree. I say, Hell I had ticks once, get over yourself.

All of you cats out there feel free to ask for my advise, I’ll be happy to help if I can.

Sincerely,
Fred the Cat

Pop and I wish everyone a great weekend.

Mother Nature’s Artwork

I feel that Mother Nature doesn’t get as much credit as she deserves for her artistic abilities. She has a talent for taking the natural world and turning it into scenes of true beauty.

This is more of what we saw on our trip. These photos were taken while standing in one place and simply turning from one piece of art work to another.

Sights from our trip

Apparently we bumped into the Monarch butterfly flyway. They were everywhere we looked.

You can click on the pictures to see them even better.

Ps….That photo yesterday was not me and I have no idea who she is, but she is attractive.