Double shot Friday

Lion kitty Maxx was just a little bit high on catnip here.

Worser and worser

AP/Adam Hadei

The Washington Post has the details on the latest stupidity coming out of the Bush government, U.S. Considers Ending Outreach to Insurgents.

The Bush administration is deliberating whether to abandon U.S. reconciliation efforts with Sunni insurgents and instead give priority to Shiites and Kurds, who won elections and now dominate the government, according to U.S. officials.

The proposal, put forward by the State Department as part of a crash White House review of Iraq policy, follows an assessment that the ambitious U.S. outreach to Sunni dissidents has failed.

snip

Some insiders call the proposal the "80 percent" solution, a term that makes other parties to the White House policy review cringe. Sunni Arabs make up about 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people.

Until now, the thrust of U.S. policy has been to build a unified government and society out of Iraq's three fractious communities. U.S. officials say they would not be abandoning this goal but would instead leave leadership of the thorny task of reconciliation to the Iraqis. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the deliberations.

Let's call this what it is. We're going to take sides, and we're going to side with the group that has already fielded death squads and is actively engaged in ethnic cleansing. As Kevin Drum notes:

The alternative being mooted here would put us directly on the Shiite side, and we'd be viewed as actively cooperating with a massacre of the Sunni minority no matter how hard we protested otherwise. It's hard to imagine a more disastrous end to a disastrous war.

For that reason, I suspect this proposal will be adopted.

What a clusterfuck. Let me just add that bullshit ideas like these are a direct result of bushco's purging of the professional ranks at State with their ideologically correct stooges. The entire world, not to mention those out of luck 20 percenter Sunnis, will be paying for Bush's policies for at least a generation.

The photo, BTW, is of some of those anonymous bodies found every morning in and around Baghdad, full of bullet holes and bearing signs of torture. We can expect to see a lot more of this.

He gets prezzies!!

Lucky lion kitty Maxx!! His auntie Buckeye, dealer of rare coins, sent him a care package of delightful catnip toys. He partied all evening with them.

He sends many purrrrrs and slobbery kisses her way. And a big *MWAH* from me as well.

Daily rounds

The patient is doing fine, still exhibiting high levels of cuteness.

The antibiotics seem to have made his gums feel better- he's been up and about, playing, prowling, bothering me while I sleep. He even killed his carrot last night.

In between, he collapses in poses guaranteed to provoke a good tummy rub. Little scamp!

If you look closely, you can just barely make out his little white toesies in the photo.

Mars, bitch!

From our delightful friends at Space.com, a stunning illustration of Mars by artist Kees Veenenbos.

Mars during the period of loosing its water some billion years ago. Salty deposits, cracks in the mud, forming of hematite, dust devils and falling meteors. This is a view in the lower parts of the Agyre Planitia.

See the whole gallery here: Visualizations of Mars

Gumby Kitty!

More ridiculous cuteness. He may be ill, but he's not about to surrender his "most cute plushy cat evah" crown anytime soon.

Note the plushy tummy and the upturned white toesies.

Christmas Market

We haven't had a pretty picture in a while. Something for the holiday season.

"People walk at the Christmas market on Gendarmenmarkt in front of the Deutsche Dom (German Dome) in downtown Berlin, Monday, Nov. 27, 2006. The traditional Christmas market is open to the public until Dec. 31, 2006. (AP Photo/Franka Bruns)"

Very sad news

Many regular readers will remember that a few months back I asked you to write letters on behalf of Benji Margulies, the son of Josh Margulies, who was fighting Tay-Sachs disease.

I am saddened to report that Benjy died suddenly yesterday. Please take a moment to stop by the actforlove: Benjy's Blog and offer your condolences to his family.

I want to thank all of you again for writing his insurance company to try to help this brave and beautiful little boy to have the best chance possible. I know his parents and friends were touched and moved by your efforts on his behalf.

He still does cute

Maxx came out and played with his particle accelerator this evening. We played chase with some curly ribbon too. He does get tired pretty quickly though.

Further Update

For those of you upset and traumatized by my post last night, please know that lion kitty Maxx is not in any danger of being shuffled off this mortal coil too early.

After I posted last night he woke up, had a late night snacky-snack, sat in my lap and purred a while and spent some time in the kitchen opening cabinets for no apparent reason. This morning he ate some breakfast and was thoroughly annoyed to find he's back on antibiotics. I'm hoping that will ease his gum discomfort.

I just panic some days because I'm afraid he'll suffer too long because I can't bear to give him up. I'm sure he'll have up days and down days, and I will too.

Thanks to all of you for your good wishes. Pics later.

Update

I'll confess that this is an old photo of Maxx. I haven't had the heart to photograph him much the past few weeks. I haven't wanted to bother him, and I haven't wanted to look at what the cancer is doing to his beautiful face. I did take some photos of him this evening, but I don't much feel like downloading them off the camera.

In fact, I haven't wanted to talk about his illness at all this weekend, which is why I haven't posted. He had a very nice Thanksgiving, and he spent all day Friday and Saturday outside enjoying the beautiful weather. But by Saturday night he was inside, of his own volition, and back in the closet. I think I have to face facts that he's in more pain than he's been showing.

I don't really know what to do about it. Except for the tumor, he seems to be in smashing good health, but I can't bear to think of him suffering. I think physically he can hold out for quite a while, but I don't like I can do that do him.

Today he got pain meds twice. Tomorrow he might get them three times. I guess I can be grateful that he did have some last days of wonderful weather, where he got to go outside, prowl about, and chase squirrels like kiities like to do. I don't think laying in a closet, stoned, is much of a life for a cat.

Sorry for the depressing news, but this is never going to have a happy ending. Please send my sweet Mr. Plushy your good thoughts.

Casino Royale

Go see it. Without a doubt, the best Bond movie ever.

I was, and am, a huge fan of the Ian Fleming books. And I've always loved the Bond movies, though they don't capture the books very well and have frankly turned into cartoons over the years.

This film gets as close as anything could- and Daniel Craig is perfect as Bond. Deadly, suave and brutal. Two thumbs, a couple of hooves and a plushy tail up.