Oh. Hai

Oh, hai ceiling cat
Oh, Hai! birdies outside

Oh, hai! Ripley

Oh, hai 4lgs. No, I wuzn't dooing nuthing bad under dere. No, no meez

Happy Democrats

A historic night from any perspective.

I can haz my country back?? I haz HOPE.


photo: AFP/Scott Olson

Last Primary Day (FINALLY) kittehs

No moar primareee? I maek rocket nao??

No moar Lannee Davis? he herts mah earsies...

No moar terree 'caaleef?? I h8tz dat dood, he iz crazeeee....

I turnz off teevee......

an sellbrates by maekin' muffins.

Teh primarees haz been hardest on teh kittehs. Woan sumbody tink of teh kittehs?

kai, thx bai

Earthquake Kitteh

This poor kitteh survived the earthquake. I hope he's still okay.

Kittehs

Sheesh peeps, I been out of town. I DO haz a life ya noes.

Thursday Kittehs

I'z black and white!!

Hallooooo.

Teh summer heat maeks me sleepy.

Wonderland

Ezra Klein points us to a marvelous photographer who takes children's art work and translates them into wondrous photographs.

Magical.

See Yeondoo Jung's work here.

Domestic Bliss

Just hanging together, in teh window, watching teh birdies and teh peeps going by.

flvr

Dis behbeh haz a flvr!

UR daily kittehs

plushypalooza!

Plushy at last

The girls, engaging in their latest most fave kitteh activity- birdie watching.

Sorry for the dearth of plushiness- I was out of town for a few days.

Oh, and pics are high resolution for your plushy enjoyment.

Sigh

AFP/Getty/Spencer Platt

Obama stood in for Teddy Kennedy at Saturday's commencement at Wesleyan. From his speech:

Each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come. And I say “chance” because you won’t have to take it. There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy. You can choose to narrow your concerns and live your life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America’s.

But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.

It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story.

Won't it be delightful to have a president who speaks english and appeals to the best in all of us?

Transcript of the entire speech can be found here.

Wildlife

Reuters/Toru Hanai
Iz turtles!! all the way down.

AP/Wilfredo Lee

I've been trying to post these two pictures for a couple of days. CURSE YOU BLOGGER!!!

Scruffers

This is my stepmother's cat Scruffers. She was apparently part of a litter that was allowed to run wild in the neighborhood- Scruffers "adopted" my stepmother, apparently deciding the grub was better there.

Sadly, my stepmother is moving to California and can't take Scruffers with her- so she's going to stay with a friend who is trying to find her a permanent home.

She's a really sweet, talkative kitteh- I would have adopted her myself, but Scruffers is accustomed to being an inside/outside kitteh. Also, my small abode is probably too small for three kittehs.

Good luck Scruffers, I hope you find a lovely place to live.

More Brooklyn Bridge

Our very own caminante took some very nice photos of the Brooklyn Bridge this past December during a light snowfall. Here's a couple I particularly liked:




You can see the rest of her bridge photos on her blog here.

Updated to correct my confusion over caminante's gender. Whoops!!

Happy Birthday!!

To the Brooklyn Bridge. Which is, uhhh, old!

If you've ever wondered how photographers get these cool fireworks photos, it's done with a long exposure with a moderate aperture setting. This one is really lovely. And yes, you generally need an SLR to get the shot, though some of the newer point and shoots have "fireworks" settings.

I don't know how well they work though.

Photo: AP/Jin Lee.

WRONG!!

"Dinner.... UR DOING IT WRONG!!!"

/ Ripley

Memorial Maxx

We haz not had any memorial Maxx blogging for a few weeks.

That isn't because I don't think of him each and every day.

some moar kittehs

Doing kitteh stuff and being ridiculously redonk. Just another day at teh fourlegs houz.

Wednesday Kittehs

Maddie looks for her missing milk ring (and yes, many of them are hidden in teh couch)

Wut?? Hillary iz still running? DOAN WANT

If I goez liek dis wif mah nose mah eyeballs go crossy!!

NO! U cannot borra mah carrot agin.

Teh SUN!!!!!! oh noes

This illustration is just flat out cool:

A Dangerous Sunrise on Gliese 876d

Explanation: On planet Gliese 876d, sunrises might be dangerous. Although nobody really knows what conditions are like on this close-in planet orbiting variable red dwarf star Gliese 876, the above artistic illustration gives one impression. With an orbit well inside Mercury and a mass several times that of Earth, Gliese 876d might rotate so slowly that dramatic differences exist between night and day. Gliese 876d is imagined above showing significant volcanism, possibly caused by gravitational tides flexing and internally heating the planet, and possibly more volatile during the day. The rising red dwarf star shows expected stellar magnetic activity which includes dramatic and violent prominences. In the sky above, a hypothetical moon has its thin atmosphere blown away by the red dwarf's stellar wind. Gliese 876d excites the imagination partly because it is one of the few extrasolar planets known to be close to the habitable zone of its parent star.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day

Illustration Credit & Copyright: Inga Nielsen (Hamburg Obs., Gate to Nowhere)

You know the way

Feh.

Today it seems like every news story about the campaign is full of advice for Obama and his "supporters" on how we need to tread lightly and treat Hillary and her supporters with kid gloves. We need them in the tent, you see, and they ain't coming in without an engraved invitation delivered by a cringing Obama supporter who is crying out, "I'm so sorry!! I am a sexist!! Hillary WAS the better candidate" while flagellating themselves with a cat o'nine.

See this, for example: All's Well that Ends Well

A Clinton adviser, who asked not to be identified in order to speak more freely about the view from inside, reinforced Murphy's concern. "I think [Obama] finally got close to the tone he should have had for a couple weeks now and it's important that he get his supporters on board with that as well."

The adviser went on to explain that anything that Obama and his team do that in any way diminishes the campaign Clinton has run could make it more difficult for him to rally her supporters, "most of whom he needs to win if anyone is ever going to call him Mr. President."

I can't tell you how annoying I find this garbage. For months I've been told I'm a cultist and a misogynist. Further, I needed to immediately pledge to enthusiastically support Hillary (in the event of her nomination) no matter what strategy she employed to obtain it. And that support better include working for and contributing to her campaign. How is it that now, when she has lost, Obama and his camp is required to do all the work to soothe your ruffled feathers? Where's Hillary's responsibility in all this?

I have a message for you guys. And for Hillary.

You know where the fucking tent is. Quit whining and come inside. Or are you really going to fuck the country over on the altar of your own personal pique and victimhood?

Your choice.

Yes We Can

Even a bird brain can figure it out.

(sorry, cranky today due to mold in our office suite)