My Maxx

I don't check my mail very often, because I don't have many bills, and I mostly receive my mail at my office.

When I checked today I found a lovely condolence card from my vet clinic. This was the verse:

If we measure lives not in time but in grace,
in the joy with which they lived, and in the love
they leave behind, the we have much
to learn from our pets.

Comet Maxx!!

I can't remember where this was taken- I believe over Australia. The photographer is Steve Gordon.

Farewell Molly

My favorite tribute yet. From the inestimable, Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Ben Sargent.

Kitten!!

Have I mentioned I'm getting a kitten??

T-seven days and counting.

I'm MELLLLTINNNNNNGGGGG!!

AP/Dan Crosbie

Hey chimpy, the fucking north pole is melting!! Sheesh. What's it gonna take? polar bears on the White House lawn with signs?

BTW, the report from Paris is pretty bleak. Maybe we should just go back to looking at pictures of cute kittenz.

An Artifact?

I heard a rumor that our follicly blessed guv went to Washington in January, hat in hand, to speak with the Texas democratic congressional delegation. I also hear they beat the crap out of him, mainly over his cowardly cave-in to the bugman's redistricting plan.

Whatever. Today, governor goodhair did a very good thing. Texas Gov. orders anti-cancer vaccine:

AUSTIN, Texas - Bypassing the Legislature altogether, Republican Gov. Rick Perry issued an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

By employing an executive order, Perry sidestepped opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents' rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way Texans raise their children.

Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade — meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 — will have to receive Gardasil, Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21.

Whether it's a result of Molly Ivin's ghost poking him in the ass or if he just sees the writing on the wall and wants to distance himself from the crazy contingent in the state, I don't much care. Hell, maybe he even did it because it was the right thing to do. Whatever the reason, kudos to the governor for taking a courageous stance (in this state anyway) and making a sane and responsible public policy decision.

Wonders never cease, eh?

Memorial Mr. Plushy

Because I never get tired of looking at his pitchers.

Grief

Reuters/Ali Abu Shish

NIE: Iraq Is in "Civil War".

The Intelligence Community judges that the term “civil war” does not adequately capture the complexity of the conflict in Iraq, which includes extensive Shia-on-Shia violence, al-Qa’ida and Sunni insurgent attacks on Coalition forces, and widespread criminally motivated violence. Nonetheless, the term “civil war” accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict, including the hardening of ethno-sectarian identities, a sea change in the character of the violence, ethno-sectarian mobilization, and population displacements.

I agree. Civil war doesn't quite capture the horror that we've turned Iraq into. And while we argue and dither about semantics, people continue to die there. In spectacularly horrible ways.

I chose the photo above deliberately, because that's the reality for most Iraqis, especially in Baghdad. While we natter on about the politics of the war, their hearts are being broken, one by one as they lose their children, husbands, wives, and friends to the daily violence.

I wish someone would speak for them. I can't imagine their pain.

Delicious!

AP/Jim Mone

"The kid? oh, I ate him. He was tasty."

Friday random kitten

This looks like a fat little boy coon.

Breathtaking

Holy moly. From Spaceweather.com, I actually gasped when I saw this photo.

Minoru Yoneto of Queenstown, New Zealand took the picture on Jan. 30th shortly after a solar wind stream hit Earth, triggering a strong geomagnetic storm. "The comet lost its tail among the auroras," says Yoneto.

Comet Maxx is receding from Earth and fading, but it is still an easy target for photographers in the Southern Hemisphere.

Isn't it kind of Maxx to leave us with such glorious and comforting images?

Surely the best boy ever.

T minus 8 days.....

Since we don't have new pictures of the baby, I went stalking for kittens on the intertubes.

Beats thinking about the coming war with Iran.

Lion kitty Maxx

I miss my boy.

Poodlelilcious!!

From the Daily Puppy.com. His name is Ichigo, he's a baby poodle.

Hat tip to GWPDA.

Comet Maxx in the Southern Hemisphere

Maxx over Capetown, South Africa. Photo by Steve Coetzee.

I think the comet is getting a little crowded, what with Barabaro up there. But I'm sure Maxx will be happy to make room for Molly.

RIP Molly

I am sorry to report that Molly Ivins died today from breast cancer. She was 62 years old. She passed away at home, surrounded by her friends and family.

Her voice and generous spirit will be missed.

Via the AP: Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins dies at 62

Her last column: Bubba, we -- yes, we --have to stop the war now

RIP, Molly. And take a ride on the comet. I'm sure Maxx will show you a grand time.

Google is funny

Okay, so someone asked me what a "peep" was, and why the hell was I sleeping with one. So I did a google image search to show him one, and lo and behold, on page one there's a photo of Hidey, with the caption, "She's out hunting a big peep"



Cracked me right up, it did.

Ice, Bitch!!

Reuters photo

Now this is the kind of thing I like to see. Obama's Grudge Factor:

These are chilly days on Capitol Hill ... and on the campaign trail for Fox News journalists -- at least when they're anywhere near Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Sources tell The Sleuth that the Obama camp has "frozen out" Fox News reporters and producers in the wake of the network's major screw-up in running with the erroneous Obama-the-jihadist story reported by Insight magazine.

"I'm still in the freezer," one Fox journalist said, noting that the people at Fox "suffering the most did nothing wrong." (It was "Fox and Friends" host Steve Doocy who aired the Insight magazine piece, which reported that operatives connected to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) found out that Obama, as a child, was educated at a Muslim madrassah in Indonesia.)

Well, boo fucking hoo.

More dems need to do this. Reward good behavior (i.e. responsible reporting) and ruthlessly punish bad behavior.

New Zealand!!

Oh, the places he's seeing! This lovely photo was shot by Minoru Yoneto over Queenstown, New Zealand. Photo from Spaceweather.com.

hat tip to Roadmaster.

Countdown.... T minus 10 days

Because I never get tired of looking at her picture. Though I have to say the monogrammed pillow is rather hideous.

But nevermind..... eeeeeeeeeeeeep!!! (as watertiger would say)