Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Time Again For The Bush Countdown Clock

Eugene Robinson – Hard-Line Lunacy on Cuba – washingtonpost.com[In reference to reforms in Cuba] Bush’s response has been a cold shoulder. In remarks a few days ago, the president did little but state the obvious fact that Raúl Castro is not, and never will be, a believer in democracy.

Whereas our friends in Saudi Arabia are huge proponents of democracy. Oh…wait. Isn’t Saudi Arabia a kingdom? If memory serves, here in the United States we had a revolution to get out from under that kind of rule, so contrary to the ideals of democracy did we consider it. I guess money changes everything, eh? If the Cubans had something we really wanted (like oil), Bush wouldn’t have such a problem with their political system.

I think it’s been at least a month since I last called George W. Bush an idiot, so I figure I’m overdue.

What an idiot!

And he’s a whore, too. A whore for money and power.

Fanaticism Isn’t A Good Thing. Ever.

Martin Sheen opens up about son Charlie’s drug use | TuscaloosaNews.com

Nothing ever gets done unless it’s done by a fanatic.

Absolutely. Look how well fanaticism has worked for those Al Qaeda fellows.

I have to admit, when I saw the cover of this AARP magazine with Martin Sheen’s quote on the front, I said out loud, “What the fuck?? Is he nuts?”

It turns out, he was really just talking about having become a “fanatic” in terms of trying to get his kid (the perennially screwed up Charlie Sheen) off drugs.

I have to wonder what the hell AARP’s editors were thinking when they chose that quote for the cover, though. Do they not understand the word? To be a fanatic is to replace reason with ideology. It’s not a good thing to be. While some have questioned Sheen’s devotion to the Catholic church, it’s never been conclusively shown (to me, at least) that he’s a fanatic. So…

Look Who’s Come For Dinner!

This little guy has become a regular at the tray feeder in the afternoons. I put “woodpecker mix” in the tray — it’s got peanuts, sunflower seeds, raisins, pumpkin seeds, and cracked corn. Apparently he likes it. We have a bird bath clamped to the deck railing, too, so he can get a drink of water with his meal.

It’s unusual to see a raccoon being so active during the day. I have to assume that since this one is apparently pretty young he just doesn’t know any better. Luckily, people don’t generally let their dogs run loose around here and the foxes that also hang out in the back woodsy area are probably too small themselves to give this little guy any trouble.

That reminds me, though, that I did hear a fox bark this morning on my way back from Panera. The bark came from the woods surrounding a big pond near our neighborhood. Cool. Foxes have a really unique bark. To me it always sounds like they’re saying, “Chat! Chat!”

Yet More Garden Pictures

But just a few this time and without the fancy slide show.

Here’s a view of the back garden from our bedroom window.
Here’s the pot garden on the deck from the bedroom window.
Here’s front of our house. The front garden has done exceptionally well this year.

The hostas are really insanely big this year. Your really can’t see the full scale of them from this picture. The big blue one in the middle comes up to about mid-thigh.

The rest of the front garden isn’t quite as impressive yet — it’s got annuals that I’ve just planted. I have high hopes for this part of the garden though. In my previous experience with annual salvias (the red guys in this picture) they can get a good 18 inches tall and very bushy when they’re treated right. The glass ball and the two stars, by the way, are connected to solar energy collectors  and light sensors so, when it gets dark out, they light up with changing colors — red, green, blue, and yellow.

More Pictures of Plants & Animals

Admittedly, these pictures are only going to interest a few of you. They’re from my “Panera walk” this morning and of my back garden. I’ll take pictures of the front garden later today when the sun comes around to that side of the house. This is the same kind of “slide show” I’ve used before. Just click on one of the pictures and it should enlarge with navigation arrows appearing on either side of the photo as you mouse over in that direction.

Mickey

Our good cat Mickey died yesterday. She was 14 years old. She had been sick, but we weren’t expecting her condition to deteriorate so quickly. On Friday she had surgery for obtaining a biopsy from a (likely cancerous) growth on her jaw. When she came home Friday night, she was groggy but still ate and drank some water. On Saturday morning, she also ate and drank. As the day went on, though, she clearly began to feel very bad. On Sunday morning, we took her to the emergency vet and she was admitted for testing and IV therapy. It turned out her blood pressure was very high and her kidney values were terrible. The vets tried several approaches with her (all somewhat conservative, at our direction, because of the likelihood that Mickey had a terminal cancer anyway) and, by yesterday morning, it was clear that nothing was helping. Her kidneys were pretty much shot and both of her retinas has detached so she was blind. We can’t be sure, but it seems likely that she suffered some kind of “insult” during or after her recent surgery. Possibly there was a bad reaction to the anesthesia. Possibly she had a “stroke”. At any rate, seeing that there was no chance for any kind of good life left for her, we took the route dictated by compassion and instructed the vets to euthanize her.

Mickey and her sister, Marjie (also gone now), came to us as rescue kittens. They had been living in a cage for all of their early kitten months so neither of them ever learned how to jump up onto high things like kitchen countertops. Many people might have considered that a real plus, be we always thought it was kind of sad.

I have to confess that for most of Mickey’s life I thought she was a pretty dull cat. She didn’t have an outgoing personality and she was generally cranky towards the other cats. It was only in the past 4 years that I really got to know her. In 2004 (I think), Mickey was diagnosed with diabetes. In the course of monitoring her condition and giving her twice-daily insulin injections, I came to understand Mickey’s personality better. She wasn’t dull — she was just subtle.

There aren’t many funny anecdotes to tell about Mickey. She just didn’t operate that way. When other cats might be running around the house acting crazy, Mickey was the kind of cat who would sit quietly to the side and watch. Mickey did, however, have one quality that really made her stand out from the crowd. She had the roughest tongue of any cat I’ve ever known. Truly, if she licked your arm it would REALLY hurt! Since Mickey was a cat who liked to groom us when she was feeling happy, we always had to be sure to offer her some part of our bodies that were less sensitive — like an elbow or a kneecap!

In the last nine months, Mickey’s health had really begun improving. We started her on a new diet (Wellness canned food) and she was able to completely come off insulin. She lost a bit of weight, her fur was looking glossy and smooth for the first time in years, and in general she really seemed to be doing well. She was, however, an old cat. Old cats get cancer.

Sigh.

We’re going to miss her.

The Face of a Bigot

Cal Thomas: On Faith at washingtonpost.com
Marriage was instituted by God (see Matthew 19:56 and Genesis 2:24, the verse quoted by Jesus from Genesis).

Astonishing, then, that people have been marrying since before Christianity even came about. Since before Judaism, for that matter. So… whose God? Cal Thomas is guilty of the same ethno-centric thinking we see among bigots everywhere. He’s incapable of believing in a reality where his own personal ideas about God and morality aren’t central.

What does this make him, brothers and sisters?

That’s right. He’s an idiot.

Say amen.

Same-Sex Marriages

California Supreme Court Strikes Bans on Same-Sex Marriage – washingtonpost.com
Democratic Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) issued careful and nearly identical statements saying they support civil unions to protect the rights of same-sex couples. Both avoided taking a position on same-sex marriage, saying states should make such decisions.

What a cop-out. I hope Obama changes his tune on this after he becomes president.

The trouble with letting the states make this decision is that some states, I’m sorry to say, are largely populated by idiots. Consider that it wasn’t until the Supreme Court 40 years ago told the states they HAD to allow interracial marriage that such marriages finally became legal throughout the US.

Only 40 years ago! That’s pretty disturbing when you think about it.

This is why we have a government built on checks and balances: to protect us against idiocy. It doesn’t always work but, so far, it’s the best thing anyone’s come up with. (Short of letting me make all the decision, that is, and I’m the only one who sees the wisdom of that at this point.)

McCain, who last week decried judicial activism, “doesn’t believe judges should be making these decisions,” a spokesman added.

McCain is one of those idiots I mentioned earlier. If judges weren’t making these kinds of decisions, this country would still see black people lining up at separate water fountains and sitting in the back of the bus.

 ”An individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights,” Chief Justice George wrote.

God bless Chief Justice George! I strongly believe, as I have stated here many times, that equal rights for gay people is one of the most pressing civil rights issue in this country.

She-Devil

Marie Cocco – Misogyny I Won’t Miss – washingtonpost.com
I won’t miss reading another treatise by a man or woman, of the left or right, who says that sexism has had not even a teeny-weeny bit of influence on the course of the Democratic campaign. To hint that sexism might possibly have had a minimal role is to play that risible “gender card.”

Now that John Edwards has come out in support of Barack Obama, it seems likely that other super delegates will also soon be announcing their support. For Hilary Clinton, it’s all over but the crying.

I have to admit that I’m one of those people who tend to dismiss many women’s complaints about sexism as mere whining. Buck up! Take command of your life and stop kvetching about the stupidity of a few Neanderthals! Sexism has never been a defining issue in my own life (…as far as I know… hm…), so I expect that it hasn’t really been a big issue in anyone else’s life either. Sure, all the “bitch” and “whore” and “cunt” jokes about Hillary Clinton are lame — but that’s all they are. Lame. They’re not really influencing anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together. Right?

Maybe. Maybe not.

It’s undeniable that a message you hear over and over and over again is going to affect your way of thinking about a thing. Even when you know the message is wrong on some level, it still affects you.

I will freely admit that I’ve always found Hillary Clinton a bit annoying. But why? I have to ask myself: If Clinton’s personality and manner of speaking were coming from a male, would I find him as irritating? I honestly don’t know — and that’s reason for serious concern.

Most of us have biases of one sort or another. Some subtle, some grotesque. Perhaps I do have a subtle bias against other women.

Ha! “Perhaps”! I’m lying to you friends. I am definitely biased against other women. I find many other women tiresome and silly. They seem incapable of deep thought. Not all, of course. I’ve been blessed to know several very intelligent women. Many, though… Which is not to say they aren’t good people. Just that I wouldn’t trust them with important decisions.

So there it is. My bias. And it’s so firmly planted in my psyche that it’s a real exercise for me to consider that it might not be true.

Sigh.

Obviously, we’ve all got a long way to go.

I need to work on my bias against white women. The people of West Virginia need to work on their bias against black men.

And black women? They’ve got the longest wait of all.

My Walk Home

When the weather’s nice I generally walk to Panera for breakfast (it’s sort of an “exercise with a reward” deal for me). I see so many beautiful things on my walk that I brought my camera along this morning so I could share some of the experience with you. Just click on any one of the thumbnails below to start the slide show. If you mouse over towards the left or right side of any full-sized picture, you’ll get little pop-up navigation arrows.