The BLOG

On this last Cat Blog Friday of 2005, here is a cat trying new things.

Do you have your list of New Year's resolutions?

Surprise! Britney Spears' "reality" show was named by The Daily News as one of 2005's worst TV shows.

My favorite line from the article: "What sort of white-trash idiot is this?"
Yes, that pretty much covers it for me.

The rest of the winners...er, um losers, can be found here, ... if you dare...

Whose idea was it to name these cute little penguins such a ludicrous name?

Thanks to a letter writing campaign by a group of schoolchildren from Dover, New Hampshire, the state will soon have a Virginia-class attack submarine named in honor of the Granite state.

Lynch said it is fitting that New Hampshire has a submarine named in its honor seeing as the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which has the mission of maintaining the Navy's sub fleet, has such a rich naval history.

The article which can be found here goes to prove how just a handful of people can mold public opinion.

[Hat tip to Grandpa F for passing on this article]

Character actor, Vincent Schiavelli, whose gloomy look made him perfect to play creepy or eccentric characters died Monday.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Schiavelli made appearances in some 150 film and television productions, including one of my favorites, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", as Fredrickson.

I didn't know his name, but I certainly knew his face.

Ex-Red Sox centerfielder, Johnny Damon is the newest New York Yankee!

I know some Red Sox fans who aren't happy about this, but as a Yankees fan, I can't complain. [Cue evil laugh].

A fish hovers over a nativity scene set up in an aquarium in the Italian town of Cattolica.

I think is wrong on soooo many levels.

For Christmas, I thought each and every one of you would like one of those huge HUMMERS you see driving down the street ;-)

Merry Christmas to you & yours!

There will be an airing of grievances...

feats of strength will be performed...

and there will be an aluminum pole.

Must be Festivus... for the rest of us.

Happy Festivus to you and yours.

James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, was found dead at 1:30 a.m. ET Thursday in his apartment in Lutz, Fla., a suburb of Tampa, Debbie Carter, a spokesperson for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, confirmed Thursday.

Before the Colts, Coach Dungy was the head coach of the Buccanneers, and a fine coach he was. We were sorry to see him go to Indianapolis. I hope God can give him and his family the strength they will need to deal with this awful tragedy.

Perpendicular parking. Please don't try this at the mall.

Iraqis walk past a huge poster that shows a finger dipped in electoral indelibe ink and that reads "Our future is with the winners," in Baghdad.

I blame President Bush.

Drunken Santas on a rampage in New Zealand, armed German robbers in Santa disguises, a British St. Nick wanted for flashing, and a Swedish vandal in a Santa outfit are giving the big man in red a bad name this year.

Not this one. This is Pope Benedict XVI, the German Shepherd, playing Holy Father Christmas on this first day of winter.

The Drudge Report is looking for captions for this photo.

After I stopped laughing at this ridiculous photo, I came up with, "Joe, someone left the yellowcake out in the rain...and I don't think I can take it...cause it took so long to fake it."

Another White Flag Democrat opens his mouth and shows his lack of sober judgement...or in Ted's case, his lack of sobriety:

"It's wrong for (Bush) to attempt to silence his critics by calling them defeatists. And it's wrong for him to gloss over the cherry picking of intelligence that led us to this war. ... The president should acknowledge, as his own generals do, that the Iraq war has emboldened the terrorists and increased their ranks. He should acknowledge, as his own generals do, that our overwhelming presence in Iraq is putting our soldiers, and American citizens, at greater risk." — Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Sheesh, how wrong can you be?

There are only 6 more shopping days before Christmas.

Stop blogging and start shopping.

Time magazine's Persons of the Year are Bono, Bill & Melinda Gates.

I think Mother Nature would've been a better choice.

According to a study recently published in the journal, Nature, mother squids of the Gonatus onyx species were found to carry pouches of new eggs in their tentacles for up to 6-9 months.

I hope this disproves the long-held theory that female squids simply abandoned new offspring on the ocean floor.

Let's hear it for the good squid moms.

A model (doesn't she look pleased?) presents a creation by designer Anna Modig of Sweden from the Beckman's College of Design Nybrogatan during the 2005 International Young Fashion Designer's Competition in Paris.

Young fashion designers compete for awards in two categories, totally ridiculous or unabashadly absurd.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

After the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

So what? I'd be upset if the president didn't take every precaution to protect U.S. citizens during a time of war.

The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny.

Does it strike you as odd that The New York Times decided to print this article now, on the very day the Senate debates renewing the Patriot Act?

Does the press feel any responsibility at all for the safety of Americans?

I smell a rat.

Three-month old lion cub caresses a house cat. Why?
Because it can. ^ _ ^

This poor cat lives with three, count 'em three, lion cubs in the house of veterinarian Tatyana Efremova in Kiev, along with other exotic animals.

I love the expression on the cat's face.

A hazardous slick of broken eggs caused traffic chaos in rural Ireland Thursday after a truck carrying thousands of broody hens lost its load.

"Chickens have begun to lay eggs on the roads and the conditions are quite treacherous at the moment, very slippy," AA Roadwatch said on its traffic advice line, warning up to 7,000 chickens were on the loose.

See? This is what happens when no one stands up to the chickens, and they cross the road.

I kid you not. Irish police have issued a traffic hazard alert warning motorists to be beware of chickens crossing the road. This is especially problematic when chickens grow large enough to threaten humans, like the chicken in this picture.

Why do chickens cross the road?

Young and old, able-bodied and infirm, Iraqis streamed to the polls for the third time in 11 months on Thursday, this time to elect a four-year parliament.

While not as novel as the first post-Saddam Hussein election in January, participation was more widespread. Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the earlier poll for an interim assembly, flocked to vote this time, determined not to miss out on power again.

Democracy, Iraqi style.

“Anybody who doesn’t appreciate what America has done and President Bush, let them go to hell”

– Iraqi Citizen, voter Betty Dawisha

I love this woman.



The video is even better.
Watch it here .
Video credit goes to The Political Teen

You all know that Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat and one of the party's chief Iraq war critics, has called the Army "broken" and urged the White House to withdraw all U.S. troops from the country.

From The Washingon Times comes news the Army has exceeded recruiting goals in the first two months of this fiscal year, i,e, October & November. In fact, the Army has hit its recruiting mark for six straight months!

The problem is that all you hear from the MSM is the left's myth of low enlistment.

The truth is the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force all met their November enlistment quotas, as well.

Thank God for these brave patriots. Keep them in your prayers.

I have always wanted to do this.

Dashing through the geese...

No snow here in sunny Florida, but it is going to be a chilly 42 degrees tonight.

Psyche, one of our gray tabby kittens, ran out the door very early this morning, and just took off. She and her sister, Pepper, are indoor cats, so we are concerned. We are hoping she's just hiding near by & will come home when she feels like it.

Singapore's Nadia Chen is thrown off her horse Caija HS during the Southeast Asian Games.

This is one hard landing. Yikes!

Watch this

Our country is at war.

Our soldiers are watching.

The enemy is watching.

So stop waving the white flag!

[Hat tip to Babalu Blog for the video clip]

Education officials in Pakistan have dropped a poem from a school textbook after discovering that it secretly contained the name of US President George W. Bush.

Bush's surname appears in the following lines:

"Bracing for war, but praying for peace /
Using his power so evil will cease. /
So much a leader and worthy of trust, /
Here stands a man who will do what he must."

I guess President Bush put down the tsunami/hurricane creating weather machine long enough to infiltrate the Pakistani educational system with a pro-Bush poem. How crafty is that?

An elderly woman offers a chicken to a potential buyer on a street in Kiev amidst fears of the spread of a virulent strain of avian flu from the Crimean peninsula to other parts of the country.

The spread of avian flu is serious, but I think I'd be more worried about plain old germs being spread from people handling chickens in the street.

Don't go looking for zebras until you run out of ponies.

For Cat Blog Friday, what else but a gratuitous cat photo.

Life-sized chocolate bodybuilders just in time for Christmas.

At the risk of having The BLOG called The Toilet BLOG, I want to post this story about a student in Ukraine who had to be freed by rescuers after dropping his mobile phone down a toilet and getting his arm stuck trying to retrieve it.

The man, a Lebanese national studying at Odessa's State Academy of Refrigeration, was trapped for two hours before being freed.

One more reason toilets and technology don't mix.

Conservative columnist Ann Coulter gave up trying to finish a speech at the University of Connecticut on Wednesday night when boos and jeers from the audience became overwhelming.

Before the tolerance and diversity crowd prevented Coulter from finishing her speech, she got in a few barbs, including calling Bill Clinton an "executive buffoon" who won the presidency only because Ross Perot took 19 percent of the vote. She called California Sen. Barbara Boxer a good candidate for the Democrats because "she is a woman and she's learning disabled".

Yeah, Coulter can be a bomb-thrower, but I find her comments refreshing, especially in these days of PC constraints on the right, while left-wing professors such as Ward Churchill, a.k.a. Professor Sitting Bulls***, can spew all manner of hateful things without so much as a boo.

I guess tolerance and diversity is a one way street, and free speech only applies to the left.

If you're going to surf on the loo, you might as well do it in style.

Jack Colvin, a popular character actor who co-starred with Bill Bixby as the abrasive tabloid reporter Jack McGee in the 1970s television series "The Incredible Hulk," has died. He was 71.

Colvin guest starred on many television shows, but I always hated the McGee character. He was Javert to David Banner's Valjean, doggedly pursuing and constantly angering Banner and you know the rest. If you never watched "The Incredible Hulk", well then, nevermind.

The fate of the Western world's most wanted man Osama bin Laden remains uncertain after Al-Jazeera television admitted that a videotape of his right-hand man claiming the Al-Qaeda leader was still alive was three months old.

Al-Jazeera said a videotape it aired Wednesday showing Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri claiming that bin Laden was still alive and leading "jihad" or holy war against the West dated back to September.

Al Jazeera hears weakness in the words of the White Flag Democrats and decides that it is a good time to re-release this oldie but goodie.

National defense. Just one more reason to vote Republican.

From The New York Post online comes this editorial that begins by saying, "not all the surrender monkeys live in France".

It goes on to describe Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee Chairman, a "sedition-mongering former governor of Vermont who once presumed to the presidency and who now is working overtime for a terrorist victory in Iraq."

Howard Dean - Just Another White Flag Democrat.

"Lest We Forget"

December 7, 1941

"And there is no reason that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs. Whether you like it or not--Iraqis should be doing that.

- John Kerry - Face the Nation - December 4, 2005

Just another White Flag Democrat.

If you weren't convinced before, it should be obvious by now.

A new survey of Internet use has found that more and more people are logging on -- in the bathroom. First, the pajamahadeen surfing in pajamas, and now... well you get the picture.

Oh, what is the world coming to?

From the BBC comes this article about new recruits to the Northumbria Police force, German shepherds Sammy, five, and three-year-old Zara.

These sheperds have been trained to help during armed sieges by searching buildings and relaying information back to officers through miniature television cameras with transmitters which are fitted to their heads.

It's uncanny how much the dog in the picture looks like my dog, Dax. If I didn't know better, I'd think she was leading a double life. Big, lovable, dopey lug while we're watching, and daring, super-hero Police dog while we sleep.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi...the face of Democratic cut & run in Iraq.

This is scary on so many levels.

[photo credit to Lucianne]

Camille Paglia gives a review of Madonna's new CD, "Confessions on a Dance Floor" in an article from Salon.com entitled Dancing As Fast As She Can and the dish is not a pretty sight.

Here is a tidbit from the article in Paglia's characteristic rapid-fire style:

"Even allowing for the fact that she must strenuously maintain her hipness for a busy husband 10 years her junior, Madonna is starting to morph into the mature Joan Crawford of "Torch Song," still ferociously dancing but with her fascist willpower signaled by brute, staring eyes and fixed jawline. In cannibalizing her disco diva days, Madonna runs the risk of turning into a pasty powdered crumpet like the aging Bette Davis in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" Will she become a whooping Charo shaking her geriatric hoochie-coochie hips on TV talk shows? Or should we expect a sudden, grisly collapse from glowing beauty to dust, like Ursula Andress as the 2000-year-old femme fatale in "She"? Too hungry to connect to the youth market, Madonna goes on childishly using naughty words and flipping the finger (as onstage at Live 8 last summer). Marlene Dietrich, her supreme precursor, knew how to preserve her dignity and glamour".

Gotta love Camille. She is not known for pulling her punches.

For this Cat Blog Friday, no other cat would do except Emily, the black and grey tabby who vanished from her Appleton, Wisconsin home in late September, and traveled in a cargo container by ship to Belgium, before ending up in Nancy, France.

Workers at Raflatac, a laminating company in France, used her tags to phone her veterinarian in Wisconsin, and the vet called her owners.

Emily's excellent adventure ended happily with her safe arrival yesterday at General Mitchel International Airport in Milwaukee where she was turned over to her family.

What a cat!

From English PEN comes news that popular Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk will be brought before an Istanbul court in mid-December 2005 for refering to the killing of 1,000,000 Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

The charges stem from an interview given by Orhan Pamuk to the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger in February 2005 in which he is quoted as saying that "30,000 Kurds and 1,000,000 Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it". Pamuk is charged with insulting the Turkish nation, which does not contest the deaths, but denies that it could be called a "genocide".

What would you call the killing of over 1,000,000 people from one nation, if not genocide?

It's clear that Turkey has a long way to go in its quest to join the European Union.

The 2005 hurricane season officially comes to an end today, but it has left me scarred. I see letters of the Greek alphabet everywhere. Yikes!

Let's hope Mother Nature, my choice for 2005 Person of the Year, sees fit to heed the calendar and spare us any more storms.

Alain Robert, the "French Spiderman" was arrested before his attempt to climb the 40-story Two Houston center in downtown Houston. Robert has not ruled out future Texas climbs by his dog, Fifi, the French Spiderdog.