Florida Cat Blog Friday

A word to the wise..

don't piss off a Florida cat.

Anti-Gun Propaganda

Don't you fret. We Floridians won't shoot... unless you deserve it.

The Kiss Of The Doberman

My sister e-mailed this to me today:

The Kiss...

The photograph below shows a red Doberman licking an exhausted fireman.

He had just saved her from a fire in her house, rescuing her by carrying her out of the house into her front yard, while he continued to fight the fire. She is pregnant.

The firefighter was afraid of her at first, because he had never been around a Doberman before.

When he finally got done putting the fire out, he sat down to catch his breath and rest.

A photographer from the Charlotte, North Carolina newspaper, "The Observer," noticed this red Doberman in the distance looking at the fireman. He saw her walking straight toward the fireman and wondered what she was going to do.

As he raised his camera, she came up to the tired man who had saved her life and the lives of her babies, and kissed him, just as the photographer snapped this photograph.



And they say animals are dumb. Yeah, right.

The De-Mythification Of Katrina

For an excellent summation of the facts versus the myths of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, check out Gateway Pundit

This post dispells much of the fiction spun by the MSM and the NO locals.

The Bo Sox Strikes Back

The Boston Red Sox management will stop at nothing to get another shot at rivals, the New York Yankees, including hiring wookie, Chewbacca, to put away the Toronto Blue Jays on 9/28/05 at Fenway Park.

I don't blame them. But I do suspect steroids.

Kitty Target

Deputies in Pinellas County, Fla., are searching for the person who shot a kitten with an arrow that came within inches of its heart, according to a Local 6 News report. Veterinarians removed the arrow piercing the kitten from its shoulder to abdomen and have nursed it back to health.

A kitten! What kind of messed up psycho would shoot a kitten?

I'm only posting this because it ends well. The kitten has been adopted by Kathy Powers, the good samaritan who found him. She named him Archer.

Architeuthis Video

No, it's not an old sea myth or a bad horror movie.

This giant squid, the 26-foot long Architeuthis, was captured on camera by a team led by Tsunemi Kubodera, from the National Science Museum in Tokyo, as it attacked prey nearly 3,000 feet deep off the coast of Japan's Bonin islands.

The video of the squid in its natural habitat was taken in the fall of 2004. I suppose they have their reasons, but I don't understand why they would keep this cool news quiet for over a year.

Go Ask Mary

Former FEMA director Michael Brown told a special congressional panel set up by House Republican leaders to investigate the catastrophe, "My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional", and put much of the blame for coordination failures on Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

Why didn't they enlist the help of Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA)? According to the New Orleans Times Picayune of 11/9/96, when Landrieu was trailing badly in her Senate race, she realized that 186,000 inner city folks would probably not get to the polls on election day (read inner city = democrat votes). That morning 1000 workers hit the streets, they found countless buses to get people to the polls, they organized parades to go through the housing projects with NO music bands, they gave away red beans and rice.

So, it appears that the local New Orleans government can be functional when it suits them. They can move the people, entertain them, & even feed them, but only when it suits them. Hurricane Katrina didn't fall on election day, perhaps if she had, the people would've been better served.

The Perfect Martini

Gin. A whisper of vermouth. Two olives... Hey, what's that teeny weeny kid doing in my olives?

Knife-Swallowing Puppy

From Plantation, Florida, comes a story of a 6-month-old puppy who swallowed a 13-inch serrated knife.

Elsie, a Saint Bernard puppy, apparently had the blade between her esophagus and stomach for about four days before it was removed earlier this week in a 2-hour operation.

Jan Scarola, owner of Elsie and (the one holding the expensive vet bill), says she thinks one of her six other dogs -- four Saint Bernards, a German shepherd and a Labrador -- somehow got the knife, which eventually made its way to Elsie.



I can just see these dogs conversing in dog about this, "Let's give it to Elsie. She'll eat anything."

The puppy has an 8" scar, but is otherwise doing well.

Truth can be stranger than fiction.

Go Granny

When I walk/jog my 0-3 miles a day,  Mexican athlete Rosario Iglesias Chayito, 95, is often my inspiration. Chayito, shown above, recently crossed the finish line after running a 200m race in 1:59:45 during the XVI Master Athletics Championships Stadia 2005 in the northern Spanish Basque town of San Sebastian. (AFP/Rafa Rivas).

Blame Krazy Karl

Yes, weather control is complicated.

[Note: Photo credit Lucianne]

Genetic Engineering Advances

From Guardian Unlimited comes news that scientists have successfully transplanted human chromosomes into mice, a first that promises to transform medical research into the genetic causes of disease. Go here to read the rest of this fascinating article.

Elizabeth Fisher at the Institute of Neurology and Victor Tybulewicz at the National Institute for Medical Research in London spent 13 years perfecting the technique which is reported in the journal Science today.

The geneticists were reluctant to release the results of their early research using cats instead of mice.

Got Ham?

Kinky makes a ham delivery for Cat Blog Friday.









[Photo credit: Hat tip to Jennifer]

A Tale Of Two Cities

[Note: photo via Lucianne]

Pinky, Gulliver's Bunny Friend

From Ananova comes news of a 200-foot-long toy rabbit, knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool. The giant bunny lies on the side of the 5,000 foot high Colletto Fava mountain in northern Italy's Piedmont region.

Designed by Viennese art group Gelatin, the bunny is "supposed to make you feel small, like Gulliver. You walk around it and you can't help but smile."

The giant rabbit is expected to remain on the mountain until 2025, at which time, it will be put into a giant washer and then dried in a giant dryer, where it will shrink to about 12 inches.

General Hero

During a recent press conference, the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin began to lose control of the press and General Russel Honore had to jump in and save the mayor's sorry ass.

Read the entire transcript at radioblogger It's worth a read, but basically the good general told the MSM: You are stuck on stupid!

You go, General. It's about time someone told off the press.

Reminds me of The Band-Aid song... MSM is stuck on stupid, cause stupid's stuck on them (or should I say, Dems).

Bad Hair Day

A recent study of individual hair strands under an electron microscope and an atomic force microscope revealed hair's primary enemy is friction. So says Bharat Bhushan, an Ohio State University mechanical engineering professor who conducted the study published in the current journal Ultramicroscopy.

You can read about the fascinating science of hair in Discovery News here .

A better understanding of the microstructure of hair will spur scientific advances that will lead to fewer bad frizzy hair days in future.

That bodes well for these guys:

Baby Jane Mime

Am I the only one who knows what ever happened to Baby Jane when I look at this photo of Marcel Marceau miming in spanish at the Pablo Tobon Uribe theatre in Medellin?

Un Art

Russian pop art exhibition in the new Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.





Uncreative. Unappealing. Uninsightful. Underwhelming.

Amazing how much Russian pop art is like American pop art. Why must it be so commercial and repetitive? I guess I shouldn't complain. It could be worse. Remember the dung madonna? Yikes!

Not Again!

Here we go again. Time to batten down the hatches. T.S. Rita is coming a scant three weeks after Hurricane Katrina.

It's too late to do this now, but why can't a piece of an iceberg be pulled by tugboat and placed in the tropical intraconversion zone when these storms are in their infancy? If you chill the water, won't that stop the storm's development?

Liar's Paradox

Bill Clinton illustrates that he has uttered only one true sentence in his whole life, "All statements that come out of my mouth are false."

Chug, Chug, Chug

Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber and his wife Karin drink from their Bavarian steins during the official opening ceremony of the original Munich Oktoberfest September 17, 2005. Hailed as the world's biggest and most famous beer festival, the 172nd Oktoberfest will be visited by 6 million people who will consume 6 million liters of beer (about 1.578 miilion gallons). Reuters/Wolfgang Rattay.

I see that Edmund and Karin are working on their respective liters. Everyone must do their share.

Cat Blog Friday

This is my cat Kinky doing an impression of a hurricane symbol.





Yes, living in Florida does strange things to pets...



[Photo credit: Hat tip to Jennifer]

The Pup Of Roo As Hurricane

This is my dog Dax doing an impression of a backwards hurricane symbol. BTW click to enlarge. It's funnier.



[Photo credit: Hat tip to Jennifer]

Aurora Alert!

A coronal mass ejection (CME) is racing toward Earth and it could spark a severe geomagnetic storm when it arrives--perhaps tonight (Sept. 14th and 15th). People everywhere should be alert for auroras.



The CME, pictured left, was hurled into space on Sept. 13th by an X1-class explosion at sunspot 798. This remarkable 'spot has produced nine X-flares since Sept. 7th including a record-setting X17-monster. All by itself, sunspot 798 has made Sept. 2005 the most active month on the sun since March 1991.

For more information, go to spaceweather.com .

No, The BLOG will not blame the coronal mass ejection on President Bush.

The Ayes Have It

As Judge Roberts looks at the likes of world class bloviatiors such as Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, et al., he thinks, "Egads, who votes for these clowns!"

Headphones & Hearing Loss

Please, no more Rolling Stones!

Researchers fear the growing popularity of portable music players and other items that attach directly to the ears - including cell phones - is contributing to hearing loss in younger people.

Increasingly, Robert Novak, director of clinical education in audiology at Purdue University in Indiana, says he's seeing too many young people with "older ears on younger bodies" - a trend that's been building since the portable Walkman made its debut a few decades back.

This should force a reexamination of the experimental program of musical therapy to improve the care of newborns which began 2 years ago at the 1st Private Hospital in Kosice-Saca.

Raise Your Hand If You're Sure

No, not an anti-perspirant ad, but England cricket captain Michael Vaughan holding aloft a replica of the Ashes urn as players Kevin Pietersen, center, and Andrew Flintoff, right, celebrate during the Ashes victory parade in London on Tuesday. England regained the Ashes on Monday after drawing the final Test match against Australia winning the series 2-1. (AP Photo/Matthew Fearn/PA)

Cricket reminds me of quidditch only with the flying brooms.

Truth Springs Eternal

In the same way you can't keep the human spirit down (evidenced here by NOLA citizen, Alex Perez, carrying his cats to safety in Tupperware), the truth will out, come hell or high water.
The truth about Hurricane Katrina's aftermath is percolating through the toxic ooze of liberal reporting and slowly coming into the light of day. From the American Spectator comes More on Katrina from the perceptive Ben Stein, in which he makes a case that the MSM used the storm and its attendant sorrows to continue their endless Bush-bashing.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette comes No shame from Jack Kelly, which challenges the liberal left's contention that the federal response was unconscionably slow. To quote Mr. Kelly, "Journalists who are long on opinion and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England..."

These are just two short articles and are both well worth the read.

There is no stopping the truth about Hurricane Katrina.

Thank goodness.

Never Forget

I didn't want September 11th to pass without a small reminder here on The BLOG.

The Big Boo

In case you missed it, hip hop rapper Kanye West, who used a network hurricane fundraiser to charge "George Bush doesn't care about black people" was loudly and lustily booed during last night's NFL kickoff show.

In a developing story, The Drudge Report said, "The appearance of Kanye West, who was beamed into the Boston stadium via remote from Los Angeles, received a strongly negative response from the crowd"

"The boos were thunderous and lasted for much of his number," reports the BOSTON GLOBE.

Thank you Boston for setting this big mouth straight!

Cats In Sinks Blog Friday

Have you looked in your sink lately? There may be a cat in it. The folks down at cats in sinks.com say they have discovered a feline phenomenon of staggering proportions and they have the pics to prove it.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Ever have one of those days?

Kitty with sink phobia.

Angry young kitty who hates being in the sink.

Kitty who should stay away from the mirror.

Tortie in the sink. No reason other than I have a soft spot for torties.

This site has hundreds of other photos and will accept submissions for posting. So everybody get your digital cameras out & try to catch your felines in the sink.

Trekiversary #39

The first episode of Star Trek aired on September, 8, 1966.
I watched it with my Dad and we became instant fans.

Can you name the creature in the picture?

Blank Gov

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco(D) resisted pleas from the Bush administration to declare martial law and her dithering (either because of crass political motivation, just plain incompetence, or both) opened the way for looters, rapists, and killers to prey on the already victimized citizens of New Orleans.

Unlike Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) who vowed to deal "aggressively and ruthlessly" with looters in his state, Gov. Blanco, on the other hand, initially suggested that stopping rampant looting in New Orleans wasn't a priority, telling reporters Tuesday: "We don’t like looters one bit, but first and foremost is search and rescue.”

The smoldering ruins of New Orleans are a testament to Governor Blanco´s poor handling of the situation, and her inability to punish those who would use Katrina as a free pass to steal and kill at will, yet she appears angrier with the Bush Administration than the looters! From this I conclude politically driven incompetence; the worst case scenario for Louisiana.

But the politically motivated incompetence doesn't stop there. Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, yet another democrat, threatened on national TV to punch out the president (a felony, BTW, even as a threat). BayouBuzz.com suggests that the senator should consider punching out the governor instead, which is only a misdemeanor.

Gotta love it. I'm sure there would be quite a few takers on that suggestion.

The Anti-Rudy

From an article by Craig Martelle of the Pittsburgh post-gazette.com comes this eye-opening review of the New Orleans emergency management plan and how it broke down long before the federal government became involved.

The key to emergency management starts at the local level and expands to the state level. I urge you to read the entire article, but in short, it stresses that it is the office of the Mayor, Ray Nagin, who must coordinate all city departments and allied state and federal agencies which respond to citywide disasters and emergencies through the development and constant updating of an integrated multi-hazard plan.

Yet, this AP photo from 9/1/05 shows a school bus park, apparently filled to capacity with buses, under 4 feet of water. Ask yourself, why if a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans was ordered, why weren't all the taxpayer-purchased buses used to evacuate the citizens who had no means to get out?

Mayor Nagin was quick to blame everyone but his own office, but the details of his utter incompetence will be made known to the world.

Mayor Nagin, you sir, are no Mayor Rudy Guiliani!

Tomorrow, Governor Blanco...

Is It 5 O'Clock Yet?

I've heard of having time on your hands, but your head?


TGIF! This photo is evocative of Fridays, especially ones before a long weekend, which always make me watch the clock.

So as you head out towards whatever you have planned, please remember the people in the wake of Hurricane Katrina who don't have the basic necessities of life. If you haven't already made a donation, please do so. If you are fortunate enough to have the means to do so, donate again.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend, everybody!

Cat Burglar Blog Friday

German police called to a break-in at an apartment in the northern town of Itzstedt found the intruder still on the premises and hiding under a kitchen cabinet.

The "cat burglar" had somehow crawled into the ground-floor of the apartment, broken window blinds, torn down drapes and trashed furniture.

Police also found fish and fish remains from a broken aquarium scattered around the apartment, said Julika Reinhardt, spokesman for the police in the town north of Hamburg.

Two officers finally found the offender, a cat, hiding under a kitchen cabinet but the heavyweight male resisted arrest, biting one officer in the thumb before they both managed to overpower it.

Reinhardt said the cat, wearing a name tag, was returned to its owner who would have to pay for the damage.

"No one knows how the cat broke in," she said. "But the damage was considerable."

The cat's name was not revealed and no next of kin could be reached for comment, but it looks like another case of a good cat gone bad.

Doggie Bag

This gives a whole new meaning to the term doggie bag.

Skinny House For Sale

This skinny house (pictured in black) in the Shepherds Bush neighborhood of west London measures an amazing 5 feet at its skinniest and 9 feet, 11 inches at its widest is up for sale for $933,868, according to estate agents.

The house which is spread over 5 levels, includes a narrow kitchen, an itty-bitty dining area, a teesy-weensy reception room, three pint-sized bedrooms, a wee shower room, a miniscule dressing room, a paltry patio, a miniature garden and a puny roof terrace which boasts panoramic views of London's west side.

And I thought real estate prices were through the roof here in Florida.