AFLAC!

Scientists go off the deep end and attack the AFLAC duck. Authorities believe the men were tired of the glut of AFLAC commercials on TV.

Raving Neo-Sov

Former vice president Al Gore said yesterday he has no intention of running for president again [whew!] but he said the United States would be "a different country" if he had won the 2000 election, launching into a scathing attack of the Bush administration.

Here are a few of Gore's statements while at an economic forum in Stockholm, Sweden:

"We would not have invaded a country that didn't attack us," he said, referring to Iraq & Afghanistan. [We'd still be wringing our hands about 9/11, like we did about the USS Cole and the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center]

"We would not have taken money from the working families and given it to the most wealthy families." [This chestnut never dies. Just look up the stats on who pays the most tax]

"We would not be trying to control and intimidate the news media." [Hello? When did the insistence that documents and articles be genuine and not fabrications become intimidation and control?]

"We would not be routinely torturing people." [My personal favorite. How can this nonsense be considered even remotely rational?]

I've always been bothered by Al Gore's frequent misrepresentations of reality, but I particularly dislike his flights of fancy when they occur on foreign soil.

I used to think he was just another America-bashing neo-sov, but now I know he's a raving lunatic neo-sov.

Thank goodness we are the country that we are today. No thanks to you, Al.


[The BLOG note: photo credit to Junkyard Blog . Huge hat tip to jeff/slash for being the first to coin the term, neo-sov {the direct opposite of neo-con}. Maybe he'll expound on its genesis on his blog Queequeg's View

Mommy Dearest Redux

Pop icon and marketing mastermind, Madonna, having undergone yet another transformation, reveals her parenting secrets in an article from This is London .

Madonna, married to film director Guy Ritchie, says she has banned television and punishes her daughter's messiness by confiscating her clothes.

"I'm a disciplinarian. Guy's the spoiler," she says in an interview with Harpers & Queen magazine. "TV is trash. I was raised without it. We don't have magazines or newspapers in the house either."

After inflicting her nasty, bacteria-ridden petrie-dish-on-legs self on us for years, she has the nerve to talk like this?

I was raised watching TV, I grew up reading newspapers and magazines, and my mother wasn't moronically dictatorial. I guess I'm no Madonna. Amen to that.

Belated Blogiversary

I have a terrific memory for most things, but I'm not good at remembering dates. It's so bad that I forgot to note The BLOG's first anniversary on 10-04-05.

Believe me, if it were anatomically possible, I would kick myself.

The Great Pumpkin

Nothing personifies autumn for me as much as pumpkins. This giant prize-winning pumpkin, weighs in at a record 1,229 pounds, and measures 3 feet, 9 inches high. Strangely enough, Joel Holland, the grower of this great pumpkin, has won the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh Off competition 5 years in a row. He won last year with a pumpkin that weighed exactly the same amount. Weird stuff.

Alas, an even larger pumpkin took top honors at the 12th annual Rhode Island Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Championship with a giant pumpkin weighing in at 1,443 pounds, just under the world record of a 1,446 pounds out of Ontario, Canada.

Fall is in the air...even if in Florida, it still feels like summer.

Avian Flu

In Turkey, experts have said that samples from infected animals tested positive for the H5 virus, but it is not yet known whether it is the H5N1 strain, seen as particularly dangerous.

The H5N1 virus has mainly been found in 10 southeast Asian countries and has so far infected 112 people, of whom more than 60 have died, according to the World Health Organization.

Scientists have warned that millions of people around the world could die if the virus crosses with human flu strains to become a lethal and highly contagious new disease.

Let's hope the H5N1 virus doesn't mutate into a human vector.

Non News

From AP Washington comes this article divulging that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers once owned a Smith & Wesson .45-caliber revolver... AND IS NOT LICENSED TO CARRY A CONCEALED HANDGUN IN TEXAS...

[cue the melodramatic violin music, and begin the hand wringing from the press]

And if that wasn't bad enough, the article continues, "state officials refused Monday to reveal whether she has ever been licensed...

[cue the melodramatic organ music next].

So what?

It is not a crime to own a handgun in Texas. A person in Texas can own a gun without a concealed handgun license. In Texas, it is not a crime to carry a rifle in plain sight, but a concealed carry permit is a separate right, requiring training and certification. Texas is one of 43 states that allow concealed weapons, and only about 230,000 residents are registered under the law, but I'd be willing to bet that in some places, there isn't a home that doesn't have firearms of some kind.

This is such non news.

What's next? Miers is exposed as being one of those foul folks who drinks orange juice directly from the carton?

Oh the humanity!

Python Food Cat

Just when you thought it was safe to come to Florida, comes this story out of Miami Gardens. Frances, a one-year-old Siamese cat pictured here as the huge bulge in the 12-foot Burmese python, was gobbled up while she frolicked in her back yard.

Elidia Rodriguez got the cat last year as a post-hurricane gift. She named the cat Frances, after the storm. Now, poor Frances, is Burmese python food.

The snake was captured and taken to the Sense of Wonder Nature Center at AD Barnes National Park.

Earlier this month, authorities say a 13-foot python burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole. In case you missed it, that encounter was a draw..



I thought Florida cats were armed for bear...and pythons.

Ugliest Vegetable Contest

No, not another post about millionaire "documentary" filmmaker, Michael Moore... but an actual contest by the Britain's National Trust to search for the country's ugliest vegetable in Britain. Gardeners were encouraged to submit anything "from two legged carrots to corkscrew runner beans, which often taste great but are rejected because of their looks."

The Trust, which looks after many of Britain's historic gardens, said it hoped the campaign would counter a trend among retailers for stocking perfect-looking fruit and vegetables, regardless of its taste.

I don't happen to have an ugly vegetable at the moment, this hideously deformed freakish carrot thing isn't mine, but I do have an entry for the confused fruit category:



This is an orange who wanted to be an egg.

Silly Cat Tricks

For Cat Blog Friday: We are teaching the new kittens how to cope with life in our loud and busy household. At first, all they did was scamper off and hide for hours. With every passing day, they are interracting with us more and more. For kittens, it's all about the play.

Dragonfly Diet

The average dragonfly can eat its own weight in 30 minutes. Just like millionaire "documentary" filmmaker, Michael Moore.

Sorry, but I can't resist gratuitous fat humor at Michael Moore's expense.

Presidential Advice

[The BLOG note: Hat tip to Dak-Ind of The State of Indiana for the link]

Don't Misunderestimate Harriet

From American Thinker comes an excellent article about Harriet Miers, President Bush's most recent appointee to the Supreme Court.

I hope unhappy conservatives read this article and take it to heart. This woman has a competent legal mind, has bushels of common sense, has managed a large business and run it well. President Bush has also known Harriet Miers for decades and he has worked closely with her for five years.

Harriet Miers is a strict constuctionist of the Constitution and she is confirmable, as opposed to others who can and will be 'borked' because the weak-kneed Senate republicans won't vote for an ultra-conservative judge in the numbers required to confirm.

The real battle will be for the third vacancy and President Bush is thinking about that with this nomination.

I hope the unhappy conservatives don't make the mistake of misunderestimating Harriet Miers.

I would also hope the unhappy conservatives don't make the mistake of misunderestimating President Bush.

New Additions To The Family

Two gray short-haired tabbies arrived yesterday via my eldest daughter's math teacher, who found the 10-week old kittens in a box. Their names, Psyche and Pepper, are still tentative... I'm pushing for Spot and Puma, but the final decision is up to my daughters.

Annular Eclipse

The moon passes between the earth and the sun to cause an annular solar eclipse as seen from central Spain October 3, 2005. An annular eclipse differs from a total eclipse in that the moon appears too small to completely cover the sun. As a result, the moon is surrounded by an intensely brilliant ring or annulus formed by the outer perimeter of the sun's disk.

The last annular eclipse visible from Spain took place on the 1st of April 1764 and the next one will occur on the 26th of January 2028. [REUTERS/Victor Fraile]

Go Bulls!

The USF football team (3-1, 1-0 BIG EAST) travels this week to the Orange Bowl to face No. 9/10 Miami (Fla.) in the Orange Bowl ... The Bulls look to extend their three-game winning streak to four games this weekend against the Hurricanes ... The Bulls, who are just in their ninth season, and this game with the Hurricanes, marks the first matchup between USF and one of the three schools in the State of Florida to have won a National Championship (Miami, Florida, and Florida State) ... It is also the second straight game against a top 10 opponent ... Louisville entered last week’s game No. 9 in the Associated Press and No. 8 in the ESPN/USA Today.

Maybe if I pray really hard...

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]