The Official Blog of David Fiedler

How Bad Does England Suck?

2008-06-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

How bad does England suck?

So bad that I've started an entire new blog just to write about it at EnglandSucks.wordpress.com. Here's what's on the About page:

Ah, England. The sun never sets on the British Empire. Chin up. Pip pip and all that rot.

England used to be a great place, cool even. But now it seems to be circling the drain, as life imitating the art of George Orwell’s 1984. This site will attempt to document how. As to why, I’ll leave that to experienced political analysts. Personally, I think it’s a damn shame.

At this point, I'm afraid the only things England has left going for it are fish & chips and Doctor Who.

What the Hell is Wrong with These People?

2008-05-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm as much in favor of reforming drug laws as the next 60's guy, but really...

The last paragraph quoted is what ticked me off.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Dozens of San Diego State University students were arrested after a sweeping drug investigation found that some fraternity members openly dealt drugs and one even sent a mass text message advertising cocaine, authorities said Tuesday.
Two kilograms of cocaine were seized, along with 350 Ecstasy pills, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamine, illicit prescription drugs, several guns and at least $60,000 in cash, authorities said.
Of the 96 people arrested, 75 were students. Eighteen of the students were arrested Tuesday when nine search warrants were executed at various locations including fraternities, said Jesse Rodriguez, San Diego County assistant district attorney.
The undercover probe, dubbed Operation Sudden Fall, was sparked by the cocaine overdose death of a student in May 2007, authorities said. As the investigation continued, another student, from Mesa College, died Feb. 26 of a cocaine overdose at an SDSU fraternity house, the DEA said.
Those arrested included a student who was about to receive a criminal justice degree and another who was to receive a master's degree in homeland security.

Albert Hofmann Takes His Last Trip

2008-04-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

Fresh from revelations that New York City, under the leadership of admitted pot smoker Mayor Bloomberg, is now the marijuana arrest capital of the world, this morning's news is a downer indeed. Albert Hofmann, the father/inventor/synthesizer of LSD, has died at the age of 102.

So much for those who are against "drugs" like LSD and marijuana on a health basis. Hofmann himself took hundreds of LSD trips, and stayed quite mentally and professionally active to the very end.

He once upbraided Timothy Leary for popularizing LSD to the point where it became, to many, a recreational drug. Hofmann felt it should be approached seriously as a spiritual aid for getting closer to nature, an outlook that most experienced users of hallucinogens seem to share.

He is already greatly missed by many.

Auri Is a Cat Burglar!

2008-04-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

Today Susan was making herself meatballs for lunch. She heated them up and put the plate down on the counter while heading to the refrigerator for some tomato sauce.

Up jumped Auri, who stuck out a claw and flipped one of the meatballs off the plate! She then played meatball hockey for quite a while after finding out it was too hot for her to eat!

Of Popes and Cats

2008-04-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

Back in the Sixties or Seventies, David Peel released an album entitled "The Pope Smokes Dope". While that scenario is extremely hard to believe, it is no doubt true that the current Pope and I share a different addiction...that of kissing cats.

Pope Benedict XVI is well-known as a cat lover and a recent New York times article goes into this in some depth.

But wait, there's more! His official biography was written by a cat! How things have changed since Pope Gregory IX declared black cats to be evil, causing innumerable cats to be killed!

Like cats, Popes have multiple names. Pope Benedict's cats may call him Benny, but I doubt it, since his real name is Joseph (he took the name Benedict when he was elected Pope). And, anti-Catholic propaganda to the contrary, even Popes don't have unlimited power -- Pope Benedict was unable to have his cats join him in his official residence. So fooey on the Vatican, anyway...at least "Catholic" begins with "cat"!

Bad News From All Over

2008-04-23T07:17:00.000-07:00

I've been kind of busy working on some of new projects for a few weeks, so perhaps I haven't been paying enough attention to world events as I should have. Well, actually that must be true or I'd have a lot more posts here for April, because there's plenty to worry about. And I don't mean global warming, either, but some of the scariest things I've read since I heard Hillary Clinton was running for president:

Food shortages (even matzo shortages), food riots, and higher food prices. Perhaps this article isn't enough to make you worry in detail, but OTOH it might be a good idea to dig up all those ideas people had when preparing for the great Y2K problem that never happened...

The Coming-Soon-to-a-Theater-of-War-Near-You Conflict with Islam. I'm not going to pretend I know all the answers when it comes to Muslims, Christianity, and Western culture, but Bill Warner, the interviewee of this piece, surely sounds like he does. It's a very long article but you won't notice that because, no matter how you feel about the subject, you'll be shaken up when you read it.

And if that isn't enough, now pundits are seeing the entire world at war -- for centuries -- over the effects of climate change.

Happy Earth Day.

Sometimes You Get Lucky

2008-04-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

...and just today, I found three people who were very lucky. Must be some good energy floating around or something.

The first: OK, you've heard of all those fools falling for Nigerian money scams. Some woman actually got her $4500 back, courtesy of the U.S. Postal Inspectors and the Nigerian government.

The second: this next lady should get on national TV. Her literally one-in-a-trillion-shot is far more interesting than any of the so-called "reality shows" now clogging the airwaves. In case you're not one of those people who actually click on links, someone shot the woman between the eyes with a .44 caliber bullet that struck her head and split in half. Each half zipped around her skull under the skin and came out behind her ears; a few stiches and she's good as new.

The third: dang, somehow this makes me proud of my Russian blood. An electrician in the Russian city of Vologda went drinking with a buddy, came home on the bus the next morning, stuffed some sausage in his mouth and fell asleep. It was only later that his wife noticed he had a 6" knife sticking out of his back, courtesy of his drinking buddy who he apparently had a disagreement with.

He's just fine too.

Tuxies In Japanese!

2008-04-11T06:26:00.001-07:00

We have a very dear friend who lives in Tokyo and is not only a world-famous computer journalist but also a cat lover. She has two cat blogs -- one in English and one in Japanese -- and she recently sent us a link to a Japanese tuxedo cat video. It's on the Japanese-language version of YouTube, so there are lots of tuxedo "related videos" on the right side of the page, just like the English version.

A Moment of Silence for Some Friends of Cats

2008-04-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

OK, not really friends, perhaps. But all the cats loved to watch them.

Today Susan unexpectedly lost one of her beautiful fish, a Gold Nugget Pleco, and Madame Houdini, a White Line Gecko. Dang, they were both fine yesterday.

Here's a picture of Madame Houdini with two of her little gecko friends in happier days (like when she was alive):

She wasn't called Madame Houdini for nothing. In her most famous escape (documented in the upcoming book Famous Geckos and Where They Hid, soon to be a major motion picture starring Stickon D. Wall and Leggo Mai Gecko), she not only got out of a completely sealed tank, but eluded six cats for three days by pretending to be a wall decoration, and then resisted capture by numerous experienced reptile wranglers. If you don't believe me, check out these photos.

Madame Houdini could often be found on the back wall of her tank, where she teased the heck out of all the cats, but especially Jennifur, Auri, and Aurum. Jenni sometimes stood up on her hind legs like a meercat to look at her, while Aurum would come out in the middle of the night and stare at her for hours.

We will all miss them both.

Pain Sucks Because It Hurts

2008-04-04T02:36:00.000-07:00

It was just about three weeks ago when I had an interesting experience with Panther. Unfortunately, while Panther managed to stimulate all kinds of terrific creativity, he also somehow managed to somehow put my leg out of joint, as it were.

Well, that was two weeks ago, and I still don't like to complain, but since then I've been able to sit at the computer productively less and less each day. The pain has been increasing, and I was saving my Vicodin pills for serious episodes (i.e. when I screamed). And walking around with a cane all the time was starting to get old...especially in public, when people saw me and assumed I was old. Anyway, my leg started getting numb at random times and then all the time, so I made an appointment to see the doctor, which was today.

Just a few hours before the appointment, I was suddenly seized by a pain that felt like the mother of all cramps in my calf (as opposed to the mother of all calves, which would be a giant cow...but I was ready to have a cow anyway by this time). Somehow I had the presence of mind to check my leg muscles, and there were no knots, cramps, Charley Horses, or anything similar. It was just pure acute unmitigated pain with no apparent cause.

How bad was it? I called upon God, Panther, Jennifur, Susan, all known spiritual entities and beneficent demons, and used several dozen colorful metaphors. I called Susan's voicemail to tell her I loved her, just in case. I was in very poor shape indeed.

Suddenly it stopped.

Of course, I expected it to start up again at any moment, but I took the opportunity to take a shower, get dressed, eat, and do all those things people do before going to the doctor. I wanted Steven with me just in case the pain struck again while I was driving, so I left as soon as he got home from school.

I was sure the doctor would tell me I had a blood clot in my leg that was about to break loose and kill me, but she decided my problem had all the symptoms of some sort of nerve damage or displacement (my mother always told me I had a lot of nerve). So tomorrow I'm off to get X-rays of my hip and pelvis, which doesn't worry me because I've already had children.

And the kicker: all that jumping around I did with the non-cramp (or was it an anti-cramp?) must have jiggled something back into place, because virtually all the previous pain has been gone since then. Either that, or Panther and Jennifur really did manage to cure me...which wouldn't surprise me much at this point.

The Six Sleeping Cats

2008-04-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

We have a guest blogger this evening: Steven, our youngest (a precocious 14-year-old) son. As soon as I heard what happened to him, I dragged him over so you could hear it too:

Hello, this is Steven. Just tonight, I fell asleep on our living room couch. I wake up about an hour later with Charger laying next to my chest, Agile under my head (he makes a very furry pillow), Yang in the crook of my leg, Yin on the other side of my legs, and Aurum (mind boggling!) sitting right on top of my side. It was quite a furry blanket as you can imagine :) Then Auri decides to get next to my face so I can taste her fur...

Those Wild and Crazy Chinese

2008-04-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

OK, this makes me really mad.

First they invaded Tibet (admittedly, this was a while ago, but we dragons have long memories).

Then they accused the Dalai Lama of being a terrorist.

Now, in one of the most cynical ploys I've heard since Hillary Clinton claimed to be a New Yorker, they've pre-announced that Tibetans will be making suicide terrorist attacks.

Why is this cynical? Because now the Chinese government can kill as many Tibetans as it likes, and claim they all committed suicide. Or that they were about to commit suicide, so they were forced to shoot them in order to stop them. Or that the peaceful Tibetan Buddhist monks were stirring up the people and goading them to commit suicide, so that's why China was forced to destroy all the Tibetan holy places.

Think I'm paranoid? Let's just watch and find out. And while we're waiting, please remember to boycott Chinese goods to show your displeasure.

Auri Found To Be Member Of Two Gangs!

2008-03-31T04:17:00.000-07:00

We are devastated!

Our dear little Auri...the sweet little tuxedo kitten that we just wrote about the other day...we now have evidence that she's criminally inclined!

I guess it's true what they say about Saturday night being reserved for wild behavior. I woke up early Sunday morning when I heard some odd scratching. I followed my ears to the closet. I opened the door. And what did I see?

Auri, Agile, and Charger, guiltily looking up at me with their beautiful eyes, imploring me not to turn them in to my wife Susan ("The Furminator")! Together, they had broken into the locked closet and had been greedily wolfing down Panther's special prescription diet food (40 bucks a bag, thank you very much!). Because it's prescription food, this may be a federal offense!

But wait, there's more! Google News reported that Auri was also identified as a member of the notorious Tuxedo Gang! They even have a known hideout!

We've tried to raise her right, but she just wants to raise hell (or maybe just raise heck, after all, she's still a kitten!). Where did we go wrong?

Obama/Clinton Ticket Must Never Happen

2008-03-30T07:22:00.000-07:00

AOL blogger Tommy Christopher writes:

There is a gathering consensus among political observers that Senator Hillary Clinton cannot win the Democratic Presidential nomination, and that she should step aside soon for the good of the party.

So far, so good. But then he says "In my view, Hillary Clinton's most valuable contribution will be at Barack Obama's side as his vice president" and goes on to make a reasonable case.

Unfortunately, this would be a disaster for the Democratic Party and the country. Here's why.

Hillary is the new Antichrist. Democrats do not and cannot fathom just how deep the national hatred of Hillary goes, once outside the liberal enclaves they spend virtually all their time caring about. Her shenanigans during this campaign have not endeared her to her fellow Democrats, either. Putting her on the ticket at all will make many people run screaming from the exits, no matter how much they may look up to Obama.

Hiilary is not exactly a shrinking violet. Imagine a joint Obama/Clinton administration in action. Remember Hillary's health care initiative when she had no official position beyond First Lady? Now imagine her meekly taking her cues from Obama. Ain't gonna happen.

And that goes double for Bill. I can't even visualize Bill Clinton acting properly as First Husband (or whatever they'd call it). He'd be impossible as Second Husband.

I hate to even bring this last one up, but it was someone else who recently said something about Hillary using the "Tonya Harding option" if she lost the nomination. Well...considering that list of dead bodies that history has attached to people who crossed the Clintons, do we really want to put Hillary Clinton a heartbeat away from the presidency? I hope to hell Barack is smart enough to know who he's dealing with here.

Auri, Auri, Aurikins!

2008-03-28T00:14:00.000-07:00

One of our readers gently reminded us that we haven't written about Auri, our newest kitten, since we first got her way back in October. So here I am to correct this serious oversight.

Auri is such a joy to have around. Really, she's so adorable and happy that every once in awhile I check her belly to see if maybe there's a battery compartment in there!

When we first got her from the Folsom Carl's Jr. (no, she wasn't in a bun, she was begging outside) she was all fire and brimstone, hissing and growling at all our other cats -- even Charger, who back then was easily five times her size! But a good dose of our patented Unconditional Love eventually solved that problem, and now she mostly just annoys Aurum for some reason.

Auri is still a kitten, although she's grown quite quickly, and she can always be counted on to flip her little toy wolf in the air, or fly down the hall in pursuit of a laser dot. She is quite an expert at sleeping, and when sleeping next to one of us will stretch out, turn into a little black-and-white ball, or assume any other reasonable shape in order to stay asleep and stay next to us while we toss and turn.

Having grown to kittenhood on the kindness of Carl's Jr. patrons, she is also one of the first to the feeding bowls, which is no doubt part of how she has grown so quickly! Here she is in her current sundae best, looking delectable enough to kiss and kiss and kiss some more:

She is a sweetness.

Jewno -- The Movie Trailer

2008-03-26T03:14:00.000-07:00

Like a number* of other people, I often learn about new and interesting blogs, websites, facts, and videos by surfing around. Today on Digg I happened to catch this extremely funny and well-done parody of the popular movie "Juno" -- called "Jewno" to reflect its NYC/Jewish twist. As the saying goes, you don't have to be Jewish to appreciate it...but it helps!

The perpetrator of this short film is a talented fellow named Stephen Levinson, who has some impressive webness here. Not too many young fellas in the film business have the Coen brothers as an opening act, but you'll have to read the website carefully for the details (if you're around NYC at the end of April, please go and tell me what I missed).

*A rather large number, in fact.

China Loves Animals, But Not As We Know Love

2008-03-25T04:04:00.000-07:00

I just now read an article on the Salon website recounting the author's experience in China, wherein he was offered meat from a dog he had befriended. Whether this was intentional or simply insensitive is not the point, but the timing is impeccable, since it was just yesterday that I posted my own article about the many abuses going on in China.

Since this is a cat lover's blog, I do ask you to read my article, but feel free to skip the link there talking about China's death camps for cats and dogs, since the contents were even too distressing for me to read in detail. And the reason for China's killing dogs and cats is to simply "clean up the cities" before the Olympics, although they claim it's to "prevent disease". The Catholic Church tried killing cats in the Middle Ages, and the result was the disease called the Black Death. Unless you believe there are no rats anywhere in China...especially this year!

In any case, I would like you to take away three main points from all this:

Cheap Chinese goods are no bargain when they support death.
We should all try to cut down on our purchase of Chinese-made items.
Boycott the 2008 Summer Olympics. Don't even watch it on TV.

There's Something About China

2008-03-24T05:03:00.000-07:00

...and it's time to do something about it.

I've been collecting online items about China for years, both positive and negative. And until now, I've managed to keep my big mouth shut on this topic. But now things have gone too far.

China accuses Dalai Lama of being a terrorist!

No, that's not a headline from the popular Onion news satire website, although it sounds like one. That's today's news from the London Times. And, for anyone who's spent more than 30 seconds studying the history of Tibet, that's like calling Abraham Lincoln a slaveowner or Hitler a humanitarian. It's totally insane, but unfortunately that's what the world has come to expect from the Chinese government. And unfortunately 1,300,000,000 people live under this sick regime.

Let's take a look at some stories from all over the world about the current Tibet crisis. I'm only posting headlines and links because otherwise we could be here all day:

OK, there was rioting in Tibet, about 50 years after being savagely attacked by the Chinese and having their independence and much of their culture taken away. Frankly, one can hardly blame the Tibetans for losing control of themselves every once in awhile. And the Chinese government knows that the Dalai Lama is one of the most peaceful people on the planet, which is exactly why they accuse him of being behind the violence. In actual fact, needless to say, he's denounced the riots in Tibet, while the Chinese government has claimed that all the people killed were Chinese, conveniently ignoring the far greater number of Tibetans killed by Chinese troops and police.

But that last headline reveals the real fear of the Chinese government: that the upcoming Olympics -- a chance for China to "show off" for the world -- will somehow be disrupted. They know it would be a real loss of China's prestige in the world if something like that happened. So let's make sure it does!

The Chinese government is Communist and displays all the classic paranoia and control of news and people that was evident in the Soviet Union and other examples of the "workers' paradise", such as Cuba. And yet China has become an economic powerhouse in the last few decades precisely because they opened themselves up to foreign trade. But they have failed their own people as well as the rest of the world. Let's look at some of the things they have managed to accomplish while preparing for this Summer Olympics:

China hushes up Olympic deaths -- China has systematically covered up the accidental deaths of at least 10 workers, and perhaps many more, in a rush to construct the futuristic ”bird’s nest” stadium in Beijing for this summer’s Olympic Games.
State Department warns American spectators at Olympics not to expect privacy -- The State Department is advising Americans planning to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing to take care and be mindful that they could be under surveillance.
Un-bear-able: China's cruel animal Olympics reach new heights -- A black bear perches precariously on a scooter and is forced to drive a circus performer across a tightrope. This shocking image is just the latest picture to emerge from the barbaric Animal Olympic Games in China, a country with a shameful animal rights record.
Olympics clean-up Chinese style: Inside Beijing's shocking death camp for cats

In short, no life is safe in China while the Chinese government attempts to "put on a happy face" for the world.

But wait, there's more.

The Chinese government not only destroys the lives of its own people, but deliberately or negligently allows the lives of people all over the world to be taken or threatened as well:

Man beaten to death in China for taking pictures -- Authorities have fired an official in central China after city inspectors beat to death a man who filmed their confrontation with villagers, China's Xinhua news agency reports.
Pollution kills 750,000 in China every year -- The figures, almost twice previous estimates, were calculated using a new statistical model. But they have been suppressed until now because the government feared they would cause social unrest, according to reports.
Filler in Animal Feed Is Open Secret in China -- As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein. (NY Times, April 30, 2007)
Claims that China paid Bin Laden to see cruise missiles -- China paid Osama bin Laden several million dollars for access to unexploded American cruise missiles left over from the US attack on his bases three years ago, a senior alleged al-Qaida agent in Europe has claimed. The alleged agent's account is contained in the transcript of a secretly taped conversation between supporters of Osama bin Laden obtained by the Guardian. (The Guardian, October 20, 2001)
Poisoned Toothpaste in Panama Is Believed to Be From China -- Diethylene glycol, a poisonous ingredient in some antifreeze, has been found in 6,000 tubes of toothpaste in Panama, and customs officials there said yesterday that the product appeared to have originated in China. (NY Times, May 19, 2007)
Chinese kill baby to enforce birth rule -- China has been shaken by one of the most horrifying cases of official infanticide in recent memory after family planners drowned a healthy baby in front of its parents. (The Times, August 24, 2000)
China Link Suspected in Lab Hacking -- A cyber attack reported last week by one of the federal government’s nuclear weapons laboratories may have originated in China, according to a confidential memorandum distributed Wednesday to public and private security officials by the Department of Homeland Security.
China threatens to nuke America -- A recently-declassified Chinese military document states communist China will first conduct a "Vietnam"-like conventional war against American forces, and then eventually fight a nuclear war against the U.S. homeland. The document, recently translated by an American intelligence agency, was sent by the Chinese army central command to all the regional garrisons and army corps headquarters in China.
China: Internet users at risk of arbitrary detention, torture and even execution -- "Everyone detained purely for peacefully publishing their views or other information on the Internet or for accessing certain websites are prisoners of conscience," Amnesty International said. "They should be released immediately and unconditionally".
Virus from China the gift that keeps on giving -- An insidious computer virus recently discovered on digital photo frames has been identified as a powerful new Trojan Horse from China that collects passwords for online games - and its designers might have larger targets in mind.

Enough already. I hope by now you get the picture. Cheap Chinese goods for the world are no bargain when they support death and repression like this. Let's all try to cut down on our purchase of Chinese-made items, boycott the 2008 Summer Olympics, and let the Chinese government know that "business as usual" is over.

One Crack, Sonny, and I'll Hit You With My Cane

2008-03-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

OK, I admit it.

I haven't been talking about it because I hate to feel like I'm complaining, but I've been in some pain since last Sunday's incident with Panther when he sat on my hip. For the first two days or so, my pelvis was completely out of whack, and I must have been walking funny because the pain switched to my ankle. OK, we have elastic braces and things around for that, so I put one on and hobbled around and it started to feel better.

My mistake was doing any hobbling at all, I suppose, because I wanted to be productive since I felt energized again. But instead of setting up my laptop in the bedroom like I had done when Glory was sick, I hobbled into my office and around the house. By Tuesday I was on Vicodin to cut down the screaming (OK, it really hurt at times).

Unfortunately I compounded all this folly with some more. Susan had been planning a special day with the family, including Scott and his girlfriend, and I didn't want to let her down. Since she wanted to visit a local sake brewery, I came up with the brilliant idea of bringing my camera, so I would have an excuse to bring my new monopod, which is sturdy enough to use as a walking stick, which I needed by this time as the front of my leg now hurt when I walked.

Walking around using the monopod as a walking stick -- really a cane, since I put my entire weight on it -- seemed to help quite a bit. I took a few decent pictures but I did way too much walking. So by Wednesday night I was on double doses of Vicodin and luckily I found another prescription around. By this time, what with the pills and the stick, I was starting to feel a bit like Gregory House, M.D.

Today I finally actually had a seriously good idea and asked Susan to look up tendonitis, since it seemed to be things rubbing inside my leg that were hurting. Sure enough, staying in bed with an ice pack helped more than anything else I've tried. And hopefully, nothing else will come up, because the pain has been keeping me from focusing on writing more than anything else.

Mobile Phones and Frankenstein

2008-03-21T03:37:00.000-07:00

Today I was watching Frankenstein movies with Steven (all 3 of them...1910, 1931, and of course Young Frankenstein) and then Susan came home from work. Her old Nokia cellphone literally fell apart (she dropped it a lot) and the law is changing here to force you to use handsfree while driving so I found an insane deal on a new gold V3 RAZR for $90 and gave her my phone, so now we both have Bluetooth for hooking up to the $22 Motorola OEM speakerphone deal I found for the car. Also my old phone (a V505) is very sturdy and has a nonslip coating on it which is perfect for someone who has her hands in fish tanks all day :-)

Black Is the Night

2008-03-16T07:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight I was lying in bed on my side, which I often do to prevent Jennifur walking on my balls in the middle of the night, which she often does otherwise.

At some point I thought I felt Nightstar moving around on the bed. She stepped up and sat down on my hip in Sphinx pose. I was amazed because she never does that; she usually lies down right next to my pillow, under the covers with me, or at the other end of the bed entirely. I actually raised my head for a quick peek to make sure it was her, because Jennifur sometimes sleeps on top of me, but always on my stomach...but she was surely too dark to be Jennifur.

Well, we stayed like that for awhile. Every five minutes or so, I felt the urge to shift around a little, but resisted because I was sure she'd get off if I did...she seemed a bit precarious up there. Finally I couldn't help myself and rearranged a bit. Amazingly, she stayed on, even rearranging herself a bit. I eventually started falling asleep and that's when the fun really began.

Suddenly my head began filling with thoughts. I actually saw a page begin to fill up with writing about cats -- a whole collection of things I had been planning to write for ages. Cat love; cat promises; cat prayers! And, if you've been following this blog for more than 30 seconds or so, you've probably noticed that I haven't been able to write anything for months. Well, here I am at 5:30 in the morning writing now, and I'm seeing words fill up on the page just like it did a little while ago in bed. But wait, there's more.

I had shifted a few more times and Nightstar stayed right where she was. Suddenly I had a flash...this didn't really seem like the Nightstar I knew. I remembered Yang was in the room and I know he can sleep through any amount of movement. Steathily I found the tail and raised it up and looked. Even in almost pitch dark, I could see it was definitely a black tail and not a white one!

And yet the fur didn't feel like Nightstar somehow. So I started counting off cats in my head. Not Yang, not Jennifur. We just weighed Nightstar at 14 pounds and this cat seems awfully light...so it can't be Agile either. The door was closed, and the only other cat in the room was Panther...but he hasn't even slept on our bed since 2001, and never on either of us.

Just about then, she (or whoever) jumped off. I couldn't stand the suspense, so I sat up, put on my glasses, and found my flashlight. I looked on the bed and there was Agile where I had seen him last...with Nightstar sleeping right beside him. Jenni was on her shelf, and since Yang was nowhere on the bed, that meant he was in a box in the closet.

Which left Panther, who was eating from a bowl on the floor after jumping off the bed.

No pun intended (this time, anyway), but this floored me. Clearly Panther -- who I've never been able to "hear" in all the time he's lived with us -- had sent me all this information for a reason, even sitting on me to make sure I got the message. So 5:30 in the morning or not (and I'm definitely not a morning person), I figured if it was this important to Panther, it was important enough for me to get up and get back to writing.

So here I am again, folks. And all hail Panther.

My Comments on the Undersea Internet Cable Outages

2008-02-03T17:48:00.000-08:00

From the CNN article:

(CNN) -- An undersea cable carrying Internet traffic was cut off the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, officials said Friday, the third loss of a line carrying Internet and telephone traffic in three days.

Ships have been dispatched to repair two undersea cables damaged on Wednesday off Egypt.

FLAG Telecom, which owns one of the cables, said repairs were expected to be completed by February 12. France Telecom, part owner of the other cable, said it was uncertain when repairs on it would be repaired.

Stephan Beckert, an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues, said the cables off Egypt were likely damaged by ships' anchors.

The loss of the two Mediterranean cables -- FLAG Telecom's FLAG Europe-Asia cable and SeaMeWe-4, a cable owned by a consortium of more than a dozen telecommunications companies -- has snarled Internet and phone traffic from Egypt to India.

OK, here's my take. This is bullshit, and I'll tell you why:

"Twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action."

When everything comes out, I would bet serious money that either (1) a super-conservative Muslim sect, tired of Western influences in the Middle East, cut the cables to stop the pernicious Internet or (2) a power in the Middle East is planning a military strike and cut the cables to confuse the enemy.

The other possibility is that the powers that be don't want everyone to know how easy it is to disrupt worldwide Internet service, so they came up with the anchor story as disinformation. Awful lot of anchors all at once...

Bird Lover Kills Cat, Faces Jail Term

2007-11-14T23:49:00.000-08:00

s reported in The New York Times and numerous online news sites, a "bird lover" named James Stevenson is on trial for killing a cat that he claimed was preying on endangered birds. He now faces a $10,000 fine and up to two years in jail if convicted on animal cruelty charges in Texas.

The defendant doesn't even dispute that he shot the cat with a rifle, and even boasts of shooting many other cats he found on his own property. However, this man runs a commercial bed-and-breakfast establishment targeted at bird enthusiasts, so it could easily be proved that he had a pecuniary interest in killing cats. Instead, his defense centers around the idea that the cat was feral and therefore killing her could not be prosecuted under the older state law.

While there's a good chance the prosecution can prove that the cat, Big Mama, did effectively belong to someone (based on the fact that someone had fed, named her, and provided her with toys and a bed), the essential fact is that someone went out of their way to deliberately kill a cat. Big Mama died in pain, according to a police officer who was at the scene, though predictably the defense attorney attempted to discredit even this witness by saying ?He?s not qualified to know what the cat was feeling."

Perhaps bird lovers have no feelings for other animals, so they find it inconceivable that other humans could. But it doesn't take much compassion to realize that animals have the right to live. And I bet James Stevenson didn't name his birdies, either.

Woman Jailed Almost Two Months for Dried Cat Pee

2007-10-09T23:02:00.000-07:00

Jacking in from the Twilight Zone, because it's probably even too weird for the Weekly World News...but true nonetheless.

Cynthia Hunter, 38, was jailed in Tampa, Florida after being arrested for petty theft from a Wal-Mart. A vial was found in her purse containing a yellow substance, which Hunter claimed was dehydrated cat urine for a science project. Eyes no doubt were rolled when the substance tested positive for methampetamine using a field test kit, so the Florida authorities packed Hunter off to jail.

Imagine their surprise when proper lab tests showed that it was dehydrated cat urine all right! Of course, that was after Hunter had sat in the slammer for 50 days.

There's a lot about "court appearances" in the original article, but nothing about an actual trial. So we're not sure how much has changed in Florida since the days of Easy Rider.

October Is Time To Bring Your Black Cat Indoors

2007-10-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

We always keep our cats indoors. But every year at this time we remind our friends to keep their cats, especially their black cats, indoors for the rest of the month, no matter what.

And we hate to even think about why. Even though many people think it's just an urban legend, it's indubitably true: there are emotionally and mentally sick people out there who enjoy doing unspeakable things to cats, especially black ones, and especially at Halloween.

Susan reminded me that we were once sitting in the waiting room of a local veterinarian when a Goth-dressed girl came in and asked the people sitting there if they "wanted to get rid of any cats". We all stared at her until she left.

It was October 29.