You may pet the Jesus

A family has seen Jesus in their cat's fur. The cat's name is Sissy.

Blessed are those who provide unlimited fishes.

Ab stain

I really don't think you should put the word "STAIN" on your underwear.

... it must be OK to wear a thong in front of someone, as long as you don't arouse them sexually, because intentionally doing that would make it more difficult for both of you to abstain. That's the twist in these knickers.

Dubya gets Stoned

Here's the teaser trailer for Oliver Stone's movie about Bush Junior. It's just called "W."

James Cromwell is playing HW. He's an excellent actor, but I think I would have picked someone else. He's played the US President a few times (he played LBJ (in a TV movie), and a couple of fictional ones, plus he's playing LBJ again in a future movie) and I am having trouble picturing him as HW. Condi looks nearly perfect. Josh Brolin should be good as W., he's good at playing a dickhead but I'm not sure he can dumb down enough. I've got faith in him though.

I don't know if I will watch this one in the theatre. Probably a rental. And where was this movie when we needed it during the past elections, Oliver Stone?

So he's against polygamy, is that what he's saying?

(graphic snagged from a web ring called "Wholesome Christian Family Lifestyles!" No... really!)

This is almost a comical exchange where McCain appears to be unable to grasp that a couple is made up of two people, regardless of their gender. [ABC transcript]

STEPHANOPOULOS: What is your position on gay adoption? You told the "New York Times" you were against it, even in cases where the children couldn't find another home. But then your staff backtracked a bit.

What is your position?

MCCAIN: My position is, it's not the reason why I'm running for president of the United States. And I think that two parent families are best for America.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, what do you mean by that, it's not the reason you're running for president of the United States?

MCCAIN: Because I think -- well, I think that it's -- it is important for us to emphasize family values. But I think it's very important that we understand that we have other challenges, too.

I'm running for president of the United States, because I want to help with family values. And I think that family values are important, when we have two parent -- families that are of parents that are the traditional family.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But there are several hundred thousand children in the country who don't have a home. And if a gay couple wants to adopt them, what's wrong with that?

MCCAIN: I am for the values that two parent families, the traditional family represents.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you're against gay adoption.

MCCAIN: I am for the values and principles that two parent families represent. And I also do point out that many of these decisions are made by the states, as we all know.

However, he does not seem to be opposed to this type of family:

Cartoon from Pat Malach, Blue Oregon.

Starbucks won't be missed here

...mostly because hardly any of them are going away in Austin. They are closing 600 stores, and in a town where a missing Starbucks would be likely to nurture a local coffee house, they are closing only 2 locations.
HuffPo has published the entire list, and this is what I found:

6403 S CONGRESS AND ACADEMY (1007 S CONGRESS AUSTIN TX)

OK, this one, if unprofitable, is kind of surprising. It's located within an apartment or condo complex, so you would think it would have a built-in customer base.

14121 MOPAC and SLAUGHTER (5000 W SLAUGHTER AUSTIN TX)

This is way down in a suburban wasteland where they are ripping out trees as fast as they can and replacing them with chain businesses that look the same as they do everywhere - stuff like Walgreens, ugly fast-food places, banks, etc. There is a picture of it on this page, and says it just opened April 2008 - so BOOOOOO on Starbucks for opening a new facility just to almost immediately close it down. That sucks!

There is another Starbucks about a mile away from that one, and I don't object to it so much because it's kind of famous for being green. The rooftop is a landscape of native Texas grasses and plants which help to filter runoff so that fewer pollutants will run into ground water, also they collect rainfall for irrigation. Read more about it here and here. It's part of a new development near us, and I hated to see that whole shopping complex go in, but at least they have not made it ugly. It's a good area for parking and walking around (or getting there on a bike), and it's mostly local businesses (except for the Starbucks with the plants on the roof). What a contrast it is from the other ugly crap just down the road that they are cutting down perfectly good trees for.

Missing Starbucks? Support local businesses! We love Ruta Maya, Flipnotics, Bouldin Creek, Jo's Coffee, Spider House, Whole Foods, Central Market, Pacha, Mozart's, and there are plenty more we haven't even visited yet. All have their own personalities.

Tags: Austin - coffee - Starbucks

Recovery wishes for Jon Dee Graham

Austin treasure Jon Dee Graham is in the hospital recovering from a car accident. He started out in intensive care, but reportedly his condition is now "fair."

Jon Dee Graham website

Addendum: I imagine there will be benefit shows for Jon Dee, I've read somewhere that he didn't have health care coverage, and the family is already strapped from their son's medical bills, a kid who was covered, then was ruled with a "pre-existing condition" in the course of an insurance company bureaucratic SNAFU. I'm hoping that JDG did have some coverage on himself. Lots of musicians don't.

More gun craziness

Like many of you, I'm disturbed by the whackjob who decided to shoot people in the UU church in Knoxville on Sunday. Nobody is yet revealing what they think his reasons are. According to this HuffPo story, based on a neighbor's testimony, the guy was ticked off at Christians. I can understand that much of it, but if that's his motive this is ironic because Unitarian Universalism is NOT Christian. It is creedless and openly welcomes Christians, Jews, Muslims, Pagans, Buddhists, Hindus, Agnostics, Atheists... and doesn't require conversion of any kind. That's one big reason that I am a UU and attend nearly every week. Atheists are a small percentage of the membership, just as they are in the population in general, but they are included. If the guy wanted to target fundy Christians, he couldn't have been further off. The Christians who attend there are very liberal and open-minded in their beliefs. I am married to one of them. [note: see update at end of post]

From HuffPo: The church promotes progressive social work, including advocacy of women and gay rights. The Knoxville congregation also has provided sanctuary for political refugees, fed the homeless and founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, according to its Web site.

Karen Massey, a neighbor to Adkisson, told the Knoxville News Sentinel about a lengthy conversation she had with Adkisson a few years back in which she told him her daughter had just graduated from a bible college. She said she was surprised by his reaction when she told him she was a Christian.

"He almost turned angry," she told the newspaper. "He seemed to get angry at that. He said that everything in the Bible contradicts itself if you read it." She also said Adkisson spoke frequently about his parents, who "made him go to church all his life. ... He acted like he was forced to do that."

They have found a multiple-page handwritten letter in the man's car that they are calling a "manifesto", but no details on its content have been revealed. The investigator has said that his intention was to kill everyone, and not just a particular person.

From the Knoxville News: A Knoxville Police Department investigator was observed Sunday briefing Knox County Criminal Court Judge Kenneth Irvine Jr. on the letter.

The investigator, who could not be identified, was seen in the lobby of the Knoxville Police Department Safety Building while in the process of securing a search warrant for Adkisson's white basement duplex at 1919 Levy Drive.

The investigator told Irvine that in a subsequent interview with Adkisson, the suspect had said he entered the church Sunday morning with the intent of killing everyone inside, although he denied having specifically targeted any children.

The kids in the church at the time of the shooting were performing scenes from Annie Junior.

Tennessee Valley UU

UPDATE: It's now being reported that the church was targeted because of its liberal views.

Our Friday in the Live Music Capital of the World

Friday afternoon we went to the in-store at Waterloo Records for Grupo Fantasma, one of the best bands in town. This is Latin dance music, heavy on percussion, horns and guitar with exactly the right amount of cowbell. Here's their website, but there's more music to hear on their MySpace. We love these guys. You can't NOT dance if you see them live.

After Waterloo we went straight over to Central Market to see LZ Love (pictured above). We met her at a party not too long ago, and she is surely a sweet person, and a great singer too. I got a video, below, and it's really a lot of fun. It kind of captures the Central Market patio experience. You just buy your food and drinks in the grocery store or the restaurant (we like to get a bottle of wine, a baguette, salad or soup, and sweet snacks)(mostly for me, because I'm not sweet enough on my own), bring it on the patio. Pets are welcome. Usually it's dogs, but here is someone's parrot. It's very much a kid-friendly event, and I think it's so great that the kids who live around here can be exposed to so much great live music up close and personal.

There was still time to hit clubs after LZ's show, but we are the early birds these days and get silly satisfaction out of getting home before 10pm.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

Cataholics

These stories are all from this month (July)!!!

(More about the video on the right later in the post. It's a bit loud, you may want to turn down the volume a tad before playing. Wild!)

117 cats, raccoon, rabbit found in Omaha home
Some of the cats were dead. This is a woman who had previously had 200 cats taken from her home. I wonder if the raccoon and rabbit just sort of sneaked in disguised as cats thinking nobody would notice. The other cats would... ;-)

Woman Says She'll Fight For 80 Cats Removed From Home (followup on first story) They started with 117 and 80 were removed so there must have been 37 dead ones.

Woman, 64, Taken From Home With 50 Cats
Only 50 cats? Well, this time they didn't count the 24 dead ones they found.

Woman Found Dead With Nearly 70 Cats
This was an elderly woman involved with the Cat Network doing trap/spay or neuter/release. Apparently the "release" part was not done. This seems to be the isolated case among the others where the cats were all healthy.

50 cats found inside condemned home
This time there were 2 young girls apparently living in the condemned home with the cats.

Tehachapi Home Raided, 60 Dogs and Cats Found
In all, they were able to save 15 dogs and 37 cats. They found 14 dead dogs in trash bags in a freezer.

Animals, Dead Kitten Found in Buffalo Home
Only 15 animals this time. It would not even be worth mentioning except for the dead kitten.

29 Dogs, 15 Cats Removed From Home
A 1,150-square-foot house

Man pleads not guilty to 50 counts of animal cruelty
50 cats rescued, most of them were malnourished and had upper respiratory infections and had to be euthanized.

Informational links:
CFA: hoarding
wiki: Animal hoarding

Animal-hoarding behavior should not be confused with people who truly ARE rescuing the cats and are helping them. Sometimes the hoarders start off with the best intentions, and continue with them, but what happens is that the hoarding compulsion makes them dysfunctional (and maybe delusional) and they are no longer able to see the situation reasonably. Animals become neglected to the point of abuse. The whole purpose of giving them shelter is defeated. Sometimes the hoarders are not able to even let go of the dead animals. They keep them in freezers, or even allow the other animals to eat them.

Below is some expanded coverage of the Russian cat lady who had over 130 cats in a tiny apartment. I have to admit, I really understood her reasons, it would be hard to turn a cat out into the Russian winter, and what do you do when people start leaving kittens on your doorstep? I developed some empathy with her after watching. Looks like she's really trying to take care of them -- but looking back over our years, we had up to 4 cats at once, all with health issues and personal issues, occupying lots of time, losing lots of sleep, spending a fortune on medical stuff, plus foregoing even the thought of a vacation that's not a "staycation" (the new buzzword). What a commitment it would take for a houseful!

People probably think we are crazy cat people. We have 2 cats left and try to take really good care of them. I am resisting all urges of adding any more, and not allowing MrB to trap me into taking in any more. But you know how it goes. Cats happen.

Tags: cats - hoarding

SPAM subject line of the week

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McCain sex tape surfaces

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Yes, that's right. I guess that's supposed to entice me to click it open. It didn't.

These things crack me up sometimes. Some more goodies I've gotten:

tomato counterbalance
A reference to the latest FDA finding on that one jalapeno pepper with salmonella?

wiener wiener chicken digger
I don't have a clue about this one. I'm getting some visuals but they're all disturbing.

Update your penis
Yes, you've been trying to use your old Beta version penis, and now there's a software download for the full 1.0 version.

Sperms of endearment
Every sperm is sacred. Even John McCain's.

Monty Python explains it all:

Depp's star power

The star in this case being our Sun. My adopted actor, Johnny Depp, made the eco-news by deciding to purchase a solar-hydrogen energy system for his house on the island that he purchased a few years back. [LINK ecorazzi] He was inspired to buy a Caribbean island after his friend Marlon Brando bought a Tahitian one. Inventor Mike Strizki created the nation’s first solar-hydrogen house in New Jersey, and expects Depp's costs to run between $250,000-$500,000. More on Strizki here.

Depp calls his piece of land "Fuck Off Island*," and it looks like the sentiment applies not only to the papparazzi who want to snap pictures of his kids, but to the electrical power grid as well. Shine on, Johnny Depp.


*and might refer to just doing pretty much whatever the hell you want to do on your own damn island.

Kick the gas can over

Your soundtrack for this is on the right. It's James McMurtry's "Cheney's Toy," about a man who brings about great disaster and destruction, tries to shred everything about this Nation that's been good for humanity... and it won't be over in January.

This lame duck is not going to go out gracefully. He's setting up bureaucratic land mines and fast-tracking them -- lots of these changes might even go unnoticed until they are discovered down the line and will need to be dismantled and/or repaired. Anti-science, anti-healthcare, pro-religion, pro-corporate, and generally fascistic policies are getting sneaked by while the list of American terror suspects gets longer.

Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List
[...] Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.

The omission is inadvertent, said Katherine McLane, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, which administers the grants. “There is no explanation for it being left off the list,” Ms. McLane said. “It has always been an eligible major.”

Another spokeswoman, Samara Yudof, said evolutionary biology would be restored to the list, but as of last night it was still missing.

If a major is not on the list, students in that major cannot get grants unless they declare another major, said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Mr. Nassirian said students seeking the grants went first to their college registrar, who determined whether they were full-time students majoring in an eligible field.

“If a field is missing, that student would not even get into the process,” he said.[...]

U.S. Rushes to Change Workplace Toxin Rules
Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins.

[...] Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said: "The fact that the Department of Labor seems to be engaged in secret rulemaking makes me highly suspicious that some high-level political appointees are up to no good. This Congress will not stand for the gutting of health and safety protections as the Bush administration heads out the door."

[...] "This is flat-out secrecy," said Peg Seminario, director of health and safety policy at the AFL-CIO. "They are trying to essentially change the job safety and health laws and reduce required workplace protections through a midnight regulation."

[...] David Michaels, an epidemiologist and workplace safety professor at George Washington University's School of Public Health, said the rule would add another barrier to creating safety standards, in the name of improving them.

"This is a guarantee to keep any more worker safety regulation from ever coming out of OSHA," Michaels said. "This is being done in secrecy, to be sprung before President Bush leaves office, to cripple the next administration."

A Government Threat to Birth Control
The legislation, a draft of which was leaked last week to the New York Times, stokes the debate over when human life begins by taking the position that birth control that prevents the implantation of a fertilized egg actually results in abortion. It would prohibit federally funded medical facilities—including teaching hospitals and Planned Parenthood clinics—from refusing to hire doctors who don't want to dispense birth control pills and other types of contraception that may cause the expulsion of a fertilized egg. (It's already illegal to discriminate against doctors who refuse to perform abortions.) The new laws would also override state laws that require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims and those that require employers to provide contraceptives along with other prescriptions.

Then there's the war on Iran, the one that isn't quite started yet. If we attack Iran before Bush leaves office, it will please McCain and make one more hell for Obama to have to deal with - so it's win-win for Bush and his neocons.

"light a match, get back and watch that sucker burn"

Damn Yankees!

Well, I'm sure I won't be the only blogger to use that title for this topic.

[source] According to the story, Yankee Stadium is banning sunscreen!

Are they worried that you are going to make a bomb with it? They say they are protecting you from terrorism. And don't fear, when you get inside, they WILL sell you a one-ounce bottle of it for $5.00!

Dr. Babar Rao, a specialist at the Skin and Cancer Center of New York, is quoted as saying, "This is especially bad for children, as their younger skin is particularly sensitive. Sunblock needs to be reapplied every two hours, even if you are not swimming in the ocean or pool."

(This NY Post story adds that they are now allowing you to bring in as much as 3 ounces of your own sunscreen.)