“If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it … whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat,” the sheik asked.

“The uncovered meat is the problem.”

“If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab (head scarf), no problem would have occurred.”

The sheik’s daughter is now saying he is being misinterpreted.

“He was not inviting people to rape (women). That’s the thing that was out of context,” she said.

“He was just teaching women to be modest.”

Yes, he wasn’t telling men to go rape women who were dressed immodestly. He was JUST saying that women who dressed immodestly were ASKING FOR IT. Big difference, isn’t it?

In a civilized society, a woman should be able to stand naked in a room full of men and not get raped. The men can think she’s crazy, they can have lustful thoughts, they can even be offended, but if they are civilized, not a one of them will throw her down and rape her. If the men can’t control themselves, it’s their weakness and their problem. Being able to control your animal instincts is one of the foundations of civilized society.

I didn’t misinterpret what he said the first time I read it. He said, quite bluntly, that men, being no better than stray cats, will rape a woman who isn’t covered or doesn’t remain in her home, and it’s not the man’s fault. Even his daughter agrees that this is what he was saying, but because she is too blinded by the culture she was raised in, she fails to see the fault in even that logic. Disgusting.

Imposing economic and political sanctions against Iran and North Korea will help democratic forces in those countries as Washington pursues its “ultimate objective” of regime change, John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said on Tuesday.

Regime change didn’t come about in Iraq even after years and years of sanctions. It required some Shock and Awe and the deaths of a few thousand US soldiers as well as untold numbers of Iraqis to get rid of Saddam. I don’t see why sanctions would suddenly work in Iran and North Korea. I wonder which one we will invade first? My guess would be whichever one we determine doesn’t yet have a nuclear weapon.

Asked by Fox News why the UN did not try to encourage political change in Iran and North Korea, Mr Bolton said talk of changing authoritarian regimes into democracies would “make a lot of countries unhappy”.

He went on: “But I think that’s something the United States and its friends should be pursuing on their own, because that is our ultimate objective. If you had countries that were responsive to the public will – unlike, say, North Korea or Iran – I think the odds are considerably reduced that they’d want to spend their scarce resources on nuclear weapons.”

No doubt it would make some countries unhappy, and some of those countries we call friends and allies … and when he starts saying that a country that’s responsive to the public will not wanting to spend their scare resources on nuclear weapons, does he mean a country like the USA that spends some $6.5+ billion a year maintaining, modernizing, developing, and producing its nuclear arsenal? Did you know that after adjusting for inflation, we spend as much on our nukes now as we did during the height of the cold war? I’m sure we couldn’t find something better to spend that money on, you know, if we had a government that was responsive to public will and didn’t want to waste scarce resources.

Of course, that amount is but a mere drop in the bucket compared to how much we have spent and continue to spend in Iraq … some $330 billion the last time I looked into it.

The kittens are getting too smart. They are learning to work together to solve complex problems … like how to get under/around/through the foam board insulation we have wedged in the corner of the hall to block off the AC/heating unit. Currently the board is shoved into the corner and held in place with a few almost useless bits of tape and a heavy can of paint. This morning, in a fit of rage due to Lin daring to close the bathroom door tightly so they couldn’t get in, they set to work to defeat our protective measures surrounding the back corner of the hall.

Myu was standing on the can of paint, reaching up as high as she could, and pulling on the edge of the board. Meanwhile, Ronin was down at the center of the base edge pushing against it. By the time I got into the hall after hearing the scritchy-scratchy sound of foam board on wall, Ronin was already half-way under it, and it was, for the most part, completely dislodged.

Yes, I think in a few more weeks, they will begin planning their world domination. Watch out world! Princess Myu and Ronin the Destroyer are showing signs of higher intelligence! We are all doomed!!!

To make up for my previous lengthy ranting so early in the day, here’s a photo of Ronin “helping” me with the ironing. I swear I only left those shirts lying there for about 60 seconds while I grabbed the other ironing supplies. It didn’t take long for Ronin to find his way into them and into the sleeve of the topmost shirt. Silly kitty!

I’ve been posting a lot of photos of Ronin lately. I keep trying to get some of Myu as well, but she’s been really camera shy lately. Ronin, on the other hand, LOVES the camera. He is becoming quite the little ham!

Let me preface this by saying the following is an excruciatingly long rant of near mythic proportions. Sorry. I haven’t gotten to sit down and rant about something when I felt like it in a long time. It wasn’t my intention to stay up all night ranting, but I did. What follows is the result of my somewhat sleepy efforts. I’m not going to proofread it, so I do apologize if I come off sounding like an insane person. I’ve put most of it behind the cut to save everyone’s scroll bars.

I read a post at Newsvine tonight entitled I want to take away your right to vote!. I’m not going to argue the illiteracy rates in the United States right now, because it’s almost 3 am, and I am too tired to look up statistics … and I still have ironing to finish. What I’d like to refute is the idea that anyone who doesn’t have a college level of literacy is incapable of understanding the issues presented to them as voters by political candidates and their government.

The post begins by suggesting that voters be required to take a test to determine whether or not they understand the issues, and presumably candidates, they are voting on. If they don’t pass the test, they can’t vote. There are so many reasons why that is such a bad idea, I am not going into them either. Do I have to? I’m sure most of us can come up with at least one or two reasons why testing people before allowing them to vote is a bad idea. The first one that pops into my brain is the fact it would be denying some people their constitutional right to vote. Call me silly, but that’s enough of an excuse to me. Do I think some people make unwise decisions while voting, possibly because they don’t fully understand the issues and candidates they are voting on? Yes, and some of them are college educated. Do I think testing people for ANYTHING AT ALL before allowing them to vote is a good idea to stop people who pick candidates by their favorite sports team, because they either don’t understand or don’t care about the issues or candidates? Hell no! Everyone gets a voice no matter what they want to say with it or how they want to use it.

Now that I haven’t ranted too much about the things I didn’t want to get into tonight, let’s get into the heart of this post: Can people who function at a literacy level lower than that of a college student understand the political issues of our times and be an informed voter? I believe they can, and I believe they can do so at a much lower literacy level than the poster at Newsvine believes they can. I intend to demonstrate this point using books recommended for various school years to show that having a lower literacy level isn’t actually as horrifying as it sounds to someone coming at it from a snobbish and elitist viewpoint. It’ll be fun! I promise!
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I normally stay clear of paying any attention to political candidates and issues for a few weeks before the elections, preferring instead to spend the last few days before I vote going over what everyone has said, where they stand, and deciding then how I will vote. Most of the tongue flapping that happens the last few weeks before voting day is just so much poo flinging anyway. It’s not worth paying attention to all of it and does little to encourage me to vote one way or the other. Fling poo all you want. I’m an issues person, and all I want to know is where you stand on the things I care about and whether or not I believe you will do what you say. Beyond that, I usually don’t care. Even an asshole can get good things done. I don’t have to like the person, I just have to like their ideas and plans.

Which brings me to Kinky Friedman’s healthcare plan for Texas (PDF file, suggested reading only for Texas voters). I am not thrilled with it, especially the fact that childless couples and singles would yet again pay more for less.

The Texas plan would include four tiers of coverage, with the poorest children getting the most benefits for the lowest price and childless adults paying the most for the fewest benefits. Source: If elected, Friedman vows to offer subsidized healthcare for Texans

If there are 5.5 million people in Texas without health insurance (Lin and I being two of them), and of those people, 1.6 million of them are children, what group seems to be most lacking in health insurance? Could it be single people and childless couples? Why yes, it could, but Kinky seems to think we should pay higher premiums for lower benefits in order to Save the Children. While I wouldn’t consider this a total deal breaker as far as winning my vote goes, because I am so used to not having health insurance and not getting proper healthcare that my life will go on the way it always has no matter what stupid plan gets put in place, something else has come to my attention, and it’s bent my nose so far out of shape I am taking time away from making dinner to rant about it.

It all started with an email sent to Kinky’s campaign by a friend of one of my Livejournal friends, an email that wasn’t politely worded and a little course. What I would expect in response from a political campaign to such an email is either silence or a form letter explaining the issue that prompted the frothing email. The response from John Jordan, apparently the head of Field and Operations for Kinky’s campaign, was short and to the point … “fuck you.” That is pretty much uncalled for. I get emails from people who disagree with me on things, and sometimes they are quite rude. I use that handy little thing called a delete button, or I send out my own form letter that basically states we can discuss the matter when they are willing to discuss it rationally. I would expect someone working for a political campaign to be at least as dignified and diplomatic about it. I guess my expectations are too high.

Rob has been having a bit of a back and forth with emails from Mr. Jordan and others, and the responses have been quite revealing. You can read them, and Rob’s responses back at these links:

Two Words, Two Votes: Rob explaining why Kinky will be two votes shorter.
And the first (non-automated) response: Really a must read. John Jordan is no diplomat.
Second Response: Laura Stromberg, Kinky’s Press Secretary, becomes involved.
Third Response: Laura Stromberg stays involved and changes her tune and Rob responds.

Now like I said, Kinky’s healthcare plan aren’t by itself a deal breaker. The asinine and arrogant behavior of his campaign staff, also by itself, also wouldn’t be a deal breaker where my vote is concerned. The two together? Yup, that’s starting to look like an enormous blot on my desire to Vote Kinky, which is a real shame, because I agree with him on most things and there isn’t anyone else I currently approve of more than I do Kinky. It’s definitely going to make me do some thinking about how I feel giving my vote to someone who as asses working for him and wants to shaft me and my husband on healthcare. I guess I’ll have to look at the Democrat that is running, though there’s something about him that makes me shiver in a bad way. I can’t quite put my finger on it yet, but something about him doesn’t sit well with me. Who knows, maybe for the first time since I have been able to do so, I will cast no vote at all in the governor’s race. That would be SO weird.

Anyway, I just wanted to get that out there for more eyes to see. I really need to go work on dinner now, and the kittens are awake again, so I better squeeze in some playtime too.

The kittens broke out in a knock-down, drag-out fight while I was doing the dishes. Oh it started harmlessly enough with the usual play-fighting, and then I noticed it progressed to Myu not wanting to play-fight anymore, which is when I start keeping an eye on things. First the growling started, then I noticed the ears getting laid back, and then hissing. They broke it up on their own after a few seconds, but then they’d just get right back to it. Finally, when the yowling started and I saw that Ronin had Myu pinned the the ground and was chewing on her leg, I jumped from the sink to the pile of kittens in one ninja-like move and snatched up Ronin with my soapy and wet hands. I hissed in his face and tossed him into the bathroom for a time-out. He was not amused.

The problem is he is at least a pound heavier than Myu, and he’s much larger and more aggressive. It also seems like Myu is a late-bloomer and is developing mentally and physically slower than he is. This is starting to cause problems, because she just doesn’t want to spend all day every day getting beat up on, and who would? He’s going to have to learn how to play-fight nicely, or the play-fighting is just going to have to stop. I guess that means I have to up my playtime with the kittens and wear them out more.

The funny thing is Ronin’s time-out didn’t last too long. Myu proceeded to sit by the bathroom door and whine loudly until I let him out again. See, they do love each other, but Ronin has zero impulse control and he just isn’t learning that when something hurts someone, be it kitten or human, you should stop doing it. We’ve tried to make that point with loud noises, but I guess we need to move on to nose-tapping and time-outs. I’m hoping when we take them to get them neutered next month Ronin will settle down just a little bit. No guarantee with that, though a little less testosterone in his system can only be a good thing at this point.

Just like any children, they can be a handful and a pain in the butt. I still love them to pieces. We are just going to have to find a solution for Ronin constantly harassing Myu. If physical behavior modification doesn’t work (I don’t hold out high hopes seeing as I have spent much of the day hissing at and nose-tapping Ronin to no avail), I might try that Feliway plugin with relaxing kitty hormones in it, and someone else suggested Rescue Remedy, a homeopathic treatment (though I do not put much faith in homeopathy). I knew he was going to be a problem child from the first week we had them. He’s still lovable, but damn we need to cut back his aggressive tendencies or Myu is going to be a miserable cat.

How about something a little less serious than my usual ranting? How about cats … cats being silly … with captions? You know you want to look! I guarantee there will be at least one that will actually make you laugh out loud.

…it is worth remembering that the total number of people killed since 9/11 by al Qaeda or al Qaeda­like operatives outside of Afghanistan and Iraq is not much higher than the number who drown in bathtubs in the United States in a single year, and that the lifetime chance of an American being killed by international terrorism is about one in 80,000 — about the same chance of being killed by a comet or a meteor.
–John Mueller

Considering how much time and energy and money we put into supposedly keeping ourselves safe from terrorist attacks, methinks we aren’t putting enough into protecting ourselves from comets and meteors … statistically speaking, that is. I demand to be protected from comets and meteors! And bathtubs too!

The article I pulled that quote from is really worth reading, and I wish everyone would read it, most especially those people who are constantly wringing their hands and worrying about there being another terrorist attack at any moment. Take the time to get through the three pages of text, and then mull it over and compare what it says to what you hear on the TV news every day from our government. If nothing else, this article will give you an excellent insight into why I spend no time or energy worrying about terrorism disrupting my life. There are better things to worry about … like getting hit by a comet or meteor, or falling in the tub and cracking my head.

I have to post this photo I snapped of Ronin and Myu last night, even though the front page is rather image-heavy at the moment. It’s just too cute not to share immediately … as in before I forget about it.

Boy are they growing fast, Ronin in particular. I think he’s going to be a minature panther by the time he’s done growing up. Compare and contrast with this photo I posted the first week they were with us for a size comparison.

And for the record, let it be known that Myu will only respond to the name Princess Myu. No joke. She wasn’t responding at all to her name yet, and so I started trying all sorts of names to see what would get a response out of her. Since we sometimes called her Princess Myu, I started trying that, and sure enough … you have to call the princess PRINCESS, or she has no time for you at all. She is such a little prissy kitty!

So now it’s Princess Myu and Ronin the Destroyer. Hey, don’t blame me for the silliness! They picked the names!

And now I really need to get on with my day. I can’t believe how late in the morning it already is!

Played around with Metablobs in Vue 5. I haven’t read any instructions, so I have no idea what I am doing with this program, but I am starting to like it a lot. Can’t wait for the Universal Binary to come out sometime this month (or next)!

Click the pic for a larger view.