Dixie and her Nap

Sorry I woke you.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I saw her on the Colbert Report, but before then I heard about her book and I was lucky enough to find it last Monday at the local library.

I disagree with her, but I like her book. Unlike Ann Coulter's work, where I disagree with her and really don't like her writing.

I don't feel that I can say anything about her views on Islam because she grew up with it, I didn't. She can't say anything about my views on Christianity for the same reason.

That being said, there are 2 things I disagree with, that stuck out.

She said people were wrong when they said poverty and misery turned the terrorists into fanatics.

But, earlier, she said that Somalis turned to Islam because the (secular) government was failing and hurting everyone, and religion offered happiness, if not now, after you died.

Her description of her life under Islam was horrible. I always thought that since women have to cover up because men are horndogs, wouldn't it be easier to just blind and castrate the men? Then women can enjoy life.

I'm reading American Fascists right now. I picked it up Monday as well. There are many similarities between the Christianity in this book and the Islam in her book, especially the treatment of women.

The other thing that bugged me - when she was in Dutch government and wanted to do away with minimum wage and unemployment because Muslim immigrants and refugees used that to hide from integration.

That pissed me off. The minimum wage and unemployment aren't just for refugees, native-born Dutch use them as well. Plus, she used the money given to refugees to go to school, to be a success, and she wanted to deny other Muslim women the same thing, while criticizing them for not doing anything!

Same as women decrying feminism, while feminism gave them the chance to speak and get the hell out of the kitchen. "I made it, but how I made it was bad, so let's get rid of the ladder I used."

That's about it.

My library is broke and bleeding books.

They can't afford to have the security measures they used to have. Something in the books would set off an alarm if it wasn't properly checked out.

Well, books are being stolen.

What are they doing? Limiting the number of books we can check out.

And that stops people from walking out with books without checking them out... how?

And! This librarian did not know how to spell glitch! Glitch!

However, the lady who checked my books out was younger and obviously newer, because she took interest, however fleeting, in the 8 books I had.

So there is hope.

And I should get my student ID soon for the university and then I can use the Memphis library again, so whatever.

Mikey and his Front Paw

So cute.

He was up a minute later, mad at me because mom stretched, disturbing him.

I remembered this week - I win.

Here Comes The Rain Again
The Eurythmics

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you

So baby talk to me
Like lovers do
Walk with me
Like lovers do
Talk to me
Like lovers do

Here comes the rain again
Raining in my head like a tragedy
Tearing me apart like a new emotion
Oooooh
I want to breathe in the open wind
I want to kiss like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you

So baby talk to me
Like lovers do

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
(here it comes again, here it comes again)
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you

Oh the stupidity!

The articles linked to in the 'What's New' box are rarely new or news worthy, but since yesterday, they've been really stupid - without even having to read anything but the titles.


Angelina (if you have to ask which Angelina...) has a "shocking new look"! She's "too thin?"

But right below that is yet another thing about quick, easy no-exercise weight loss!

Argh!

Wickett and his Body

In less than a second, he can be up and yelling. I don't get him.

Jerry Falwell is dead.

And has been for a while.

I haven't had anything to say, I tried to contain my glee with the thought that what he started didn't die with him.

I never liked him, but what he said on September 11th kind of sealed the deal, and everything else he's said is just disgusting. I checked out the book American Fascists Monday and I told my mom that it wasn't about ordinary Christians, like her and Becky and the people who work at the Crisis Center, it was about the Falwells, and the Dobsons, and the Pat Robertsons, those jerks that hijacked the country and are trying to make it a Christian nation.

I can't believe I was happy to see he died of old age. 1 - no one killed him, that is very good. 2 - he was a hateful bigot. Here's a collection of his quotes from an atheist site.

What prompted me to finally say something was the 3 letters printed this week condemning Bill Day, the Commercial Appeal's editorial cartoonist, for a cartoon he did on the death of Falwell, mocking him.

Of course he'd mock him, if he's remotely liberal, he's responsible for September 11th and all the ills in the world.

He draws a lot of criticism that other cartoonists featured don't get, at least in the paper. No liberal ever complains, or gets printed, about the Ramirez cartoons that run - I don't remember his first name, but he's conservative, and since Bush vetoed the war bill passed by Congress, he's run too many fucking cartoons about how 'radical' Congress has become. If Congress was filled with bleeding heart liberals and radicals, we'd have free health care and impeachment proceedings! Grr.

On May 18, this cartoon ran in the Commercial Appeal. It's pretty weak, and not very funny to me, but it's pissing people off.



*yawn*

Cute - he called Tinky Winky gay, so ha ha, Tinky Winky's welcoming him to heaven. I don't get it.

The first letter was the next day said "Teletubbies don't go to heaven". Dogs do, according to the liberal nazis in Hollywood.

There were 2 more today, they were so stupid!

I worry Day will be replaced by other cartoonists, or a conservative one. This is the South, we need as many liberal voices as we can get.

But he keeps stepping on religious toes, because plainly, he doesn't worship Falwell and likes to poke fun at pompous people who blamed him for the worst terrorist attack on American soil.


There was another letter yesterday that made me see red - sent in by a guy, about the recent outcry about rape in a rich part of town, hence the coverage of it. The victims are calling for more police, but the asshole said police aren't there to protect us, women should take responsibilty for their own protection, if they get raped, it's their fault, no, it was their male relatives' fault for not protecting them. It seemed like he was saying that we shouldn't punish the rapists, since the women should protect themselves. Go to pandagon or feministe or reclusiveleftist and see why this is so offensive and stupid, it's not funny, because it's not unique - or limited to men, sadly. We can be aware of our surroundings, and take self defense or martial art classes, they give you confidence, but we are not responsible for a rapist's crimes - he is.

I agree with the letters today - we've been saying "Enough is enough" about crime for about ever, but it only makes the front page when it's rich people getting hurt. It's sad but true.

Though the rich victims have the money and time to pursue this, not the average victim. I'm glad they are asking "Why?" and demanding answers - someone has to, and it works better if it's somebody rich and with influence. That's how it works.

Now I'm going to watch Crossing Jordan on A&E. Toodles.

Dixie and her Butt

What a goofball!

She turned ten the 11th.

She's not acting like a middle-aged anything, she's still chasing Wickett, rolling on her Frisbee, shaking her rug, and having fun.

I hope I'm so lucky when I'm her age. (Not 70, I forgot the formula, but she's not ten in human years, I know that.)

Crossing Jordan is over.

That sucks.

That show was awesome.

I told Becky they'd all die, what a finale.

"No they won't, helicopters will come!"

They did, which showed me that the show's makers knew just in time to add the rescue to the finale.

If it had been a mere season finale, they'd still be in the White Mountains with Garrett dying and Woody and Jordan kissing. Finally!

Becky couldn't believe it was ending.

"Nobody watches it."

"I watch it!"

But we're not a Neilsen family, our viewing isn't being monitored, at least not to my knowledge.

So one of the best shows ended.

I've seen 2 great shows end, shows that I loved and adored.

One was the X-files. It ended because they wanted to end it, so they had an elegant finale, they were in control.

The Simpsons, even if it is getting worse, will always have control when it comes to ending. It's a rating powerhouse and insanely popular. Matt Groening will choose the ending.

The other show I watched end is Arrested Development. I have all 3 seasons on DVD. I have trouble stopping once I start.

I adore this show.

They didn't want to end, but they had enough warning to craft a beautiful, hilarious finale.

Crossing Jordan still airs on A&E, and the X-files still airs on TNT and Sci-fi, so all is not lost.

One more thing - the music on Crossing Jordan rules.

I hope to get the soundtrack, even if I don't get the DVDs.

I think the reason it got less popular - it makes me cry. It made me cry a lot this season, it made me cry last season, and maybe people didn't want to be sad.

Oh, after the plane crashed, Nigel was so worried about Kate. They love each other. Woody and Jordan, Bug and Lilly, Kate and Nigel.

Mikey and his Legs

He's so damn cute.

Maybe it'll be every other Thursday?

I'm such a flake.

Leave A Light On
Belinda Carlisle

Take my hand
Tell me what you are feeling
Understand
This is just the beginning

Although I have to go
It makes me feel like crying
I dont know when I'll see you again

Darling leave a light on for me
I'll be there before you close the door
To give you all the love that you need
Darling leave a light on for me
cause when the world takes me away
You are still the air that I breathe

I cant explain I just dont know
Just how far I have to go
But darling I'll keep the key
Just leave a light on for me

Yes I know
What I'm asking is crazy
You could go
Just get tired of waiting
But if I lose your love
Torn out by my desire
That would be the one regret of my life

Just like a spark lights up the dark
Baby thats your heart

Ann Coulter is a redneck bigot.

Despite being from Connecticut, she's just like the idiot robbers in Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen.

I am referring to her comments earlier this month that a poll that showed Barack Obama in the lead ahead of Republican candidates helps the terrorists.

When I saw that in the paper, I laughed so hard.

Especially at the last sentence - paraphrased - she didn't say how it helped them.

I just finished Lucky You again. I don't know how many times. It's one of my favorites, because it's the first I ever read. And I got the hardback version at a library sale for $1.50. I wish I could find a paperback copy at any secondhand place, but I haven't yet.

Anyways, this book is hilarious. It's about the lottery - 2 people had the same numbers, so 2 people won the lottery. It's $28 million, but $14 million each is nothing to sneeze at.

Especially for our heroine, who wants to use it to buy 44 acres of pure nature to prevent a shopping mall from being built there, and to prevent it from being developed forever. The turtle on the cover is one she found in the woods.

However, the other winners want all 28 million dollars.

Greed, mostly. They're lazy criminals, and this would be the end of their criminal life, and the start of their militia, devoted to the purity of the white man. Their enemies - liberals, Jews, aggressive women, Cubans, Mexicans, black people, Communists, and the US Government.

They have many insane theories for why something criminal is in fact good for the white man, why something is bad - because NATO is out to get them, along with black militants, etc.

One theory towards the end hit me and reminded me of Ann Coulter's statement. They purchased a map of the bay (down in Keys) that showed channels and depth. The leader said the reason they kept getting lost and running aground was because the map was wrong, because the mapmakers didn't want them to get to the right island.

Two of my favorites - using forged handicap decals is good because they are blue and white, and NATO's troops (in the Bahamas) will be wearing blue helmets. It's not a coincidence.

Also, they should use the stolen credit card, because when NATO takes over, they will make the US dollar worthless, and only give the 'real' money to the blacks, Jews, and everyone but the white man. (Unless he's liberal or Jewish, of course.)

They're insane and hilarious and fictional.

Ann Coulter is not.

And, unfortunately, bigotry is not fictional, or a historical embarrassment yet.

I worry about how vile it will get if Hillary or Barack are leading in a year.

I've said before - the nation is not ready for a minority president.

Why? We have this war in Iraq that's going to hell faster every day. If a minority candidate ran - on either side - the pundits and slimeballs will focus on that, making the candidates color, sex, or religion more important than their views. And Ann Coulter will be part of it.

Who would you rather have a beer with?

Wickett and his Temper

The boys got into a nasty fight this morning, for no real reason. Mom left the room to get dressed for work and Wickett went under the computer desk, one of his favorite hidey-holes. (He's a vampire.)

Well, Mikey was in a snit for reasons known only to him.

So he sat next to the desk and growled. Wickett growled back.

This continued for a while, until, suddenly, Mikey pounced under the desk.

Nothing deterred them - not the promise of bones, not being sprayed with water, not being poked with a broom. And these idiots got caught up in the wires - Wickett had one on his neck, and Mikey had one on his paw.

Mikey had to be seqeuestered in Mom's room until his whining drove me up the wall. Wickett just owned the couch, as usual.

Both were overheated and soaking wet, but with spit and slobber, no blood.

Mom wanted them outside as soon as possible, they don't fight as much outside, and when they do, no wires to choke themselves on.

I had to bribe them out with a Hawaiian roll. It got Mikey and Dixie out, but Wickett didn't come out until he saw me giving them pieces. They each got 3.

This is their first big fight of the year, since they got neutered. Mikey's done some posturing and growling, but this was some scary shit. Wickett was screaming and it sounded like he couldn't breathe, but he was yelling at me within 10 minutes while Mom looked Mikey over behind closed doors.

This is what I saw when I took their water out.




Mortal enemies.

(That's not a shadow, that's Wickett.)


My theory about the fights is that Mikey starts them. When he tries to start something, just growling at Wickett, oh man, Wickett starts yapping and Mikey starts shaking. Wickett's noise makes him the man of the house. (Alpha Dog goes to Dixie, naturally.)

He will not shut up. And he rarely goes hoarse.

Mikey often goes after him - this is not the first time a rumble has started under the computer desk. Mikey sticks his head in Wickett's space between the couch and the wall. He used to go in after him under Mom's bed all the time. However, he hasn't bothered him while he's under and behind the rocking chair in the dining room - yet.

Mikey's an idiot. He always loses, but he always starts them. Wickett provokes him by existing, I think.

They rarely play together - the closest they come is playing with Dixie at the same time. (Wickett at her ears, Mikey at her feet, gnawing on them.) Or this morning, 5 minutes before the shit hit the fan, Mikey was gnawing on Mom's fingers and wrist while she pet the increasingly spineless Wickett with her other hand.

Boys are crazy.

Dixie and her Opinions

You will listen.

Mikey and his Rug

He's chewing on it, yes.

Wickett and his Massage

Mom was rubbing his belly and he decided he had enough.

Nothing was being done to him!

He's just a crabmonkey.

Dixie and her Ice Cube

Cute story.

Tuesday night, the dogs were really hot because they'd been out for a few hours and it was muggy and miserable.

And, as you can see, Dixie still has her winter coat. Mom says it doesn't make her hot and my medications and doctor appointments mean we can't groom her yet.

Anyways, I got out three ice cubes and handed them out. Wickett ran under the computer and munched away merrily.

Mikey sat on the rag rug and growled at his if someone came near.

But Dixie! She was sprawled out on the floor since it's cooler, and she licked the ice cube, trying to get it towards her, and it kept moving away the more she licked!

Well, she wasn't about to stand up, so she lunged forward and grabbed the cube, turned 90 degrees so she was on the rug.

She got her ice cube then.

And later Mikey's, but I had to help, because her tongue and paws chased it under the chair and I had to pick it up and throw it onto the carpet.

Tonight, I gave her another one and she left it on the kitchen floor. I grabbed it, tossed it on the carpet, and she crunched away.

Wickett cleaned up the crumbs.

You thought I forgot, but I didn't!

The Sea of Love
The Honeydrippers

Do you remember when we met
That's the day I knew you were my pet
I want to tell you how much I love you

Come with me, my love
To the sea, the sea of love
I want to tell you how much I love you

Come with me, to the sea

Do you remember when we met
That's the day I knew you were my pet
I want to tell you how much I love you

Come with me, to the sea

Come with me, my love
To the sea, the sea of love
I want to tell you how much I love you

Come with me, to the sea

Something odd on A4 today.

I can't believe I didn't notice it at first - actually, I can, I was pretty sleepy and just wanted to read the smoking article and get onto the comics.

This odd little advertisement was next to the smoking article!

And I still missed it.

But I found it while looking for an article that was not in today's paper, but yesterday's. I felt like death yesterday, it was all I could do to read the comics, but since I love the paper, I'm supposed to read it every day. And I do get possessive of the Sunday paper, I want to go through it first. They don't even want a subscription - this expires in August. Mom only got it so I'd stop raiding her change on a daily basis.

Anyways, this was a nice little ad that took up half the sheet, height-wise and it was 3 columns wide.

The title?

8 Compelling Reasons Why:

Christ Is Coming Very Soon!

How To Be Prepared For History's Greatest Event


It is hilarious. I cannot believe somebody believes this. Mom told me it's somebody's opinion, it's not based on facts. And that makes it less funny? No.

There is a website, if you dare - JesusSoonReturn.com. I don't. I'm not brave enough to visit.

The 8 reasons are absurd and trite at the same time - the usual suspects, with a few surprises. Israel's existence, fighting in Israel, 'plummeting morality', The New World Order (The EU, the UN, the World Bank, and so on), more cults and false religions (whoever this wackjob disagrees with), and at the same time, more religion and belief of the right kind.

I did not know an increase in earthquakes meant Jesus was coming back - I guess heaven really is inside the earth's core and He's going to come up in a volcano. Take that, Pelé!

But the absolute best reason is number 5 - "Explosion of travel and education."

I'm not kidding! "Two key conditions described about 2,500 years ago for the Second Coming are that "travel and education shall be vastly increased" (Daniel 12:4, Living Bible). In all of history, the vast increase in travel has come just since mid-century with the explosion of both ground and air transportation; in education, with the advance of science and computers."

Mid-century is very important to modern Second Coming theories, Israel was created - miraculously reborn, I'm sorry, in 1948.

I'm pretty sure trains were a sign of the Second Coming when they took over, as was the wheel.

But education? It doesn't make sense. The religious right in this country hates science and education, especially public and non-religious higher education. They're fighting education and science by insisting that evolution is a theory, that the Bible's creation story is the only one, when it's clearly not. It can be taught in high school in a religious studies class, along with the other widely practiced religions of today, or even in a religious history class.

But that's a sin, somehow, because the Bible is the only thing that matters. I thought the 10 Commandments were the only thing that mattered, along with believing in Christ, but there's a lot more to it than that, apparently.

There's also the stem cell issue, where a potential life is more important than somebody already alive and possibly sick who could be looking at a cure.

It ends with an invitation to visit the website where you can see 3 exciting reports: (1) "Seven Incomparable Benefits to trusting Christ," (2) "Beware: the Mark of the Beast!" (3) "What is a Cult or the Occult?"

Your name and address will never be sold or used to beg for money, they sincerely pledge. This ad was paid for by a "concerned private contributor" with a lot of money to waste spreading the word of Christ rather than, I don't know, doing Christ-like work by helping the poor. By the by, I saw our Crisis Center brochure today - it's a ministry, and the brochure included a Bible verse about helping the poor and how good that was. But it's more important to scare everyone with tales of hell.

You know, if everyone who doesn't follow the rules is going to hell, what does it matter to those who know they're going to heaven? We're idiots, let us enjoy a sulfur shower while you play a harp (not a lyre).

Of course, the reason some people pressure loved ones is because they truly believe in heaven and hell and they are concerned that they'll go to heaven and not see their family. It's genuine, but still annoying.

This ends with advice to "clip, copy and share with others!"

I should pay for an ad saying something like that, but based on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy five book trilogy. (Hint - the Sabbath is Thursday.) Money's money, right?

I doubt one person will object to this tripe (people object to the strip club ads in the Sports section), but if I were to run something saying that other people don't believe that, I'll be attacked. This paper has a daily Bible verse in the Op-Ed section. I'm not kidding. Saturday, the M section is devoted to religion - church picnics, never anything about a synagogue or mosque, just Christianity.

Big surprise.

The Second Coming will not happen on a single day. There's debate over whether the bad number is 666 or 616 or 999 or 919 or 13 or 1013 or 42, plus the calendars have changed a wee bit since the Bible was written.

The Second Coming has been coming since Jesus died, it'll happen in our lifetimes has been the cry for almost 2 millenia.

Nothing has happened.

What's scary is that there are people who believe it will happen in their lifetime and want it to happen and like the war in the Middle East, because it's speeding it up. (How can it be sped up if it's God will?)

Why care about the poor if Jesus will take care of them any day now?

I'm lucky to work and live with Christians who think it's not important.

Mikey and his Weary Head

The crown is so heavy.