This Week in the Theocracy

Welcome, pilgrims dedicated to the perfection of purring. It's me, Jacob the Syrian Hamster, faithful beadle of the Feline Theocracy here to act as your spirit guide on the path to enlightenment as we wander through the best posts from the feline theocraticians for the week.


It's always a pleasure to read these blogs. Today we will go through them in reverse order, starting with the WOG Squad.

Our Court Jester has a post that just enrages me. My little angel is adopted. I went to Russia to get her. All this fuss about allowing same-sex couples to adopt is $%^&$& insanity. We tried Catholic Charities first. Since we had a child of our own already, they turned us down because there were so few kids available to adopt. Words fail me.

Happy Julie calms me down with some really interesting art.

Eric Scheske has a great short post on Jay Leno's take on the whole silly Mel Gibson fiesta.

Holy Scholar Georgette comes at us with hieroglyphics. Really.

Mark Shea has a great post on Catholics and guilt.

Our Anchoress gives her take on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict and what it means.

On the protected list, Heidi has some information on the border fence.

The Theocracy's Vicar of Victory goes after the MSM. Go get 'em, boy!

Our Prelate to the Primates has some suggestions for Reuters in the wake of it doctoring photographs.

The Patriarch of the Airwaves interviewed a very conflicted Martin Peretz from The New Republic. This post has the key portion. It's quite unnerving.

Our Poet Laureate did what poet laureates do. He wrote a poem just for us. I'm so very touched, Aloysius.

If you've never seent the bingo board from the Archibishop of Texas, you owe it to yourself to do so.

French and testosterone are words that don't normally go together. Our official artist has more.

Castro's failing health prompts a suggestion from our Holy Ambassador to the Court of the Mainstream Media.

Our Monsignor of the Breweries logs in with a good joke.

Sister Jane of Perpetual Purring has a post worthy of a World of Good.

The Abbess of the Priory of Small Princesses has a rubber ducky. Need we say more?

Our Knight-Protector and Defender of Yarn Balls has a funny post. My favorite in the list is #1.

Lastly, we come to the Feline Empress and Mother Superior of the Holy Order of Ocean Whitefish. Our favorite CNN piñata, Anderson Cooper, has a special report on the her.

Best wishes to all of you and we'll see you in two weeks with another "This Week in the Theocracy."

Orchid Commentary

Our Maximum Leader seems to have been trying to tell us something about our orchids.

The orchid.

Our Maximum Leader's contribution to the orchid.

Our Maximum Leader's response to questions about her deposit on the orchid.

Just what did this mean? Was it:

1. I want this orchid to grow and thrive. I know, I'll feed it!

2. See, this orchid isn't so pretty. I'm much prettier.

or

3. Man, I've got to lay off the catnip. I feel really sick. Must...make..it..to the...cat door...BLAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH! Whoops!

Be sure to visit this week's Carnival of the Cats.

Great Falls National Park

I just flew in from Virginia and boy, are my arms tired!

I love that one.

While there on a business trip I took a few hours and visited Great Falls National Park. Now I get to bore all of you with a slide show! Everyone comfy? Can I refresh your drink, Kukka? Would you like some more popcorn, Justin? OK, here we go. Click on the images for much better versions.

I wondered if these were the Great Falls they talked about. I didn't have time to explore the whole place.

I've been goosed! Right in the middle, too.

What's on Channel 8? Looks like it's more water.

This is a sentence fragment. With all the money we spend on our national parks, you'd think they'd be able to hire a proofreader.

"Everyone else has already stopped blooming. If you could ever get ready on time, we wouldn't be embarassed like this."

Some waterfalls.

Very small falls.

These next two are my favorites.

While there, I took some time to reflect. The trees joined me.

The stones joined us in our reflections. I suspect that they've been doing it for a while.

There was fungus among us!

Let's pick out our granite slabs for our kitchen counter top. I'd like the one second from the right. What do you think?

Well that was my little side trip. Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Let's turn the lights back up and...wait a minute! You're all asleep! You missed the whole thing. Well, let's start again. Here we are at the entrance to the park...

Be sure to visit this week's Virginia Blog Carnival.

Gadzooks, I've Been Tagged!

WOG Squad member and Holy Scholar of the Feline Theocracy, Georgette from Chronicles of a Meandering Traveller has tagged me. What can I do, but obey?

It's a book meme. Here we go.

One book that changed your life: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. "You cannot achieve happiness by pursuing it, only by doing good."

One book you've read more than once: The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis. When I was in junior high, my friends wanted to give me the Chronicles of Narnia, but could only find this and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I love them both, but The Silver Chair has the quote that I think of almost daily.

Here on the Mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind.

At the start of every resolution or plan, the your path seems so clear. Resolve and clarity can break down in the face of the chaos of life.

One Book You'd Want on a Desert Island: The Boy Scout Handbook. Duhh.

One book that made you laugh: Bored of the Rings.

One book that made you cry: Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens.

One book that you wish had been written: How to Get By on No Sleep.

One book that you wish had never been written: The Last Knight of Albion. Dreadful. Simply dreadful.

One book you've been meaning to read: The City of God by St. Augustine.

A book that you've bought, but haven't read: A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon.

Hmm. I've had poor luck with these games of tag. If you've got a blog and want some links, let me know and I'll tag you. In the meantime, I'll have to pick my victims carefully.

We All Do Our Part

Mark Steyn had a great column the other day defending Kathryn Jean Lopez, a National Review columnist who had been chastised for supporting the war, but not fighting in it. As much as I love the people in the military, I think we can all stop that nonsense right now. Yes, they are the "tip of the spear" and take the risks, but they are not doing it all alone. Allow me to make a simple photographic comparison.

A warrior doing it all alone.
A warrior with the United States' economy supporting him.
The guy repairing cars in a garage in Des Moines and the woman in Nashville homeschooling her kids are just as much a part of this war as the people on the front lines. The ship that took the soldiers over there, the airplanes providing close air support and the vehicles that bring in supplies didn't build themselves.

Masai Warrior photo from this Virtual Tourist site.
Photo of US Army Staff Sgt. Tyvieo Woods taken from this site.
Images used without permission.

A Poem from our Poet Laureate

The Poet Laureate of the Feline Theocracy has written a poem for us all to enjoy. Go ye and do so!

Thursday 13, No Title Edition

No preamble. No time to chat. Get right to the point. You’re a busy reader and you don’t have time to wait for your Thursday 13s!

1. I’m still trying to find a good comedy show to watch. I’ve tried a few, but didn’t like any of them, so I get stuck going back and watching my favorite, ancient reruns.

2. Like Get Smart.


3. I miss Frasier.

4. I enjoyed Simpsons until about five years ago. It seemed to fall apart. It felt like they just got more and more edgy to get laughs. I try it once in a while now, but I haven’t seen one all the way through in years.

5. Frankly, I don’t watch much TV at all.

6. Unless it’s sports. Geaux Saints! (New Orleans Saints, that is.)

7. I was really happy when Reggie Bush signed with the Saints this week. I was worried he’d hold out for a long time. With all of the good things they’ve done in the last six months, I’ve been waiting for them to screw it up. After all, it is the Saints.

8. If you didn’t see one of my previous posts, two of our orchids are blooming. (Aiiiee! Unannounced topic shift! I've got blogger whiplash!)

9. Here’s my favorite of the two. Click on it for a bigger, better picture.


10. If you grow orchids, use Aussie Gold planting mix. It’s fantastic!

11. I hosted Carnival of the Cats this last week and this time I managed to do it without enraging anyone.

12. How do you enrage people by catblogging? This is how.

13. One of my favorite bloggers, Lawman, has a very funny post. My favorite line from it is "Now that food has replaced sex in my life, I can't even get into my own pants." Go visit it. No, not right now! In a minute! You need to leave a link and a comment first! Sheesh! You guys take me so literally!


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Technorati tags: Thursday+thirteen

Waiting in Line Costs Starbucks

The Wall Street Journal has an article today wherein Starbucks blames their mildly disappointing quarterly results on longer wait times in their stores.

In a rare stumble, Starbucks Corp. said unexpectedly heavy demand for new juice and banana Frappuccinos during the morning rush hurt its sales growth in July.

"We are losing some espresso business due to longer-than-normal wait times" at stores, Chief Executive James Donald said. Frappuccinos are more complicated to prepare than some of Starbucks's other beverages.

I can agree with that. The reason I don't go to Starbucks is the wait. I love the coffee, but with the time it takes to park and order and get my coffee and leave and then the cost othe coffee, I'm far better off investing in an espresso machine at home.

It doesn't seem to have hurt them.

5 year chart for SBUX

Please Replace Anderson Cooper and His Team with a Milblogger

It's late, but I just had to do this. Compare the posts on Anderson Cooper's blog with any post from a milblogger.

In one post, MaryAnne Fox, CNN producer says this about her trip to Lebanon.

Tuesday around 2:30 a.m. local time, cameraman Neil, driver Elias and I left our hotel to start prepping for the show at our live location about 20 minutes away. We were about halfway there when a rocket or perhaps a mortar hit up ahead. That was followed by a second one, which landed even closer.

It took a second for us to all realize what actually was happening.

Translation: When the boom-boom was loud, I nearly pee-peed in my panties!

This is the George Plimpton school of reporting. "I have no idea what I'm doing out here. I just thought I'd fly over here and rubberneck."

Compare that to this commentary by Commander Salamander about the Hezbollah C-802 cruise missile attack on the Israeli corvette a few weeks back.

A C-802 will travel about ~9nm a minute. Once feet wet, the missile was probably less than 1 minute from impact. Depending on the guidance chosen at launch, the seeker head would turn on much closer to the target, giving even the best ESM operator seconds to report, and the Skipper even less time to decide to engage. What readiness state were the Barak and SeaWiz in? How long will it take to go from that dictated from on high state to weapon away or SeaWiz wizz’n? We don’t know. Most likely, there was nothing that could be done.

Is there any comparison at all? Just what service does CNN believe they are providing? What kind of insight can you expect from a dilettante? It's pathetic.

World of Good Blogburst, Random Acts of Kindness Style

OK, World of Good (WOG) readers, it's late and it's been a long day, but I really want to get a WOG out. You can tell me if this is cheating.

I sat down and just started searching blindly for stories of kindness to inspire me. Incidentally, that's how I find many of them. They're everywhere! In any case, I came across a Random Acts of Kindenss website with lots of great stories. Here was one of my favorites.

I find that there is nothing more satisfying than doing something nice for someone else. A few weeks ago I was at the corner store, and therewas this lady in front of me in line. She seemed very confused when the cashier asked her to pay $38.00. She had about $5.00 in her wallet, and she began to cry. The cashier became very impatient and told her that she cannot buy these items because she did not have enough money. So, I told the cashier not to worry about it, that I would pay the difference. The cashier gave me a funny look, but I really felt for this woman.

Anyway, I paid for my groceries and left the store. When I got outside, the lady was standing there. I asked her what was wrong. She said that she could not remember where she lived, and she began to cry. I named off a few streets around the area but she had no clue. While I was talking to the lady, a car pulled up and a woman jumped out of the car, frantic. It was this lady's daughter. I explained that her mother could not remember where she lived. The daughter told me that she had Alzheimer's Disease and that she had been wandering off a lot lately. Then the daughter noticed that her mother had 3 bags of groceries and wondered where she got the money to pay for them. I was not sure if I should tell her that I paid for them, but I did.

The daughter wanted to pay me back, and I said no thank you. I really felt sorry for them because they did not look like a well- to- do family. So, the daughter said thank you and I said good bye. I felt so fulfilled and happy right through the day, because making others feel good makes me feel good. I know that if this situation happened again, I would do the same thing.

The site had a story that sent me to a link that seemed very interesting, but I want to scope it out a little more before I post it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this one. Please feel free to visit my WOG description post.

World of Good Late Today, Rick Lee Photos Now

Just in case anybody's watching, I'll be posting my weekly World of Good entry late today. In the meantime, let me post a photo from one of my favorite photographers on the web, Rick Lee. Click on the photos to get to his blog.


Arrrgghhhh! Make that two photos. You can't visit Rick's site without finding a ton of cool pictures.


Please contact Rick for permission to use his photos.

San Diego Says Thanks

From my back balcony I can see Mt. Soledad. I can't see the cross, but I know it's there. It's been there for a long time and until an obsessed local atheist went bananas in court, it didn't bother anyone. After a long court battle, the memorial has been saved. The U. S. Senate has voted to make the land Federal property.

Thanks, all.


Stop the ACLU has the full story.

They also have a request for help. Please stop by and see what they have to say.

Orchids, Mr. Bond

Going back and watching Moonraker recently, I discovered that Hugo Drax never actually utters the line, "Orchids, Mr. Bond." In college, friends and I used to use it all the time and we loved it so much that I can't let it go.

In any case, here are some orchids. To see them in their full glory, click on the images for a larger view.




These are not the blooms they were bought with. Both of them have been with us more than a year. For the white orchid, this is the second bloom this season.

If you grow orchids, I cannot recommend highly enough Aussie Gold orchid potting mix. That's all these guys have had. They've had no orchid food for quite some time and I just make sure to keep their soil wet. In my mind, it's the Aussie Gold that did the trick. It's a fantastic product.

Technorati tags: aussie gold orchids

A Video is Worth a Million Words

Thanks to East West Plus for the tip. This video comes from Gaza.



Watching the video illustrates so many elements of the situation. I picked out four right away.

1. This isn't the varsity team. Running around in the middle of the street isn't exactly the apex of modern urban warfare tactics. There was no appreciable command and control or hierarchy. That means you've got to get them all. With no one in charge, there's no discipline and no discipline means that any surrender or peace treaty is worthless. How do you enforce a peace treaty when your organization looks like this?

2. No uniforms. There's a subsection of the video where a guy in a plaid shirt with an automatic weapon runs past the camera. What kind of APB do you put out? "Be on the lookout for a man in a plaid shirt and jeans. He is armed and dangerous." Every civilian fits the description of someone who has shot at the Israelis. Weeding them out in the middle of a firefight is impossible.

3. The UN soldiers might as well have targets on their heads instead of blue helmets. Their ambulances are troop carriers. It's war. You blow up troop carriers.

4. The place is a mess and there seems to be no lack of able-bodied men around. Here's a broom. Here's a trashcan. You can run around in the streets with your friends shooting your gun when the place is clean and the per capita income is more than $4000. And no backtalk, young man! Seriously, if they don't care that their country gets blown into rubble, why should we? Update: Someone on a discussion board disagreed with this last analysis, but misunderstood it. I'm not saying they should be cleaning up during the fighting, I'm saying they should work on improving their country instead of fighting. They're bringing all of this on themselves.

The video a cornucopia of information. Watching it for the third time, I was struck by a sense that to the young men with the guns, it was exciting and exhilirating, like a for-real paintball game. I tried to imagine myself at that age and there. It would be nearly impossible to resist the allure of it. The romantic struggle against the Zionist enemy, running around the streets at night with my friends, shooting real guns in the air, launching a rocket from time to time and listening to my elders egg me on.

How do you stop that? How does one incuclate responsiblity and a desire for productive work in a population of nihilistic teenagers? It's like a Nirvana concert where the audience goes home to no adults.

Everyone's Responsibility is No One's

There have been cases where people have been mugged or assaulted in earshot of many witnesses. The witnesses saw the assault or heard the calls for help, but did nothing. When interviewed later, they responded that they figured someone else was taking care of the problem. The issue was that there were too many witnesses. In similar cases, where the witness thought no one else could hear or act, they were much more likely to take action.

Three times on this blog, I've asked my readers to do me a favor. I had a friend whose mother was dying and later had died of cancer. I put out a request for some kind comments on his blog. Nothing. Yesterday as part of the Carnival of the Cats I asked my readers to visit the blog of a fellow whose cat had killed a scorpion in their house, but had been severely injured in the fight. Following an Instalanche and the subsequent massive blog traffic, only a few people had stopped by to offer their comments on the fellow's blog.

This is not in any way a condemnation of those that did not do so, it is merely an observation that blog visitor behavior seems to follow the model of the many witness scenario.

Carnival of the Cats #123

SPECIAL ANOUNCEMENT:

Morrison the cat is hereby granted the Feline Theocracy's Legion of Feline Merit Medal with Catnip Leaf Cluster for his conspicuous gallantry in protecting his family. It is a catwa from our Maximum Leader that you immediately visit his blog post and complement him vigorously. We now continue with the normal Carnival.

Obey the catwa or no tuna for you!
And so it begins. The Carnival of the Cats. Perhaps the greatest blog carnival of them all. An attempt to capture the essence of those most mysterious and wondrous of all creatures, cats.

Out of her Theocratic vestments and exhausted from her daily exertions, our Maximum Leader, K T Cat, issues a single word command. "Carnival."
This week's carnival is organized the way a cat might organize its day.

Purring

Beezer plus chair. You do the math.

Hakuna and Matata with predictable results.

Meowing

Tucker knows what time it is. Do you?

Chatty Catty hides.

Scratching and Stretching

The dangerous, but beautiful Hiss.

The House of Chaos finds that tail movement is not always what it seems.

Nicholson would prefer to let her back do the talking.

Stray sunbathing.

Da Nator has all the poses.

Ritzi stretches out on the sofa.

A wet Izzy dries off.

Morris stretches this way and that.

Contemplation

Foolish human, says Bagheera, thou knowest not what thoughts I think.

Picato thinks existential thoughts.

Lovely photo. Mysterious caption. Far Cartouche has it.

Tanya thinks shapes undrawable in colors unseeable.

Lilly thinks about her life as a photographer's model.

Tiny thinks deeply.

Hobbes is in charge. Was there any question?

Pepper and friends have unfathomable expressions.

Sabby sits and thinks.

Grace with thoughts that live up to her name.

Do they draw inspiration from us as they draw warmth? Is that something we supply? Catymology poses the question.

Piper thinks dark thoughts.

Dining

A limerick from Lim.

As close as you come to Bagheera, the mystery remains far away.

Hunting

Mr. Cornelious will not allow his prey to escape. Even if it can't move.

Mr. Gato sleeps a watchful slumber.

Kai and Xena are growing into clever hunters.

Squeaker watches. Squeaker knows.

The mouse caught, Taboo cools down.

Rico Loco looks for birds.

Sleeping

Is it a prelude to sleeping for Minga, or is just another inscrutably cute cat?

Tigger reacts to a new addition to the family.

Rico and Rafe take a well-deserved break from the neverending demands of being cute and furry.

Jax must sleep. Jax will dream of lovely ladies in California.

Many things are more fun when shared. Ginger says sleep is one of them.

Cold gems, warm heart. The elms have it.

Peaceful warmth is all Rocket asks.

Active cats need regeneration. Pixel says.

A jumble of cats. Or a furry octopus? Stereophile has the answer.

BYOP. Stereophile has the answer again.

Mycah just before the lights go out.

Maggie, warmth and darkness. Does it get any better than this?

Beds mean sleep. This is a bed, isn't it? Ajax is on the job.

Hugo and Charlie coming up or going down?

Lilly is lovely when lounging.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. Bows plays the part.

One way to beat the heat is to be...under the covers? That's what Maddie says.

Exploration

Tinker and Harley let curiosity be their guide.

Princess Lotus Blossum and Riley find the world anew each day.

Manx Mnews shows how to explore new yoga positions.

Sisu's kitten explores the world.

Tiny must find the answers.

Crinkly things, oh crinkly things! They must be explored with great vigor! So sayeth Sergei.

Velvet and Arty explore the jungle.

Moving means change. Change needs we must explore. Mog has more.

Thanks to everyone for participating and a special thanks to Laurence Simon for making this possible.

Questions CNN Should Ask

We've been using CNN pretty boy Anderson Cooper as a piñata lately, but this time let's offer him some suggestions.

Here is a Google Earth photo of Kansas farmland from 10,000 feet.


Here is a similar one of southern Lebanese farmland from 10,000 feet. Look at the size of the cultivated plots relative to those in the Kansas photo. The size of such plots is relative to the amount of land that can be managed by a single farm using whatever tools it has bought.


Since all purchases are consequences of decisions and those decisions could have gone in other directions, let's ask the friendly Hezbollah people to describe their thought process. That makes sense, doesn't it? After all, isn't that what Mr. Cooper's blog is trying to do? He flits back and forth across the border showing us how they live and getting inside of their heads to show us what it is like to be them, doesn't he?

Here's my list of questions.

1. What's the per acre yield of your farmland? As a comparison, give the per acre yield in Kansas.

2. What kind of mechanical tools and fertilizers are you using? As a comparison, show what the state-of-the-art American farm uses.

3. How much money has been spent buying Katyusha rockets and other weapons in the last eight years? As a comparison, show per capita weapons purchases in Kansas over the same period of time.

4. Compute the return on investment assuming that the difference between the two investments in weapons had been spent on farm equipment instead and the resulting improvements in per acre yield. Account for compounded investments and returns. Show this to the Hezbollah representative along with the following photographs.


AP Photo from the Jerusalem Post.
Question: In retrospect, what would you say about your investment choices?

5. Since all moral viewpoints are equivalent and everyone on Earth is the same, the responsibility for an American to respond to, say, the tsunami in Banda Aceh, is no different than the responsibility of a Lebanese farmer to respond. Question: How did you, Mr. Hezbollah Representative, contribute to the relief efforts in Indonesia? As a reference point, here's what Mr. Kansas Farmer contributed through tax dollars and his children joining the U. S. Navy.


Ahangama, Sri Lanka (Jan. 16, 2005) - Steelworker Constructionman Nikolas Matthews, assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Seven (NMCB-7), Air Detachment, stacks roof tiles that were removed from damaged buildings at a primary school in Ahangama, Sri Lanka. The Seabees cleared the debris as part of the humanitarian relief efforts of Operation Unified Assistance, the humanitarian relief effort to aid the victims of the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate Greg Bingaman

6. A final question for Mr. Hezbollah: What are your future investment plans?

Anyone want to bet that our beloved little CNN team will never ask these?

Update: Our Vicar of Victory has this outstanding post on the kind of moral equivalency beloved by CNN.

Captain's Quarters has a post that suggests Hezbollah might be applying for their equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I would suggest that their CEO (thanks, Colossus) should step down.

Technorati tags: CNN Hezbollah farming

The Carnival of the Cats is Coming!

We host the COTC this weekend and we can hardly wait! Our Maximum Leader is meditating in preparation for the event.


Or is she discussing the situation with her staff? It's hard to tell.

Oh well. Be sure to stop by on Sunday evening for the Carnival.

Anderson Cooper Batting Practice

If you're just joining us, yesterday we discovered that CNN's Anderson Cooper has his own blog. It's like a car crash. It's so horrible that you just can't tear your eyes off of it. It's also a comedic gold mine...

Well, since K T got to take Anderson deep yesterday, I figured I'd go out and take a crack at it today. Let's see here, what do we have...

Holy Mackerel! Right at the top we have a total winner from Christiane Amanpour. "Hezbollah's submission remains elusive goal."

So here we are: Two Wednesday's (sic) ago Israel started trying to bomb Hezbollah into submission...But now into the third week of war, the Katyusha rockets keep coming, even though Brigadier General Friedman told me Hezbollah is being pushed back...Too slowly for some here. Already, the armchair generals are questioning the wisdom of Israel's military tactics

Almost three whole weeks! That's an eternity! It's way too long for the ADD-afflicted staff of CNN.

I'm with you, Christiane. I am soooo bored of it already. I wish we could go shopping and have a latte, but instead we have to cover this silly war. And it's taking like forever, you know? Hey, let's play a game to pass the time! Remember when we used to watch Sesame Street and they played that cute game, "Which one of these is not like the other ones?" You know, the one you were watching last week! Let's try that.

In terms of duration, Chrissy, which one of these is not like the other ones?

1. Doing your nails



2. Washing your hair



3. Picking out a pair of shoes



4. War



This is too easy.

Business Week has a blog where they had this bit about why journalists should blog.

Vulnerability. It's a good thing. It's what people need to establish healthy relationships, and it's why journalists (among others) should blog.

This thought occurred to me when I was talking to Technorati's David Sifry six weeks ago. He said that he tended to place more trust in journalists who blog.

That's great unless the journalists turn out to be complete freakin' idiots like Anderson Cooper and his pack of morons. Until she wrote this, I thought Christie A. was a reasonably intelligent woman who had seen and experienced much. Now I can see that she's a total airhead.

Um, Anderson? I don't think this blog was such a good idea.

Anderson Cooper, Gold Mine

Thanks to Mary Katherine Ham, we have discovered CNN's Anderson Cooper. Great was our rejoicing! Mr. Cooper is a blogger's dream. He is that most elusive of all creatures, a pompous blowhard who is at the same time, a prolific writer and a complete imbecile. I think you could create an entire, highly successful comedy blog just commenting on Anderson's paralyzingly stupid posts.

Here's the post that caught Mary's eye. We'll start here only out of deference to her. It really is an embarassment of riches over at Mr. Cooper's blog. This post was written by one of Mr. Anderson's fellow dim bulbs, Tom Foreman.

Take deep breaths. Don't get too excited. He's throwing meatballs right over the plate. Just stay within yourself and watch the ball. Here it comes...

...for the purposes of news organizations defining terrorism, what should the definition be?

The United States and others clearly call Hezbollah a terrorist group: The source of countless raids, bombings and attacks on Israel...All this makes Hezbollah, especially for many westerners, the very definition of a terrorist group.

But some people describe another part of Hezbollah. They talk about a group that is beloved in southern Lebanon for running schools, hospitals, social services, even clearing snow in the winter for some communities...So what should the standard be? If you ran a newsroom, how would you define who is called a terrorist and who is not?

OK, let's get the easy one out of the way first.

If I ran the newsroom, Mr. Foreman, you'd be taking coffee and doughnut orders and emptying the trash.

Poor Tom Foreman hasn't got a thought in his pretty little head. The fact that the members of these terrorist organizations haven't devolved into cannibalistic savages that run naked in the wilderness is a testament to the fact that they pursue the basic exchange of goods and services. (Did you know they use money, Mr. Foreman? Real money! Just like you and me!)

OF COURSE THEY RUN SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS, YOU MORON! WHAT DID YOU THINK THEY WERE DOING? EVERY SOCIETY FOR THE PAST 4000 YEARS HAS DONE THIS!

Whew. Sorry. Got too excited there. Let's calm down and do an Anderson Cooper 360-like thought experiment.

...for the purposes of news organizations defining primitive life forms, what should the definition be?

Some scientists call amoebas a primitive life form: They cannot take orders at Starbucks or listen to Noam Chomsky...All this makes amoebas the very definition of a primitive life form.

But some people describe other aspects of amoebas. They talk about respiration, the consumption of food particles and the ability to reproduce...So what should the standard be? If you ran a newsroom, how would you define who is called a primitve life form and who is not?

An amoeba about to start it's own blog and lay an enormous smackdown on Anderson Cooper and his fellow bloggers.
Words fail me.

Here are some other bloggers with posts about this.
Lorie Byrd at Wizbang
Beth at My Vast, Right Wing Conspiracy
Thespis has a book title suggestion for Mr. Cooper.

Big Changes at the New York Times

The Scratching Post has just learned that in order to stop their current death spiral, there are major changes in the works at the New York Times. All current staff members will soon be deported to their adopted home country, Iran. They will be replaced by a workforce composed entirely of illegal aliens.

After all, there are some jobs that Americans just won't do.

Reporting the news without first trying to figure out how it can be slanted to attack the United States seems to be one of them.

As an added note, once in Iran, the New York Times staff will investigate possible infringements on citizens' civil liberties in that country. Iran's government has pledged complete cooperation. Like this.

Iranian officials help a New York Times reporter get a, err, um, better view of the situation.
Explanation here.

Glenn Reynolds at the Brewery

Unlike puppies raised on feedlots, free range puppies can be tough and stringy. If you're going to throw a big party for your friends and you want the puppies to be moist and tender, you really need to pressure cook them.

The Instapundit plans to use a facility like this for his next big bash.
Explanation here.

World of Good Blogburst, Cambodian Style

Welcome to another World of Good (WOG) blogburst here at The Scratching Post. I was researching an entirely different WOG when I came across this topic. One of the problems with writing WOGs is that there is so much to choose from. If you're looking for stories of kindness, you can find them everywhere!

Sam Relief is a charity organization for the poor of Cambodia. It was started by Mr. Sambonn Lek when his mother passed away and left him an inheritance to share with the needy in their native land. Mr. Lek is a Cambodian-American with a big heart and a lot of determination.

Here, Sam, let me help you with that tray!
Err, there were two drinks on it when you handed it to me, Sam, why do you ask?
Here's what he has to say about his organization.

Our organization is neutral and nonpartisan to all political parties in the Royal Government of Cambodia. We are dedicated to serving those in need with whatever amount of funds we are able to raise from our supporters. We are presently focusing on giving chidren ,improving the education infrastructure and providing food and medicine.

How well do they do their job? I clicked on their 2003 link and came across this.

August 2003 we planned to rebuild one school a year at Prey Veng Province. Fortunately, Mr. Clifford Laughton donated $15,000.00 to build the entire school and Mr. Stephen Meagher donated $10.000.00 for two sections of another school at Kam Pong Speu Province. Therefore, we are able to build two schools with all other generous donations.

One of the schools they built.
Here, the children display their school supplies. Sadly, due to a scheduling error, all of the children had to fill out tardy slips before they were allowed back in their classrooms.
Here's a little more from their list of accomplishments.

Last year 2002, we had 37 wells donated from ours supporters. This year we have 59 wells and we donated 55 ton of rice to the needy ones.

Wells mean water. Water means...waterfights! Yay!
The stories of kindness from Sam Relief go on and on. Check out their website and you'll see what I mean. For now, let me leave you with some motivation to get involved with Sam Relief or with acts of kindness of your own.


Thanks to people like Mr. Sambonn Lek, we have other WOG posts by the bucketful just waiting for you to visit and read.

All photos came from Sam Relief website and were used without permission.

Where's the NYT When You Need Them?

Funny how the New York Times didn't break this story of eavesdropping.

Earlier, Brigadier General of Division 91, Commander Gal Hirsch, revealed that troops operating in Bint Jbeil discovered war rooms with eavesdropping and surveillance equipment made by Iran, being used by Hizbullah against Israel.

Guess they were too busy breaking stories about legitimate banking surveillance. You can hardly expect them to be in two places at once. Both the President and Hezbollah? That would be a two front war. First things first, you know.

This is NOT the Way to Make Friends

I was reading a great Wall Street Journal article this morning about how NBC is promising to pay one of its advertisers, Toyota, based on the amount of information retained by viewers. Sort of a broadcast media version of Adsense. You only get payed if people noticed your ad.

The WSJ is now listing blogs that link to their stories. There are 17 blogs linked to this story, a huge number for a WSJ article. I looked through their list and visited them. Unless I'm a total idiot, which is very possible, the links are all just spam from a single blog group. I couldn't find references to the article on the blogs listed.

This really ticks me off. I like hits and links. I work very hard for them. When I link to a WSJ or WaPo article, I like the fact that my blog gets listed with the article. My WaPo commentaries typically generate about 50 hits. The more blogs linking to an article, the fewer hits any one blogger will get. 17 is a lot. I won't get a darn thing out of this one.

That's OK if there are 17 bloggers actually writing about the topic. I was really interested in what they had to say about the article. When I found nothing at all, it was infuriating. Go check it out and see what you find. It looks like someone running their blog host threw the link up there and associated it with all their blogs. Furthermore, the links go to the root page of their blogs, not to individual posts by the bloggers. That's pretty incriminating.

The lion's share of them come from a blog group called "Visual Editors." They all seem to work in the MSM. Many of them work in advertising. You like advertising? Here's some for you. This sucks.

Those links didn't get there by accident.

Not funny, guys. Not funny at all.

Trooper Clerks

This is great!



H/T: Chris Olds.

Chiapas, Here We Come!

A while back I wrote a World of Good post about a group of medical professionals from New Jersey that travel annually to Chiapas to provide free medical care to the people living there too poor to afford it. It was wonderful to research and was a heartwarming story. A few days ago, I received this anonymous comment on that post.

THAT'S TRUE, BUT HERE IN CHIAPAS ARE NOT ONLY A PLACE TO MAKE A "ADVENTURE TRIP TO HELP POOR PEOPLE", U CAN COME TO VISIT AND TO MAKE ECOTURISMO, EN MUCHOS LUGARES, IN A LOT OF PLACES. THANKS FOR THEY HELP, BUT WRITE A BOUT THAT BEAUTIFULL PLACES, Y VERAS QUE ESTAN PADRISIMOS.

It occurred to me that I had treated the people of Chiapas like housepets instead of people. Poor things, let's put out a bowl of water for them and take them to the vet if they're sick. That was entirely the wrong attitude. When I tagged along with the Love on a Leash crowd or when I went to the Special Olympics I saw that acts of kindness like this aren't done to inanimate objects, but instead to real people.

I did some research on Chiapas. Thanks to this anonymous commenter, I found a place that is now in my top 10 places to go. It has some absolutely stunning scenery and spectacular Mayan ruins. Here are my favorite photos from my Internet search.

Chiapas has some blue water rivers that look like they were colored by a happy 4 year old. It comes from mineral deposits that dissolve into the water. Unreal.


You want rainforests? We got rainforests.


Mayan ruins humble the visitor with their grandeur.


It's got everything I love in a vacation spot. Heat, beaches, jungles, rivers and ruins. I can't wait to go!

Here are some cool links for Chiapas.

Virtual Tourist photo album from Chiapas. You just have to see it to believe it. Spectacular pictures. If you don't visit any other link on this post, go here.

Andale Mexico! Travel agency information about Chiapas.

A group of women visited Chiapas and offer this travelogue. Great stuff!

Thanks, Anon. Come back any time.

Technorati tags: chiapas ecotourism vacation

This Week in the Theocracy

Welcome, truth seekers on the information superhighway! It's me, Jacob the Syrian Hamster, faithful beadle of the Feline Theocracy here to guide you through the best posts from the feline theocraticians for the week.


There were so many excellent posts that it is hard to choose, but choose I must. Here we go, in no particular order.

Our Holy Scribe hits another one out of the park with this touching post. I don't think I can take many more of these. He's one heck of a writer.

The Theocracy's Knight Protector and Defender of Yarn Balls has a quick sight gag for you. I love it!

Poet Laureate Aloysius moonlights as a Private Eye.

The Grand Almoner of England has a post about a Wikipedia for businesses. Pretty cool stuff.

The Archbishop of Texas poses as Superman.

WOG Squad Member and Holy Scholar Happy Julie gives us a great joke involving my beloved New Orleans Saints.

Our Monsignor of the Breweries has an interesting post about smog alerts. Hmmm.

Mother Superior of the Holy Order of Ocean Whitefish breaks off her relationship with Tom Cruise. Like we didn't all see that one coming!

The problem with a large government is not just the money sucked out of our wallets, but the lack of time available for our representatives to examine any particular issue. Our Holy Ambassador to the Court of the Mainstream Media has more.

Our Court Jester is probably the only blogger I know who could get away with a post like this one. Terminator and Jesus? Yep.

The Official Artist of the Feline Theocracy shows us what happens when a man asks a woman for directions. You may want to cover your eyes.

One of our new members, the Vicar of Victory, has a really cool cartoon about the conflict in the Middle East.

One of the things I like about our Patriarch of the Airwaves is his ability to acknowledge wisdom wherever he sees it. Here's a case in point.

The Anchoress has a great post about the ascendence of Pajamas Media.

Our new Prelate to the Primates looks at Iran's growing uneasiness over Hezbollah's future.

Holy Scholar and WOG Squad member Georgette is experiencing the Indian crackdown on blogging firsthand.

Holy Scholar Eric Scheske has a think piece on...Paris Hilton?!?

This video from the Abbess of the Priory of the Small Princesses had me laughing and crying. It's a must see.

Sister Jane of Perpetual Purring does some local photojournalism. Well done!

Catholic politicians should learn a little about their faith before they run off at the mouth about. Mark Shea has more.

Well, that's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed these. Just to let you know, I will be doing these every two weeks instead of every week from now on. The list is getting long and I don't always have the time to do them. We'll still call it "This Week in the Theocracy" because "Every Other Week in the Theocracy" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Best wishes and see you in two weeks!