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"The members of the United States military are plenty smart"

"The members of the United States military are plenty smart, and the Senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology," says the leader of the free world. Tuck says:

I know it's just a gaff, but I think he [the failed presidential candidate] should step down.

We rest our case.

Update: Speaking of "plenty smart," don't forget to put your money where your mouse is, if you're so inclined, by supporting Valor IT's valiant effort to provide "voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers."

False but accurate comes home to roost

"Even before Jane Fonda went to Hanoi to meet with the enemy and mock America, John Kerry secretly met with enemy leaders in Paris though we were still at war, and Americans were being held in North Vietnamese prison camps," goes the voiceover of "Sellout," one of the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads that may have helped push GW over the top in 2004. As we blogged then, it is "a masterpiece of the admaker's art, alternating spooky soundbites and black-and-white images from the past -- Kerry's younger self testifying before the Senate re alleged Vietnam atrocities -- with full-color clips of the Swift Boat Vets as they are today, middle-aged men testifying to their sense of betrayal by the young Lieutenant Kerry when he returned home while they were still fighting over there and bad-mouthed them to the nation and the world." 

"I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece [Tony Snow!] standing behind a podium or doughy Rush Limbaugh," steamed stuffed suit Democrat Party mouthpiece John Kerry standing behind a podium this afternoon as he tried ineffectually to stem the tsunami of criticism buffeting his future political hopes in the wake of a lame attempt at humor in a speech before a student audience last night:

You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.

According to the failed presidential candidate in his brief, hastily called damage-control presser today, he had been referring to the President when he said "stuck in Iraq," but politicians and pundits and bloggers on the right side of the aisle had already made up their minds. Recognizing an October Surprise of their own when it was handed to them, they fanned out to proclaim in righteous indignation that Kerry was smearing the women and men of the military, casting them as "stuck in Iraq" because they had been "unable to navigate the country's education system." The White House -- via "stuffed suit" cutie pie Tony Snow -- accused the Senator of "troop-bashing," John McCain demanded an apology, and all the usual suspects piled on. As always, Michelle Malkin and HotAir have all the gory details and links to breaking news, commentary and a video link to the original foot-in-mouth moment. Now Fox News White House Correspondent Bret Baer reports that the President himself is about to respond to Kerry's comments, calling them insulting and shameful and noting that our military women and men did not enlist because they are somehow not smart or uneducated but because they are patriots, and Senator Kerry owes them an apology.

We must admit our first reading upon hearing the video earlier today was that Kerry was, indeed, referring to GW. But it was already too late. The Republican spin had already gone not halfway but all the way around the world before Kerry had a chance to put his microphone on. False but accurate comes home to roost?

This just in on Fox News banner: "Will Kerry's Iraq defeatism spell defeat for the Dems?" Yes!

Putting our money where our mouse is

World War I poster urged farmers on the homefront to "Save Seed for Victory." Its poetically powerful message that "in the field good seed wins" still works metaphorically -- big time -- when you think of our awesome Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines. We can save seed today by supporting efforts like Valour-IT.

A republication today of our heartfelt, hat-in-hand post of last year asking all of our readers, commenters and fellow bloggers to help keep the homefires burning in a special way by joining in a friendly fundraising competition for Valour-IT, a truly worthwhile project in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss that "provides voice-controlled laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at home or in military hospitals." [Thanks to blogpal Barry Campbell -- Navy, Navy -- of enrevanche for reminding us] Last year we joined the Army team in solidarity with our beloved Army mother Teresa of Technicalities. Now we add Laura Lee Donaho of The Wide Awake Cafe -- Army wife, mom, sis, daughter -- to explain our solidarity with the Army team. As always, the totally awesome ur-milblog Blackfive is competition central. Here's what we wrote last year:

"So, civilian bloggers, choose your branch. Choose wisely," writes ur milblogger Blackfive, rallying the blogtroops to roll up our sleeves and light a few homefires in Valour-IT's online fundraising competition. It started yesterday and runs through Veterans' Day, November 11. The idea is to send in our dollars -- and encourage our readers and friends to do the same -- to provide "voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers" -- "A laptop in every soldier's lap" as we blogged last summer. Our blogpal Teresa of Technicalities, mother of "young son," explains:

Blackfive -- with his mega huge readership and years of Army experience is leading the team to completely trample on those Jarheads, Zoomies, and Squids who will try to beat us bring in the most money.

Please use the Donation Button over at Blackfive's or the top of my main page to donate for the Army team! Donations via the regular Project Valor button will NOT be counted for us.

Pick your branch -- we're going over there with Teresa's Army team -- and put your money where your heart is. Meanwhile, Argghhh! gets us up to speed and puts things in historical perspective:

In previous wars, letters from the troops remained private affairs. By their very nature, they were difficult to share beyond the family circle, unless a family member passed one to the local newspaper for reprinting. Usually, the information within did not pass beyond a few friends. In this war, e-mails routinely travel to multiple recipients, and chats and blogs are open to anyone with online access.

Computer access -- either PC or laptop -- is limited in a military hospital because they don’t have the luxury of unused space suitable for an internet café operation. And there’s the matter of shattered hands. Of missing hands . . .

Voice-activated computers exist. Voice-to-text software exists. However, the people who need them don’t have them – with the exception of the inspiration for Project Valour IT Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss of TCOverride [thanks to commenter FbL for the correction]. His wife, Carren, describes its use a bit here.

Let's get behind the precious ones who put their lives on the line for our freedom and set those blogfires burning.

Now it's your turn.

Update: Pajamas Media links.

"For years, Republicans have tried to demoralize and defeat us"

Tiny takes shelter from the cold autumn air in the little house this morning. Like many Republicans during this wild-and-wooly mid-term election season, Tiny keeps her eye on the real enemy -- in her case, feline intruders in her territory -- letting Democrats wallow in their own self-defeating paranoia.

"I know you're busy. If you're like me, you sometimes wish politics was someone else's responsibility," dissembles Adam Ruben of moveon.org -- who gets paid to play politics, after all -- in a last-ditch email to the Kool-Aid-drinking faithful to hit the phones and get out the vote. As it happens, we're not much like Mr. Ruben, who once again projects the modus operandi of the paranoid left onto us over here on the right side of the aisle:

For years, Republicans have tried to demoralize and defeat us.

Can you say all about you, Adam Ruben? Frankly, my dear, most of us Republicans have been too busy thinking about how to demoralize and defeat your fellow travelers -- the Islamofascists bent on destroying Western Civ -- to worry too much about how good or bad you feel about yourself. We leave navel gazing and self-defeat to you. Ruben continues to fantasize:

But through the Iraq war, through Katrina, through the scandals and the lies, our determination has only increased. We're not beaten down -- we're rising up. This is our week. After six long years, this is the week when we can finally set our country back on its proper course. This week is about proving that progressives are a real force in American politics -- that the issues that we care about are the issues that most Americans care about -- and that Washington has to start paying attention.

And that's it, after all, isn't it, the importance of being noticed. We look forward to hearing something beyond "You must take him down" regarding your vision of our country's "proper course."

The little house is the perfect vantage point for covering one's flank during surveillance exercises for enemy incursions.

While we agree with Dick Armey that if the Republicans lose big time, they bought their ticket by preferring power to principle, we continue to believe -- combining reason [Karl Rove's micro-targeting] and faith [Surely God's plan could not include Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House!] -- that we could still pull this thing off at the last minute. Listen to blogfriend Gayle Miller of And you thought YOU were cranky? in the comments:

The RNC has been blanketing our part of [Ohio] with ads all of a sudden! Interesting strategy. The Dems have been spending obscene amounts of money shreiking all manner of probably-not-true charges at Republican incumbents, almost entirely unanswered and NOW, when they're almost out of money -- here come the Republican ads. Much better production, not shrill, very crisp and to the point and, what's best of all, ubiquitous! And the Dems are short on money [and time] to respond - and of course, they're whining about it!

Then there's that idea we referenced in our previous post about the power of "creative minorities" to get doomed civilizations back on track. Thanks to our sub rosa blogfriend MB of Miss Kelly for reminding us of the source, Jean Duchesne's review of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's [now Pope Benedict XVI] and Marcello Pera's Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam:

The roots that are said to have been lost are the indelible Christian components at the true origin of European history and identity . . .

Cardinal Ratzinger refuses to follow the German thinker Oswald Spengler, who argued that all civilizations are doomed to decline and die. He rather supports the British historian Arnold Toynbee, who claimed that societies are shaped by “creative minorities” who are also capable of renewing them . . .

Christians, and especially Catholics, are expected to recognize themselves as such a “creative minority” today. This amounts to admitting that, at least in Europe, the Church might already have become marginal, while the secularism that is implicit in hedonistic lifestyles is gaining ground in America.

You want a creative minority to save Western Civ? Look no further than Glenn Reynolds's ecumenical "small is the new big" Army of Davids.

Update: Speaking of creative minorities, the catbloggers have done it again. Check out the "scary, mysterious, and spooky" Carnival of the Cats #136 - Halloween 2006 Edition brought to you by Watermark: a poet's notebook.

"Targeted by homegrown Democratic demagogues all too willing to tell them what they want to hear"

Stranger in a strange land. It's 22% to 75% red vs. blue here in Chelsea-by-the-Sea, Taxachusetts, identified by neighboroo as a "Democrat Stronghold."

We suspect it has to do with the working-class City of Chelsea's traditional pattern of welcoming generation after generation of politically naive, yearning-to-breathe-free immigrants -- mostly from south of the border and south and east of Constantinople these days -- targeted by homegrown Democratic demagogues all too willing to tell them what they want to hear. It was our own native son, Tip O'Neill, who famously declared that "All politics is local." It's the Taxachusetts way. At least we're in good company, with one of our all-time fave blogmates, New Yorker Barry Campbell's red-vs-blue spread of 16%-to-82% outdoing our own (see map above). Barry's the one -- always at the cutting edge -- who gave us the heads up. Head on over to neighboroo and type in your zip code to see how good or bad it is in your neck of the woods. Some, like Goomp's, are merely Democrat. Others, like Barry's and ours, are Democrat STRONGHOLDS. It almost makes us wonder whether we have been chosen by the Lord to fight the good fight. [There was a blogpost out there somewhere today . . . or maybe it was a "news" report . . . to the effect that some group of Christians -- possibly Catholics -- thought it would be a small band of true believers that would once again lead a benighted humanity out of the desert . . . Unfortunately, we haven't been able to relocate it. If we do, it will be posted here.] Update: Here's the source, a review of Cardinal Ratzinger's and Marcello Pera's Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam. More here.

The latest pre-emptive obituaries for our party of choice from our friends on the left side of the aisle and their useful idiots in the MSM recall these lines from metaphysical poet John Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning":

As virtuous men pass mildly away, 
And whisper to their souls to go, 
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

Does Karl Rove know something we don't? Some of his sad friends do say "It's micro-targeting," and some say, "No."

"Traditional Day of Dead refreshments and wine will be served"

We searched online for a suitably striking image of Aztec human sacrifice or cannibalism to accompany our post and came up empty. Hence a gratuitous cute kitty pic of Tiny this morning on high alert just after running an intruder off her territory.

"A festive and social occasion, the holiday welcomes the return of those who have died and recognizes the human cycle of life and death," gushes the latest email invitation to Harvard alums (we were Design School MLA '98, for the record), this one from the university's divine Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and its devilish Divinity School:

Originating with the Aztecs, the Mexican "Days of the Dead" today are a unique blend of Aztec and Christian rituals.

Join us for an evening at the Peabody Museum for a live puppet play, presented by ImaginArte of Mexico City. The play "Mictlan," recounts the Aztec story of the re-peopling of the earth.

Isn't that special? A unique blend of Aztec and Christian rituals. Moral equivalence rules. We assume the re-peopling of the earth took place in the wake of the Aztecs' ritual dispatching of their friends, relatives and mortal enemies via cannibalism and human sacrifice.

The play will be followed by a discussion with Professor Davíd Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor for the Study of Latin America at the Harvard Divinity School.  Traditional Day of Dead refreshments and wine will be served during the program.  The Peabody's permanent Day of the Dead exhibit will be open for touring along with its annual, temporary offrenda.

When you say "Traditional Day of Dead refreshments," are you talking body parts, Professor Carrasco? What is the proper wine to go with decapitated heads and chopped-off finger tips? Or are we overreacting to your glossing over the Aztecs' heart of darkness in the name of multicultural kumbaya? As we said in our response to Harvard's kind invitation:

Can you say "White Guilt" whitewash? Also, the one thing I cannot tolerate at "festive and social" occasions is puppet shows.

Long after the intruder had retreated, she kept careful watch to assure the coast was clear.

If we're looking for puppets, we'll attend violent demonstrations of peace-loving leftists. We met with Diana Eck of the Divinity School faculty -- head of the Pluralism Project -- a few years back when a team of three of us Design School students consulted her in connection with a Carl Steinitz studio project to design a Hindu community to fit into the traditional New England village of Petersham. Here's the essence of what she told us, from the blurb of the website of her book, A New Religious America:

"The United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world," leading religious scholar Diana Eck writes in this eye-opening guide to the religious realities of America today. The Immigration Act of 1965 eliminated the quotas linking immigration to national origins. Since then, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jams, Zoroastrians, and new varieties of Jews and Catholics have arrived from every part of the globe, radically altering the religious landscape of the United States.

We were struck with Professor Eck's recent response [unfortunately, the article gives no date, but it appears to have been published in late 2000] to a Beliefnet interviewer's question regarding what religious trends surprised her:

The growth of the Islamic community. They see a growth to 6 million Muslims, 1,200 mosques, and a doubling of the mosque attendance rate. All of us have some sense there are more Muslims here than before, but the dimensions of this, that make the Islamic population virtually equal to the Jewish population in the United States, are arresting.

"How aware are people of this trend?" asked Beliefnet:

My hunch is that people are not very aware. Most people know that immigration has changed the face of America in the last 20 years, and they're aware of Latino and Hispanic immigration and recognize how that has changed the Catholic Church and Protestantism across the country.

But I think people are less cognizant of Islamic and Hindu and Buddhist and Sikh communities. There are some reasons for this. One is that the early mosques and temples for the first 20 years or so were not particularly visible. You could drive by a mosque in a storefront and not notice there was a new form of religion in your community. But now we do have very visible landmark religious institutions that give us a visual clue.

"What worries you about where we're headed? What do we need to be concerned about?" asked Beliefnet:

If you ask what my fear is, it's that if our diversity becomes isolated enclaves in which we really do not allow ourselves to encounter one another and don't take on the difficult task of creating a positive pluralism in which we're engaged with one another, we may end up with communities that are more isolated.

Intimations of Londonistan? The Parisian Intifada?  'Wonder if she knew how cataclysmically charged her intimations were? We'd love to hear a scholarly debate between everyone-is-beautiful, in-their-own-way Diana Eck and the sadder-but-wiser Robert Spencer, whose new book The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion is the talk of the 'sphere [via Little Green Footballs].

"When you choose to broaden your ambit"

Susie's beautiful, velvety white-with-tiger-patches Daisy (center) graces the table at birthday festivities down Sue's yesterday as Tuck looks on.

A movable feast from our house to her house yesterday with Beef Stroganoff on a bed of noodles, candied carrots and peas, Chef Sissy's salad and Stop & Shop chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting, candy corn garnish and day-glo birthday candles for dessert. The cats provided the entertainment (floor show below), and a coveted appearance by Susie's Barney II, Christian, lent the the wit and wisdom of a youthful perspective.

Arthur (left) and Daisy in their cups. According to Sue, it was the first time her puddies had ever come face to face with a real, live catnip plant. They couldn't get enough of it. Too much fun to watch. For more superb catnip blogging, check out our "Substance abuse, then and now."

BUT . . . As wonderful as it all was -- and it was -- the coup of the entire affair was the cats' response to a potted catnip plant garnished with Mummy's mums from our garden. We had taken it along in our movable-feast starter kit just in case we needed a floral centerpiece for our well-appointed table. Fortunately, Goomp had already sent our sis the perfect centerpiece -- delivered at work to the delight of her co-workers and then brought on home -- a nosegay of ivory pink roses bundled in pale pink paper and cellophane, tied with a hank of straw-like ribbon as for an actress at her triumphant curtain call. The bouquet's the thing.

Here's the beef. Check out our awesome recipe for Beef Strogie here.

Did you know that a recent Republicans vs. Democrats taste "study" found that red staters prefer Dunkin Donuts coffee, Walmart and bourbon, while their blue-state counterparts favor Starbucks coffee, Target and gin? Well, nobody's perfect.  Dry Beefeater martinis straight up with an olive (above right) are our own drink of choice.

Back home this morning, Tiny and Baby wanted to know what had taken us so long and where was the beef. We were all wicked happy to see each other. Purrs and coos and smiles all around.

Catching up with blogospheric developments after a day of abstinence, we were struck with the swelling critical mass of vlogging (video blogging) as we lent our ears to a totally awesome Oval-Office meeting of the prez with top pundits of the right and Michelle Malkin's first-of-its-kind HotAir interview with Mark Steyn. It's the blog equivalent of "Garbo talks." Too much good stuff out there. And waiting in our email box upon our return were a lovely "It's time to vote" note from Laura Bush and a horrifyingly on-message message from Barack Hussein Obama sent out under the MoveOn rubric urging us to send our dollars to Democrat candidates:

When you choose the second path -- when you choose to broaden your ambit of concern and empathize with the plight of others, whether they are close friends or distant strangers -- it becomes harder not to act; harder not to help.

Thanks for thinking of us, Barack. We'll let you know if ever we should find ourselves choosing to broaden our ambit.

Update: Friday Ark at Modulator now boarding.

"It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies"

The dawn's early light caught our eye this morning as the bulk carrier "Baldock" disengorged a mountain of salt four stories high by way of a conveyor-belt boom swung out from the ship (right above and top below) over the wharf of Eastern Salt across the street.

"I disagree with Roger Simon," writes Arnold Kling provocatively at TCS Daily re Roger's correct but -- according to Kling -- irrelevant assessment of the failings of the current national Democratic leadership. Kling is one of those persons of the right who is planning to stay home November 7 to "send a message." We're going to hold our nose and vote straight Republican ourselves -- Western Civ is at war with the forces of darkness, fergossake, and the Democrats still don't get it -- but nevertheless find much wisdom and food for thought in his analysis:

Not because I think highly of the leaders he disparages. But one way in which libertarians differ from conventional liberals and conservatives is that we place less faith in having good political leaders.

The conventional wisdom is that we would be better off if politically powerful leaders were less mediocre. Instead, my view is that we would be better off if mediocre political leaders were less powerful.

The gray metal structural elements and clear plastic surfaces of the boom put on a dazzling show of purples and oranges, reflecting the sun's first rays.

"Democracy does not lead to particularly good choices," continues Kling:

The belief that the problem with government is the particular individuals in power is dangerous. The myth is that somewhere out there we could find great leaders who could use government to solve all of our problems. Instead, we need to be vigilant against the enlargement of government, by either mediocre or expert leaders.

Throughout the day, workers used bucket loaders (yellow vehicles center and far right) and a clamshell bucket suspended from a towering shore-based crane (upper right) to flatten the peak of the pile to make way for more salt from the "Baldock's" hold. Our camera missed Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" -- glimpsed out the SUV window as we drove off on errands -- when a biblical pillar of salt was pouring forth from the tip of the boom (center top in image), two bucket loaders were plowing salt left and right away from the peak and the clamshell bucket was doing its thing. Truly an awesome choreographed ballet of the working waterfront.

The media's embarrassing, self-revelatory swoon over the remarkable junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., comes to mind. An interesting fellow, no question, the son -- if we can believe what we read -- of a Kansan atheist anthropologist mother and a Harvard-educated Kenyan Muslim [?] economist father who met and fell in love while matriculating at the University of Hawaii, Obama is a distinguished graduate of Harvard Law School, "dripping with charisma" according to one of the MSM's latest fawning portraits. Oprah wants us to make him president of these United States. We'd love to know more about the fellow but couldn't read or watch (the toe-curling factor). Our fellow Americans of the left exemplify Arnold Kling's "dangerous" faith in a political savior who will lead them out of the desert. A recurrent American theme, but not our cup of tea.

Towards the end of the day, sirens and flashing lights filled the air as the Chelsea Police, Eastern Salt security, Cataldo's ambulance and Chelsea's finest (above carrying a rescue basket stretcher) converged on the wharf across the street. Tuck went over to investigate and learned that a crew member of the "Baldock" had fallen off the rope ladder that was the only access to shore from the mighty ship. Haven't they ever heard of gangways?

"So how do conservatives hold on to power when the population has been trained for two or three generations of Left-tinged rule to reflexively expect 'government to fix it' -- whatever it may be?" writes The Barrister at Maggie's Farm in a tour de force essay that puts its finger on what ails us:

There is only one way: to fill the nation with vigorous, optimistic, freedom-oriented, inspiring, courageous talk about the American way of life and the opportunities available to everyone to go out there and try to build whatever life they envision. Reagan knew how to do that. Bush has not the talent, nor the taste, for dramatic rhetoric -- and neither did his dad.

A wondrous post that must be read in full, not least for the picture of Maggie and Ronnie, deep in conversation, on a brisk walk through the woods at [presumably] Camp David. We LOVED the fact that he quoted our own "The totalitarian impulse runs deep and dark in our species" side by side with the estimable Dr. Sanity's "The political left and their totalitarian dreams" and Samizdata's breathtaking C.S. Lewis quotation:

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Yes, YOU, Hillary. For why "Republicans deserve to lose [and] what happens if Democrats win," check out Pete DuPont's excellent op ed at Opinion Journal today.

Update:  Pajamas Media links.

Today at the mall we ventured trancelike into the Apple Store

"I’m sold. Media pundits love Apple’s Mighty Mouse [image above] by 2 to 1," wrote Bambi Hambi at Mac 360: 360° of Mac Reviews & Opinion back in August of 2005. We discovered her review today in a Google search designed on our part to lend weight to our latest marketing "decision."

We'd been dragging our feet about Apple's programmable, tailless Mus -- despite the tedious dysfunctionability of the original one-button mouse that came with our shiny new iMac G5 (just before they put Intel inside) a couple of years back -- because of lingering doubts based upon the WSJs Walter Mossberg's tepid review at the time the Mighty Mouse came out in August of  2005. Today at the mall, we ventured, trancelike as always, into the Apple Store and tried out the Mighty Mouse, fell for it big time and told Tuck that's what we wanted for our birthday, nearly two months away. Seeing as our wish is his command -- especially when it means he can get us something he knows we really want and have it waiting in the wings for the big day -- he purchased it then and there. By the time we got home, after a delicious lunch, we were able to convince the Tuckman that we had to open the present at once in order to assure that our computer contained the necessary Bluetooth wireless technology enabled to make the thing operable. Once it proved operable, there was no turning back. Now we're thinking wireless keyboard for Christmas.

Did you say mouse? Baby Cakes goes all pensive in the countdown to supper this afternoon.

In case you think we've dropped the ball on the mid-term elections that dare not speak their name, we took part in Instapundit's online poll that asks the question "Whom do you wish might win the 2006 Congressional elections?:

Okay, with about 6800 votes so far, we've got 74% in favor of Republicans keeping both houses, 17% in favor of the Dems taking one house, and 9% in favor of Dems taking both houses.

We felt reassured that we were among the 74% that preferred not to take any prisoners.

Did you say kitty treats?

"Did you say kitty treats?" Tiny (left) and Baby perform their part in the post-breakfast ritual dance this morning.

"That's what we thought you said." One of the few times they're this close and not at each other's throats with hissing, spitting and whacking is when food is being served. Like music, kitty kibbles hath charms that soothe the savage breast.

"Did you hear that? No, but did you see that?" The Chelsea Grays hear and see things we don't, of course, as they move outside to inspect and reassert ownership of their domain after milking us for all the treats they can.

Update: More treats for ailurophiles at the 135th Carnival of the Cats, hosted this week by Laurence Simon, the Father of All Catbloggers, at his Houston Chronicle blog, Catcall.