Final Friday Catblogging for 2007

Buddy Impeachment is really fond of the
courtyard and the deck...except when it looks like this outside...

Then he is really fond of the futon, and the radiator that you can't see.

The little shopping bags they give you at the
Kansas City Public Library to carry your books home in
(at least when, like us, you check out multiples)
is perfectly Dreidel-sized!

Charlie really likes the towel rack, especially
when the towels are still warm from the dryer.

Sorry about the tint on the last two...the camera was set on "sepia tones" but I decided to use the pictures anyway...

And since Kevin is on vacation...you can get your second dose of Catblogging at WTWC this week! (Or is it the third? Strannix isn't loading for me...but he's a catblogger, too) Anyway, go say hello to Smudge, who graciously allows my friend (who is also my layer and my fellow WTWC co-blogger) Corpus Juris and his lovely wife to share his domicile, so long as they continue to pay the bills and buy the solid white albacore.

Stop With the Endless Bullshit

There are so many "conflicting" stories that are swirling around the assassination yesterday of Benazir Bhutto that it is little wonder that Pakistan is experiencing widespread unrest.

Just a sampling:

-Benazir Bhutto died from hitting her car's sunroof; no bullet or shrapnel found in her, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry says.
[breaking news headline, CNN.com]

-Bhutto was killed after a suicide attacker shot at her and then blew himself up as she left a rally, police and witnesses said. Authorities initially said she died from bullet wounds, but Dr. Mussadiq Khan, a surgeon who treated her, said Friday that she died from shrapnel that hit her on the right side of the skull.
Bhutto had no heart beat or pulse when she arrived at the hospital and doctors failed to resuscitate her, he said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said he saw the medical report, and it, too, said she died from a shrapnel wound and was not shot. "No bullet was found in her body," he said.
Soomro, the prime minister, told the Cabinet on Friday that Bhutto's husband did not allow an autopsy, according to a government statement.
[From the Huffington Post]

-It was initially reported that Bhutto, 54, was killed by the bullets of an assassin who blew himself up after firing the shots following a public rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
But government officials said Friday that a medical report confirmed that Bhutto was killed by shrapnel from the blast -- from which at least 28 more people died and at least 100 were wounded.
The shrapnel hit the right side of her skull, Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema said. The bomber did shoot at Bhutto with a pistol, but she had no bullet injury.
[News story, CNN.com]

-Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, whose funeral was held today, died from injuries she suffered when hitting her vehicle's sunroof, it has been claimed.
Interior Ministry spokesman said no bullets or shrapnel were found in her body.
It had previously been announced Ms Bhutto died as a result of being hit in the neck and chest by shots fired by an assassin.
The Ministry has also blamed al Qaeda and the Taliban for the 54-year-old's death..
It said its agents had intercepted an al Qaeda phone call about the killing.
It says it also has evidence the international terror group is trying to "destabilise" Pakistan.
[Breaking News from Sky News]

You're going to have to excuse me if I don't believe a Goddamned thing about what happened--it's just not possible for so many people to get something like this so completely and utterly wrong without there being, at least at some level, a behind-the-scenes conspiracy being run by incompetents who can't get their stories straight.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall has also picked up on this, and is asking for medical people to weigh in. Given that Bhutto was quickly buried without autopsy (for religious reasons, most likely), I don't know if it is possible to figure anything out from the scant evidence that exists.

I do know one thing--I'm not buying any of the bullshit being spewed by the Pakistani government, and I doubt anyone is ever going to be able to figure out what really happened.

UPDATE 2: Bhutto associate calls out Pakistani regime--

Brigadier Javed Cheema, a ministry spokesman, said Miss Bhutto had died from a head wound she sustained when she smashed against the sunroof's lever as she tried to shelter inside the car.

"The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull," Mr Cheema said.

But the explanation was ridiculed by Farooq Naik, Miss Bhutto's top lawyer and a senior official in her Pakistan People's Party.

"It is baseless. It is a pack of lies," he said.

"Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head. It was a serious security lapse."

How about this scenario--Bhutto was pronounced dead at the hospital because she had been killed in the ambulance on the way there by a severe blow to the head...?

A couple of words about tolerance

I'm convinced that it isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Or perhaps it has been co-opted to the point of paralysis in the public discourse.

Some things are intolerable. Just off the top of my head, I can come up with

Racism and sexism.

Religious extremism. (And I have a low bar here. I have no use for religious dogma, and the minute you start preaching to me, you are extreme in my narrow definition.)

Willful ignorance and stupidity.

Puffery and self-importance.

Cloying, pandering spinelessness.

I have zero tolerance for a whole hell of a lot of things. Including idiots who ride in on a high-horse and make pedantic assumptions. The "Coexist" banner at the top of this blog does not indicate religious tolerance on my part - it simply means people of all - or no - belief system should shut the fuck up and leave everyone else alone about it, and they sure as hell shouldn't be killing other people for believing differently(or not at all).

I still live in a (somewhat) free country. I do not have to tolerate that which offends. In fact, I am free to call a frothing, foam-flecked loon a frothing foam-flecked loon.

I can still mock, ridicule and scorn those things I find intolerable. I think it's a given that I would not have been a "good German" nor would I have made a model Soviet citizen.

I am not a member of my parents democratic party - I am a member of my Grandmother's Democratic Party.

I am dedicated to progress.

I am an unapologetic liberal.

And I have no qualms at all about swinging the Vorpal Blade.

If you can't tolerate that, maybe you should read someone else.

I need your help!

I just got another award!

I have been awarded a Golden Monkeyfister, and that puts me in league with some pretty damned impressive company!

Here is what the inimitable MF had to say about our little 24-hour coffee klatch:

And finally, but certainly not last....

The True Golden Monkeyfist-- To Blue Girl, Red State for most exemplifying the spirit of living in a state, in a district where there is no Democratic Representation. Blue Girl refuses to bend, refuses to yield, and keeps the ideals of America, Democracy, and the Human Spirit alive. This award has not been given out before, does not get given out lightly, and certainly not often. Reading BGRS over this past year has been very re-affirming to me-- stuck as I am in a similar situation. I consider BGRS to be my Sister-Site in spirit. Thank you for your warrior spirit, Blue Girl. Readers should bookmark her site, and read it regularly.

Ah, but with great honor, comes great responsibility...

In other words, there is a catch, my Lovelies....

I'm sure you all followed the link and read MF's post, so you know that all of the winners are supposed to submit the names and URL for three more smallish blogs for the Au Peer Award, and the sites will be evaluated and debated in comments at a location somewhere in Blogtopia™ (yes!! skippy - a 2006 winner btw - coined that phrase!) and those nominees will be debated and evaluated in comments. Then, one lucky winner will be chosen from the three submissions that are offered by each of us.

So here is what I need from you, my Darlings...Gaze to your right (I know - looking to the right is an utterly unnatural proposition for many of us - but do try) and carefully consider my sidebar. Note who is listed there, and click a few links. Look carefully at the blogs that I have linked, especially the "Compatriots, Cohorts and Interlocutors" and the "Courtesy Link Exchange" blogrolls, and leave your favorite one, or two, or even three nominations in comments, and over the next day or so, we will have a little prelude to the big show, right here in the comments section of this post! (Prefer to make your nominations in private? Send me an email at bluegirl-dot-redstate-at-gmail-dot-com.)

Thanks for your help guys! I am certain I can count on y'all to help out here...I mean, you folks are the best looking and smartest people on all the web! (And it goes world-wide, you know!)

I'm so excited! This is every bit as good as that time I was interviewed on NPR! About political blogging!