A saga of cats continues

Some readers may recall that in May, we brought home a cat from the Sonoma County Animal Shelter.[1] I named him Captain James T. Kirk, because he shares a lust for adventure and a certain recklessness with the Star Trek character by that name. Because his coloration is mostly black, my mother was extremely reluctant to let him out at night, but he kept pushing the limits, and eventually, she gave in. Soon thereafter, he started disappearing for the entire day, not coming home until quite late at night, often after my mother had gone to bed. We were seeing very little of him.

Eventually a neighbor called, saying that the cat was spending more and more time at their house, and asking if they could adopt him. My mother, correctly I think, said yes, but Captain Kirk apparently did not choose to be adopted. When that door opened, he started showing up here a bit more.

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  1. [1]David Benfell, “A New Housemate,” May 16, 2012, https://disunitedstates.org/?p=4767

A bully is getting bullied

I am remembering that for a time while I lived at Lupin, a lame cat would come around. This cat was absolutely no threat to my cat, Admiral Janeway. But my cat was relentlessly vicious nonetheless, running this cat off. Then it was my cat who was the young and brave one.

I reproached her for that but as pathetic as her treatment of that lame cat was, it was also a genuinely brave thing that Admiral Janeway did in coming to live with me, breaking into a house—her house actually—with a strange man inside, and leaping seven feet to a hard floor. She was a kitten then, and I still remember her hopping on to my bed and traversing the length of my body as I lay on my side, purring loudly.[1]

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  1. [1]For more on this story, see this posting.

Planning for Romney

Time—actually, Tuesday night—will tell, but when I hear that President Barack Obama will “be more aggressive in his next face off with Mitt Romney after their last encounter gave the Republican challenger a boost,”[1] following what is widely regarded as a poor (if not disastrous) performance in his first debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney,[2] I am reminded of the controversy following Obama’s victory in 2008 about his forthcoming appointments. I wrote then,

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  1. [1]Jeff Mason, “Obama plans more assertive debate, cites ‘great’ prep,” Reuters, October 14, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/14/us-usa-campaign-debate-obama-idUSBRE89D09Q20121014
  2. [2]Mackenzie Weinger, “Press agree: Obama ‘rusty,’ Romney ‘strong’,” Politico, October 4, 2012, http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/10/media-agrees-obama-rusty-romney-strong-137459.html

Why policy makers should be listening to the ‘BLS truthers’ even if nobody else is–and what they should hear

Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch seems to have kicked off quite a firestorm when he apparently tweeted in response to a dissonant jobs report, “Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers.” While many jumped on a bandwagon, the authoritarian response was thunderous[1]:

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  1. [1]Chris Isidore, “Jack Welch questions jobs numbers,” CNN, October 5, 2012, http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/05/news/economy/welch-unemployment-rate/index.html