I’m shooting for pictures of animals that were adopted because of what people here have said in the comments or on the front page. I’ve read a number of you say that Lily and Tunch and other people’s pets have inspired you to get a dog or cat for yourself, now I’d like to see the pictures and a link to your respective pet adoption agency. That way I can show a picture of your pet and direct people in your area to a reliable place to adopt pets.

I just know that my quality of life would never, ever, be the same without these two. Between Tunch lying on my chest every morning purring, waking me up for breakfast, and Lily getting so excited any time I come home that she licks my glasses or slips me tongue while pretending to just kiss me (the SLUT!), I just don’t know what I would do without these two. I honestly can’t imagine life without them, and I don’t think people understand how much they are missing by not having pets. So let’s give more people reasons to adopt. Send us your pics, send us your stories, send us your misgivings before adopting, and tell us why it was the best thing you ever did.

And I’m writing this with Lily on my lap and Tunch attacking my hands while perched on the desk. And I would not have it any other way.

*** Update ***

For example, without pets, you will never have an action packed life that involves seat of the pants drama like this:

Let’s be serious, folks. There is a reason the action packed Tunch Cams are a hit!

Yes, losing to the Bengals twice in a season sucks, but at least my team can score against the Browns. Not being able to score against the Browns is like not being able to score with Jenna Jameson.

For chrissakes JSF, Flocco power is vastly overrated.

Also, I like Gruden as an announcer.

*** Update ***

Just checked memeorandum. They claim that a new poll states she is not qualified to be President. Glad shit didn’t change too much while I was eating a white pizza.

Seriously, when is this Palin bullshit going to stop? You know who else isn’t prepared to be President? Pauly Shore. How come there are no polls about him?

Jon Gruden drives me nuts. You wanna talk about a guy who yells too much? You wanna talk about a guy who thinks he’s being edgy when he says the obvious? You wanna talk about a guy who can flat annoy me?

Then again, the only football announcer I ever liked was Pat Summerall.

Update. Who is more annoying, the long-haired UPS white board guy or the faux-Native American IBM “smarter grid” guy?

John’s gone Galt for the evening and I’m feeling too down for politics, for various reasons I won’t go into. Okay, I will. I couldn’t sleep last night after the Colts-Patriots game.

So this is going to be a sad attempt at John-type post. I’ve been making steel-cut oatmeal in my slow-cooker and, while it’s delicious, it’s kind of a pain. Even with a four-to-one water-to-oats ratio, it runs out of water and starts sticking to the sides. Should I use cooking spray? Just add a ton more water? Keep it on “warm” the whole time instead of having it “cook” at all?

Any particular recipes people like for this? I like the idea of adding dried fruit.

It was sunny this afternoon so we went to rails to trails, and after Lily went to the bathroom for the eighth time, I caught myself singing:

I’m sure Slick Rick would kill himself if he heard me.

With FSM as my witness, I used to be cool. I swear.

Consider this an open thread, as I’m going out for dinner.

Even the liberal Mark Shields misses George W. Bush.

SHIELDS: We have a president of real intellectual horse power who is cool, detached and analytical and if anything you can watch the emotional side of him emerge in this whole process. … There’s an emotional aspect, the comforter in chief as well as the commander in chief. Both roles. And I think it makes me nostalgic for those days when we had a manly man in the White House who could say, “Let’s kick some tail and ask questions afterwards” you know? That’s what we really need instead of any reflection.

(via)

Update. I watched it again and I’m pretty sure he’s being sarcastic. If I’d known he was from Weymouth, I would have guessed this right off.

It’s easy to romanticize the past, of course. But I distinctly remember that 20 years ago, things like sudden increases in the number of people going hungry were considered important issues. Nowadays to even muse about whether this is something we can do something about as a society marks you as an unserious hippie. Even as we speak, Slate/Levitt/TNR are probably writing something along the lines of “you think that having a high percentage of the population without access to food is bad, but once you get past the conventional wisdom of our hippie overlords, you’ll see that blah blah blah.” David Brooks is probably on the Snooze Hour telling E. J. Dionne that the only solution is food vouchers and, anyway, in Red America, the hungry can always visit the Applebee’s Salad Bar for free. Robert Samuelson and Fred Hiatt are cooking up some bogus figures to tell us that there is no way that we, as a society, can do anything about this. And, anyway, Michael Moore is fat, so how can anyone really be hungry?

What the hell happened? How did all the conservative talking points become so thoroughly internalized in this country?

Since it has been about six days since we have had an OS flame war, let me state that one thing I hate about Apple is that no matter what program I want to use, whether it be firefox, itunes, office, photoshop, dreamweaver, or acrobat, any time I try to use a program I have to install critical updates for five minutes first.

Now you can say this is not Apple’s fault, per se, but I do not run into these issues on Windows Seven. They just install themselves at night. I swear to God Itunes updates more than Drudge.

This sucks:

The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track, according to a government report released Monday that shows particularly steep increases in food scarcity among families with children.

In 2008, the report found, nearly 17 million children—more than one in five across the United States—were living in households in which food at times ran short, up from slightly more than 12 million children the year before. And the number of children who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million.

Among people of of all ages, nearly 15 percent last year did not consistently have adequate food, compared with about 11 percent in 2007, the greatest deterioration in access to food during a single year in the history of the report.

I’m going to give more money to local food banks this year than in the past. But only a glibertarian would think that personal charity is the solution to this shameful problem.

James Joyner provides a rebuttal to the notion that KSM should be tried, and it is notable for the fact that it contains actual arguments and not screaming and wailing and wet underpants.

Top stories at memeorandum:

1.) Sarah Palin’s numbers and whether she could run for President.

2.) We’ve moved from whether or not it was treasonous for Obama to bow before the Emperor to an in-depth discussion of whether Obama used the appropriate technique. No matter what, Allahpundit assures us that Obama was in the wrong.

3.) John Yoo telling us that trying terrorists is an intelligence coup for the terrorist.

Same shit, different day.

Andrew, Golden Gate Sunset.

fallsroad, Sunburst.

Email me a link to your one or two favorite pics on a photo site like Flickr (do not send the image itself please) and I will put up favorites in open threads. Send a short caption if you want one.

Click on the photos for a link to the photographer’s website. To see all photo threads, click on ‘photo blogging’ at the bottom of the post.

If your computer cannot read our email links at top right, my email is (remove the zeroes): portus0jackson0ii at yahoo dot com.

I was interviewed last week by Erik Kain at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen. You can read it here.

Nothing to see here:

Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.

In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992.

The drug trend is distinctly at odds with the direction of the Consumer Price Index, which has fallen by 1.3 percent in the last year.

Drug makers say they have valid business reasons for the price increases. Critics say the industry is trying to establish a higher price base before Congress passes legislation that tries to curb drug spending in coming years.

The Prescription Drug Plan really was fiscal conservatism at its best.

I don’t know why Erick Erickson hasn’t already announced a fund-raising drive to bring this… unusual… artwork celebrating President Obama’s visit to China back to a venue where it can really be appreciated…

(via WGNtv.com Chicago)

Perhaps the Red State Strike Farce simply can’t decide who’ll get custody. Or possibly $15k is some $14,913 $14,999,913 more than Red Erick’s Army can scrape together?

(I really liked the YouTube video “Obama Marketing Hits China“, but Reuters has chosen to disable video embedding.)