Clever Canine Manipulations

Mysti Girl is so funny, and pretty clever.

Our Doggie Girls like to cuddle with me on the couch during the evening, and it varies who gets the plum seat next to me, usually first-come, first-served. But when the Son's pup, Chelsea Belle, was staying with us during his deployment, she often got the spot closest to me because she is small enough to sit on the footrest of the recliner without collapsing it.

Chelsea is also a titch toy-crazy. She will show you a toy in her mouth while waggling her rear end all over the place for hours. And Mama Mysti took note of that.

Around Christmas, when Mysti wanted to sit next to me but found Chelsea already there, that cagey Mama would go in search of a toy and bring it to me. She would then start playing "tug" with me, putting only her front paws on the couch, and pulling the toy perilously close to Chelsea who, of course, couldn't stand not having the toy all to herself. Then Mysti would yank the toy from me and "toss" it across the room. Chelsea, of course, would spring into action and triumphantly leap down to grab the toy before anybody else could . . . while Mysti hopped up on the couch and helped her whole self to my lap.

This is what Mysti looks like when she's feeling close enough to me:

Yap's almost close enough:

They're both pretty darn close:

Last night, Yappy had claimed my lap and Mysti was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, I heard toenails clicking across the floor and here came Mama Mysti, trotting into the living room, carrying -- you guessed it -- Yap's favorite toy.  A few minutes later, Mysti was in my lap, and farther down the couch was this:

Oh, that clever Mama.  Sneaky, too.  Heh.

The Definitive Explanation of the Obama Administration's Foreign Policy

You might recall that the Young President was out on the left coast earlier this week attending some conference, or summit, or golf outing (The course is "very difficult. My score is classified." He's so very clever, that one.) with a bunch of folks from Asia.

Justice Antonin Scalia had the gall to go and die over the weekend, so most of the headlines focused on Scalia instead of Obama the rest of the week; hence, I had no clear idea what the conference was all about. Pepper, on the other hand, did. He noted it -- and its value -- in a Facebook post:

Well, how about that? Obama is at yet another meaningless summit. The foreign policy of useless meetings. Impressive!

Does that description sum up the Obama foreign policy, or what!  My husband is very clever!

And, this just makes me laugh:

Happy weekend!!

One Family's Meaningful Farewell Tribute

There is a charming obituary in today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette announcing the passing of a delightful lady, Ms. Freeda.

Included in the heartfelt tribute to Ms. Freeda was a treasure trove of information about her well-lived life, such as:

Freeda sledgehammered every rule of eating healthy to obtain a nice long life. She had a passionate love of peanut butter cookies, cornbread and buttermilk, pecan pies, candy bars, and Diet Coke. She lived to be 80.

And then there was:

Freeda disliked very much any Texas or Alabama football team and considered any game those states won as rigged or otherwise not on the up-and-up. She disliked very much the end of football season, her middle name, and McDonald's.

My favorite passage, however, is the opening one:

Freeda . . . passed on August 12. A fact that is not lost on the family is that she died before she could see Hillary Clinton elected, just as she had hoped.

What a delightful, intelligent lady!!! Her family closed with this:

A service will be held . . . where it is asked that you bring your Razorback spirit. In lieu of flowers the family asks that you instead go fishing. Watch a Razorback game. Eat a well-made pecan pie. And love.

I do believe Miss Freeda was a lady whose acquaintance I would have loved to have made. Rest peacefully, Ms. Freeda. And a raucous Wooo Pig Soooieee from Moogie's Manor.

Post-election Fatigue

Tuesday was Primary election day in Arkansas. The ads were flying fast and furiously. Some were amusing, some were tacky. But, there were a boatload of them and we got really tired of them.

I mean really tired!

So, in an effort to curb campaign spending, (and in a bigger effort to effect a de facto enactment of term limits) I'm dragging out my old Plan to re-vamp how folks get sent to DC to run (and ruin) our lives:

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2009

Moogie's Fun and Revolutionary Plan for Public Service Reform in D.C.

In a moment of blinding clarity, I have stumbled upon what could be the salvation of our nation and our Republic.

We have to chunk out our system of federal elections and start over from scratch.

The states may continue to do whatever they please for intra-state elections pursuant to the Tenth Amendment, and that'll get the Feds off their backs for a whole lot of stuff, primarily because the Feds will have been forced to acknowledge and abide by the Tenth Amendment. If folks don't like what policies their state is enacting in connection with a particular issue, like, say, same-sex marriage, then they are free either to try to effect change in their state through legislation or move to another state whose laws more closely reflect their beliefs. Hello, Republic! A confederation of independent states who are free to follow the will of their citizens, not the sometime-well-intentioned-but-often-cuckoo citizens of Soviet Socialist Massachusetts or Pelosi-world.

You may not be aware of the fact that I was -- fairly recently -- a strong opponent of term limits. I believed institutional memory to be a very important component of orderly government -- we shouldn't have to re-invent the wheel time after time after time simply because no one was in Congress or the Governor's mansion who could remember what happened the last time someone came up with the same boneheaded idea, or how badly its implementation failed. Today, I simply don't care. There are too many boneheaded ideas floating around this ol' world to prevent their redundancy, so opposing term limits is no longer on my radar.

The notion of needing to devise some reasonable facsimile of term limits brought me to the election of our Republics' representatives in D.C. -- so, let's just get all Constitutional about it and return to the Founding Fathers' notion of true "public servants" in which people are called to serve their fellow citizens for a brief amount of time, not to make a career of meddling in the lives of every citizen.

We can retain the Constitutional requirements for eligibility to serve (e.g., age, natural-born citizenship, residency) -- they're pretty sensible. But as for the actual "election" -- there will be no further federal elections.

We're going to have a National Public Service Lottery.

Every eligible U.S. voter (eligibility to be determined by each state) will be required to purchase two lottery tickets: one each in the POTUS/VPOTUS Scratch-off in which only two tickets have all the magic numbers (indexed to population or voter registration; details and cost to be worked out later), but the Presidential Powerball Number on one ticket wins the White House and the runner-up moves into One Observatory Circle at the U.S. Naval Observatory as VPOTUS, both for the Constitutional term of four years. No one may win the POTUS/VPOTUS Scratch-off more than two terms in a row.

Additionally, the eligible voters of each state and territory will be required to purchase similar lottery tickets for Senator (lotteries to be staggered to accommodate rotating 6-year terms) and Representative: one winner per slot per state.

Of course, we'd have to do away with the Electoral College and replace it with a Commission of Electoral Inspection to determine the qualifications and eligibility of winners. The Commission could be composed of 3 members (to have a tie-breaker), appointed, one apiece, by the President, The Senate, and the House of Representatives. Vacancies occurring in Congressional office could be filled by vote of the vacant office's State Senate; presidential succession would be in effect until the following lottery.

Would there be a chance for cheating or corruption? Of course. Is there now?!?! (Hello, ACORN.) Would some mind-numbingly unqualified folks win the Public Service Lottery? Um, duh -- but what's the difference between that and the current system?

Could the loss of institutional memory be regretted, especially in the House of Representatives? Most probably. But, tinkering with the details could find a reasonable compromise to extend and rotate terms in the House, so let's not throw this idea out without trying it.

It's fun! It's a revenue generator! It's a regular fruit-basket turnover in D.C.!! It's Moogie's Revolutionary Plan for Public Service Reform in D.C.!

I've given you the bones -- now, hammer out the details.

It could work. And there would be no ads or robocalls! Someone needs to bust out some Petitions.

Rudolph's Going Green . . .

I suppose an LED bulb would be a little too bright -- might blind oncoming pilots -- so poor ol' Rudolph had to go with this:

(Sorry posting has been a little lagging this week -- I've been under the weather, and the covers, with a foggy brain.)

From Today's Inbox

This one's pretty good! 

Montana Bear Tragedy
This is a very sad story about a bear... Everybody should heed the warnings not to feed wildlife because they become dependent and don't forage for themselves any longer. It is such a tragedy to see what has been done to our country's wildlife. The photo below captures a disturbing trend that is beginning to affect U.S. wildlife. (Read below photo)

Animals that formerly were self-sufficient are now showing signs of belonging to the Democrat Party. They have apparently learned to just sit and wait for the government to step in and provide for their care and sustenance. This photo is of a black bear in Montana turned Democrat. He's nicknamed Bearack Obearma. It is believed that he has become a campground organizer.

Now, if we could just get a shot of Bearack with Barack and "Hairy" Reid doing Vegas together . . . .

The Wisdom of Felines

Man, do I ever know what it feels like to be in this spot.  I think I'll have some business cards made up featuring this saucy kitty.

Stolen from Facebook.

Monday's Musical Interlude

Now, this qualifies for the adjective, "Amazing."  Prepare to be amazed.



Was I right, or what!

Stolen from Facebook.

Oh, and it's Labor Day.  I still feel pretty much the same way about it today as I did last year.

I COULD Care Less

A law school buddy found this tee shirt at a yard sale last weekend and posted a pic of it on Facebook this morning.  Not unexpectedly, it has generated more comments than I've seen in a long time.  Obviously, this is a big "I want!" for Moogie.

And nonplus does mean what I thought it did!  Dang -- I'm good.  Irregardless.  *snicker*

Those Clever Folks

One of the reasons that Sophie Wright Academy has improved its academic performance and its stature in the city is the hard work and creativity of its faculty, staff, and parent support groups.  And when I say creative, I mean creative! 

Sophie Wright owns its own (confounded!) buses, it has purchased uniforms for sports teams, bands, and spirit groups.  It does this by writing some pretty spiffy grant applications to supplement its budget, and through good ol' industrious ingenuity.  Witness:

Charge folks $20 to park, feed 'em, load 'em up on soda and beer (beer?!?!  And for only $2.00?!?!), then charge 'em to use the facilities.  They do this both weekends before Carnival.  You just have to love such a hard-working and enterprising place!

(Could this ever happen anyplace other than New Orleans?  Unlikely.)