Caturday

George (may peace be upon him), lying in a nearly empty laundry basket.

Empty, or nearly-empty, laundry baskets were a favorite place of his. When he was in them, I'd pick them up and give him a ride all throughout the apartment. He seemed to get a kick out of seeing things from a few feet up.

This photo was taken over nine years ago and probably closer to ten years ago. They were taken with a 35mm and, when I had them developed, the camera store offered the option of also putting them on a CD.

I liked that camera store. Besides the owner being friendly and knowledgeable, the store had a cat-in-residence, which liked to lie on top of the display cases. Because that ensured lots of attention was garnered.

A few months later, the camera store went out of business, leaving only drug stores and Walmart as photofinishers in that area. I've had bad luck with both in the past. It seemed to be the right time to start moving to digital and I did.

Because It's Friday

Old school snow clearing in Alaska.

Tradition

A Thanksgiving tradition on a few of the radio stations in the Boston area was to play this song in its entirety.

They made a rather forgettable movie of this song a couple of years after the song came out.

(Reminded of this by VC.)

Moving 4014

They are using "panel track", which are full-scale track pieces. The workers pull 4014 along, unbolt the panel behind it and then leap-frog that panel ahead. They'll do this until they make it to the nearest rail line.

Israeli Defense Establishment Signals the Chickenhawks: "STFU, Already."

You can find no shortage of chickenhawks[1] who oppose the interim deal with Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu[2] proclaims the deal "a historic mistake.

So I was a little surprised to read this in the free Stratfor analysis of the agreement:

For all its rhetoric opposing the deal, Israel has very little to worry about in the immediate term. It will have to adjust to operating in an environment where Iran is no longer limited by its pariah status, but Iran remains unable to threaten Israel for the foreseeable future. Iran, constrained by its need to be a mainstream actor, will seek to rebuild its economy and will steer clear of any hawkish moves against Israel. Furthermore, Iran is more interested in gaining ground against the Arab states -- something that Israel can use to its advantage. The report about the Israeli security establishment seeing the deal as a positive development (in contradiction to the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government) speaks volumes about the true extent of Israeli apprehension. (Emphasis mine)

It seems that is the truth.

After the Geneva agreement was signed on Sunday, retired Gen. Amos Yadlin, former head of Military Intelligence, deputy commander of the Air Force and now director of the country’s leading strategic think tank, told reporters, “If this were the final agreement – then it would really be a bad agreement, but that’s not the situation.” The situation, he said, is that this is an interim, six-month agreement, and that it’s the final pact to be negotiated later that will be decisive. He said the final agreement must not only freeze Iran’s progress toward a bomb, like the current, interim one does, but reverse it. He also gave Netanyahu credit for getting the world powers to extract additional concessions from Iran. But Yadlin said Sunday’s agreement, which Netanyahu condemns for having “made the world more dangerous,” did just the opposite: "It is possible that had there been no agreement, [Iran] would have decided to make the breakthrough to a bomb, because the sanctions are hurting it badly.”

That's not the only signal that the Israeli security establishment is sending. Their spooks are also supporting the deal.

I am not a major fan of the ability of air power alone to accomplish things. Unlike a couple of other countries, the Iranians have not been short-sighted enough to build their nuclear facilities right out in the open.[3] I also think it highly probably that any airstrikes will serve to cement the grip of the Iranian radicals.[4] I have little doubt that the intelligence analysts have reached a different conclusion.

Time will tell whether or not this deal is a first step or a failure. But the oer-the-top reaction of the neo-cons and their ilk suggest to me that the deal is a good thing.
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[1] Like Miss Lindsey.
[2] A man who has been eager to see Americans die for his country.
[3] Though you don't have to smash the facility to make it unusable. You bomb the doors to make it inaccessible.
[4] "Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain" ring any bells? Those opposed to a war with Spain lost the argument when the USS Maine blew up.

Happy Thanksgiving

Shooting a turkey carcass with an elephant gun:

As noted by Sebastian, the gun control crowd went into full-on pearl-clutching over this one.

Traitor Joe, Now Whoring for the Libyans

He said that he wasn't going to become a lobbyist, but now he is one.

This has been in the works for the last few months, it seems.

The folks at Balloon Juice are probably accurate when they say that calling former politicians such as Lieberman "whores" and "pimps" is pretty defamatory to hard-working people in the sex trade. But I'm at a loss for better adjectives. Feel free to make your suggestions in the comments section.

Anyway, the D.C. revolving door spins ever on.

(H/T)

Happy Hanukkha!

And two songs. First, the traditional one:

And the modern one:

NSA, FBI: Same Difference

The FBI is probably doing more spying on Americans than the NSA is.

If that's even possible.

(H/T)

NSA and the "Obamaphone"?

You've probably seen periodic outrage* from the Wingnuttosphere about a program that they refer to as "Obamaphones"**.

Now think of how the NSA has been working to turn all cell phones into bugging devices, even when they are supposedly powered off.***

(The previous two sentences are enough fodder for about six shows from Glenn Beck. Fuck-all of a chance that he'd ever pay me for it...)
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* When they're not screaming about Benghazi or any of the other kajillion made-up scandals that Darryl Issa is "investigating".
** A program that dates back to the Reagan Administration.
*** What, you thought it was a coincidence that you can't take the battery out of an iPhone or its ilk?