Bout time for a nice kitty pic, this time just Meowza sniffing the flowers.

More kittycats: BKCFoC CotC ARK WCB Note, I am hosting WCB this weekend.

First they sent me a new credit card although the old one doesn’t expire for another two years. I haven’t gotten around to activating it.

Then they sent me a notice that they closed the account due to inactivity. OK, I can deal with that. I haven’t charged anything on that account in ages.

Then today I got balance transfer checks for said account. Choose my rate of interest and pay off other cards, those kind of checks, the go in the shredder kind.

Did I mention account is closed.

Really makes sense, no?

Some further thoughts on WordPress 2.5.

Manage Posts: The good - one can batch delete if one so desires. It shows a post’s tags. The confusing - edit and view posts are not immediately obvious, have to mouse over to see which link does what. The bad - the time of day is gone as is the ability to find drafts easily. I realize they only have so much space to cram the stuff in and overall did a credible job.

Image upload works in a fresh install, is borked in upgrade. I await a fix.

Widgets: The drag and drop function is missing and if one wants to move a text widget to another column, one loses the widget he has customized. One is then forced to copy the contents of the widget into a separate file to keep in such case so he can paste them into another widget. That makes changing themes dicey as one may lose their widget if one goes from say a three column to a two-column theme. I hesitate to make changes despite being curious about the other themes. Sides, I like the theme I’m using now.

Fluency rocks, makes the admin area look a lot better. I find it easy to get around in too. I have one blog with it, one without so I can compare. Oh, and WordPress.com is now running 2.5 with better thumbnail sizes. Have blog there too for that Akismet key. Found a theme I like too although I need to add text to my header image.

Posting: The post page lacks the drag and drop functioning of 2.3 as well as a workable layout. Nearly everything is below the post area and requires lots of scrolling to add categories, tags and trackbacks. Stuff that would fit in the nearly empty sidebar are below the post area too. A custom edit-form-advanced.php solves part of the problem, puts categories in the right sidebar but need more.

TinyMCE: It works in Safari for the very first time.

I’m sure there will be plug-ins to fix and customize WP further. And I expect the developers will take into consideration the few remaining problems in 2.5 and fix them. Hopefully soon as I am enjoying the added functionality on the test blogs.

Jimmy Carter who met with Hamas’ Gaza leaders today in Egypt and is set to meet with it’s exiled leader in Syria on Friday. According to Gaza leader Mahmoud Zahar:

Zahar said Wednesday that Carter’s meetings with its leaders will boost the group’s legitimacy despite criticism by Israel and the U.S. government.

“This meeting is a message to those who don’t recognize Hamas’ legitimacy as a movement,” he said as he left for Egypt, according to Hamas’ Web site.

When will we recognize Carter’s illegitimacy and absolute stupidity in interfering in what should be the U.S. government’s job? He’s not the State Department, not President either, and good they criticized him. If enough people disavowed and condemned his sticking his self in where he doesn’t belong, would he get the hint? Probably not.

Meryl has more including some astute comments and one not so. I particularly like Maggie’s. It’s short and sweet.

Jimmy Carter is blight on the presidency, current and past. He needs to have his passport yanked, sent home to sulk, and told to shut up and build houses.

Exactly.

image credit AP via Yahoo

He laid a wreath at Arafat’s tomb, Arafat whose long history of terrorism is legendary. Nuff said.

Getting a lot of news coverage cause visits from a pope to the U.S. are so rare, this one makes two.

Sissy adeptly covers the Pope’s visit to the U.S. and has uncovered some interesting facts about, not the Pope, but George Bush. I never knew he surrounded himself with so many Catholics and was influenced by their doctrine. Her post’s a must read. And not just for the cat pics which are exquisite.

That doesn’t bode well for that border fence. But I can see where he’s coming from. One could do with far worse role models.

I admire the Pope cause he hasn’t gone around changing church doctrine to follow the whims of the people and holds to moral values. Quoting from his meeting with Bush:

“The two reaffirmed their total rejection of terrorism as well as the manipulation of religion to justify immoral and violent acts against innocents,” the statement said.

The pope said freedom “is not only a gift but also a summons to personal responsibility” toward the less fortunate.

“Democracy can only flourish, as your founding fathers realized, when political leaders and those whom they represent are guided by truth and bring the wisdom born of firm moral principle to decisions affecting the life and future of the nation,” the pope said.

Personal responsibility towards every aspect of one’s life is sorely needed, not just toward the less fortunate. And it hardly needs to be said, we need moral principles, morals even if this nation is to survive. Pope’s on the right track.

Now if only the faithful would get the hint.