May 21 – June 20: Gemini Cats are full of life and energy, and they’re quick to adapt to different situations. They hate being bored and they are always sticking their furry little faces into everyone’s business, which is fine, because it is adorable.

The most surprising thing about this is that Oremus finds it surprising. I’ve long thought there was a connection between perceived negativity and conscientiousness.

More than twenty years ago, in what is only the most memorable of several such experiences I’ve had, a soon-to-be-famous playwright asked an overworked cast to come in an hour early for an unscheduled rehearsal. All of the actors cheerfully agreed, except the one that everyone expected to complain. The complainer pointed out how much time they were already being asked to devote to the show and only reluctantly agreed to the added rehearsal time. When the time for the extra rehearsal came, aside from the stage manager (me), only the complainer was on time. Even the playwright herself didn’t show.

Maybe conscientious people expect others to be equally conscientious and their disappointment makes them negative, while those who cheerfully ignore responsibilities they don’t care to fulfill rarely have reason to feel disappointed in others.

I won’t stand for someone mocking the tragic deaths of my fellow Texans and our fellow Americans.

Perry learned this trick from George W. Bush, who accused anyone who questioned his war decisions of attacking the men and women he was sending to die.

Kudos to the Bee for honoring the dead by holding Perry’s feet to the fire in an effort to prevent similar catastrophes in the future, and shame on anyone who lets politicians hide from responsibility behind the victims of their own decisions.

April 20 – May 20: Taurus Cats form strong friendships with a few people rather than being the kind of cat who’s, like, all over everyone’s lap regardless of how much they deserve it. If you are a Taurus Cat, you also never give up once you’ve set your mind to something, which is possibly occasionally kind of annoying if you happen to have a persistent meow.

When, after Bush Sr. chose him as his running mate, concern was expressed about Quayle’s family pulling strings to keep him out of the Vietnam War, which he supported, he explained,

I did not know in 1969 that I would be in this room [as a vice-presidential nominee] today.

In other words, he didn’t understand the question. Rather than address his failure to do his duty, he spoke about a political blunder.

Bush, ahead of the library opening, explains away his unpopularity this way:

I’m comfortable with what I did.

What makes him think anyone cares?

Does he really think concern about the deaths of U.S. soldiers and Iraqis, torture and its consequences to our national image, the debt his administration racked up, or any of the other disasters of his presidency can be balanced by, “Well, as long as Bush feels okay about it…”? Does he think his critics are more worried about whether he feels bad than about the millions who were affected by his policies?

When your critics are wrong, a meaningful response details what they’re wrong about and why, but Bush, like Quayle before him, and not for the first time in his public life, doesn’t understand the question.

Between Rand Paul at Howard & President Obama with Chained CPI the “Party of Lincoln” is just as true as “Party of FDR”

— 0dysseus (@zerOdysseus) April 12, 2013

Talk show host Matthew Hagee argues that when women are allowed to marry each other, they’ll stop having kids (leading, of course, to the most horrible thing that could befall a society–economic collapse due to a lack of consumers).

David R. Usher, president of the Center for Marriage Policy, argues that women who can choose each other will use men only as sperm banks and sources of child support.

Have any of these wingnutters ever been in a relationship with a woman? What sort of life must a man lead to fear that when women are allowed to marry each other none (or very few) will ever choose to marry a man?

March 20 – April 19: Aries Cats are pounce-first-and-ask-questions-later type of cats. If you are born under this star sign, you are likely to figure out how to get into the cream before any of the other cats. As an Aries Cat, you are always the first to the top of the cat tree.

Just as some woman might some day face multiple intruders determined not to flee until she’s killed each one, so could an armed intruder in Pistorius’s bathroom have been about to shoot him through the door. This possibility forced him to shoot first.

Until gun owners learn to distinguish between their fears and reality, no one is safe. As Steenkamp, Trayvon Martin (whose shooter feared he might be armed), and many less publicized victims have shown us, it’s impossible to avoid looking as though we might be about to threaten someone’s life.