The Cat Came Back!

I'm getting a kitten! I have requested a girl, but they haven't been sexed yet. We may have two kittens if Shana gets one two, but I think that is better anyway because then they can keep eachother company and get into mischeif together. If I happen to get a boy, I'll name him Atticus. Names on my list for a girl kitty: Polly, Sidda, Mavis, Pearl, Lusa, Adah, Halia, May, Iris, Muriel, or Edith. The kitten won't be ready until mid-October. She will be an expert mice killer.
In other news:
1) I have started classes. My independent study is kicking my ass already. I don't think Michele knows that I do in fact have other classes. Michele fascinates me as a person, and I respect her so much as an anthropologist. She had the courage to take sides with Pakeha New Zealanders in a land renewal act between the Ngai Tahu and the pastoral Pakeha of the South Island Highlands, which is an incredibly unpopular stance to take in New Zealand in the post-colonial world. What's more, not only did she write polemic after polemic on this issue, but she appeared as an expert witness in front of the Waitangi Tribunal hearings. She was, of course, slammed in the US and Europe for her stance, and I don't understand why. Liberals don't even think twice about their judgement on Palestine. The year is 1946. Who has more claim to the promised land? The jewish people claim it on the grounds of spiritual identity, something they claim to have been denied in Europe. The Palestinians claim it on the grounds that they have been living and raising families in it for the past 500 years, so that it has become their national identity. Liberals aggree upon the latter. The year is 1946. Who has more claim to the South Island High Country? Maori's who have never inhabited this unfarmable land, but claim it as a part of their spiritual mahinga kai. Or white pastoral stationmen, indigenous New Zealanders, who have been raising sheep there for the last 300 years. Anyway, something to think about.