More pictures from the cute end of the gene pool.

Adorable nieces and nephews.

I haz dem.

Case in point: Here is my adorable niece Nefera, who has already had adorable progeny of her own, the little guy on the right, known as Emerson. I am Emerson's great uncle, but just how great can I be, since he is now two and I have still yet to meet him? This is one of the problems of being without a car and having family living fairly close by (maybe 60 miles away) but not in an area well served by public transportation.

Oh, bitter fate!

Emerson, now able to walk short distances on his own, has come of age when he can be let in on the one day a year socialist scam known as Hallow'een. In this so-called tradition, hardworking homeowners, breadwinners and taxpayers are stripped of candy they bought with their own money by layabout youth using the twin weapons of aggressive panhandling and brazen cuteness. Emerson is wearing a costume which transforms him into a horrifying dinosaur, or at least horrifying to him. He had to be talked into the costume when he first saw it because it scared him.

The effect on the rest of humanity is summed up by the syllable "Awwwwwww!"

The short distances part of walking comes into play on a young man's first introduction to wealth redistribution, and all tuckered out from an evening's plunder, he asks to be carried by some able bodied adult, in this case another of my adorable nieces, Holly. Holly is Nefera's first cousin and Emerson's first cousin once removed.

For those unclear on the levels of cousin-ness and the rules for removals, I did a post on this a while back, which you can read through this link.

Here, Aunt Karlacita! is 'splainin' to young Emerson that his slice of the socialist swag is not merely all right, but actually excellent. Karlacita! appears to be schooling the youngster about Smarties, the candy in her left hand, one of the greatest of all non-chocolate candies and among the best products made by our neighbors to the north, the Canadians.

Will the young lad gain a taste for gittin' paid without actually working?

Hypothetical question asker, I think that question answers itself.