Hell-raiser

So what do you do with a cat that likes to push things off of shelves, dressers, etc?

Elton John, (my cat - not the singer) has been a bad kitty since he's been strong enough to push things off my old bookshelf. Indulge me, and visualize the following!
It's 4am...everything is dark and quiet. You are snuggled up in your duvet/comforter/lover and lie unsuspecting in comfort. Out of nowhere, an extremely loud crack, like the reverb of a shotgun, explodes beside your ear. You shoot up into a sitting position, your eyeballs rolling around to identify the source...and they land on an overweight, orange and white, innocent looking ball of fluff with books scattered around his little bum.
It is ungodly early and you have to be up in 2 hrs. You attempt to punush him with a firm "no!" and swat on his fuzzy little head. As soon as you lay back down, he sneaks back to the scene of the crime and pulls more books down to raise thunder beside your head.
At this point, I try to counter with something he finds equally annoying - snuggling.
I scoop him up and nuzzle the top of his little head, holding onto his suprisingly slippery and squirmy body. Finally, when he is desperate to get out of my grasp and I am desperate to get back to sleep, I release him.
However, this never seems to work and he ultimately gets back at me by pushing something breakable off the shelf. Dealing with broken glass and spilled drinks at 4:45 am was NOT part of this contract, thank you!
I have succumb to jamming him into his travel cage once he starts to act like a little bastard...
I thought cats were intelligent?? My dog knew better than to piss me off at 4 am unless it was an emergency! This seems to be some sick cat game that only Elton plays...CeCe watches from a distance, mildly amused by our back and forth antics.
So, I put it out there to my fellow cat owners---help!
-Jessica Leigh Nov 2008