In light of the oil spill plaguing the country's Gulf Coast region, Republican Sen. David Vitter urged the Obama administration to continue its pursuit of offshore drilling initiatives.

Vitter emphasized that his pro-drilling stance would not be deterred by the massive slick when he appeared on Fox News Sunday over the weekend:

I don’t think that there’s any argument that we should just start shutting down activity now, or even start shutting down new activity that’s planned. Clearly there have got to be changes made because of this incident. But we certainly shouldn’t start shutting things down.

On Monday, Vitter asked his fellow Senators to delay holding any hearings related to the spill. The Hill reports that the Republican Senator justified his request by citing concerns that a hearing could pull “people and resources” away from clean-up efforts underway.

Last week, Vitter visited the site of the oil spill that continues to threaten the environmental and economic livelihood of his home state.

“Our prayers continue to go out to the families and co-workers of the victims of the explosion,” Vitter said in a statement released by his office in the aftermath of the spill. “We’re facing a very serious situation along the Gulf Coast.”

– 5/3/2010
In light of the oil spill plaguing the country's Gulf Coast region, Republican Sen. David Vitter urged the Obama administration to continue its pursuit of offshore drilling initiatives.

Vitter emphasized that his pro-drilling stance would not be deterred by the massive slick when he appeared on Fox News Sunday over the weekend:

I don’t think that there’s any argument that we should just start shutting down activity now, or even start shutting down new activity that’s planned. Clearly there have got to be changes made because of this incident. But we certainly shouldn’t start shutting things down.

On Monday, Vitter asked his fellow Senators to delay holding any hearings related to the spill. The Hill reports that the Republican Senator justified his request by citing concerns that a hearing could pull “people and resources” away from clean-up efforts underway.

Last week, Vitter visited the site of the oil spill that continues to threaten the environmental and economic livelihood of his home state.

“Our prayers continue to go out to the families and co-workers of the victims of the explosion,” Vitter said in a statement released by his office in the aftermath of the spill. “We’re facing a very serious situation along the Gulf Coast.”

– 5/3/2010

fm mp3 transmitters

Senator Levin hasn’t done a damn thing for Michigan in all the years he’s been in office. He’s nebulous on his residence and only “serves” to enrich and empower himself IMHO. He’s a foul mouthed Senatorial member that bolsters the arguments for term limits since we obviously have enough “useful idiots” that consistently vote for this charlatan to do their bidding.

Last night the remaining nine contestants on American Idol stumbled through the catalogue of Elvis Presley, failing for the most part to make any of the King’s tunes their own. Season-eight runner-up Adam Lambert blessedly livened things up as a guest mentor, and he was actually a great tie-in to the week's theme since Elvis also wore mascara offstage and the networks won’t show Lambert doing certain things below the hips. Glambert kept the episode afloat by actually giving some honest feedback, saying this season has great singers but a lot of them need to “wake up … let’s put on a show.” (And after weeks of the judges wondering what the problem is with Andrew, it was a relief to have someone flat out tell him his singing was boring.)

The mentoring segments were filmed in Las Vegas, which added absolutely nothing to the episode but did allow Ryan to utter questionable lines like, “Let’s see what happened to Katie in Sin City … ” And to make up for all the gay jokes in his wheelhouse that he would have liked to have been making last season (there was mid-season speculation, but Lambert didn’t publicly come out until after the season wrapped), Ryan made sure to tell Adam, “My tongue is not nearly as talented as yours … you know what I mean, with singing! With singing!” Adam gracefully responded with one of those “please shut up” smiles you make when your mom tells your significant other about your potty-training travails.

The performances:

Crystal Bowersox continues to impress and show growth. For the first time this season, she actually made a left-field song choice, singing an obscure (in Elvis terms) gospel-blues tune called “Saved.” Naturally, she nailed the vocals and arrangement, and her stage persona was more energetic, sassy, and comfortable than ever before. She’s one of the few contestants this season truly using the show as training for a real career later on. Simon said good things about her, but it was incredibly distracting watching Glee’s Jane Lynch in the background and wondering what she would say if she were at the judges’ table.

Andrew Garcia’s lounge-lizard re-conception of “Hound Dog” was the kind of thing that should have fallen into the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” category. Even more miserable than his languid singing was his lifeless performance, where he doddered around stage like an old man and dragged the mic with him like it was his IV stand. With two people going home tonight, it’s really time to bid him adieu. Ellen was the only judge who liked it, and explained to Ryan that she liked it because she liked it.

After weeks of excruciating Sanjaya-esque performances, Tim Urban surprisingly delivered one of the night’s most satisfying songs. Instead of sullying “Can’t Help Falling In Love” with his usual goofy bombast, he gently picked at his acoustic guitar and offered a restrained, understated take on the oft-covered tune that was actually a bit beautiful. Ellen likened him to tequila (because she regrets him the next morning?) but seemed to mean it as a compliment, and Simon indulged in an unforgivable cliché by saying Tim “went from zero to hero in two weeks.” Is Simon now writing eighties movie trailers on the side?

Lee DeWyze continued his bid to be named Bowersox's runner-up with a bluesy, growling version of “A Little Less Conversation.” He’s finally loosened up onstage to the point where he successfully inhabits each song. Kara still wanted him to smile more and hop around the stage on a pogo stick, but Simon reminded her that “it’s about nailing the song and that was on the money.” Watch it below.

Decked out in his Back to the Future Part II-version-of-the-future finest, Aaron Kelly took on “Blue Suede Shoes.” Lambert advised the 17-year-old to put some aggression into his performance, but Aaron just looked scared and hid under a nearby couch. His performance was solid but not memorable — the main problem was the hopelessly outdated backing blues music. Kara applauded him for moving out of his comfort zone, but Simon felt it was too old-fashioned. Jane Lynch sagely nodded along in the background.

Siobhan Magnus gave us the soft and screechy sides of her musical persona this week, and the resulting version of “Suspicious Minds” was enjoyable though not exactly relevant, much like her Billy Idol meets Bride of Frankenstein hairstyle. Lambert looked like he loved her performance more than the others, which makes sense: Her voice is lovely, powerful, and idiosyncratic in a way not unlike his own. Randy confusingly likened it to the Supremes, while Kara couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that Siobhan is one girl with two different singing styles. Simon told her she’s lost sight of who she is, but Siobhan wasted no time putting them back in their places. “Even I can’t pinpoint who or what I am, but I’ve always taken pride in that … I don’t think it’s necessary to be labeled.” Shine on, you crazy diamond.

After his near-elimination last week, Michael Lynche sang “In the Ghetto” on Siobhan’s advice. Even though the arrangement was slow and bare-bones, it still came across as cheesy and a bit lame. Mike definitely should have taken Adam’s advice to ignore the judges and embrace his theatrical side — at least then he’d be entertaining instead of forgettable. The judges all give him terse praise, probably because they’re not quite ready to admit he may not have been worth the save.

Katie Stevens made an interesting song choice with “Baby What Do You Want Me to Do,” but she came nowhere near pouring her frustration with the judges into her singing, which was her stated aim. Adam correctly said “she needs to sell it more,” but all the non-Simon judges liked her grrr-face façade of anger. Simon told her it was boring and she shouted back at him, “What do you want me to do?” Get voted off the show soon, Katie. Is that so much to ask?

Casey James closed the night with an acceptably old-school blues take on “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.” It was good MOR white blues, but that’s kind of like saying The Biggest Loser is good for immediately forgettable melodrama. Still, his vocals were fine and, as Ellen pointed out, he did look “comfortable surrounded by a sea of women.” But perhaps she just said that because she likes to watch the muscles in Kara's neck tense up.

Odds and sods moments:

Siobhan opined that Elvis is so compelling to her because he came from practically nothing and became one of the most successful performers ever. Never one to pass up an opportunity to make things trite, Ryan declared, “Yep, rags to riches.”

Katie Stevens explained anger to us: “It’s like UGH! Not aaahhhh.”

In the long-running Fox tradition of attempting to sabotage people by implying they’re terrorists, Seacrest introduced Tim Urban as “Turban.”

Seacrest joked that Brian Dunkleman would return next week for Idol Gives Back. No one in the audience seemed to recall who that was, which means his joke failed, but Seacrest still wins, since his former Idol co-host isn’t remembered well enough to function as a punchline.

Reminding us of the importance of voting, Ryan shouted, “You don’t want to lose your favorite, because that would suck!” at a frail old lady.

Tonight Adam Lambert returns to perform, and perhaps we will finally be rid of the oppressive mediocrity that is Andrew Garcia’s singing. And with the save gone, hopefully Siobhan or Casey won’t fall into the bottom two and be forced to shuffle off their Idol coil.

remote control bark collars

David Angelico

profile

Last night, to the surprise of no one, "30 Rock" finally tackled the great late-night wars of 2010. In typical "30 Rock" style, the send-up was supremely clever and self-referential — Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien were replaced by two janitors, one of whom had been promised the late shift five years ago. Perhaps less typically, the writers didn't take much of a stance on the issue. I figured Tina et al would be "Team Conan," but NBC was the butt of the joke, and not Jay. "30 Rock's" spoof was decidedly neutral, albeit very funny — especially the lines about "he collects classic car cardboard" and "I'll just go work at Fox Foxwoods casino."
 

Watching "30 Rock" this season has felt a little bit like being in a Liz Taylor-Richard Burton-style, on-again, off-again relationship. One week, I'm madly in love. Then "30 Rock" disappears for three weeks — no phone call, no text, no anything! Like a fool, I stop by faithfully at 9:30 Pacific on Thursday nights, but I get the Olympics or another hour-long episode of "The Office" instead. Tina Fey is off playing Sarah Palin on "SNL," which I surely can't hold against her, and promoting "Date Night," which maybe I can. Then "30 Rock" returns out of the blue and it's intense — twice in one night! — so now I am just not so sure how to feel. It's been such a tumultuous season, and my quibbles with Liz's portrayal have only gotten worse. Last night didn't do anything to assuage these concerns — Liz was attacked by Tracy's dog, bought a $1,200 karaoke machine to impress her co-workers, and got hit in the face with a dodgeball — but when it comes to laughter and love (yes, I really did just write that), we'll always have Jack.

What did you think? Who do you think will win Jack's heart? Do you think the "30 Rock" writers wussed out when it came to Jay and Conan? And will Liz's suffering come to an end anytime soon?

Best joke (that wasn't really a joke): "This is America, none of us are supposed to be here." –Pete

Most meta moment: "Wow, other than some notable recent exceptions, NBC never guarantees employment five years in advance." –Jack

Jenna's diva behavior: "Oh you don’t want to mess with that stuff Liz. Ice has caused a lot of OD’s in the porn community. Oh, you mean frozen water? I don’t know."

Jack's Republican talking point: "In my defense, every April 22 I honor Richard Nixon’s death by getting drunk and making some unpopular decisions." 

Extent of Liz Lemon's humiliations this week: Between "singles fart suppression" and getting mauled by Tracy Sr. (Tracy's dog), this episode is rated "E" for extreme.

Meanest thing said to Liz: "Lemon, the grown-up dating world is like your hair: sometimes awkward triangles occur." –Jack

Most insane Tracyism: It's a tie, once again. On the phone with Liz: "Parties are like Frisbees. If you throw them the wrong way, they'll
veer off in a bad direction, and then your kid will fall into a quarry." And in response to a question about his marriage vows: "To be honest, I couldn’t really understand anything    Rick James was saying." 

Quintessential Kenneth: "Mr. Donaghy, I have to run out to Mr. Jordan's house. I'll call you when I get there to let you know I'm safe…I love you!"

Something I'd like to know more about: The wig and mustache Tracy was wearing at the beginning of last night's first episode.

Just because: "I've had to make some tough calls over the years, switching
Sheinhardt’s wig production to 100% Chinese cadaver hair, turning down
Dick Cheney’s offer to become King of Iraq…"  –Jack

Guest stars: Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, and a cameo by Will Ferrell.

Proof I have good taste: Apparently, New Yorker editor David Remnick is also a huge Tracy Morgan fan.

– Meredith Blake (follow me on Twitter@MeredithBlake)

RELATED:

Complete coverage of '30 Rock' on Show Tracker'

30 Rock': The Return of Floyd

'30 Rock': Liz Lemon refuses to settle

Critic's Notebook: Tina Fey gets her Sarah Palin on for 'Saturday Night Live'

Why did 'Date Night's' Tina Fey and Steve Carell go from great TV to a bad movie?

Photo: Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) juggles his two favorite ladies, Avery Jessup and Nancy Donovan. Credit: Ali Goldstein / NBC

When I picked up my dog Ruby on Long Island nearly seven years ago, I was surprised to discover that she talks like a human. When I ask her a question (Are you hungry? Do you want to eat dinner? Are you going to bed?), she looks me in the eye, nods her head, and opens her mouth in agreement. For years I tried to figure out the reason for her mysterious behavior — was it genetic? — by trying to track down her parents or siblings, but that search only resulted in some phone calls with sympathetic and sometimes suspicious miniature pinscher breeders who told me I should just give up. It finally dawned on me last week to ask an animal behavior expert. So I pinged Victoria Stilwell, who hosts the hilariously informative dog training show It's Me or the Dog on Animal Planet. Here, Stilwell explains why Ruby talks, why dogs aren't like humans, and how dog training techniques can be applied to tame unruly children.

Why does Ruby talk? Does she think she's human?

It's a human thing to think that a dog thinks it's human. There are some things that dogs do that make people think, oh they're acting human! But dogs are just trying to work out what brings rewards, what will make them feel good.

She probably made a link that it's a form of communication that she knows will get your attention. That's probably why she repeats it — she knows it will get a positive outcome.

Is Ruby really just thinking about cookies and toys and going outside all day?

Dogs are pretty live in the moment. You're eating something that stimulates hunger, so therefore it wants to eat. Dogs are not manipulative — that is a very human trait. People say, I found urine on my bed; the dog peed because it was spiteful. Well, no. Spite is not a word you can use for a dog, it's a very human thing. The dog was just anxious and the pee was a way to transmit anxiety.

A dog will do what it needs to do to survive. It will also move towards things that give them pleasure and move away from things that make them uncomfortable.

Why do dogs tilt their heads? Do they do it in the wild too?

When a dog tilts its head to the side, it's weighing its options, and trying to understand a situation. I think they do it in the wild too, when they're assessing a situation.

Can you apply dog training techniques to human children?

Absolutely. I'm the mother of a six year old child, and I really believe that the behavior principles I've learned through training dogs can be applied to children. If you reward and make a child feel good about good behavior, she's more likely to feel better and behave better. If she does something that's not good, I'll mark the bad behavior, and she'll get a time out or have something that she values taken away from her. She's at the age now where we can talk about it. I'll say, you did this, so now you have two options: you can continue down the road you're going or you can take the other option. It's similar to the way we train dogs, where we give them choices. That promotes confidence.

What's wrong with anthropomorphizing dogs? Why can't we treat them like babies?

We're bringing these animals to live in our domestic environment, where they have to live by human rules. That can be very hard — why can't they poo and pee everywhere? In the dog world, they go when they need to, and chew and mark as they please. We have to teach them to be successful in our world. Where a lot of trainers who use the dominant style go wrong is that they misunderstand this fact.

A dog's physiological experience and nervous system are the same as a humans. But dogs might not experience emotions the same way. We don't know for sure how the dog feels love, or how it feels jealousy. I think that's the danger of anthropomorphizing — it's okay to do it to some extent but not so it clouds our understanding of dog behavior.

A lot of people think positive reinforcement training is just for little dogs and nandy pandy behavior, but it's actually based on the science of learning. If your dog does something good, you reward it, and that'll make him feel good and want to repeat that behavior. Discipline shouldn't be used to make a dog fear you — you get much better results if you use it as a guide.

Is it bad to domesticate animals? It seems apparent that it's clearly not natural for some animals, like killer whales. Can the same be said for dogs?

A good argument can be made that if the dog had a choice, it would choose this life over hunting squirrels for a living. The fact is, we have domesticated dogs and they wouldn't know how to survive in the wild.

bark collars for dogs

Kenneth Strek

You only have to look in that box titled “AMERICAblog Reader Pets” in the upper right hand corner of this site to see how much we all love their pets. We've received hundreds and hundreds of pet photos — and they keep coming. Last week, John — finally — joined the rank of pet owners. So, all the animal lovers should read this article from today's New York Times about dogs who have come to the aid of vets dealing with PTSD:

The dogs to whom they credit their improved health are not just pets. Rather, they are psychiatric service dogs specially trained to help traumatized veterans leave the battlefield behind as they reintegrate into society.

Because of stories like these, the federal government, not usually at the forefront of alternative medical treatments, is spending several million dollars to study whether scientific research supports anecdotal reports that the dogs might speed recovery from the psychological wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In dozens of interviews, veterans and their therapists reported drastic reductions in P.T.S.D. symptoms and in reliance on medication after receiving a service dog.

The article is really worth a read. And, hat tip to Senator Al Franken:

Under a bill written by Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, veterans with P.T.S.D. will get service dogs as part of a pilot program run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Training a psychiatric service dog and pairing it with a client costs more than $20,000. The government already helps provide dogs to soldiers who lost their sight or were severely wounded in combat, but had never considered placing dogs for emotional damage.

I’m mostly in lurker mode through all your work/posts/commenters through this “torture doc” process. My interest is to comprehend it thoroughly. Don’t really know purposes of everyone participating here and related (Leopold/Kaye etc.), but for me purpose is to solidify and detail conditions in the world/USA etc., as this whole torture saga is (again, for me) a bell weather “canary in the mine” condition: all that it encompasses… the people involved, the ferocious misrepresented advocacy and misrepresentation to the public, the corrosive affect on institutions/gov AND cause/effect response internationally… again for me, at the very least, comprehending severe moral hazards as they exist is a required known.

With that said, your comment:

Because, as I pointed out here, they want to describe this as an “evolution,” but they’re basing that evolution on his diaries, which they had from the start. So if they’re claiming they’ve just decided the diaries are the only truthful way of determining who he was, then it means they ignoerd it to sustain claims that he was more than that.

I would assume that would be obvious to most who have followed your detailing of this. I find, however, that at times details tend to overwhelm the mind and I have to “step back” and take a few breaths.

But in that statement, the process of slip-shod moment-in-time assessments used as foundation upon which to propel wide ranging action, w/subsequent slip-shod >> more actions… rinse & repeat, on and on, error upon error… mess upon mess.

This is the “condition of things” out there. Looks to me like a tapestry, much wider and deeper, and much much more corrosive seen in it’s entirety than individual pieces and parts along the way.

So when you say:

This is the Iraq war all over again for them.

… for me anyway, I am always mindful of just that. Part of the larger tapestry, exemplary of enough individual events to constitute a way of doing this on such a scale that this way sucks the vitality out of so much else, sickening people who aren’t already corrupted, so on and so forth.

At the core, all the torture details are in most fundamental core, institutionalized dishonesty (lies). And this core was expressed through much more than 9/11 >> Iraq >> torture and that whole continuum.

The deceptions were expressed in most every avenue of government under the Bush Years: econ & all it’s related tentacles (SEC/FED/TREASURY/FICA-HUD, etc. etc.). It was expressed through the whole Ca. Energy Crisis/Enron thing, and in fact a whole process there similar to what topic of your article here was:

* lie about original cause (Ca. shortage of generation)
* Stock FERC w/cronies to “toe the line” (don’t look)
* ignored the forced/timed blackouts, ignored cutoff gas supply from Texas, not even look at generator plant shutdowns, etc. etc.
* Squeeze and force higher gas (fuel) prices based on fruadulent shortage.

After it was over… +/- 2 yrs after the fact, after saturating media w/original notions:
* CA. had it coming w/”not in our backyard” mentality
* ENRON (and related… there were many others) embodied morally grounded “free market” principles

… and FERC’s public denial of crimes throughout, they posted on their website confirmation that everything that CA. (and anyone watching w/clear eye) could see and said from the beginning, which I summarized above. They actually posted this. They also mistakenly posted their agreement w/various energy companies involved: that in exchange for admitting and detailing planned outages, there would be no fines/prosecutions/PUBLIC DISCLOSURE.

That template looks to me near identical to what you’ve described/summarized here.

As public was being fed “patriotism”, “freedom fries” and “liberation” along the way, I vividly recall having conversations w/people who were looking beyond headlines and deciphering details. Among common statements I (and others… both locally, in blogs etc.) made, was observation that cumulatively… eg. everything Iraq, one mega-tax cut after another concurrent w/mega-offshoring i>everything, w/simeoultaneous pronouncement of “economy is strong”, then W’s privatize SS initiative…

It seemed as though, w/these guys utter disdain for most anyone outside their elite circles, that they were deliberately setting out to backrupt the country… financially, morally, culturally.

It was Blitzkrieg on every front… saturating. Far and wide media saturation, far and wide financial reorganization, far and wide military action… and all of it covered up w/cheap, meaningless jingoism and primate based metaphors.

So now, in what could have been a major cleanup stage… this torture thing process seems just like the financial thing process:
* crimes & lies well documented, well enough detailed for anyone taking the time to comprehend them to understand.
* the public (gov) institutions w/power & authority to do something about ‘em… each and everyone corrupted along the way, gets to a point where there is opportunity for an accountability moment, as in the DOJ AW “evolution” filing that is topic of this post.
* whether financial, energy, or torture… as this opportunity arrives, these authorities utterly fail to do the job: we get something like what we’ve got in this DOJ “pleading”: “fuzzy math”, meaningless dismissall of self-evident facts/crimes w/massive (and I stress that word) affects… essentially, it seems to me, implicit acknowledgement from feds that all this shit is now institutionalized w/in US government, w/fall out in culture a factor not worthy of consideration.

Not good, not good at all. The good ship USA taking on a lot of water these days, and captains are telling the passengers to be calm.

Very useful to maintain a clear eye these days.

dog training collars

Arden Sibble

Friday, April 23, 2010

Re: Ho-Hum   [John Hood]

Jonah, still licking his chops to advance his Canines Uber Alles thesis, has passed along a touching story about a dog leading rescuers to a dangerous fire.

Bully for the dog and his owner. But with regard to the dogs vs. cats issue, I find myself wrestling with epistemic closure. Dogs are good obedient servants. Cats are discerning peers. Dogs slavishly slobber. Cats masterfully preen. Dogs scavenge through the innards of dead antelope. Cats kill the antelope.

Basically, dogs drool, cats rule. There's room enough for all in the hierarchy of human cohabitants, so long as everyone remembers it's a hierarchy. Admittedly, my boys love their two dogs Snickers and Reeses. But they knew better than to try to elevate those two knuckleheads to the feline caste.

04/23 03:33 PMShare

If you haven't heard of “Star Wars Uncut,” here's the deal: fans selected 15 second clips of “Star Wars: A New Hope” and reshot them in any style they wanted. The organizers then took each clip and pieced the whole movie together as seamlessly as they could. It's scheduled to premiere in Copenhagen in the near future. And when we say “Copenhagen,” we mean “someone will bootleg and put online because the internet comes through every time.”

Judging by this 5 minute clip, it's gonna be awesome. The DIY factor only adds charm (something George Lucas could take note of), as the sequences resemble the Sweded movies from “Be Kind Rewind.” And as a bonus, stick around for the end, where you'll be treated to a seemingly inexplicable – yet somehow totally necessary – use of Seal's “Kiss From a Rose.” Sure, that may seem like a bit of a spoiler, but c'mon, but knowing Seal's sultry pipes will be playing over Luke and Han's escape is just icing on the cake. (via Topless Robot)

WATCH:

Star Wars Uncut “The Escape” from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

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humane bark collars

Dentist in Newport Beach Oc

I’m mostly in lurker mode through all your work/posts/commenters through this “torture doc” process. My interest is to comprehend it thoroughly. Don’t really know purposes of everyone participating here and related (Leopold/Kaye etc.), but for me purpose is to solidify and detail conditions in the world/USA etc., as this whole torture saga is (again, for me) a bell weather “canary in the mine” condition: all that it encompasses… the people involved, the ferocious misrepresented advocacy and misrepresentation to the public, the corrosive affect on institutions/gov AND cause/effect response internationally… again for me, at the very least, comprehending severe moral hazards as they exist is a required known.

With that said, your comment:

Because, as I pointed out here, they want to describe this as an “evolution,” but they’re basing that evolution on his diaries, which they had from the start. So if they’re claiming they’ve just decided the diaries are the only truthful way of determining who he was, then it means they ignoerd it to sustain claims that he was more than that.

I would assume that would be obvious to most who have followed your detailing of this. I find, however, that at times details tend to overwhelm the mind and I have to “step back” and take a few breaths.

But in that statement, the process of slip-shod moment-in-time assessments used as foundation upon which to propel wide ranging action, w/subsequent slip-shod >> more actions… rinse & repeat, on and on, error upon error… mess upon mess.

This is the “condition of things” out there. Looks to me like a tapestry, much wider and deeper, and much much more corrosive seen in it’s entirety than individual pieces and parts along the way.

So when you say:

This is the Iraq war all over again for them.

… for me anyway, I am always mindful of just that. Part of the larger tapestry, exemplary of enough individual events to constitute a way of doing this on such a scale that this way sucks the vitality out of so much else, sickening people who aren’t already corrupted, so on and so forth.

At the core, all the torture details are in most fundamental core, institutionalized dishonesty (lies). And this core was expressed through much more than 9/11 >> Iraq >> torture and that whole continuum.

The deceptions were expressed in most every avenue of government under the Bush Years: econ & all it’s related tentacles (SEC/FED/TREASURY/FICA-HUD, etc. etc.). It was expressed through the whole Ca. Energy Crisis/Enron thing, and in fact a whole process there similar to what topic of your article here was:

* lie about original cause (Ca. shortage of generation)
* Stock FERC w/cronies to “toe the line” (don’t look)
* ignored the forced/timed blackouts, ignored cutoff gas supply from Texas, not even look at generator plant shutdowns, etc. etc.
* Squeeze and force higher gas (fuel) prices based on fruadulent shortage.

After it was over… +/- 2 yrs after the fact, after saturating media w/original notions:
* CA. had it coming w/”not in our backyard” mentality
* ENRON (and related… there were many others) embodied morally grounded “free market” principles

… and FERC’s public denial of crimes throughout, they posted on their website confirmation that everything that CA. (and anyone watching w/clear eye) could see and said from the beginning, which I summarized above. They actually posted this. They also mistakenly posted their agreement w/various energy companies involved: that in exchange for admitting and detailing planned outages, there would be no fines/prosecutions/PUBLIC DISCLOSURE.

That template looks to me near identical to what you’ve described/summarized here.

As public was being fed “patriotism”, “freedom fries” and “liberation” along the way, I vividly recall having conversations w/people who were looking beyond headlines and deciphering details. Among common statements I (and others… both locally, in blogs etc.) made, was observation that cumulatively… eg. everything Iraq, one mega-tax cut after another concurrent w/mega-offshoring i>everything, w/simeoultaneous pronouncement of “economy is strong”, then W’s privatize SS initiative…

It seemed as though, w/these guys utter disdain for most anyone outside their elite circles, that they were deliberately setting out to backrupt the country… financially, morally, culturally.

It was Blitzkrieg on every front… saturating. Far and wide media saturation, far and wide financial reorganization, far and wide military action… and all of it covered up w/cheap, meaningless jingoism and primate based metaphors.

So now, in what could have been a major cleanup stage… this torture thing process seems just like the financial thing process:
* crimes & lies well documented, well enough detailed for anyone taking the time to comprehend them to understand.
* the public (gov) institutions w/power & authority to do something about ‘em… each and everyone corrupted along the way, gets to a point where there is opportunity for an accountability moment, as in the DOJ AW “evolution” filing that is topic of this post.
* whether financial, energy, or torture… as this opportunity arrives, these authorities utterly fail to do the job: we get something like what we’ve got in this DOJ “pleading”: “fuzzy math”, meaningless dismissall of self-evident facts/crimes w/massive (and I stress that word) affects… essentially, it seems to me, implicit acknowledgement from feds that all this shit is now institutionalized w/in US government, w/fall out in culture a factor not worthy of consideration.

Not good, not good at all. The good ship USA taking on a lot of water these days, and captains are telling the passengers to be calm.

Very useful to maintain a clear eye these days.

DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon has already proven itself at the box office. Combining understated 3D, quality CGI, an enjoyable story and enchanting characters, it’s a coming of age story for misfits everywhere. With Vikings. And also dragons. The question still remains, however, as to whether the success of the film itself will translate into the tangentially related realm of videogames.

Traditionally, licensed property tie-in games have been nigh universally underwhelming, at least within the context of recent console cycles. But with the success of titles like Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Batman: Arkham Asylum – not to mention X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a movie tie-in that was far superior to the source material in every conceivable way – I have at last allowed myself the luxury of hope for licensed titles.

Thankfully, How to Train Your Dragon for the Nintendo DS does a number of things right, proving that my faith isn’t totally unfounded. First and foremost, it allows you to train your own highly customizable dragon on the go. Which is pretty frakking awesome in and of itself. More importantly, it assumes that players have little interest in rehashing the movie’s script, and instead paints itself as a continuation of the story. The island of Berk and its Viking inhabitants are no longer besieged by dragons. Instead they have adopted the animals as pets. Assuming, of course, that Michael Vick is your idea of a proper pet owner. (Too soon?)

Yes, my friends, what is the purpose of having a dragon if you can’t force it into combat with its brethren? You do so by taking the role of movie characters Hiccup or Astrid in a continuing quest to become the ultimate dragon trainer. Activision and Griptonite Games have gone to great lengths to give this RPG-lite wings legs, and, more often than not, succeed.

As you fight your way through both random encounters with wild dragons and matches against your local rivals (including Snotlout Jorgenson and the Thorston twins), you acquire money and resources to better outfit your pet while your dragon acquires experience that boosts stats and unlocks new attacks from a fairly comprehensive skill tree. It’s these attacks and the way they work within the unique battle system that gives How to Train Your Dragon its first real win.

Combat is turn-based, but, rather than rely on things like mana or energy, each of these moves has an attached “time cost” that is deducted from a single replenishing bar. Low damage attacks and minor buffs use a little time, allowing for multiple instances, as opposed to major attacks which do significantly more damage at the expense of leaving your dragon easily vulnerable to retaliation as the time meter recharges. Finding the proper balance between quick bursts and time-consuming haymakers gives what’s easily perceived as a kiddie title some true depth.

There’s also an additional level of strategy that comes in the form of special attacks. A secondary meter builds up as combat progresses and, once filled, allows you to unleash a powered-up version of one of your regular attack moves, typically with spectacular results. In order to do so properly, however, you must complete an on-screen mini-game reminiscent of the quick-time events in (decidedly big boy) games like God of War of Resident Evil 4.

These combat sequences are ably padded by additional mini-games that encompass everything from the banal (flying through an obstacle course) to the sublime (crafting your own dragon armor by blowing into the mic to stoke the fire and rubbing the screen to polish the finished product). In many respects, How to Train Your Dragon makes great use of the DS’s functionality, as the game interface itself is entirely touch-based. Dragging your stylus from point to point to make Hiccup run the fixed paths of Berk, on the other hand, gets a bit tedious.

Sadly, so do the various fetch-quests that you must undertake to gather supplies to power up your dragon and upgrade his armor. The game’s visuals are equally uninspired. The map screen is bland and its landmarks, including important places the shop and the forge, are indistinct. The battle scenes themselves seem well animated, but the character models are rather jagged and occasionally muddied by too much random customization.

The cut scenes are nice enough, visually speaking, and the related voice acting is acceptable if oddly sparse. The same can be said for the sound direction in general; music and sound effects are suitable if not stellar.

How to Train Your Dragon is a rare jewel among licensed movie games in that it is genuinely worth playing. Of course said jewel is far from polished to perfection. That being said, it’s a bit of a hard sell at a $30 price tag. Unless, of course, you and the geeklings are rabid fans of the property itself it might be advisable to wait and pick this one up on the cheap. Still, if you’re looking for a solid play experience that’s also a kid-friendly foray into the realm of the turn-based strategy RPG, How to Train Your Dragon will suit nicely.

WIRED: a fun continuation to a fantastic film, great core gameplay mechanic, nice use of touch screen and microphone, good overall production value

TIRED: uneven play experience, muddy graphics, it’s pretty much just Pokemon except everyone has Charizard

Review material provided by Activision

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Donald Drexel

Katherine Heigl was in New York Thursday night to be honored by the ASPCA and was talking about new daughter Naleigh, whom she and husband Josh adopted from Korea in September.

Heigl recently left 'Grey's Anatomy' to focus on motherhood, and told ET that daughter Naleigh is blooming.

“Life is great, it's really family oriented right now which feels fantastic, and feels as it should be. She's still so new, Naleigh's still so new in our lives… They change every month so monumentally that every month she's a new kid. She just started walking this weekend, she started talking more last month, and if I were missing that right now, I would just be devastated.”

Heigl, along with her mother, founded Heigl's Hounds of Hope to honor her brother Jason and help save dogs from kill shelters. Jason died when he was 15 and loved animals.

Here's Heigl Thursday night, who attended without her hubby.

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Katherine Heigl was in New York Thursday night to be honored by the ASPCA and was talking about new daughter Naleigh, whom she and husband Josh adopted from Korea in September.

Heigl recently left 'Grey's Anatomy' to focus on motherhood, and told ET that daughter Naleigh is blooming.

“Life is great, it's really family oriented right now which feels fantastic, and feels as it should be. She's still so new, Naleigh's still so new in our lives… They change every month so monumentally that every month she's a new kid. She just started walking this weekend, she started talking more last month, and if I were missing that right now, I would just be devastated.”

Heigl, along with her mother, founded Heigl's Hounds of Hope to honor her brother Jason and help save dogs from kill shelters. Jason died when he was 15 and loved animals.

Here's Heigl Thursday night, who attended without her hubby.

Get HuffPost Entertainment On
Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz!

Know something we don't? E-mail us at entertainment@huffingtonpost.com

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Leila Washor

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WordPress Plugins to Interlink Your Blog Content Efficiently

A couple of weeks ago I shared a handy WordPress plugin that helps to smartly interlink your blog content (best to naturally link to your categories and tags). The post was very well-received, so today I am following up with the overview of all WordPress plugins that help to (automatically) interlink your blog posts, pages and categories.

Internal Link Building

With this plugin you will be able to give a keyword and the destination page and it will be linked globally throughout the blog:

Settings:

• Set case sensitivity: By default the keyword “dog” will match “dog” and “Dog.” To disable this behavior, select “exact match.”
• Set the number of links per post: If you only want to link a keyword a certain number of times in a post, you may set this using the “Times” option.
• Set several destination URLs: If you would like a keyword to randomly link to one of several URLs, separate each URL with a bar ‘|’.\
• Set several keywords per one URL: If you would like to link multiple keywords to a URL, separate each keyword with a bar ‘|’. (Times will refer to each keyword not all combined.)
• Use nofollow: Optionally you can add “nofollow” attribute to the links (for example to external ones).

You can import multiple keywords from a CSV file:

Insights

This plugin makes it easier to find related posts while you are creating content.

The process looks as follows:

• While writing the post, single out related terms and keywords;
• Search your blog using Insights field under the WP post editor field;
• Add links to related posts with one click of a mouse!

Additionally, you can:

• Insert Flickr Images
• Insert Youtube videos
• Search and link to Wikipedia
• Search Google
• Search News
• Google Blog Search
• Insert a Google Map

Via settings you can configure:

• How many search results you want to see;
• Flickr search options;
• Google maps API key (if you need Google Maps search results).

More plugins I played with:

1. Inlinks: hyperlinks any given keyword with any given URL. However there’s no way to set the number of links per page. Besides, attempting to delete one of the entries I got “You do not have permission” (so who does if I am an admin of that blog???)

2. Interlinks: it says it interlinks posts “wiki-style” but in reality the wiki-style is actually the syntax. I don’t think it is really usable (maybe for some it isn’t!).

3. Cross-linker (same for KB Linker): seems to be installed and configured successfully but never hyperlinked anything (not sure what is wrong).

4. Any other you want me to test-drive?

caz…are you serious??? he owns a pitbull and thats the reason why sandra has taken off? oh yeah, it has nothing to do with the fact that he has been cheating on her for years and having sex with other people and severely, and publicly humiliated her. omg, some people on here (and other message boards) are so stupid it literally scares me for the future of this country and the world we live in. i swear to god.

i own a pure bred pitbull, we adopted her from someone when she was 8months old and she is the sweetest, most loving, adorable, smiliest, lickiest, tail waggingest dog i have EVER had. i have several close family friends who also have pitbulls and have had them for years, and not a single one of them has EVER had an issue of aggression towards people or other dogs. yes, it is something that they were bred to do when trained to fight. um, HELLO, most people out there are not training their dog to fight. now considering that i own a pitbull and am educated about the breed, i would not bring another dog into my house to live. one is enough to begin with and not only that i wouldnt want to take the chance of them getting into a fight if i wasn’t there because of the damage that could be done.

i live in an building with about 10 other condos in it and there are 5 other dogs that live in the building…we have the only pitbull…. of the 5 dogs, one of them (a COLLIE) lunged at my daughter while it was on a leash with it’s owner simply because we were walkign down the sidewalk that it was on-and trust me, i will never forget that Collie doing that. the other big dog, a Black Lab, barks his head off aggressively any time my children and i come with about 25ft of it if it happens to be outside. another neighbor upstairs has some kind of littler furry dog that i jokingly refer to as “The Guard Dog” because i can’t even get out of my car in the parking lot without hearing it bark at me from its patio and don’t even think about trying to walk down the sidewalk to your house if it’s outside using the bathroom. i joke because i like it’s owner as my neighbor,but there hasn’t been a single dog in our building that my children or I for that matter have once been able to walk up to and pet..however MY DOG, you know, the crazed insane “predator” as you called it, is happy and friendly and likes to walk up to and lick and be friendly with everyone. every child at our park can come over and play with my dog (while i have her securely on a leash!) and so far every child loves her and she loves them. My best friend had an Australian Cattle Dog who literally went beserk one day and pinned her daugher to the bed and grazed her cheek with her teeth… i have another friend who was attacked by a German Shepard and is SCARRED FOR LIFE on her arms and legs from the brutal attack. the only reason she is alive is because her mother ran out and hit the dog with a baseball bat. I was bitten by a Toy Poodle when i was a kid because my bus stop was in front of my neighbors house andthe neighbor had it chained up out there for some reason and she bit me while i tried to pet her. I had a Black Lab that used to try to attack every African American male she saw, literally chased them up on top of cars…it was crazy and there was noreason for it whatsoever, but he did it! My cousin has 2 little tiny dogs (i don’t know what kind) that are so mean and nasty that she has to lock them in the laundry room any time ANYONE ELSE comes over and she has to keep up and gate inthe house to keep them away from her 2yr old daughter so her daughter doesn’t get attacked and bitten. Now, i have this big sweet sill dog and she has not ever shown one second of aggression towards people OR one second of dog on dog aggression, she lived with 2 Chihuahuah’s before i got her and they would nip her ears and get all crazy, and she let them and continued to play. Long story short, she really is the sweetest most loveable dog i have ever known and is great with other people..children especially, and other animals. I love her to death and will defend the breed til the end of time, but i am also a responsible pet owner…i keep her on a leash at all times in public places, we do not take her to dog parks but have more intimate and controlled “doggie dates” which are basically the same as play dates that i arrange for my kids. i never leave her alone and unattended with anyone, because any kind of pet can hurt, bite, or attack a child or person… ANY kind of animal can do it.

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Deetta Drought

You only have to look in that box titled “AMERICAblog Reader Pets” in the upper right hand corner of this site to see how much we all love their pets. We've received hundreds and hundreds of pet photos — and they keep coming. Last week, John — finally — joined the rank of pet owners. So, all the animal lovers should read this article from today's New York Times about dogs who have come to the aid of vets dealing with PTSD:

The dogs to whom they credit their improved health are not just pets. Rather, they are psychiatric service dogs specially trained to help traumatized veterans leave the battlefield behind as they reintegrate into society.

Because of stories like these, the federal government, not usually at the forefront of alternative medical treatments, is spending several million dollars to study whether scientific research supports anecdotal reports that the dogs might speed recovery from the psychological wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In dozens of interviews, veterans and their therapists reported drastic reductions in P.T.S.D. symptoms and in reliance on medication after receiving a service dog.

The article is really worth a read. And, hat tip to Senator Al Franken:

Under a bill written by Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, veterans with P.T.S.D. will get service dogs as part of a pilot program run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Training a psychiatric service dog and pairing it with a client costs more than $20,000. The government already helps provide dogs to soldiers who lost their sight or were severely wounded in combat, but had never considered placing dogs for emotional damage.

Humans wear underpants, so why shouldn’t dogs? Neena Pellegrini came up with a line of Pants for Dogs after her male bichon frise kept "marking" her female dogs:

First product up: cute, comfy and — of utmost importance — absorbent doggie undies and thongs.

Sounds crazy to anyone who hasn’t had a dog with a bit of an incontinence/dribbling problem, or a female dog that hasn’t been fixed. But those of us who have owned and loved such a dog have spent more than a few minutes wishing Depends came in canine configurations.

Neena Pellegrini to the rescue.

She’s the founder of Pants for Dogs (pantsfordogs.com), a little Seattle-based cottage industry filling hundreds of orders for tiny- to massive-sized panties for female dogs, and, for male dogs, items she calls cummerbunds (although the waist isn’t, in a precise sense, the true target, of course). Each garment in its own way protects rugs, floors and whatever else needs protecting from the drips and streams we’d rather not contemplate (and certainly not discuss).

The business started four years ago when Pellegrini’s little male dog kept marking her little female dogs. A training issue, most would
say. But improvement doesn’t happen overnight. How do you protect the girls?

Sharon Peters of Pet Talk has more: Link | Pants For Dogs website

no bark collars for dogs

Archie Boman

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1. Two things.
   Firstly, if you're meant to be a writer, learn to use question marks. They're kind of important.

   Secondly, there may not be a ton of female founders and venture capitalists, but so long as the money and skills needed are in the industry, it doesn't matter.

    Posted by: Khalid |
   April 15, 2010 1:05 PM

2. I do not believe that women are playing “catch up” in business, but rather the world is taking a while to catch up to the way women have been doing business for centuries.

   Posted by: Audio Cloud |
   April 15, 2010 1:25 PM

3. I have read quite a few of these gender based articles over the last few months. I think the awareness is useful and valuable.

   However, I do find it interesting that I do not see the same attention paid to races as subgroups, and the discrepancy here is much bigger in my experience. I'm not really sure why that is the case, but it is quite evident.

   Are race issues just so Taboo that journalists skate around it? I'm not making a judgment either way, but it's interesting. Maybe it's a function of the size of the female subgroup?

    Posted by: Warren |
   April 15, 2010 1:43 PM

4. Warren, I am a female founder/CEO and I have noticed the same trend of avoiding this other elephant in the room. I think race is just scarier for people to address, but the racial gaps seem to totally outstrip the gender ones, IMHO. At least in the Hispanic and African American segments.

    Posted by: Jules |
   April 15, 2010 5:48 PM

5. @Khalid Thanks for catching that, I missed that ? in the final graf, my bad. Nobody is perfect, as they say. Must have been in a hurry to finish, hehe.

   @Audio Cloud I like that different angle to the situation.

    Posted by: Chris Cameron |
   April 15, 2010 7:24 PM

6. I have worked with many very capable women over the last 20 years and I have not seen a noticeable difference in talent between women and men in their ability to “do” startups. One only has to look as far as Judy Estrin, Kim Polese, Mary Lou Jepsen, Mena Trott, Meg Whitman, Oprah, Martha Stewart, and Mary Kay Ash to know that women can most certainly do startups. However from my observations of women in technology over the last 20 years or so, there are some fundamental differences between women and men in the tech sector that contribute to less women doing startups than men.

   1. Men don't have a biological clock for procreation. Between the ages of 22 and 52 they can commit any 4 year block for a startup that they want if they want to do a startup. Women who want to procreate understand that the probability of procreating is better if they leave the ages between 22 and 37 open for procreating. This also means that once they have committed to a startup, they have committed to not procreating, and vice versa. This factor reduces the number of women interested in doing a startup. I'm not saying that this influences all women or even a majority. But it is certainly a significant enough minority to diminish the numbers of women in startups.

   2. Many women lose interest or have diminished interest in their careers after procreation because they find their family responsibilities more fulfilling. I'm not saying all, or even a majority. But it is certainly a significant enough minority to diminish the numbers of women in startups.

   3. Women are more likely to “want a life” and “have a life” outside their careers and want/have it more than men. Having a life outside work not a real option in enough startups, and personally, I know more women who want and have a life than men who want the same.

   Interestingly, these factors also affect many men and the results are similar, but just not as noticeable as with women.

    Posted by: Jay |
   April 16, 2010 10:15 AM

Made from polyurethane, which is less pliable than latex, the female condom could be uncomfortable and resulted in a less-than-intimate sexual experience. Users complained of a “crinkling” or “squeaking” noise—not to mention a tendency for the condom to slip out if not inserted properly.

But last year's FDA approval of the second-generation female condom, called FC2, has prompted two U.S. cities, Chicago and Washington, D.C., to launch campaigns to reintroduce the contraceptive. Now made of nitrile, the crinkling and squeaking have been nearly silenced, and the FC2 costs 30 percent less than its predecessor did.

Why promote the female condom when the male version is so popular? Public health experts laud the contraceptive for being the only female-controlled method that protects against both unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Research from Zimbabwe shows that when both male and female condoms are promoted, occurrences of protected sex increase, STI rates decrease, and 93 percent of women are enthusiastic about the device.

An initiative in Washington, D.C., will see the FC2 stocked in all CVS stores in the District—priced at $6.49 a box, compared to about $5 for a typical box of male condoms. Female condoms will also be distributed for free in beauty salons, liquor stores, and at high schools. Chicago's “Put a Ring On It” campaign has set up a bulk-purchasing plan with the Female Condom Company to make the condoms more affordable, and organizations such as Planned Parenthood are doling them out for free.

Unlike the male condom, which can be grabbed anonymously by the handful and used without much fuss, advocates have realized that an educational component is essential if the female condom is ever to catch on. The D.C. and Chicago initiatives include training on how to use the female condom, especially since many sex-ed curriculums ignore the method. Julia Fedor of the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health cites a “three time's a charm” rule for getting the hang of it.

The educators have their work cut out for them; the female condom is woefully unpopular. For one thing, it’s difficult to find. Walgreens stocks only 10 percent of its branches with the contraceptive, and finding one in the store can be difficult—it can be hidden away with the feminine hygiene products. In 2002, only 2 percent of sexually active women aged 15 to 44 had ever used the female condom, compared with an overwhelming 90 percent for the male condom and 7 percent for the sponge, another female-directed method that enjoyed a brief heyday in the 1990s before it was discontinued. The Today sponge was even mourned in an infamous Seinfeld episode that coined the term “sponge-worthy,” while the female condom languished in the shadows.

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Rayford Brownsword

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