And train it.

Puppies depend on you. They need your time on a regular basis. They need to be taken out and walked. You can't leave a puppy for a weekend with a bowl of food and a clean litter box and expect good results.

Puppies need mothering.

Puppies also can (and should be) trained. Just like kids. Go to a dog training class, and learn some of the basics with your puppy. Basics like using praise rather than punishment to condition behavior. Like getting ahead of bad behavior so you can control it (teaching a dog to bark on cue, so you can also teach him to stop barking).

There is a whole lot more. Kids aren't puppies, of course. They're a lot more work, more responsibility, and more fun.

But puppies are good practice. Raise a puppy into a happy, well-behaved dog, and you're a good candidate to raise successful children.

You are the Goddess.

Your Wit is Wisdom.

And you realize that everything became different, as did I, once we became parents.

It's true, it's real, and, it is somewhat pathetic.

But, you, Heather, make it funny.

May your children be many, well nourished, and shallowly successful.

Blessed Be.

And a lot of these hostile posts about her are more than a little weird.

Lotta free-floating aggression around here looking for a target.

"Do you think Pelosi would tell the truth if threatened with a little waterboarding?."

No. Nancy Pelosi would tell whatever she thought the waterboarder wanted her to say.

That's how torture works. It doesn't get "The Truth" it gets what the interrogator wants to hear. It gets whatever makes the torture stop.

In the case of what Nancy Pelosi knew about George Bush Jr's torture program, since the only person who knows "The Truth" is Nancy Pelosi, torture will just make her say whatever her interrogator wants to hear.

Which is why torture is worthless, unless you want to make people say certain things by force, whether or not they are true.

Perhaps David noticed that Obama, like other candidates, put forth a healthcare proposal and spent a lot of time discussing it during the Primary campaign?

Obama's plan wasn't single-payer then either. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards didn't have single-payer plans. Nobody (except probably Dennis Kucinich) ran on single payer. How many votes did Kucinich end up with?

David has to get over the fact that Obama was elected President. Not David Sirota.

Does Cary make up letters?

Obviously not. Nobody could come up with something that weird on their own, not if they were remotely functional in society.

Case closed. The world is indeed stranger that we can imagine.

Great, great, great, great, great.

Heather is one of my favorite writers, and articles like this are why.

If you don't agree, poop on you!

Heather, Heather, Heather!!

Yeah!

Cole is right about extreme elements of Israel's Likud and especially Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party hoping for a Hezbollah win. They thrive on war and hatred, and hope for any expression of Palestinian or Moslem extremism they can use as an excuse to pursue their quest for Erech Yisrael (Greater Israel).

The loss by Hezbollah is a blow to their continued efforts to polarize Israelis and Arabs into violent opposing camps (betting that Israel's trained and well-equipped military will prevail in a contest of force).

Extremists hate compromise, or any hope of compromise and co-existence. Netanyahu and Lieberman are extremists.

Fifty people max.

Dave said he was sorry if folks thought he was talking about Willow. Bristol has made herself a public figure on the subject of sex all by herself.

In the meantime, Iran is on fire. Million are on the streets, braving clubs and bullets.

Let's cover that, instead.

Sarah Palin can go back to pardoning turkeys.

I just realized now how much more galvanized and effective the protests against George Bush Jr's theft of the 2000 election would have been if only Ayatollah Khamenei and Iran's President had come out strongly and condemned the theft by Little George and the infamous Supreme Court.

How our hearts would have swelled with pride as Kim Jong Il announced he stood in solidarity with Al Gore, and would seek to bolster our efforts with spicy Kimchee and aggressive posturing with his Taipodong!

Why, oh why was Saddam Hussein silent when we needed his strength and resolve to support our efforts to prevent the destruction of our democracy? Saddam, we never heard a word from you about how you supported us! No wonder we had so little hope!

And, worse betrayal of all--where was Osama? Didn't he have a couple of suicide bombers to spare to help us in our efforts for democratic Justice? Why hide in his cave planning 9/11 when the huddled masses of America were yearning for word that he was with us, was one with us, and was just like us?

How could we have failed with such help? And why does Obama now withhold similar help from the angry Iranians? John McCain would never have let this golden moment pass, nor fail to reap the rich harvest of consequences that would blow back to us.

Where are our leaders?

Why should Navratilova be held to Hetero marriage obligations when she is denied the benefits?

If she had been allowed to legally marry, she would probably have legally required a prenup to protect her extremely considerable assets.

Since our society denies her the right of marriage, she can also blow off the responsibilities.

And I share the lack of sympathy for bed partners who assume they deserve half an accomplished person's lifelong assets. One might ask what the plaintiff brought to the relationship. Money, a career of their own?

Or just some same-sex gold-digging?

Give the rights before applying the sanctimonious scorn.