I know that statistics can be misleading, and I don't have any to offer here, but I do remember learning, during an orientation at PAWS, that pit bulls do not account for more attacks that any other breed per capita. Yes, there are more pit bulls attacks per year than any other breed, but there are more pit bulls out there than any other breed.

Now, one of my neighbors has two pit bulls that are sweet, and genuinely docile. And the only dog that I've ever met who has been dangerously aggressive was a hunting dog. I'm willing to cut the pit bull some slack.

The author's lack of willingness to consider the cultural and economic status of the pit bull is especially troubling. Oh, so a few movie stars are now adopting pit bulls because they're the maligned animal of the moment? Some suburban ladies are catching on? That doesn't discount the fact that the vast majority of pit bulls are bred and raised by people who view the dogs as either as a money-making scheme (through selling or fighting) or as a statement of their extreme bad-assness. Whether or not the people are the problem or the dog is the problem, it's still a problem.

I wish animals had greater protection under our constitution. That would make it so much easier to prosecute the assholes who treat them like their lives are worth nothing.

This is hilarious, especially some of the responses.

One of my fellow bloggers posted about this ages ago, and we got responses from plenty of the gals who are on the site ("we are NOT hores weer really nice ladees and u can come an talk to us weer nice!"

I think that Larry Craig is a closeted homo, as he was outed a while ago (at least, he was accused a while ago of having bathroom hook-ups, by BlogActive). That said, the behavior described in this report wouldn't have held up in court if the Senator had fought it. I'm shocked that he plead guilty.

Read some of the Wonkette coverage - it's pretty funny.

Sure, Draper doesn't give any evidence of the President's 'charms' in the interview - he wants you to buy the book. I'm not suggesting that there necessarily ARE charms to be had, just that I doubt the author would divulge many of them for free.

The thing is, being charming is really about making someone else feel special. When you meet a "charming" person, it's usually someone who makes you feel good, important, worth listening and talking to. I have no doubt that our President is capable of this kind of behavior. I'm sure he's a likable guy, and I'm sure that if I met him in person, I'd think he was charming.

But charming does not a good leader make. Oh, sure, it's a great trait to have. But it shouldn't be enough - however, in this case, combined with political heritage and solid financial backing, it actually IS enough. It's sad, but then, much about our culture strikes me as sad. We're an anti-intellectual nation, where smooth-talkers who fake an 'aw, shucks' countenance can get pretty far in politics.

Muslims don't tend to get all up in arms over a joke about a belief or two - many Muslims, even devout ones, occasionally admit a bit of befuddlement over certain tenants of their own faith. But the BJ Novak and Ann Coulter and Berkeley Breathed hell, Robin Williams bits are different from Kathy Griffin's hypothetical slur in that they do not insult the founder of the religions per se.

Muslims positively FREAK OUT if you say anything bad about Muhammad. That's the case with Rushdie. With the Danish cartoons. If Kathy Griffin was recorded saying something similar about Muhammad, I don't doubt for a second that a fatwa would be placed on her head (not literally, since you can't literally set a fatwa on top of someone's head).

We can argue until we're blue in the face whether Christians are as violent as Muslims, and give all kind of examples, but the fact remains that there are very few Christians in the world who would volunteer to kill you for having said something awful about Jesus - there are LITERALLY tens of thousands of Muslims who would happily do so.

Christian and Muslim history don't matter in this fact (Serbia, Bosnia, The Crusades - set it aside). The fact that there are nearly a billion other Muslims who would just roll their eyes at you for telling Muhammad to suck it doesn't matter either - what matters is that there are many tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of Muslims out there who would believe that such a statement warrants a violent and gruesome death.

We are going to be fighting a war of civilizations. Take it from someone who spent many years as a Muslim and Islamic apologist.