Vick committed a FELONY. Dog fighting is ILLEGAL. I'm not going to even get in to the cruelty of the way he and his minions dispatched the dogs that wouldn't perform--you'd think a light sedative and a gunshot would have destroyed them in a more humane way. That the dogs were killed as they were indicates that someone got a lot of pleasure out of it.

I remember PLENTY of outrage over the pedophilia scandal, and that outrage is still going on--I am sure you can find it if you look. But it's a straw man. It's just plain not on the radar right now.

Vick's race has nothing to do with it, except that at the moment dog fighting (or implying that you're fighting dogs) appears to be fashionable in thug/gang culture(notice that 12 or so neglected pit bulls were recently removed from rapper DMX's house?), which comprises all racial groups. I suppose now you'll call me a racist for noticing.

It's too bad that this has somehow become the cool thing to do. People are pretty stupid.

I bought one because I needed one to test with at work (I'm speculating about whether I can take it off my taxes) but I *wanted* one because it has an FM tuner. I like to listen to music, podcasts, AND the radio when I work out, and the Zune gives me that opportunity.

Don't go to the wedding! If one of your children, say, turned out to be gay and wanted to marry his or her same-sex partner in Canada or Massachusetts or something, I'll bet your religious relatives wouldn't attend due to their own disapproval. And that is certainly their right. So don't go if you don't approve. Send a nice present and a good-luck-I-wish-you-well note. And if anyone asks, you can say "I don't approve of people so young getting married". And that's it.

You know, we can tolerate without approving. You're not crusading to make laws against 16-year-olds getting married. You're simply saying that this makes you uncomfortable, and you don't approve.

Look, those of us who want purebred dogs, for a VARIETY of reasons, shouldn't have to defend ourselves against the self-righteous types who actively want domestic animals to disappear from the earth.

Actually I'm no defender of breeders -- I would never buy a dog from a breeder, and the fervent animal-rights folks have done a great job in educating a good portion of the public that breeding specialty cats and dogs is rarely the right choice ethically speaking.

Ummm... why not? I got two of my dogs from a breeder. I compete in dog sports, and I wanted the particular traits that my breed has--plus I wanted dogs from parents that had been tested for various genetic problems (if you think by getting a mutt you're avoiding those genetic problems, you'd be wrong). Dog sports people are some of the most responsible and knowledgeable dog owners (ooh, I used "owners") in the world, and most work to help rescue and rehabilitate dogs as well.

That's not to say that there aren't irresponsible breeders out there--but if you think your average hobby breeder makes tons of money, you would ABSOLUTELY be wrong. They do it because they love their breed and hope to produce healthy, beautiful animals who can DO A JOB.

This whole flap is ridiculous, and part of the reason I have trouble READING lefty blogs (and I am deeply liberal).

You have an excellent point (although in my experience, identifiable purebreds and smaller dogs of any breed or mix ALWAYS go quickly at a shelter). I will note, though, that because I have an intact male dog (his breeder wants me to keep him intact) I can't actually adopt from most shelters and pretty much ANY rescues. So if I wanted to rescue a dog, I couldn't do it through official channels. MANY rescues require that you have a fenced yard to adopt (I do, but many otherwise good homes don't) and it seems like every other dog that ends up in rescue of the breed that I personally enjoy has a thyroid problem, which is manageable with meds but in general isn't conducive to high-energy dog sports like Agility and Flyball.

Of the 5 dogs I have had in my lifetime so far, 2 were from a rescue and 3 from a breeder, but no matter my record (1st dog lived to be 16, 2nd adopted at 7 years old from a breed rescue and lived to be 17, #3 adopted at 2 years old from a rescue and is now 13, #4 and #5 from the same breed and are 6 years old and 1 year old respectively) the fact that I have an intact dog now and don't intend to neuter him any time soon means that I would be automatically rejected by most rescue organizations. They have their policies for a reason, and I have no quarrel with it, but it does prevent them from getting a good foster or possibly adoptive home.