Puggles: Smarter and more awesome than babies.

A few days ago the L.A. Times Unleashed blog posted a fantastic video of a parent trying to teach their kid to high-five.  Look who makes an appearance.





The next time I get asked if I ever plan on having kids, I'm going to whip out this video and say, "No need to worry about that now.  I've already got a puggle."

Off topic, but well worth sharing.

A big deal happened in my former home of Albany, New York today, and I'm so proud of it, I had to share.

I think everyone's heard of the Westboro Baptist Church-- they're that crazy "church" group that protests at military funerals, claiming that God kills soldiers as punishment for the U.S.' tolerance of gays and for allowing gays in the military. They also put tiny kids out on the front line to shout "Thank God for 9/11", spit on flags, and other pleasantries. Today they planned a protest outside of Albany High School. Why, I don't know. Albany High has enough problems right now without having to deal with these pieces of work.

New Yorkers are the biggest pains in the ass-- and I truly mean that with the utmost love and respect. Try to go against things they believe and you'll meet the fury. So you can imagine when a universally reviled group dares to step foot on New York land, it wasn't going to be a pretty scene.

And yet, it was-- in the right way. After a brief picketing at AHS, six members of Westboro were greeted by 300 people at my grad school alma mater, UAlbany. There was no violence, no arrests (which is good, as it's known that the church is funded by suing people at protests), but lots of color and lots of love-- and a good amount of humor. I think it's important to note that some local church leaders were involved in organizing the protest and vigils around it, including Reverend Tony Green and Pastor Charlie Muller, who's gotten a lot of press lately as he works to make Albany a more loving, safer city (especially for local kids and college students). Both gave some terrific interviews today, but I found a great news snippet from Pastor Charlie from a local station that sums the sentiment up nicely:

Pastor Charlie Muller of the Victory Christian Church says while they legally have a right to be here, he's not just going to standby and watch it happen.

"You know, don't let the kids be exposed to this. But you know what? I want to send him a clear message, too that you don't represent the church that I represent," said Muller.

I love it, and I think a lot of other people do, too. Here's a slideshow of some beautiful pictures that Sebastien B. took of the event. I think too often the loudest voices say that gays, the church, and the military can't coexist peacefully. These photos prove otherwise.

Every once in a while, I really miss living in New York. I never thought a day in March (the worst month of the year there) would be one of them.

Sweet, Sweet Sammy.

With all the events of last weekend, I'm behind on all of my correspondence. So I've spent the past couple of days catching up on reading e-mails. One listing that I'm on is called The GirlyGirl Army. I love them-- they've got their pulse on fun stuff like Daily Candy, but it's all far more affordable and all animal friendly-- plus more interesting.

Each week (sometimes more often) they send out a bulleted list of interesting items. I read their weekly posting yesterday, and I have to tell you all about one thing on this week's e-mail. The bullet reads as this:

A truly evil person beat this puppy so badly that both his eyes burst out. PLEASE take action for Sammy or donate a few dollars like we did here.

I can't not support a dog who needs help. So I clicked on the link and was taken to Noah's Ark Rescue in Okatie, SC. This week they received a gorgeous dog named Sammy, who had been beaten so badly that he had to have his eyes removed on Thursday. The pictures at the bottom of the page are horrendous. What the hell is wrong with the perp that could possibly allow them to think that's okay do that to an animal?!

What's equally as disturbing is that on Sammy's page log, they start by saying that "This is one of the worst abuse cases I have seen in a while." One of the worst they've seen in a while. There's not a single word in that sentence that's not incredibly disturbing. Looking through the website, it does seem like they take on some desperate cases, but the fact that they've seen similar or worse (or even less) is disgusting, to say the least. I truly hope that whoever did that has theirs coming.

I donated to the organization and figured that was it, but just a little while ago, I checked my e-mail and there was a nice letter from the rescue with a short update on his condition. I figured if they cared enough to send out a response to donors (whether it's canned or not), Sammy ended up in the right place after all. It's such an awful shame it couldn't have happened a week before.

http://www.noahs-arks.net/RESCUE/SAMMY.html