Leave the Doggone Dog at Home

You may think I'm some sort of meanie who doesn't like dogs. Nope. Just the opposite. It's summer and we have had horrible heat and humidity. People are leaving dogs in their cars "for just a few minutes" with the windows open.

BAD IDEA. This just doesn't work. The dog has fur, remember? And the dog can't open the door to get out if it gets too hot. And it gets too hot very quickly. It can get to 120 degrees. Having the window open isn't enough to keep a car cool. And what you think is only going to be a minute turns out to be longer as you:

- wait in line behind someone with 30 coupons
- run in to a high school friend and spend 20 minutes catching up
- witness a crime and are detained by police to give a statement
- faint because you overheated
- are in an elevator that gets stuck between floors
- etc.

And then the dog dies.

If you think it will work out just this one time or just for a few minutes, try this experiment. Park your car in the sun, roll the windows up most of the way and You sit in the car. Maybe even bring a thermometer with you. How long do you think you could last before you bail out? Now remember, the dog has fur and isn't capable of bailing out.

So, please, leave Fido or Fifi at home, with food and water, and in a cool place during the summer. I'm sure it's what Stephen would do. It's the right thing to do.

For more info, read this at The Weather Channel.
or
Read this at Dog Breed Info.

We're Off to See the Blizzard

I just love all the catchy phrases Stephen comes up with. Darn, I forgot my good grammar. Never use a preposition to end a sentence with. Oh, well. Tonight Stephen talked about Global Warming. We've all had lots of snow and some states have been having tons, literally, of snow. Blizzards even. And so the usual suspects have been wondering "What does Al Gore say about Global Warming now?!?!"

Al Gore did not need to speak to these doubters. Stephen handled it in his own unique way, using the Dopplest 9000, which is way better than anybody's Doppler Radar.

Many other people (Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman, Aasif Mandvi) also went over Global Warming again, in short sentences, using tiny words to make it easy for all to understand. Global Warming is just one symptom of Climate Change. Global means the whole Earth. The entire planet. That area bigger than what you see when you look out your kitchen window. Climate means the weather over a very long period of time. It doesn't mean this week or even this year. It has to do with science.

NASA has determined (using science and lots and lots of data) that 2009 was the second warmest year on record and it was the end of the warmest decade.

Stephen said about the most recent blizzard, "Whatever just happened is the only thing that is happening." And of course by that he actually means that there are a multitude of things happening all over the place. I can't remember if it was Stephen or someone else who said this: "Sometimes I don't get my words right, but I know what is in my heart is right." Probably someone else, but the sentiment is appropriate to Stephen. And so it stings just a little bit to report what one of his guests said. In his "Better Know a District" segment, Stephen talked with Mike Quigley, Congressman from the 5th District of Illinois. Representative Quigley summed up their interview by telling Stephen, "You have a point. It's not a good point, but you have a point."

The Dopplest 9000 will be a welcome addition to The Colbert Report. Weather Channel, you had better upgrade your equipment. Soon, in addition to getting all my news from the Colbert Report, I will also get my weather forecasts and reports from Stephen.

* Photo not of actual Dopplest 9000.