Reuters:

Dog owners in Turin will be fined up to $650 if they don’t walk their pets at least three times a day, under a new law from the city’s council.

People will also be banned from dyeing their pets’ fur or “any form of animal mutilation” for merely aesthetic motives such as docking dogs’ tails, under the law about to be passed in the northern Italian city.

Ok, one more diversion for the weekend… here are a few funny pictures of why women live longer than men. Photoshops, maybe, but they sure made me chuckle regardless.

One, two, three, four, five and six.

UPDATE: There is some bandwidth protection thing on that site that won’t allow me to link directly to his images. Go here and check out the images starting with “women live longer.”

This is sad.

Via MoH, who says:

It shows him with his insides now on the outside. You will see the look of horror on the faces of the bystanders. The faces of the bystanders is why I believe this is real..

Yes folks, you can do so for $23.00. I’m not sure how much shipping is.

And these FAQ’s are a hoot. Here are just a couple …

How do you/I know these specimens from the listed celebrity?

All our specimens are tested by experienced body-fluid identification technicians at the Allamas Biological Research Facility in Greeley Colorado and cross-referenced hospital birth records and blood analysis from the Red Cross. As a last resort, we will attempt to verify our specimens by comparing our test results to various body-fluid tests conducted during periods of the individual’s incarceration, if available. Each specimen comes with a certificate of authenticity. We ensure our customers will receive a quality product.

What is your return policy?

Due to the nature of our products, we cannot accept any returns, and we do not offer refunds except in very extreme circumstances, which are determined on a case by case basis.

Hmmm… do a search for Allamas Biological Research Facility and see what you get. (Hint: not much other than another blog linking to their site).

Well, at least we know that in a few days Myopic Zeal will come up on Google when someone searches for “celebrity fecal matter”.

Oh, and in case you took it seriously, this site is a hoax - but sure is creative.

I took some pictures this morning here in Indiana that I thought were cool enough to post.

This is an interesting list.

Janette Stripling at Common Sense Runs Wild, observes:

It looks like someone opened a history book and a People magazine and threw darts to pick the nominees.

David Schantz says:

When you get down to the M’s on the list AOL has listed, Madonna, Malcom X, Dr. Phil McGraw, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Moore, and Audie Murphy. Notice that James Madison, The Father of The United States Constitution didn’t make the list. OK the people listed in the M’s are all well known, and some of them have done some good things, (matter of opinion) but are any of them great Americans?

Here they are:

Abraham Lincoln
Albert Einstein
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Hamilton
Amelia Earhart
Andrew Carnegie
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Audie Murphy
Babe Ruth
Barack Obama
Barbara Bush
Benjamin Franklin
Bill Clinton
Bill Cosby (William Henry Cosby, Jr.)
Bill Gates
Billy Graham
Bob Hope
Brett Favre
Carl Sagan
Cesar Chavez
Charles Lindbergh
Christopher Reeve
Chuck Yeager
Clint Eastwood
Colin Powell
Condoleezza Rice
Donald Trump
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eleanor Roosevelt (Anna Eleanor Roosevelt)
Ellen DeGeneres
Elvis Presley
Frank Sinatra
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Frederick Douglass
George H. W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Lucas
George Patton
George Washington
George Washington Carver
Harriet Ross Tubman
Harry Truman
Helen Keller
Henry Ford
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Howard Hughes
Hugh Hefner
Jackie Robinson (Jack Roosevelt Robinson)
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jesse Owens
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Stewart
John Edwards
John Glenn
John F. Kennedy
John Wayne
Johnny Carson (John William Carson)
Jonas Edward Salk
Joseph Smith Jr.
Katharine Hepburn
Lance Armstrong
Laura Bush
Lucille Ball
Lyndon B. Johnson
Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone)
Malcolm X (Malcolm Little)
Marilyn Monroe
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Martha Stewart
Martin Luther King Jr.
Maya Angelou
Mel Gibson
Michael Jackson
Michael Jordan
Michael Moore
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.)
Neil Alden Armstrong
Nikola Tesla
Oprah Winfrey
Pat Tillman
Dr. Phil McGraw
Ray Charles
Richard Nixon
Robert Kennedy
Ronald Reagan
Rosa Parks
Rudolph W. Giuliani
Rush Limbaugh
Sam Walton
Steve Jobs
Steven Spielberg
Susan B. Anthony
Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Edison
Thomas Jefferson
Tiger Woods
Tom Cruise
Tom Hanks
Walt Disney
Wrights Brothers (Orville & Wilbur Wright)

Robert Parton was Chief investigator on the Volcker committee.

John at Powerline:

One of the three members of the Volcker committee ascribed the resignations to the two employees’ work being finished.

Parton, however, says:

Contrary to recent published reports, I resigned my position as Senior Investigative Counsel for the IIC not because my work was complete but on principle.

And per the ABC story:

A former senior investigator from the independent probe into allegations of corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program confirmed Saturday that he had resigned to protest a report clearing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of meddling in the operation.

Remember the kids who beat MIT in the robot contest? Well the AZ Star has an update (via Gringo Unleashed):

The Wired article on the four Carl Hayden students appeared about five weeks ago. Since then, nearly $53,000 has poured into a “La Vida Robot Scholarship Fund” opened after hundreds of people e-mailed Wired and Carl Hayden High School offering financial assistance to the boys.

…

The shy teen still shakes his head in amazement while discussing the Robotics Four’s good fortunes.

“We really didn’t expect any of this,” he said. “But I’m amazed that people have such good hearts and care enough to want to help us get educated. I can’t express how much that really means to all of us.”

Jeff Jarvis has a good roundup of the “tipping point” in media.

Ruport Murdoch and George Will are quoted.

Murdoch:

Mr Murdoch said that news “providers” such as his own organisation had better get web-savvy, stop lecturing their audiences, “become places for conversation” and “destinations” where “bloggers” and “podcasters” congregate to “engage our reporters and editors in more extended discussions.”

Will:

The circulation of daily U.S. newspapers is 55.2 million, down from 62.3 million in 1990. The percentages of adults who say they read a paper “yesterday” are ominous…

Perhaps we are entering what David T.Z. Mindich, formerly of CNN, calls “a post-journalism age.”

Jarvis points out that it’s not post-journalism, it’s new journalism. Even just the fact that “real journalists” call it post-journalism carries an arrogance of elitism.

La Shawn has an interesting perspective on the Elian saga.

I was a brand new conservative at that time, but I parted ways with other conservatives on this issue. They believed the child should remain in the United States and receive an asylum hearing. I believed the boy’s relatives had no right to make decisions for him and should return him to his father immediately. If a father wants to raise his child in Castro’s Cuba, neither the United States nor the child’s distant relatives had any say in the matter.

I was firmly behind the Clinton adminstration on this one.

I strongly support parental rights, and unless there’s evidence that a child is being abused or some other criminal act has occured, the parents’ rights trump concerns about communism.

In her comments section, she notes:

Do we want to start dictating to parents where to live and raised their kids? Juan Gonzalez’s decision to remain in Cuba and raise his sons as communists is HIS business, not ours. I certainly wouldn’t want to raise my kids there, which is why I won’t.

Of course, the one huge assumption that she makes is that Elian’s father “wants to raise his child in Castro’s Cuba” and that it was “his decision to remain in Cuba” as opposed to “was forced to be a pawn in this game by Castro’s Cuba” - and we’ll probably never know for sure.

There’s a bit of buzz over the apparently new revelation that Mohammed Atta was on a “dry run” flight with James Woods a month before 9/11.

Buzzing: Ace, Patterico’s Guest Blogger, Michelle Malkin

A revised version of the Pledge of Allegiance was broadcast today in Denver.

Instead of “one nation, under God,” the voice said, “one nation, under your belief system.”

The bewildered students at Everitt Middle School in Wheat Ridge never even got to “indivisible,” according to Vincent’s mother, Christina Pulciani-Johnson.

At least the school is not supporting the counselor.

Meanwhile, Jefferson County School District spokesman Rick Kaufman was engaged in damage control, describing Miss Lucero’s decision to rewrite the Pledge as “inappropriate” and stressing that she had acted independently, without consulting the district or other school officials.

Via MM.

Also Dave Lucas, Right Wing Nuthouse, McGehee, Blogmeister, The Moderate Voice, The Dread Pundit Bluto, Uncooperative Blogger, Slublog, Brain Fertilizer and others have some thoughts.

Check out this version posted by View from the Foothills.