You're smart, you probably think you know everything about keeping your pets safe in the summertime. But I bet you didn't think about all of this. And remember, dogs (and especially cats) don't necessarily enjoy vacations as much as we do. It upsets their routine and comfort level. Consider leaving them at home with a qualified sitter and everyone will probably be happier. 

Okay, I'm no fashion model. I don't wear the coolest new thing. I'm not a clone. I don't just buy high-end brands and discard the items after one season. I mean, I still have pants from college. I like H&M. But, I know what works and I know what looks good on you, so you listen up. And take notes.

It's summer in the city and I'm out a lot with the dog. I see the folks go to work and I see them come home, and I don't understand a lot of what I see.  First, suits. Please tell me why in the increasingly casual 21st century, with most workers sitting alone in front of a computer all day, why are folks still required to wear suits and ties to work every day. Unless you are a politician meeting with a foreign leader, a lawyer going to court, or a late-night talk show host, aren't slacks and a nice polo good enough for almost anything these days? Throw on a blazer for a meeting if you must, but man, it's hot out there. Bosses need to reevaluate their dress codes. And if you MUST wear suits, dudes, black suits over a burgundy shirt don't work when it's 98 degrees outside.

Then there are the guys I see in Dockers and a button-down wearing flip-flops. To work! While I am all for casual, no one should ever see a guy's toes at work. Period. Well, unless he works at the pool.

I love beachy stuff. Resort-wear. Summer evening, preppy cocktail get-ups (think up-turned collar on the polo, linen pants and a light sweater tied around your neck). Funky golf pants. Yacht togs. But, those Crayola yellow pants I saw on the street today, on a dude!, made me wonder...where does he work? McDonald's?

Ewww, what about the guy I saw yesterday in a white suit. Snow white. He must work under very sanitary conditions (or maybe he was going to Diddy's white party in the Hamptons after work?). If it were me, I'd be a magnet for coffee, ink pens, dirty Metro seats, my lunch, and the dog jumping up to say hello. By 5pm I'd look like a used Kleenex. 

This is huge TV news folks...something I never anticipated when learning about the CW's reboot of "90210." That's right, Shannen Doherty is in talks to return as Brenda Walsh. The TV gods ARE still alive. 

When is enough enough with the innovation of cruise ships? Ships with real grass are coming. One line is going to have zip-lining and a park. Some already have ice skating rinks and fast food restaurants (ick). Do we really need to have bowling alleys at sea? NCL thinks so. Their newly announced F3 line of ships are retro sleek and look like floating uber-nightclubs for the pretty people. Did they forget the most cruisers are 80? Perhaps this is their way of getting more cool, young, hip cruise lovers...like me! 

Don't you just wish you had bought Pixar stock a decade ago? They hit one out of the park every single time they release a movie. I'm looking forward to seeing Wall-E. Looks amazing.

Assassins? Slick guns? Girls that kick ass? Momma Angelina?! I am SO going to see the movie Wanted. 

Everybody has an opinion on the Court's ruling yesterday to lift the 30 year old, unconstitutional ban on citizens owning and storing guns here in Washington, DC. I applaud the court. It just amazes me to no end that in the capital city of our great country, we have one of the highest records of gun violence, shootings and deaths from illegal gun use. That's a crime! We have all of the top law enforcement agencies based here. We have a large, strong police presence. So why can't they keep illegal guns off the streets? Why can't they curtail gang and drug violence? It boggles my mind.

So, since I live in such a dangerous city (albeit not in my neighborhood as a general rule), why shouldn't I have the right to defend my home and family from intruders who very well may have an illegal gun? I don't want to walk around Dupont Circle with a pistol on my hip, but I'd like to have one in my bedside table. Right now...I have a baseball bat next to my side of the bed. Swing batter batter!

Of course this is all for not. Given current rules and regs, there are no gun stores in the District and I'm telling you, the local government idiots are going to want to make it next to impossible for shops to open here. And Virginia and Maryland gun stores can't sell to DC residents, even after the lifting of the ban; they would have to ship the gun to the nonexistent DC gun shop. Catch-22, folks!

If I had the gumption, I'd open a by-appointment-only gun shop. People would make an appointment at least 48 hours in advance. They'd be admitted to the shop and sold a weapon that would be delivered several days later, after the requisite background checks and waiting periods. I think that would be the safest way to play that game.

Opening up URL extensions was bound to happen eventually. And you can just see the bidding wars for "bigboobs.sex" and "hotmamas.xxx" to name just a few. I like the idea of having sole ownership of my name as an extension, too, but you can see the legal ramifications of Joe Smith #1 securing ".JoeSmith" and then Joe Smith #2 taking #1 to court. Messy.

I wonder if I should put in my bid for ".babyclothes" sooner than later.

I've commented many times that I would love to have an Alice of my very own. I'm talking about Alice of "The Brady Bunch" fame; a woman who'd come in, wear a light blue and white uniform, and whip my house and life into shape. Do stuff I am just no good at: cleaning, food shopping, changing the beds, taking the kids to band practice, and walking Tiger. But, alas, full-time maids really only exist on television. Like Zola, the maid on Bravo's Flipping Out, one of the endless reality shows that I MUST watch on Tuesday nights. If you want to feel anxious and want to put your hands through the TV screen and choke Jeff, the main character, to death for being so mean and just plain looney, watch the show. It's a fun mess. 

One of my long standing must haves is the perfect bed. I've ALMOST got it...but I'm always on the look out for something to make that 1/3 of my life even better. Seriously, no matter how much money a person has, I think they should make their bed and their bedroom a top priority; sleep is one of the most important things we can do. And it should be the most comfortable for maximum benefit. Because you're worth it!

Sunday and Monday nights I'll be sleeping in a W Hotel bed...near perfection. If I can regulate the temperature exactly to my liking in my room, I will certainly be in heaven. 

And another year goes by and AGAIN I am snubbed. Here are the 25 new inductees for the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

Look at me! I made page 25 of this weeks' MetroWeekly magazine. That's me on the left on the Capital Pride Parade review stand. It rained the entire time...fun! Fellow committee member Rees Kirkorian was good enough to hold the umbrella most of the time so that I could hand NBC4's Wendy Rieger her script pages, in her wet role as the emcee. What a sport they both were. And yes, my clothes finally dried out.

I have a strong feeling that you were not thinking about the increasing popularity of Japanese Elder Porn before you read this post. It's quite intriguing and quite disturbing at the same time and something you'd expect HBO's "Real Sex" to cover, not Time Magazine. 

I'm digging my summer reality shows. I know it's mindless, waste-of-time TV, but I look forward to Bravo's slate of cheap to produce "My Life on the D-List," "Flipping Out," and the soon to return "Project Runway." Also, I started watching E!'s "Denise Richards: It's Complicated." I'm not sure why, but I am very attracted to her. She doesn't seem as bad as the media has made her out to be, plus she was in one of the best bad movies of our time, "Wild Things."

Also looking forward to the return of "America's Got Talent," because honestly, for the most part it doesn't, and it's always fun to watch the crappy performers. And I dig Sharron Osborne and the Hoff.

And my own summer reality? That could be a show, too. Scott dealing with myriad problems that face a 124 year old house. Scott working on his apparel start-up. Scott traveling back and forth to the new beach house in New Jersey. Scott trying to get a damned agent to notice his frakking novel. Scott welcoming a new niece to the family. Scott looking decidedly 24 when he's really 38. You'd want to watch that, right? lol

This from a CNN piece on McCain and Bush calling for Congress to lift the ban on off-shore drilling here:

New drilling already could be in the works 50 miles off the Florida coast -- by Cubans, not Americans, with help from China and other allies. A rich undersea oil field stretches into Cuban waters near the Florida Keys.

"The people I represent can't understand how we can possibly let China end up with rights to our oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico because we say we're not going to do it and they say, 'OK, we'll do it and we'll work with Cuba, if we have to, to do it,'" said U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tennessee. "That's really asinine."

I'm all for loving Mother Earth, but we can't be the pussies of the world while everyone else takes advantage of us.

I shouldn't be negative but I just love that picture below. I should only put forward my thoughts on how to improve our country instead of passing on negatives, but I'm not always good about that. Especially when this picture is so great—a play on the popular Obama for Prez poster.

I know we need someone in the White House who isn't a socialist and who is committed to limit government waste and stop our policing of the whole world; I'm just not sure who that should be. I can say though, without a doubt, that it should not be Obama. For the life of me, I can't understand why so many educated folks, and so many of my friends (even former Republicans and so-called libertarians), are falling for this slick talker who has so very little experience. 

Baby Cooper finally has a name: Anna Jane Cooper. Ann. Annie. A.J.

My sister Laura and I have a grandmother named Anna, so this is kinda cool. I don't have any new photos to share yet...but they are coming. I hear she's perfect though. I'll be meeting her on Sunday.

I'm pretty sure that Angelina Jolie is the most beautiful woman in the world after my mom. I'd take the lips down a few notches, but otherwise, you can totally see what Brad sees in this lady. 

Sundays will never be the same without Tim Russert.

This is a picture of Washington, DC's NBC4 anchor Wendy Rieger and (dorky-looking) me after Saturday evening's Capital Pride Parade. Wendy was the emcee at the main review stand and I was her "handler." It rained the entire time, we were soaked to the skin, Wendy got hit in the eye with a flying piece of chum from a parade float (I think it was a large metal button), she was besieged with flowers and requests for photos by enthusiastic (and tipsy) fans, the parade went by a little too fast for us to keep up with the script (which I assembled and should have edited down even more), but otherwise, everyone seemed to have a grand old time. Not sure if she'll ever want to do it again, but she claimed she had a blast. What a sport! Thanks, to Wendy and all the dedicated volunteers.

I have such mixed feelings after watching this upfronts presentation video. The CW network's reboot of "Beverly Hills, 90210," now known as just "90210," certainly has potential. You gotta love the music and you've got to love that Tori and Jennie, et al, will be back in recurring roles (although strangely, that's not mentioned in this clip job). But this new group of kids looks wrong to me and I'm not sure why they had to go and through in the whole adopted kid new to the crazy affluent world of B.H. plot line, ala "The O.C." Given the struggling network's moderate success with "Gossip Girl," perhaps there is still an audience for soapy teenage drama that isn't based on so-called reality (i.e. the no-talent, attention whores MTV's despicable, complete waste of time "The Hills.") Guess all of us X-ers will just have to stay tuned to see how it plays out.  

How can Americans support a guy like Obama who wants to raise income taxes by another 11% on people making over $2.6 million? And another 8% on those making between $600,000 (or so) and $2.6M? These are typically the people that are the most productive creators of wealth and jobs in this country. I do not understand the constant need for the left to attack our most prosperous citizens when the solutions to our nations' budget problems are so easy--cut spending. Cut the size and scope of government in half. Reduce and put limits on the public doll. Eliminate programs that don't work. Stop locking up hundreds of thousands of people for victimless crimes. Stop policing every inch of the world. Reinvest in America instead of pumping trillions of dollars into other countries.

And eliminate the federal income tax. Consumption taxes (at current sales tax levels) are much more fair and combined with current corporate, estate, and other taxes, bring in much more than half of what the income tax adds to the budget. If the government could control itself, it wouldn't need to bleed people dry.

What needs to be paramount for our government -- stop government waste and reduce the size of the entire federal government across the board. Only then will we have a fair, just, and equal system in this country. We should probably stop fighting stupid wars, too.

Do you ever have a Charlie Brown kind of a day when nothing goes right and you think every one hates you?

Oh really? Well...um...me neither.

I can still be a very economically conservative, free-market guy who salutes and rewards strong and prosperous businesses (both large and small) that create wealth and jobs and at the same time allow myself to become a little crunchier than I was yesterday. I care about animals and the environment. I've been blogging against horse racing recently. I think all domesticated animals should find good homes and be treated humanly with tons of love and pampering. I think whales should be protected. I want to see more workers being allowed to telecommute instead of wasting energy just so that they can sit in a cubicle and work alone all day. While they're at it, more companies should adopt a four day work week in the summer; four 10-hour days won't kill anyone and will reduce energy by 20%!

First, I'm not a PETA activist. I don't always agree with their tactics. But they do manage to shed light on some very important issues. And now I've just got to speak out about foie gras. I simply have to ask chefs and diners everywhere, "why?!" Force feed a bird by painfully sticking a metal tube down it's throat. Make it big and fatty as fast as possible. Kill it, rip out it's fatty liver and cook it up. All the chefs on Bravo's "Top Chef" used it recently. Chefs and restaurant owners in Chicago are cheering the recent lifting of a two-year foie gras ban there. I just don't get why this cruel fatty piece of meat is such a hot commodity. People really miss it if it when it's off menus? The people of the U.K., Germany, Finland, Norway, and many other countries, where foie is illegal, seem to be getting by just fine. (In 2012, foie gras will be illegal in California. Not sure why lawmakers would allow it four years, but it's a start.)

Sure, humans are carnivores. I get that. And I dig most traditionally prepared meats. Let's just treat our meat humanely while its alive. I wholeheartedly believe in individual liberty and personal responsibility, but no one has the freedom to be needlessly cruel just for a delicacy. So there.

Damn all those wasted hours I spent watching so-bad-they're-good sitcoms from the 1970's and 1980's! Where was YouTube when I needed it? Here, the average 22-minute sitcom has been boiled down to just over 4 minutes. All the entertainment and plot points, only 75% shorter. Enjoy.