Hurricane Earl, Discovery Channel Hostage Situation, Anti-Bullying Efforts Under Attack, And A Dancing Dog

Hi everyone. I'm pretty short on time tonight, so the bullet points won't be containing much detail. In fact, much of this may not make sense if you didn't actually watch the broadcast. Um, sorry? Don't worry, there's a dancing dog at the end:

• Here comes Hurricane Earl! Annnd...now that Dixie Chicks song is stuck in my head. Again. Anyway. Listen to the evacuation orders, people. Don't make me worry about you!

• After adhering to my usual strategy of ignoring (most) breaking news as it's in the process of breaking in order to avoid the inevitable wrong information, I knew very little about the whole Discovery Channel hostage thing. Gotta say, Discovery would not have been my first pick as the channel that made someone get their hostage crisis on. That sound bite with James Lee and the NBC producer was pretty amazing.

• Tom Foreman's piece was perfectly fine, but did anyone else notice the big "Rick's List" in the background at one point?
  

• Hey, Amber Lyon again. She's getting a lot of flack for her Craigslist ambush. Not sure how I feel about that, but I still kinda like her. Don't care much about what any psychologist said though. But props to 360 for not having one on to speculate for a whole segment. Yeah, don't do that!

• What the hell was that pinging noise?! I felt like we were on life support...or watching the show "24."

• The show deserves credit for keeping up with the bullying issue. I read about the opposition to the Safe Schools Improvement Act and am glad they're giving it coverage. I suppose at this point I shouldn't find anything Focus on the Family does surprising, but it's still a bit hard to fathom that their intolerance is so great that they'd even let it get in the way of preventing children from being bullied. Children.

• Focus on the Family's Candi Cushman made no sense. She said a lot of sentences, but they rarely answered Anderson Cooper's questions and they rarely applied to practical life.

• Yay to Rosalind Wiseman for articulately explaining why what Candi advocates isn't going to work. Referring to something bad as "gay" is pretty pervasive among kids. Years ago my brother had a friend who used to do that constantly. He'd even argue with me about it--thought it was no big deal. Yes, it's a big deal. Kids need to know that.

• Rosalind to Candi regarding what Focus on the Family advocates: "In all respect, it does not in any way reflect the reality of what schools are like. So we can have policies that are about ideal reality or we can have policies that are about concrete reality and reflect what children are experiencing. And that's when we become relevant to young people." I think this is pretty much what it comes down to on a myriad of subjects--from bullying, to birthers, to terror babies, and everything in between. People like Candi have their own idea of what the world should be, and damn the facts of the reality of what it actually is. What this means for the sane among us, well, probably nothing good.

• Back to Chad, is it just me or did he sound a bit pissed? Ruh-roh. I hope he's not stressed out because this is going to be a big one, which was something we saw from him before Hurricane Katrina. Great, now I'm really worried. Deep breaths, Chad!

• Tonight's "Text 360" question was from--wait for it--Lilibeth in Edmonds, Washington! Cracks me up. Lilibeth, if you're out there (we know you're a fan of the show!), I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at the fact that 360 continues to do this gimmick, even though they can apparently only get one viewer to text them anything worthy of putting on the air. How many times has it been for Lilibeth now? At least a half dozen. But hey, go her!

• How much do we love Isha Sesay? A lot, that's how much.

• The "shot" tonight was particularly exciting for me. Why? Because I gave it to them! You might remember it as last night's final bullet point. As soon as I saw it I knew this video was practically made for the 360 kids. Yes, I helped get a dog dancing the merengue onto the most trusted name in news. You're welcome, America! I believe my life is pretty much complete now.

• The show wasn't bad. You'll notice some segments have gone unmentioned. Kinda zoned out there. It happens.