"Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage." - Charlie Chaplin

I read this morning that Phil Robertson spoke at the CPAC gathering yesterday. The Daily Beast provided a summary of his address that was interesting for what it tells us about their perspective on morality. In what can graciously be described as a condescending tone they cited a portion of his speech that addressed sexual conduct.

"'I don't want you, America, to get sick,' Robertson said, before spouting about steamless sex. 'I don't want you to become ill. I don't want you to come down with a debilitating disease. I don't want you to die early. You're disease free, she's disease free, you marry, you keep your sex right there. You don't get sick from a sexually transmitted disease.'"

This advice is described by the article's author as "anti-sex" and "contra-fun." 

Yeah, because genital herpes and drug-resistant gonorrhea is such a blast.

The forecasted inch-plus of rain got pushed back to Sunday and Monday, so we only had a few sprinkles before we left for the dog show in Scottsdale. When we got to the far side of the valley the breeze was stiff and it was pretty chilly. But we still had a great time, saw lots of very cool dogs, and had some interesting conversations with breeders and handlers. They're all very willing to talk about their dogs and the breed. While talking to the owner of a Borzoi he asked me to hold the leash while he got his arm band in place. That's not the same as driving a Ferrari but it was still cool. 

This time I remembered to take my camera:

I'm not sure what these are but they sat there like peaceful twins while the adults talked.

I'm not a particular fan of Dobermans but you gotta respect a group of fine looking dogs.

These are Portuguese Water Dogs, the breed the President owns. We saw lots of these at the show and guessed their popularity has gone up because of that, at least among Democrats.

We watched judging in confirmation (like the pics above, re. the breed standard), agility (our favorite, but impossible to capture with a camera), and obedience. Here are a group of dogs at "stay" while their owners stand 20 yards away. I don't know how long they'd been there when we arrived but in the 5 minutes or so we watched, one of them couldn't take it any longer; got up and ran with tail wagging across the grass to his owner. In the end the Golden Lab (far right) was judged the winner, and it was easy to see why. He was so relaxed I think he could still be there if that's what was called for.

I'm not sure what this is. It looks like another Water Dog but he's too big for that and his cut doesn't match. Still cool looking. 

We saw hundreds of beautiful dogs and met some interesting (and some slightly odd) people. All that for the price of parking - $5. 

A good time was had by all.