Bump and Update: The Gulf Coast is hunkering down. CNN says the eye wall has made landfall in Fort Walton Beach, Florida in Santa Rosa County. Landfall looks to occur within the next hour devastating the Pensacola area. CNN says It's a category three, 120 miles per hour right now.

CNN's Anderson Cooper is back from London recouping his role from Hurricane Ivan and is down in Pensacola in his rain gear, shouting over the rain and wind.

For personalized late breaking Hurricane Dennis updates, check out the Central Florida Hurricane Center 2005 - it's run by weather hobbyists. For official news, check out the National Hurricane Center or National Weather Service.

Are any talkleft readers in Dennis' path? If so, please keep us updated in the comments.

America Blog writes:

This is one of those emails going around, and it worked for me, and now I'm kind of freaked out. Read through this - and finish each mathematical calculation before moving on to the next question - then post in the comments if it worked for you, and someone please explain why. Because it worked for me.

At the end of this message, you are asked a question. Answer it immediately. Don't stop and think about it. Just say the first thing that pops into your mind. This is a fun "test"... AND kind of spooky at the same time! Give it a try, then e-mail it around (including back to me) and you'll see how many people you know fall into the same percentage as you. Be sure to put in the subject line if you are among the 98% or the 2%. You'll understand what that means after you finish taking the "test".

It didn't work for me, but how about you?

As America celebrates Freedom today, here are some thoughts on what freedom means:

And some thoughts on what it means to be an American.

A woman, in a hot air balloon, realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude, and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me. Can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago. But, I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS, and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 11 degrees, 14.97 minutes North latitude, and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes West longitude.

She rolled her eyes, and said, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

In the "you can't make this stuff up" department....A battle is brewing in South Africa over an anti-rape device planned to be sold along side of tampons in supermarkets. It was designed by a woman.

The tampon-like device, invented by a woman, supposedly protects women from rapists by cutting into a man’s p*nis.

Feministing has more.

Is there anyone who hasn't been tagged yet? Melanie of Just a Bump in the Beltway got me. I put it off for a week, but now that I see everyone from Avedon Carol to Patrick Nielsen Hayden to Digby (I can't find the permalink, I just remember reading it) and Suburban Guerilla have responded, here's mine:

The following allegedly were taken off of actual police car videos around the country. I culled it down to the best ten.

#10 "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch out after you wear them awhile."

#9 "Take your hands off the car, and I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."

#8 "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"

#7 "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy, and step in monkey $#!*!."

Memorial Day, 2005: Three views I share, as an American, a daughter and a mother:

BeliefNet.org

Over the past century, more than 35 million men and women answered the call to arms in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and countless unnamed military engagements. More than half a million of them never came home. Some died in battle, others in captivity; all died too soon.

Recent military action in Afghanistan and Iraq has offered fresh reminders of the human reality of war: ordinary men and women leaving homes and families and all they know to risk their lives for an ideal of honor, or duty, or just to protect the soldier next to them.

People of patriotism and goodwill may debate the merits of any given war, police action, or humanitarian mission. But there should be no debate about our debt to the hundreds of thousands of our citizens who have given the ultimate sacrifice of their lives heeding the nation's call to service.

Memorial Day is more than the start of summer. It is a chance to pause and remember the sacrifices -- remember the gallantry and bravery -- remember the fallen.

I'm a "cultural creative." Discourse.Net (where I found the quiz) is an existentialist. Here are my results:

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative 69%
Postmodernist 63%
Existentialist 56%
Materialist 38%
Romanticist 31%
Modernist 25%
Idealist 19%
Fundamentalist 0%

Anyway, if you have a moment for fun today, take the test.

What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com

Couldn't resist this one, found on Craig's List in the "men seeking women" category and sent in by the Freeway Blogger, who has moved up to the Bay Area -- "If you're boyfriend is a Republican, I want you now."

by TChris

Severed fingers as a food product are again making headlines. First there was this strange case, which led to criminal charges. Now Clarence Stowers of North Carolina, who purchased a pint of frozen custard, found "a piece of severed finger lost by an employee in an accident."

"I thought it was candy because they put candy in your ice cream … to make it a treat," Stowers told [WWAY-TV]. "So I said, ‘OK, well, I'll just put it in my mouth and get the ice cream off of it and see what it is.'"

Realizing the object wasn't candy, Stowers rinsed it off and "just started screaming."

In the "you can't make this stuff up" department: The toad story is like a real-life twilight zone. They're still in Germany, but may be moving into Denmark.

Dave Cullen of Conclusive Evidence can't look away and is following the gruesome story. And Instapundit makes a connection between the toads and the Salazar/Dobson feud. Question though: Who's the toad and who's the crow?

If you haven't read about the toads yet, go now. You won't be sorry, maybe just a little sick to your stomach.

Update: On a much more pleasant note, Defenders of Wildlife has a plea to save the ivory-billed woodpecker.