Profound thanks are due televangelist Pat Robertson for stating so clearly what many of us have been screaming in the wilderness for years -- that the criminalization of marijuana is a plague on young people. May he lend courage to politicians who know better but won't do the right thing for fear of seeming "soft" on drugs.
Michigan prosecutor Jessica R. Cooper's bio boasts that she is a "pioneer in the world of women in the law." As it turns out, she is a pioneer in the world of busybodies in the law as well. Cooper is the Oakland County prosecutor who charged Leon Walker, 33, with a felony for hacking into his now ex-wife's e-mail, as he suspected that she was having an affair.
Don't believe all the Washington talk that President Obama had a great lame duck session and goes into the new year and the new 112th congress with the whip hand. Utter nonsense.
Born on Christmas day in California to a surrogate mother, weighing in at 7 pounds 15 ounces.
The son of proud fathers Sir Elton John and his civil partner David Furnish.
No statement as to whether or which of the two was the sperm donor.
Twenty-two years ago last week, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Scotland. The terrorist attack killed 270 people, including 189 Americans and 11 Scots on the ground in the small village of Lockerbie.
If you don't already know about the Kardashian sisters, you probably don't want to know. Kourtney, Kim and Khloe have grown very rich dressing like tramps and otherwise exhibiting themselves, including sessions on the toilet (viewable on their E! channel program, "Keeping up With the Kardashians").
On the day after Boxing Day, it's worth noting that Barack Obama is down but not out.
2010 was a year consumed with silly stories. The more trivial the controversy, the more airtime it consumed. Although not all the silly stories made conservatives look stupid, the more a squabble tarnished the right, the surer it was to generate talking-head babble. And then they fizzle, as most non-stories do.
Was it only a month ago that the chattering class was writing off the president as being almost as thoroughly defeated as the lame duck Congress, as the failed leader who had lost his way, popularity plummeting, accomplishments vulnerable? Insiders worried about who was up next.
The controversial anti-immigration bill passed by Arizona lawmakers this year helped and hurt the Democrats in the November election. President Obama used it when he told Latinos that they should vote to "punish our enemies" and "reward our friends" by voting Democratic. In California and Nevada, Latino voters clearly heeded that advice.
For those of us who are demographic buffs, Christmas came four days early when Census Bureau Director Robert Groves announced yesterday the first results of the 2010 Census and the reapportionment of House seats (and therefore electoral votes) among the states.
The analysis of the new census numbers were predictable, and I take issue with nearly every one. Let's start with the suggestion that population rising at the lowest rate since the Great Depression is to be lamented. Anything likened to the Great Depression can't be a positive development, right? Wrong.
To understand the depths of shame and cynicism in the partisan stalling of health legislation for 9/11 first responders, it is only necessary to recall how eagerly Republican politicians once rushed to identify themselves with New York City's finest and bravest.
At long last there are finally signs that the American Republic’s breakneck descent into full-blown socialist madness – which was fast approaching terminal velocity prior to November’s elections – could be leveling out.
A few years ago, I was in China and, through the help of a friend, had the chance to spend a few hours with a senior editor of the People's Daily --the Communist Party's voice, and the most influential journal in China.
It Never Rains in California Except when it does. Which isn't often. Usually, when it rains, we apologize to tourists and visitors, take out our (perpetually) almost new raincoats and say things like "We need this" and "Don't you just love the rain?"
It's been tough watching fellow shoppers fill their carts with Chinese imports as the People's Republic stomps on American interests and values. At WalMart, Bed Bath & Beyond and other big chains, it's hard to find goods NOT-made-in-China. Lamps, popcorn makers, kitty scratch boards. Cuisinart toasters and Emeril cookware. Made in China.
Once upon a time in America, when George W. Bush served as America's 43rd president, Democrats criticized the Bush tax cuts, especially for the wealthy. This month, President Obama called a measure extending all the Bush tax rates "a win for our economy" -- after excoriating liberal critics of his compromise tax package as "sanctimonious."
Elections have consequences. The consequences of the November 2010 elections -- and one might add the November 2009 elections in New Jersey and Virginia and the January 2010 special Senate election in Massachusetts -- became clear as lights shined over the snow at both ends of the Capitol on Thursday night.
In the last decade, the symbol for profligate federal spending was the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" -- a huge proposed span that would link the town of Ketchikan, Alaska, population 7,500, to an airport on Gravina Island. Powerful Alaska Republican lawmakers tried to stick American taxpayers with a huge chunk of the tab for this dubious project.
