Category: Bits and Pieces

Let’s get rid of carpool lanes.  As far as I can tell, they are completely counterproductive. Carpool lanes were created to give people an incentive to band together so that there wouldn’t be so many lone cars on the freeways guzzling fossil fuel.  The theory was that people stuck in

Next time you read that your fellow citizens have, by signing petitions, put something totally ludicrous on the ballot (such as Arizona’s initiative to use lotteries to bribe people into the voting booth), think of this video:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uPcthZL2RE] Hat tip: PalmTree Pundit

Mickey Spillane, who created Mike Hammer, died the other day.  NPR has a nice obituary.  The late Mr. Spillane comes across as a great American eccentric.

Just to let you know that Bardseyeview, which looks at current events through a Shakespearean lens, is up and running again after a hiatus.  This site is always interesting and a reminder, if one is needed that there is nothing new under the sun.

If you want to see incredibly beauty in the midst of Nature’s chaos, you must visit this link for photographs taken in some of the Western wildfires.  They’re just breathtaking.

     DQ again.  Just read a news article with some good background on the current crisis.  I’m not writing about the background, though, but about its assumptions as to the public’s reaction.  It suggests that if Israeli civilians are killed they will “begin clamoring for a cease-fire.”  But if Lebanese civilians

     DQ here.  I’ve been silent about the recent events in the Middle East because Bookworm knows the topic far better than I do and is doing a fine job of blogging about it.  I do want to make a couple of suggestions, though.      I keep hearing calls warning

There used to be an old expression to describe a situation in which a behind-the-scenes power was manipulating a situation. That power was called a “fine Italian hand,” which spoke to the British scene that the Italians were all Machiavellian schemers. I’ve been thinking of that expression, suitably mutated, to

I’ve had to delete my posts of the Paragraph Farmer’s pictures from S. Korea.  They’re just not showing up right, and appear to be causing loading problems all over the board.  They’re just beautiful photos, so if I ever figure it out, I’ll get back to you.

This is the first half of a Mike Gallagher column.  You should read the rest. It’s good to see Israel not just talking the talk but walking the walk. Time and time again, Israel has tried to compromise with terrorist-laden entities like the Palestinian Liberation Organization, only to be greeted

Showing once again my armchair hawk tendencies, I have to say that I’m delighted with Israel’s show of force against Hamas and Hezbollah (and the governments/countries that shelter and use them).  I’ve long thought that Israel’s restraint was an error against enemies that loudly call for her total destruction and

My parents had really awful lives. My father was raised in the slums of Weimar Germany, ended up in an orphanage, escaped Nazi Germany in 1935, was homeless in Tel Aviv for a little while, spent 1939-1944 fighting Nazis in North Africa and Southern Europe, and fought in the Israeli