Liberal-populist and Texas writer Molly Ivins died at 62 today. I sometimes read her columns since moving to Texas years ago. I almost always grew annoyed with her intensely one-sided point of view. To her, the people on the other side of the political divide were fools, liars, and detestable human beings driven by self-interested [...]

High school becomes Orwellian:
PEQUANNOCK, N.J. - Teens who drink alcohol could be caught three days later under a high school’s new testing policy for students.
The test, which will be given randomly to students at Pequannock Township High School, can detect whether alcohol was consumed up to 80 hours earlier.
Pequannock Superintendent Larrie Reynolds said the [...]

Anyone who has traveled much to Asia and has taken American Airlines to get there, and then taken some of the Asian airlines to get around Asia, is struck by the contrasts in service. Today I took American Airlines and was reminded of this. I stood up to go to the restroom and the flight [...]

Many of us are for less government regulation of our lives which is one aspect of desiring smaller government. But what about the other position - the position that government should be micromanaging our lives to promote equality? As more and more laws are put on the books, we have more and more restrictions on [...]

Okay, twist my arm, I will admit to liking this move by Hillary Clinton:
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 — The public financing system for presidential campaigns, a post-Watergate initiative hailed for decades as the best way to rid politics of the corrupting influence of money, may have quietly died over the weekend.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New [...]

Sorry for not posting more. I have been busy with other matters. I will be very busy for the next three weeks, put I’ll try to work in some new posts.
Hillary is running for president. Interesting that this may be the first time in US history that a woman has a real shot at the [...]

Via the front page of the NYTs last Sunday, we are informed that the federal government is demanding that cheerleaders obey federal instructions:
WHITNEY POINT, N.Y. — Thirty girls signed up for the cheerleading squad this winter at Whitney Point High School in upstate New York. But upon learning they would be waving their pompoms for [...]

The roads are covered in ice today in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so I sit at home. I live about an hour north of Dallas and the roads are even worse here. When moving down here from Pennsylvania in the early 80s, the first time the roads iced over (basically meaning that rain freezes on [...]

In the news today:
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Saturday challenged lawmakers skeptical of his new Iraq plan to propose their own strategy for stopping the violence in Baghdad.
“To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible,” Bush said.
Good point. The Democrat’s plan for Iraq seems to boil down to this: Just leave. This is usually [...]

I listened to President Bush’s speech tonight and then the Democratic response by Senator Dick Durbin. I have been very skeptical of any benefits from a troop surge in Iraq. However, I think that Dick Durbin may have reversed my opinion. Hearing him talk reminded me that Democrats are almost always wrong, therefore the troop [...]

Hugo Chavez is going on a nationalization campaign:
CARACAS, Venezuela - As Venezuela embarked on another six years under Hugo Chavez, the president announced plans to nationalize power and telecommunications companies and make other bold changes to increase state control as he promised a more radical push toward socialism.
“We’re moving toward a socialist republic of [...]