Appears to be centered around the city of Christchurch again and registered 6.3 on the Richter scale. This same area was his by a quake just 5 months ago. So far now word of major damage or injuries. Updates indicate there may be ‘many deaths’. Pretty good coverage can be found here

Reports now coming in that the city of Bengahzi that the Libyan military has joined the protests and has in effect defected from the government. Bengahzi is the 2nd largest city in Libya and therefore this could be a major blow to the current regime. Also news that the son of dictator Ghaddafi’s will speak on state TV tonight. The speech has now been given and young Mr. Ghadaffi pretty much said nothing. The central theme seemed to be that if we fight then we threaten the stability of Libya...

Come on folks… sing right along and always look on the bright side of life

The California Supreme Court has voted unanimously to decide the issue of who has the standing to defend Proposition 8. This move is in response to a request from the Federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the subject. Without getting too deep into legal doubletalk, the issue stems from the fact that when Proposition 8 was challenged in the courts neither Governor Schwarzenegger or Attorney General Jerry Brown were willing to defend the it. In essence the opponents sued the state of California and...

Imagine that you are a school administrator and it is brought to your attention that a young student (six or eight years old depending on the source) has drawn a disturbing violent picture and written a note indicating he wants to die. Obviously this is a disturbing situation and something you need to deal with. But what do you do ? Do you contact his parents ? Do you talk to the child ? Do you arrange for a school therapist to help out with the situation ? Do you do some combination of the three...

This is unreal, a county employee died at her desk and it took as long as a day for her body to be discovered by a security guard. None of her co workers noticed or spoke to her it seems.

Not exactly sprouting freedom and democracy yet in Tehran.

From time to time I like to toss in a non political post and offer some entertainment ideas for the readers of TMV. For most US television viewers, Hugh Laurie is best known as Dr. House on the television series of the same name. But as many of you may know Laurie is actually English and his House character is done with an American accent. Prior to House he had a successful career in both British and US film and also on British television. One of those performances was on a series based on the PG...

It’s just one of those stories that really make you feel good about people.

The senator in this video is John Pastore (D-RI) who was known for being a grumpy and humorless man. Rogers took him down without firing a shot

For hours we had been waiting for the speech and everyone was wondering what had been taking so long. It now seems the delay was because the military and Mubarak were trying to hash out some sort of deal that would satisfy everyone. It does not look like they succeeded. The speech began with a litany of all the amazing things that he’s done for Egypt, seemingly skipping only the fact he personally dug the Suez Canal. Then it discussed the same things he said in the last speech that nobody approved...

Amid the riveting news in Egypt is a story out today about the cost of the flyoverat the Super Bowl this year, estimated at around 400,000. I’m not much of a sports fan and only half watched the Super Bowl but I have to say this seems like a bit of an overreaction. As pointed out by some of the comments to the linked article, pilots have to log a set number of hours in the air every year to maintain flight status. So if this particular flight hadn’t done a Super Bowl flyover on Sunday...

After seeing two of their seats (ND and Va) tip heavily to the GOP the Senate Democrats got some better news today with the retirement of Arizona Senator Jon Kyl (R). While the GOP certainly has a strong bench in Arizona (as noted in linked story) the Democrats also have good contenders including former governor and homeland security chief Janet Napolitano and potentially Rep Giffords, if her recovery allows it.

Just in case the planners for 2012 are reading this..

I must confess up front to not being a big fan of the Super Bowl. It’s not that I’m hostile to it, I’ve been to my share of Super Bowl parties and I will watch if someone else turns it on. But otherwise I’m just as happy to watch something else (I will DVR the game to catch the ads and big plays). I tend to be that way about most big sporting events, not a huge fan but not hostile either. However there is one aspect to the game that I think kind of interesting to discuss,...

As we mark the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan there are posts and commentaries in abundance all over the internet and in watching them I can’t help but to try and consider what the man himself would have wanted to see today. Of all the things people can say about him the one truth is he was a firm believer in listening to all sides and respecting the other guy’s point of view. Despite the fact that he and House Speaker Tip O’Neill disagreed on many issues the men remained friends,...

While we were mostly focused on Egypt, the White House had a mini crisis of its own on Thursday when the email system went down for most of the day. On the one hand the story is sort of amusing, the image of people long-addicted to email and the internet being forced to (gasp) actually come into direct contact with their co workers to get things done. But at the same time it does present a question of how they would deal with a real cyber-attack, presuming that this was just an actual normal problem.

This is an amazing speech, and God bless Zach and his family! Two very lucky parents.

Right now on CNN Anderson Cooper is reporting from a semi-darkened hotel room because he has been told to barricade himself and his crew and to turn off the lights for their personal safety. Gunfire is periodically interrupting the program as it appears that somebody, presumably either pro-Mubarak protesters or police or elements of the army, have opened up on the square. This is NOT good, folks. I can’t say much more than go turn on CNN and watch. The State Department is urging all US citizens...

One of the Bush twins announced it today. Personally I suspect her dad agrees with her but we probably will never know.

As we watch the growing protests in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other Egyptian cities the question we have to ask is what direction the protests will take and where Egypt is headed in the coming years. I think we all would agree that any sort of Western-style democracy is not likely in the near future. Egypt literally has thousands of years of history with little or no experience with democracy, so they are not going to evolve to it overnight (heaven knows we still haven’t figured...

Twenty five years ago today I was sitting in a physics class when I heard the devastating news of the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. At 11:39 am (EST) they ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God’. With thanks to John Denver and a You Tube User I offer this post as a tribute to the brave men and women who gave their lives for us all. May God Bless Their Memory. And like Mr. Denver, I would ride that arrow of fire any day. I cannot believe it has been...

As we move closer to the time for the State of The Union speech I am starting to wonder about whether it is really worth debating to discussing. Don’t get me wrong I understand that is something of a state occasion for us and that the President will propose an agenda. But at the same time we all already know pretty much what the agenda will be. I don’t mean any disrespect but it seems to me these speeches are sort of like those cartoons where they show what your dog or cat hears when...

News reports out that VP Joe Biden reported for jury duty today but was subsequently excused. Now I think we all appreciate the symbolism of him reporting just like any other citizen but the fact is he is not just any other citizen. He was never going to serve on a jury for the simple reason that if he did the loser in the case would have had a solid basis for appeal. In addition his being there required extra security, Secret Service, etc. I appreciate the gesture but, considering he was never going...

Just something for us all to enjoy, one of the legends of stage and film Pay attention to the unbelievable performance of Spoonful of Sugar in part 2. WOW