Sometimes you run across a story that is just too amazing to believe. Brian Wood, a video game designer, and his wife were driving to visit family members when the driver of an oncoming vehicle tried to take off her sweater while her passenger took the wheel. As Wood and his wife watched the other vehicle swerved into their path. With only seconds to react, Wood slammed on his brakes and swerved to the right, deliberately putting himself in the direct path of the oncoming car. He was killed instantly,...

The title pretty much says it all. In the contest for the most screwed up GOP in the country, New York pretty much is winning the race. They could have nominated a relatively respected former Congressman in Rick Lazio. Instead they nominated Carl Paladino, best known to voters outside New York for sending emails containing,among other things, what can most tactfully be described as containing a real detailed version of the ‘birds and the bees’ To be fair, either Lazio or Paladino would...

Admittedly this projection is about seven weeks early but with the Tea Party celebrating victories in Alaska, Delaware and possibly New Hampshire, any chance the GOP had of taking over the US Senate is dead. Delaware, which was a 99% GOP win with Castle is now a 75% D lock. Alaska is probably going to work out for the GOP thanks largely to the weakness of the D candidate but it’s still going to be closer than it should be. New Hampshire is up in the air, but the Tea Party candidate is far...

In reviewing the recent primary activity by the Tea Party and the more conservative elements of the GOP I have been amazed at their willingness to give up seats for the sake of purity. Perhaps it is only because I am reading the books at the same time but I cannot help but be reminded of comments by Henry Kissinger with regard to the arms treaties signed with the Soviet Union during the 1970s. At that time many on the right were outraged that the Nixon and Ford administrations were willing to not...

A federal judge has ruled that the military policy of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is unconstitutional because it violates the 1st amendment rights of servicemembers. Judge Virginia Phillps (a Clinton appointee to federal bench but a GOP appointee to state bench) ruled that the law is unconstitutional on its face and issued an injunction. I presume this will be appealed, especially since past rulings have accepted limits on the rights of the military when it was necessary for national security. Personally...

Chicago Major Richard Daley is not running for re-election marking an end to another era of Chicago politics. Between them, Daley and his father (the original Mayor Daley) have governed the city for about 43 of the last 55 years. There is no question that the Democrats will hold the seat, only who will be picked by Daley to take over. There also remains speculation that since WH Chief of Staff Emmanuel has expressed interest in running for Mayor that Daley may have been offered some nice Cabinet...

The comedian has died from injuries in a car accident I was not always a fan of his humor, but he did a lot of quiet volunteer work for cancer survivors and I greatly admire that. RIP

Looks like Chris is not very happy with the teleprompter Obama

I suspect for most readers this will come down to an ‘only in California’ comment. The long and short of it is the fire marshal requiring the removal of the latch which allows the nozzle to fill up without you holding it. The report cited *13* cases in which this brand of of nozzle had stuck and spilled gas on the ground. Now I am certainly not one who wants dangerous products to be used and obviously you have to be very cautious when it comes to gasoline. But thirteen cases ? There are...

Personally I am still uncertain as to how things will play out this fall but Larry Sabato (a fairly well respected and neutral analyst) is calling the House a done deal and the Senate as in play. I do think this will be a bad year for the Democrats, off year elections almost always are for the party in the White House. I also think that for each party the worst outcome would be narrow control. And of course we must factor in the Tea Party and its ability to screw everything up for the GOP.

UPDATE: The gunman has been killed by police and the hostages are safe ************************************************* Sadly not a show on the network but a real world crisis. The suspect is James Jay Lee, a man with a history of protesting the network for not airing the proper kind of programming on the environment. Reports are he has hostages, a gun and some bombs (bomb equipment on site from the police too). He has a page on Myspace(for now). He also published a manifesto (on a site that appears...

I’ve been expecting it ever since Health Care Reform passed but i just got word that my health insurance premiums are going up 20% this year. First big increase (other than for age bracket) changes in some time. I will absorb the hike, probably by dropping dental coverage (which is to me of debatable value) and being single I am not in too bad of a position. I can only imagine what a family of four might experience. Of course part of my issue is being self employed I don’t have employer...

I often disagree with the politics over on Red State but found this story very interesting as it is pretty much first (or second) person on how to survive Katrina. To be fair not everyone had a relative to help and not everyone could get to a car, but it does go to show that there were options. This does not reduce the seriousness of the suffering or the need to learn from mistakes, but it is always useful to see all the sides of a story.

Get Equal is a group that has a Facebook page and supports Same Sex Marriage Rights. They had an interesting post today PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT SAME-SEX MARRIAGE -Dick Cheney -Ted Olson -Laura Bush and Cindy McCain -Glenn Beck -Ken Mehlman PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE -President Obama

After you’ve cleared your mind of various what the comments, you can read this article about a school in Mississippi that has decided to segregate class elections, only allowing whites to run for some offices and only allowing blacks to run for others. I suppose the theory was this insures that there will be class officers of both races but how dumb can you get.

One of our loyal readers brought this article to my attention and it is well worth reading and considering. The article compares the US and German economies and the fact that while our economy is still struggling the German economy is moving along and a steady clip. Since the growth (or lack thereof) is only reflected by a short period of time the author does not suggest that it proves our model wrong or the German model right, but it is interesting to ponder. The point he does make however that...

Obviously we all hope and pray for the rescue to succeed, but what mental control does it take to accept four months before rescue..

Sometimes we are reminded why some things are more important than others For many young men making it in Major League Baseball is the dream of a lifetime. But for one man, having his father watch him play is far more special. Logan Morrison plays for the Florida Marlins, and certainly that is a major accomplishment in his life. But his father has terminal lung cancer (despite never smoking) and has not been able to see him play live. But after a lot of work with doctors and a 26 hour train ride (flying...

Prepare for those goosebumps people.

No matter how you may feel about the US policy in the Middle East, you cannot help but be moved by the reunions between service members and their families. The Welcome Home Blog offers some truly touching videos

And people wonder why public schools are struggling for money. LA Opens Most Expensive School

A three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals has put a stay on same sex marriages in California, reversing a ruling by Judge Walker that said they could proceed while the case was appealed. This means no marriages until the courts review the decision, though the panel also set the case for an expedited review, setting a hearing for December 6th to determine if those supporting Proposition 8 have standing to appeal. This could mean a ruling by early 2011 (I am assuming between the holidays...

Just a side note to the debate over the partial vs full extension of the tax cuts. Whenever I hear the arguments from those who support phasing out higher income cuts, they are always called ‘the Bush tax cuts’. Yet when someone points out that there were cuts for lower income taxpayers they are told that everyone supports keeping those. Yet somehow those don’t fall into the category of ‘Bush Tax Cuts’ Now as I’ve said before I am of mixed views on the upper income...

In perhaps the least shocking move so far, embattled Congresswoman Maxine Waters has blamed (you knew this was coming) former President Bush for her ethics issues. At this point I have not read enough of the specifics to decide whether or not she is guilty of these charges though the Washington Post is defending her, at least somewhat. Being from California I’m quite familiar with Waters and certainly she is one of the more biased and intolerant members of Congress but that does not mean that...

Judge Walker has lifted his stay effective Wednesday August 18th. On that date same sex couples can get married under the law. I expect opponents will appeal this ruling to the 9th Circuit (which is why the stay won’t be lifted for a week) and it is possible they could impose a stay of their own but I am hopeful they will not do so.