This story out of Wales. A couple of presumably drunk street thugs saw some drag queens on the street in the town of Swansea and decided that it was their job to go over and take care of the guys they saw as wimps. Well it turns out those guys were a couple of cage fighters. They proceeded to beat the crud out of their attackers. Just goes to show that homophobes shouldn’t be so sure that all gay men are...

About a month ago, I wrote an article about Jonathan Ayers, a Georgia Baptist Pastor who was killed by a plain-clothes undercover narcotics officer during a botched raid. As I mentioned in that article, Ayers was not the target of the investigation, but was shot by one of the narcotics officers as he attempted to drive away. According to the county sheriff, Ayers was shot because he struck one of the officers...

NOTE: I hope to periodically post on pending cases before the Court to give those who don’t follow the law an idea of what is going on. I will try to keep things in English but do need to use some legal language to explain what is going on with cases. I’d appreciate feedback as to whether my writing is too technical or if it is helpful Thanks. The late Justice Hugo Black was known for being absolutist...

I must confess that I have not been a huge fan of Dancing With The Stars, my viewing is usually limited to catching highlights if they happen to have a contestant I find interesting. I’m also not particularly a fan of former Congressman Tom Delay, I found him to be arrogant in his attitude towards his peers and his rivals. However when I heard he was going to be on DWTS this season I was interested enough...

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) spent much of the Bush administration questioning just about everything they did as giving too much power to the Executive branch. Today he called the Obama White House to task for some of the people he has named to act as Czars. Of course he did excuse many of the appointments, something which I doubt he would have done in the Bush years, but at the same time he has been one of...

Gold rose into record territory today. Parsing the reasons it did so could lead one into rather uncomfortable speculations about future inflation, the strength of the U.S. dollar, and even whether the dollar will long remain the world’s leading currency. But Gold’s current surge also tells another story. A tale of utterly stupid government policy in response to an utterly stupid theory of a single...

Shame on the established America media for giving so much air time to convicted former Congressman James Traficant who offers nothing but a populous sound bite and venom to his former colleagues. Since his release from prison last month, Traficant has spent much of his time on the air waves pleading his innocence to a racketeering conviction and vendetta against the Justice Department and the Jewish lobby. He...

Popular Republican Congressman Mike Castle is running for the US Senate seat formerly held by Vice President Joseph Biden. This is a big recruiting catch for Senate Republicans and a big downer for House Republicans. Castle’s House seat is now likely to go Democratic in November 2010 but he is at least an even bet, if not a slight favorite to pick up a Senate seat for the GOP. Democrats are waiting to...

For those who are not aware, the first Monday in October is the traditional opening day for the new session of the United States Supreme Court. While not all of the cases are going to be groundbreaking we are likely to see a few major decisions between now and the closing of the session in June or July of 2010. Although Justice Sotomayor is sitting for her first full session it is not likely that this will represent...

With Sunday football back upon us, it’s a good time to ask about the potential for more rules changes being considered currently by the NFL. The rules in the NFL change only at a glacial pace which is generally a good thing. You don’t want to mess too much with a winning formula. But they do change on occasion. Some have been minor tweaks with varying levels of success. A few have been really boneheaded...

Some readers occasionally comment that some of our contributors write or comment more frequently and extensively on events or news items that support their own political views or their own opinions on issues. Without admitting that my colleagues do such, and speaking strictly for myself, I find that this is a natural tendency, but one that I try to “control,” periodically. For example, I believe that way...

While doing some research on the Afghanistan war for another publication, I soon discovered that there is no shortage of opinions—many of them “expert” opinions—on how to conduct and conclude that war. It made me realize how excruciatingly difficult it must be for the president—faced with an overabundance of advisers and advice—to divine the right policy and strategy to bring that...

Wait! Dont jump off the roof because the bestseller lists have turned into books from the Right screaming at books from the Left, and visa versa. Here are some of the silly, interesting, wondrous books, and also a couple Left/ Right books forthcoming yet this year 2009, and in 2010 and one (#21), oddly but probably precipitously planned for 2011 ‘just in time’ for the 2012 elections. These are ones...

For months the stock market has resembled a smoker who knows it’s time to quit but can’t give up the weed just yet. For this smoker there’s always some occasion that seems to require one more butt. A stress situation that can only be met with a smoke. That cup of morning coffee, or the after dinner nicotine closer. Or being with someone else doing the drag you can’t watch without bumming...

Because of a scheduling conflict yesterday, we’ve had to push back the line-up for our weekly show, Mid Stream Radio, to Friday morning at 10 am eastern. (An ungodly 7 am pacific.) We’ll be picking apart the fast breaking, though likely irrelevant David Letterman sexual affairs story, as well as a little reported attempt at a federal landgrab in Utah. If there’s time we’ll look at a few...

Paul B. Fay Jr., who died this week at 91, was a crony so close that John F. Kennedy appointed him Undersecretary of the Navy over the protests of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The role of Red Fay, as everyone called him, in Kennedy’s life was much more personal than political. Sons of Irish-American wealth who had met in the Navy during World War II, they bonded to the point that Fay was an usher...

We don’t always cover the entertainment world here at TMV but it’s the start of a new TV season and I like to try and find one show each year that is truly worth watching. For me this year that show is the Fox Series Glee. If you aren’t familiar with the program, it is set in a typical High school and focuses on the Glee club. In addition to having the typical school tv show stuff (hard working...

You can’t fit the entire health care debate into a 4 panel comic strip. But you can make one snarky remark about the American people, can’t you?

Yesterday was my daughter’s birthday. She is 20 years old. Joni Mitchell’s achingly beautiful song “The Circle Game” seemed appropriate (especially as I used to sing it to her when she was younger). I found this lovely alternate version of the song, by Ian McCulloch, at YouTube. I hope you all will indulge me:

Funny how he was ok with it when he was making money off of them. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20309404,00.html

“[Let's] remember we should care about people even after they’re born. …” Alan Grayson, speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives about the recent Harvard study showing that 44,000 Americans die every year because they lack health insurance.

Word coming in now that the death toll in Indonesia could be in the thousands…..

Let me begin by saying that I don’t really have strong feelings one way or another when it comes to President Obama heading to Denmark to push Chicago for the Olympics. But as the story has developed I’ve heard some things that do make me wonder about the whole story. When I first heard the reports that he was going to make this trip I assumed it would be for a few days and would probably involve...

Where have you heard this before: “We believe that the decision to perform a medical or surgical procedure should be made by the ____ in consultation with their ____.” If you filled in the blanks with “patient” and “physician,” you were wrong. The correct answer is your cat and veterinarian. In California, it seems the health care debate has spread to cats. Specifically, the...

Just when you think you couldn’t get angrier about the utter stupidity of our military engagement in Iraq, another news item comes along to extend and enlarge the rage. This was a tidbit I ran across this morning in the English version of today’s Tehran Times. It reports that the speaker of Iraq’s parliament is in Iran now to discuss security cooperation between the two countries with an an...