Idea Whiplash

Yup. An influential Republican senator suggested Thursday that Congress might want to consider reimposing a national speed limit to save gasoline and possibly ease fuel prices. Sen. John Warner has asked the Energy Department at what speeds vehicles would be most fuel efficient. Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to look into what speed limit would provide...

This is kind of cool. Hawthorne Bridge Operator.

Fuel out of food. It's kind of like opening a giant hubris factory. Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global...

This was the Bozo I knew as a kid in Southern California. I even saw him in person. Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83. I can't imagine how many kids this guy made laugh in his lifetime. RIP Bozo....

Having no compelling religious affiliation, the 4th of July has long been my favorite holiday. Most often, I celebrate with a barbeque and by blowing up a thing or two. (Jefferson said to celebrate the 4th, ". . . with bonfires and illuminations.") The holiday is a secularist's delight but retains a certain reverential point on the national compass in the guise of the founding document. And, I...

You know a Republican presidential candidate is on trouble when it's July and they are running an ad in Virginia. Obama is going to have these guys playing defense in red states across the map. Lovely . . . ....

Not since Jimmy Carter has a Democratic Presidential candidate been able to speak with some ease and clarity on religious issues. While I am not sure if this is a bad or good thing, I do know that his radio ad portends a stunning change in the narrative of the presidential politics of the last 3 decades. The far right Christianists and liberal secularists are liable to be longing for the good old...