One of the supreme ironies of our time is that a religiously-motivated US president went to war in the name of God to set up a non-religious state in Iraq to protect Americans against a highly religious movement known as Al Qaeda.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England, stirred up a storm when he spoke of the Nativity as a "myth." The Pope didn't have that problem. Perhaps the Pope has a stronger brand identity than does the Church of England?

The Omaha mall incident adds 9 more victims onto this year's tally of innocents who died because of gun control.

Armed citizens make it a bit harder to do evil.

The secret of safety was and is crime prevention, not crime investigation.

A nation has to be unified enough that people want to share a government.

Never ascribe to hostility what can be explained by stupidity.

A chain of progression - one leads to the next, then the next...

There's no simple cure for loneliness, but there is a simple answer to the #2 question, "Why are men such couch potatoes?" What does a man want more of that he could have more of if he were in better shape?

Will there be unity in Iraq? Saddam proved that fear can unite Iraqis enough to get them to stop killing each other, but it's not clear that anything less will do the job.