I think codes of ethics need to be updated to reflect the insidiousness of political power couples when they are journalists and political advisors. Newsmakers/news writers alliances should have no stranglehold over  information.

Brilliant!  What a great image!  HRC looks so dopey and remote.

I still can't get the painting of the Tsarnaev brothers escaping out the Aladdin's lamp/pressure cooker out of my head!  I want a copy of that in digital form.

I quite like Pope Francis.  He has a ton of courage and character.  He may wear a white frock, but he is one macho hombre.

How I wish Romney had won!  

It shouldn't be unusual for candidates to return to political venues to make speeches or even to shape policies.  It happens all the time outside the US.  I frankly don't see Romney's appearance at the CPAC convention as an occasion to pile on him.  

Though I am not Catholic, I admire Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II.  I think the current pope worked hard for the last one while he became infirm and barely lucid, so has been responsibe in the highest offices for a long time, and has helped make the Catholic Church vibrant.

Pope Benedict is known for being a moderniser, and I think he shows modern thinking in his decision to resign.  In this day and age of  shredding leaders through tweets, or even paragraphs taken out of context, he is wise to leave his office for a younger, quicker soul.   Issues such as gay marriage, pedophilia in the church and women to be ordained to the priesthood are hard issues that hardball types will crucify an aging pontiff over.  He is right to leave the stage if he can't deal with this crazy world of constant communication and counter-communication.

Is that Paul Krugman handing Spanky Ben Baby the money?

Chuck Whogel?  Where's he been? What's he been doing these last 4 - 6 years?

I like the Ricochet model.   There are SoCons and Libertarians of varying degree, as well as squishes.  Some are 100% objective, some fly off the handle from time to time in a subjective manner.  Everyone gets along and finds enjoyment here.  This cannot be said of other sites I have been to.  It's quite pleasant here.

I haven't read each post, so please forgive me if I suggest something already suggested.  A possible money raiser could be to put together a publication for sale on Amazon.com through Kindle.  The publication shouldn't cost too much, and could be a round up of the year using favorite contributor and member posts.  The year could be organised into months and/or events.

I don't know if posts are proprietary, so am not sure my idea is doable.  If posts are proprietary, could some of the royalties of each sale be shared around? If it is possible to compile Ricochet's best posts in not too long a time frame, it could help raise money.  You could have art and witty intros...could be fun to have in your smartphone bookcase and elsewhere.  I would buy it.

Excellent podcast, and so timely, too.  

Les Visiteurs.  Excellent, funny film!  It blends modern and medieval to make you laugh till you are silly.

The FBI was first to be contacted, so they worked to the best of their ability to locate the origins of the emails sent to Jill Kelley, who made the investigation request.  When it became known that the very top of the Intel chain was involved, protocol should have been followed carefully.  Maybe it was!  I don't know!

I think the FBI agent who contacted Eric Cantor was right to contact him as he feared the whole story could become a political toy of the White House.  Eric Cantor was right to contact the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller.  Mueller's rank is on a scale with that of Petraeus, so I think it is right he should have handled it.  How quickly did Robert Mueller take charge from within the FBI from the beginning?  I don't know.

Diane Feinstein was stunned she was not informed.  Would protocol have included her as soon as it was known Petraeus had emails involved?  None of the emails seemed important.  But, who knows?  What seems unimportant could be codes and tip offs.

One of my brothers used to live in Strongsville, OH, which is in Cuyahoga County.  I have been there. Strongsville doesn't seem to me to be a town that would mainly be behind Obama.  There are a few other fairly well to do towns close by, all suburbs of Cleveland, that would not follow Obama.  

Hard for me to accept a monolithic vote for Obama from the suburbs of Cleveland in Cuyahoga County.

I feel very queasy about the FBI calling all the shots over the CIA through the emails of two women.  Now the DoD orders the Pentagon to take up the slack to accuse/investigate General Allen, who is made to appear guilty from the start because of email transgressions with one of the same women as in the Petraeus case.  

The military has its own security detail, and I think they are up to the minute with cyber security.  Sorry, can't think of their title. Why haven't they been called upon to look the email trail over?  Why the FBI, unless they want to rerank the military to their own liking?

General Hamm left AFRICOM after Benghazi, Rear Admiral Gaouette investigated for "inappropriate leadership judgment" around the same time, now General Allen under scrutiny.  What is going on?  It feels like Kim Jong Il is in charge!

Am getting paranoid.  

It would take me a while to choose the five worst of all films I have seen, just because there are a lot of bad films made over time.  Sequels are usually pretty awful.  Why is that?

The only film I ever walked out on was Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ.   I couldn't stand it.  I hated the brown filter he used for a mediterranean country.  It seemed a statement from Gibson that he thought everything was sh!tty.  I hated the incessant brutality, which quickly became gratuitous.  I just did not share Gibson't basic hatred.  I found hatred an odd theme for The Passion, which is normally about redemption and the message that the savior brings grace, after all.

Maybe if I had watched the whole film, I would have seen the theme shift, but I just couldn't bear watching it.

I enjoyed the podcast a lot.  It is very informative, especially the ending minute or two update on the number of rockets launched into Israel during the month of October.  It is true that this information doesn't get the coverage it should.