Israel already has pariah status, no? As for casualties... what happens if Iron Dome fails to swat just one rocket headed for Jerusalem or Tel Aviv?

If you keep denouncing a country for defending itself, maybe eventually it'll decide to be hung for a sheep (retaking Gaza) as for a lamb (desperately trying to avoid Palestinian civil casualties while hitting just enough targets to persuade Hamas to slow down the rocketing until next time).

Do you think there's any possibility that Israel could keep the Gaza-Egypt border open long enough to put the entire Palestinian population of Gaza into the Sinai? I suppose not, but I find it an attractive fantasy.

Pej - good points, thank you. Okay, when he absolutely has to deal with the House, compromise is possible - although I did hear some rumors that the compromise on the debt ceiling was accomplished only by telling Barack to stay in his room until the adults were done talking.

But there are so many ways he slithers around the rules - government by regulation, the wanton flouting of the law and the Constitution, and the sleazy back-door deals with our enemies - all that I expect will continue. Even more shamelessly, if that's possible.

London is insanely expensive. Have you talked to your company about housing expenses? If they'll help out with that, and/or the salary's enough to leave you comfortable after the extremely high cost of living there, I'd go for it, if only because London's a great base for short jaunts to Europe, Ireland, anywhere in Great Britain. I don't much care for London itself, but then I'm a hick; I generally don't like big cities. But thinking of Glencoe, Hadrian's wall, Cornwall, Wales, the Lake district, Brighton....Oh, yes. I'd go.

I know a lot of the 18%. The trouble with most of them is that they think they know everything. They conflate tax rates with tax revenues, they think a progressive tax structure is the same as high taxes, they "know" that ever so many disastrous predictions about global warming have already been confirmed....Who was it that said, "You can always tell a Harvard man, but you can't tell him much?"

Just as he did after the mid-terms, right?

He's not even going to consider compromising. He has more flexibility now, you know.

Thank you for that story. First bright spot in the day. Okay, I'll save my absinthe with a side of hemlock for another day.

My sentiments exactly.

I couldn't sleep either - spent most of the night refurbishing old picture frames and vowing to stop being such a political junkie.

Is there a twelve-step program to cure caring what happens to our beloved country?

What kind of "social contract" do you suggest?

And what was that somebody said about the Free Republic of Texas? Starting to sound good to me.

Texas? Nobody worries about Texas. No robocalls. No pollsters. Nice and quiet here.  Texas will go to Romney, Ted Cruz will win the Senate, why waste time campaigning?

I'm more optimistic than that. Oh, sure, Obama is dedicated to destroying America...as long as it doesn't involve anything uncomfortable or unpleasant for him, like, say, work. Sticking with a job where he's already been given notice? Not his style.

If Romney wins by so great a margin that all of Obama's lawyers can't chip it away, I expect The One to depart on an extended vacation in Hawaii. Someplace closed to those few reporters who persist in asking him about Benghazi.

Thanks for pointing out that site... I think. I've just spent way too much time gawping at the images. I keep thinking, "Now, how can I recreate that effect with beads and thread?"

Like I didn't have enough UFO's (UnFinished Objects) already.

Not to mention blatant flouting of the law and the constant attempt to restrict freedom of speech and of religion. And a press that's in bed with the administration. I truly fear the results of another Obama term. This election might not just be the most important one in my lifetime - it might be the last one in my lifetime. Does anybody doubt that he'd install himself as President-for-Life if he had the chance?

I don't think Obama's seeking to "rebrand" the Commerce Department. I think he doesn't know the Commerce Department exists.

I don't have many memories of being read aloud to, but that's probably because my mother pointed to the words as she read and before my 3rd birthday I was happily toddling around the house reading everything on the shelves without discrimination. (My mother claimed she was zipping around the shelves just ahead of me, throwing out Unsuitable Material.)

Our 3rd grade teacher read books to us during the few minutes between end of school and arrival of school buses. One month she picked The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Because I rode a city bus that left earlier than the school buses I got only fragments of the story but it stayed in my imagination for years afterwards. Somewhere around middle school a friend was given The Silver Chair for Christmas and I immediately recognized the style.

It took two or three years to get the complete set of Narnia books together but I managed it, and I still treasure those battered '50's books.

My daughters never took much interest in Narnia. I'm currently checking out neighborhood kids, hoping to find one who will see the magic and love the books.

Of course Romney's going to win Texas.

But I take it as a hopeful sign for the nation that in our nice, genteel, upper-middle-class neighborhood full of college-educated professionals, in Austin no less, I have so far seen only one Obama yard sign and no Obama bumper stickers.

Oh, wait. There are plenty of "Obama 2008" bumper stickers. But they're kind of hard to read. Most of them have that fashionably distressed look, as if somebody's been trying to scratch them off.

I've noticed the same thing. From the friends who celebrated the Arab Spring, now I'm hearing,"All these [American] politicians are paranoid." I'm not sure where the 'paranoia' idea came from, but I'm pretty sure the translation is, "My guy is going to lose and I don't want to talk about it."