What Don’t You Know About Reagan

by | Jan 22, 2008 | 0 comments

Not coincidentally, last week also saw the introduction of a new documentary which attempted (with some success) to unravel the many facets of this complicated man.  I believe that the documentary concludes that he is neither the consummate paragon of conservative political thought that many would have him be, nor the ultimate example of political buffoonery that others believe.  The truth for Reagan, as for most, lies somewhere in-between.  As you will see by reading or, for some of you, rereading the posting I published in the heat of the 2008 elections, my inclination is toward the buffoonery end of the continuum.  I remain, however, open to debate. In one...

What’s That Smell?

by | Jan 16, 2008 | 0 comments

I don’t imagine that many of you have had the occasion to want or need to catch a skunk (carnivora mephitidae), and if so, you are indeed fortunate.  For catching a skunk isn’t all that easy and is only done at some great personal peril.  Not peril to life and limb, although one hears of the odd rabid skunk snapping at some unsuspecting sole, usually in the city, but peril to ones olfactory process.  More to the point, you can smell really bad for a long time if you get in the way of a skunk at the wrong time. Of all the human senses, the sense of smell is perhaps the least understood from a physiological sense.  We all, or most of us, have noses through which...