Columns

WASHINGTON -- Fifty years ago, a metaphor became concrete. Beginning on Aug. 13, 1961, along West Berlin's 27-mile border, the Iron Curtain became tangible in a wall of precast slabs of concrete.

Never before has there been a televised presidential candidates debate so short a time before the Iowa Republicans' Ames straw poll.

"You've damaged your own race," said Mayor Michael Nutter to the black youths of Philadelphia whose flash mobs have been beating and robbing shoppers in the fashionable district of downtown.

Why Iowa? It was the 29th state to be admitted to the Union, it is the 30th state in population, it has given the nation Grant Wood's "American Gothic" and Meredith Willson's "The Music Man."

While politicians in Washington, D.C., struggle with our nations debt, out-of-control spending and the recent downgrade in our nations credit rating by Standard & Poor's, Florida received an upgrade from the same credit rating agency from negative to stable.

The decision by Standard & Poor's to strip the United States of its AAA credit rating, for the first time, has triggered a barrage of catcalls against the umpire from the press box and Obama-ites.

In Don Marquis' classic satirical book, "Archy and Mehitabel," Mehitabel the alley cat asks plaintively, "What have I done to deserve all these kittens?"

The Senate and House ended the debt standoff with the president by passing the debt deal this past Monday evening.

Why aren't voters moving to the left, toward parties favoring bigger government, during what increasingly looks like an economic depression?

NBC has placed a new drama called "The Playboy Club" on its fall schedule to capitalize on the scandalous sound of America's most famous pornography empire.