JERKWATER TRAIN

Dear Anita: The words I write here will not mend your bereaved heart of a loss so profound and a wound so fresh and deep and throbbing. But it’s all I know how to do, however fruitless, in consoling your anguished soul and tender emotions. I hope you and your children will find, in time, some comfort and strength in the memories of your beloved departed husband. Yours sincerely, Ken K

It's not as though the Arabs are a different breed, they are not - think Europe two hundred years ago; They're just two hundred years behind the rest of the world. Their leaders have cheated them out of their humanity by not giving them the tools to succeed in the twenty-first century: civil rights, women's empowerment, education. Not only school children are, largely, taught superstitions and lies but also conspiracies and, in some places, hate and intolerance. The result is a people who find themselves outside of history and human progress. Hence, revolts and chaos and cruelty and injustice. And that is what the world is going to grapple with for the next few years or even decades. But this is a chance to lend our support, but only if we're asked. This is the West's opportunity to shine in the eyes of the Arabs, the aggrieved people, and dislodge itself form the claws of the oppressors and defeat terrorism decisively. It's imperative, in these trying times,

The original Walter Mitty was created by humorist Thurber, who wrote the famous story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." In Walter's real life, he is a reticent, henpecked proofreader befuddled by everyday life. But in his fantasies, Walter imagines himself as various daring and heroic characters. Thurber's popular story, which was first published in the New Yorker in 1939, was later made into a movie. Walter Mitty has since become the eponym for dreamers who imagine themselves in dramatic or heroic situations. Every family has a Walter Mitty, I know mine has two - does yours?

Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh share two attributes: They both don’t have a sound mind and know how to make millions of dollars off the fools.

One can’t help but cheer for the young Egyptians in their aspirations. They are, however, so euphoric and the whole thing is turning into a big party and Fool (Fava beans, a popular staple among poor Egyptians) and soon they will have to go back and listen to their mams and do their homework, and listen to their papas who are more worried about bread and Fool than Mubarak. ... And they all love the military because the military is somehow neutral and has not been colluding with Mubarak and his cronies for thirty years, really? ... Eventually the good people will get discouraged and disillusioned about their big exercise of rage and venting. By then a small change will have taken place. And Mubarak and his billionaire sons will be gilded into retirement, perhaps abroad, no harm done, they need to live, too. ... Historians will write about the missed opportunity of the revolt: When the fools kissed the soldiers and rode on the tanks, historians will conclude,  was the death of t