Movies

I have not seen "How to Train Your Dragon" on any best film lists for 2010 and beat the heck out of "Shutter Island" and some of the others cited most often, including "Toy Story 3."

History

No pardon for Billy. The Kid remains an outlaw.

Windmills of my mind

Weather turns cold. Wind quits blowing. Big trouble in windmill country. But don't worry, French nukes saved the day (or at least warmed the toes). Thanks to Charles Oliver for this link.

Great photo

The heart and soul of the game I love. This image is so gridiron primeval, so powerful.

Hump Day Free Tune

First We Take Manhattan Stevie Ray on guitar.

Steven Chapman

Is the death penalty dying?

My Thursday column (from 2 weeks ago)

Time tabs wrong POY. From The Summerville News.

Ron Paul

NRO interviews leading libertarian.

Georgia Gummint

Cleaning up the past at Ag offices. A little too Orwellian for my taste.

Food

Bison burgers, steaks hot with consumers. Supply is tight.

Heavily bearded fellows target newspaper

And I thought Garry Trudeau was a pain in the ass.

Robert Samuelson

Bad Bob says Cut my benefits, please!

Guns

Atlanta range draws steady business. No problems so far.

Christmas at Bastogne

By John Paul Strain.

Chavez

Creates $billion fund to buy votes/help flood victims. But where will money come from? Where will it go?

Civil War

Secret message decoded. From the AJC.

WWII

Rare photos of Nazi leaders at Christmas.

Food

A recap of Top Chef Masters. From the AJC. And when will Fabio go to the gnocchi well one time too many?

A white Christmas?

My daughter will be thrilled. My wife will be catatonic. I'll be fine as ong as we get back from Summerville in time.Honey, make sure we have plenty of bourbon.

Econ 101

What can happen when a pension fund fails. The checks stop coming in small Alabama town. From the NY Times.

My recent column

Warm memories chase away biting cold.

My columns

This is most of what I did in 2010. May be a few missing. Thanks for reading.

WW II

Bismarck and Tirpitz. Great work by Steve Nuttall.

Robert Samuelson

Bad Bob says 'retiree benefits are cheating our children.' From Newsweek. "The Pew Center on the States estimates $1 trillion of underfunding for the pensions and health benefits of states."

Braves

Jerry Crasnick at ESPN writes about the return of Chipper Jones.

Movies

Kurt Loder loves 'True Grit.' My question is, how many other actors could play Rooster Cogburn? Bridges heads a mighty short list.

Games

Nine-year-old becomes youngest U.S. chess master. But Owen Bieber still gets the girls.

Lucy and Ethanol

'The cancer that is ethanol.' But the Iowa caucus voters are happy and that's what's important. Right? From The American Spectator.

In Georgia

Is horse racing in state's future? Remember when ol' Tom Murphy would denounce betting in Georgia, but still make it over to the Turf Club in Birmingham for the races?

In Georgia

Georgia Power gets huge rate increase past those toothless watchdogs at the PSC.

Guns

Chris Christie frees man jailed for owning legal guns.

Chavez

Chavez given sweeping powers by worshipful politicians.

Reds

Cuba gets the easy treatment, despite human rights abuses. From the NY Times.

Holiday hijinks

Courtesy of the Red State Update boys.

Rapid Robert dies

Bob Feller, RIP. Feller was a fantastic pitcher and a courageous veteran. Unfortunately when Imet him at a Fort Myers Miracle game he was a prick. It was a signing event and he was PO'd about soemthing and refused to sign despite the long line of fans waiting. Funny how a personal memory like that overwhelms all the public hoopla.

Chavez

Needs more power? Wants to rule by decree, as if he already didn't.

Rasslin'

'Brawl' at Hulk Hogan's wedding Let's see how they work this into an angle.

Robert Samuelson

Bad Bob looks at the rotten moral core behind our deficit woes.

Guns

Chicago demands range training but outlaws gun ranges in the city. I hate government. From Reason.

More drug war BS

Town refuses to return seized cash. Men not charged with crime. Via Drudge.

Books

True Grit the novel unfairly eclipsed by the film.

Sharks!

Severak sharks involved in Egyptian attacks. Sounds like a really bad SyFy movie.

TV

Top Chef All Stars, a recap. A new record for whining set. Contestatnt ducks out of kitchen after being nicked by knife. Marcel still a prick, but a good chef.

Econ 101

Free up trade with Colombia and Panama. How could anyone reject this when we are spending trillions with China?

Econ 101 and the movie biz

Georgia film business booming. What the article doesn't say is how long it took the state to make the necessary tax changes. A lot of states moved passed Georgia on filmmakers' list until this state caught up.

Hump Day free tunes

The underrated Lindsey Buckingham at his best on I'm So Afraid. I saw Fleetwood Mac live in Atlanta in the early 1980s and Buckingham's guitar work was a revelation. He stole the show. This is a terrific song. They played it once on "Miami Vice," though it's not a tune that makes you think of South Beach or sun-splashed days.
And on this one, the great Sly Stone, with no band, explains a few things to his woman. Here's the classic version with the thundering, plundering bass line groove. A funk masterpiece!

Horror on TV

"Walking Dead" draws record ratings. And the finale set up an on-the-road-again sequel.

Gone Fishin'

A really big tuna.

Bob Barr

Lawmakers target cold remedies. From the AJC.

Reds

Chavez blames capitalism for heavy rains. Via Reuters. Jews not specifically blamed, yet.

Shark attack

Another tourist killed off Egyptian coast. Jews blamed.

My Dec. 2 column

A shopping we will go ...

The Border

Jim Coronette tries to go to Canada. But the bureaucrats sunset flip his ass right back to the U.S.

Plan to learn a little about history

I caught some numb nut talking head on one of the morning cable news shows going on about the beauty of Chinese central planning. He seemed to have no idea that the Soviet Union "central planned" itself right our of existence. Central planning on that scale by the government does not work. History has shown this repeatedly. When numb nuts was told by a co-panelist that central planning had deep communist roots, he just grinned and moved on to the next subject.

Gummint

Charles Rangel is sorry. sorry he got caught and sorry the ethics committee did its job.

PoliEcon 101

Why do Tea Partiers ignore ethanol subsidies? It's bad for drivers, it drives up food prices and makes little sense scientifically. From Newsweek.

The bailout

Foreign banks lined up at the trough.

Rugby's top player

New Zealand's Richie McCaw honored.