The Colonel Speaks

Perhaps Colonel Quaddafi felt compelled to hog the limelight by speaking an hour and half - six times longer then the allotted time - at the United Nations this week; after all, it was his first occasion to be in this august body despite being in power 40 years. One thing is certain, brevity isn't a quality he values.

Floyd Mayweather

Let's be real: Floyd Mayweather soundly beating a smaller, lighter, and slower Juan Manuel Marquez is hardly a big deal. There is an axiom is boxing that says, with rare exception, all things being equal a good big man will always defeat a good small man. And this undoubtedly played out in the Mayweather-Marquez bout. I firmly believe that Mayweather took this fight because the rewards were high (I heard he took home about $10 million) while the risks were relatively low. If Floyd is really serious about proving himself as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, he will accept Sugar Shane Moseley's challenge. I won't hold my breath.

Agent Zero

Gilbert Arenas faults the Washington Wizards for allowing him to come back too early from his injury thereby jeopardizing his career. This is a remarkable statement even for as well-established flake as Arenas. Despite missing 149 games and suffering a serious injury, the Wizards rewarded him with a $100 million contract. And on top of that, despite the best efforts of the organization, he insisted on rehabbing on his own. A decision that in hindsight did not go very well.

Obama Overload

President Barack Obama appeared on five Sunday talk shows pushing one of the signature issues of his campaign - health care reform. The White House's position is that the president is the most effective weapon it has and therefore it is good politics to put him out on the hustings. However, polls seem to indicate that the nation is roughly split down the middle, meaning few minds are changed through Obama's many appearances. I am afraid that the administration is running the risk of overexposing Obama. Of course, the best thing to come out of Obama's multiple appearances is that Fox was left out of the loop. All I can say is good riddance.

Kanye and Ta-ta

If any public figure can be said to raise acting a fool to an art form, it is unquestionably rapper Kanye West who generated almost universal public condemnation for disrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech in receiving an award for best video at last Sunday's MTV Video Awards.

Walkin'

Unlike his heckling colleague Joe Wilson, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Illinois) chose to demonstrate his displeasure by walking out during President Obama's speech on health care reform.

Twist and Shout

This is Republican congressman Joe Wilson, the asshole from South Carolina, - excuse me, Van Jones - who interrupted President Obama's address before a joint session of Congress on health care with shouts "You lie."

Alien Ideas

If an alien visitor from outer space had alighted in these United States, he could not be faulted for believing that either Russian president Dimitry Medvedev or Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, through some weird circumstance, had been invited to speak to America's unsuspecting children on what is traditionally the first day of school and that a significant amount of the populace was feverishly upset about the threat of indoctrination and adoption of socialist ideas. The visitor would be astounded to learn that the speaker was none other than the duly elected president of the Republic - Barack Hussein Obama.

Jefferson's Honor

A letter to the editor D.C. Examiner regarding the defense of Thomas Jefferson's honor:

Re: Defending the honor of Thomas Jefferson, September 1st.

Barbara Hollingsworth writes, “And while [William Hyland, Jr.’s] book doesn’t change the brutal fact that white plantation owners like [Thomas] Jefferson often took sexual advantage of their female slaves, forcing them to bear unacknowledged offspring, it does remind us that even dead white males deserved to considered innocent until proven guilty.” This is nonsense. Strictly speaking, the presumption of innocence, an ancient tenet of criminal law, has no application in answering the historical question whether Thomas Jefferson fathered any of Sally Heming’s children. If any presumption applies it is this: the slaveholding Jefferson, with absolute dominion and control over Heming, whose status was that of a piece of property available for anything including satisfying the master’s sexual appetite, is presumed to have acted consistently with the slaveholders’ prevailing mores and practices of the day.

Never Can Say Goodbye

Michael Joseph Jackson, aka the King of Pop, will finally - and mercifully - be laid to rest today in a celebrity studded mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, California.

Traficant Freed

Former Ohio Democratic congressman and sartorially challenged Jim Traficant leaves a Minnesota prison after serving seven years for bribery and racketeering.

Obama's War of Necessity

On the domestic front, President Obama's biggest challenge this summer has been health care reform but, with Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander for Afghanistan, set to pay a visit and, in all likelihood, request additional troops in what Obama calls a war of necessity, the administration's biggest foreign policy issue is about to take center stage. Public support for the war in Afghanistan has declined while American casualties continue to mount. Conservative columnist George F. Will argues that Washington needs to keep faith with those men and women in harm's way "by rapidly reversing the trajectory of American involvement in Afghanistan."