Politics and other nightmares

Among the pieces of advice for somone who wants to know if a real conservative and a real liberal can be friends:

I was beginning to think PETA was on break since they've been so quiet this holiday season. Silly me:

Last week I tried to make the point that PolitiFact was wrong to label as lies what are really useful phrases of political shorthand to signal passionately held differences of opinion:

With the probability that the "Arab spring" will result in militant Islamic fundamentalism controlling all of the Mideast, we should pay attention to controversies such as this one:

TEHRAN — In the Islamic republic of Iran, the law requires women to cover their hair and bodies in public. But how to do so remains up to them, and the result is persistent confusion in the streets.

[. . .]

Americans have a more balanced view of taxing and spending than some politicians are willing to give them credit for:

Good grief. A poor doggie dragged back from vacation just for a photo op?

Bo Obama was supposed to be in Hawaii. Instead, he showed up at President Obama's side Wednesday shopping for treats at PetSmart

Criminal genius of the week:

A Vermont man has been apprehended on criminal charges after his failure to spell correctly gave him away to police.

Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (who recently resigned in disgrace) was one of the Republicans who campaigned to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to define marriage as the the union between a man and a woman. Then she was found to be in "an inappropriate relationship" with someone other than her husband. That resulted in this "apology"from "the gay and lesbian community of Minnesota":

A positive appraisal of 2011:

In the time since the end of the Cold War, there have been many years in which advocates of freedom and democracy found endless reasons for gloom and few for hope. This was not one of those years.

Circuit Judge Marianne Vorhees has rejected a legal challenge by Delaware County bar and tavern owners, who contended the ban on public smoking in the county had hurt their business. That's not that surprising or interesting -- as this Muncie Star Press editorial notes, there have been similar rulings outside Indiana. But her ruling contained some words of wisdom every politician and public official in the state should read.