Has Vick been singled out?

We don't really know. In the US it is common for celebrity criminals to get off very lightly, though when they go overseas they tend to get a dose of reality.

For example actor Stacy Keach did 6 months in prison in England for cocaine possession. He claimed that it was for his own use, but the quantity he had put him into the dealership category, so he was sentenced as a dealer.

Then in May of this year Sylvester Stallone was convicted of importing 48 vials of human growth hormone into Australia. He claimed innocence of the law and in a written statement to the court he said "I have never supported the use of illegal drugs or engaged in any illegal activities in my entire life."

But no explanation of why he was transporting the stuff.

What both Bonds and Vick seem to have done to exacerbate their cases is that they have failed to cooperate with authorities when they were nabbed.

Now one might argue that because they are black, somehow they are part of a "no-snitch" culture that regards cooperation with law-enforcement as the ultimate sin, but other than that it seems that they are reaping what they have sowed.

Personally I think that celebrity criminals ought to get heavier sentences rather than lighter ones, because their cases are widely publicized and act as reverse role models for younger, easily-influenced people who may turn away from crime when they see that no one is immune from the law.

Certainly when I was young I did things that were illegal--not very serious to be sure, but I have certainly done things in the past that could have had me arrested--but seeing others caught and punished scared me straight.

Don't underestimate the value of deterence.

If your someone like Mike Huckabee, who seemingly cannot make the distinction between personal religious belief and secular government then how could I accept that you would be the leader of all Americans, how will the Jew or Catholic or Sikh or Muslim or atheist be assured that you are the leader for them and not just the American President of Evangelical Christians?

You have pretty much nailed it here. Huckabee, like his predecessor Pat Robertson, is not really running for President any more than someone like Al Sharpton was, he is running for the position of top Evangelical Christian rabble-rouser within the party.

The hilarious thing is that this symbolic candidacy has taken on a life of its own and it is beginning to look like he is a contender.

Little Rock, Arkansas seems to play an important role in the national consciousness.

Nelly Forbush, ingenuee heroine of South Pacific came from Little Rock and discovered the wider world in time of war, shacking up with a wealthy French planter once she has overcome the shock of finding out that he fathered children with his native wife. (Well, I never!).

Bill Clinton and Mike Huckerbee were both born in Hope, Arkansas and became governors of their state. Now Huckerbee is trying to become the second man to go from Hope to the Hill, though probably this Pilgrim's Progress will only bogged down in the Slough of Despond and not even make it to Foggy Bottom.

The difference is the paths of ascent. Clinton went to Oxford as a contemporary of men like Dawkins and Hitchens (but before Blair's time) and absorbed ideas about governance and the history of politics from leading thinkers.

Huckerbee rose through the fundamentalist power structure, and although he is well thought-of by many as governor of Arkansas, there is nothing in his resume that suggests he is qualified to act as leader of the free world.

Huckabee is an intelligent and capable man, though I suspect he is not well read. Unfortunately his pathway to leadership has been through the Southern fundamentalist society, not through education, which is why he can never be President.

He knows that all this fundamentalist theology is pulp fiction. Most of us discovered that Santa Claus was our parents at the age of 8, and at the age of 10 that his big brother, God, was our father projected large on the sky. This requires no special intelligence, though it probably occurs at a later age in fundamentalist circles--probably around the time masturbation is discovered and one is not struck by lightning, even for persistent offending.

But Huckerbee is caught in a dilemma. Politically he cannot afford to kick away the ladder he climbed. He just can't. So he can't win either. All he can do is go down fighting and hope that he can thrust the religious nutcase vote in the direction of the real candidate who will have to lick Arkansas butt to get his endorsement.

A very entertaining blog-style article, though having looked at the photographs I must demure and object that Gennifer Flowers 20 years on looks like the wreck of the Hesperus. Mind you, the same goes for Hillary. The dyed hair, makeup,and corsets of the middle aged American professional woman are as much a uniform as the powdered wigs and frock coats of eighteenth century gentlemen.

Who reads the New York Review of Books? According to Jane Juska, mostly round-heeled women and the men who like that kind of thing.

And I could not agree more that Michelle Obama is going to make a fine First Lady.

It is a very recent development in any church and for some reason it has gotten very widespread. It all came from just one guy's ideas not very long ago!

Oh, sure. It has been around at least since the Great Disappointment of the 1840's when thousands assembled on a hilltop to witness the Second Coming (now postponed indefinitely). Still, I expect the hot-dog sellers had a good day. The Disappointed then became Seventh-Day Adventists and are still waiting for the moment when they will all be saved and the rest of us will burn in hell for eternity.

Charmed, I am sure.