We have a severe difference of opinion in the United States of America. Our difference separates two groups of Americans. Neither group believes the other group truly is American. I am in the group who believe our American President is an evil traitor.

Please note, however, that people such as I, about half the population, have no obvious choice in politics. No opposition candidate has taken a true opposition stance. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards… None of them has come out and called George W. Bush (what shall we call him?)… an evil traitor, an un-American creep, the worst US President in world history, the worst, most brutal President of Iraq, maybe… whatever.

The problem with me is that I grew up believing American ideals. I believe the USA stands for truth and justice. I believe that Nazis torture, and that Americans treat people well. What do you think? Now, September 2007 CE, the United States of America, my country, tortures and conquers and throws people into dungeons.

The half of Americans who agree with me believe that these facts are obvious proof that George W. Bush and his pals need to leave immediately. But the other half of Americans do not agree. What do you other-half people have to say? Do you like torture, dungeons, conquest, and national bankruptcy, plus incompetence, lies, stupidity, and dead folks?

What did your dad tell you about World War II or about Vietnam? Did he say. “We tortured our prisoners. That’s the American way.”? That is not what my dad said.

Please get away from George W. Bush, and from the Iraq War, and from the Neo-Con Republicans. I am not sure that we have a clear alternative in our next presidential election. But please vote for a change.

People in Motown are delighted with the Lions' win! The Lions' offensive line looked good against the Raiders. The Raiders looked very good at four-yard passes.

Penalties killed both teams last year. Today, some kick-in-the-tummy penalties, but nothing game-breaking.

Go Lions!

Let's have HBO bring back "Rome" while we are wishing. We need good show anchored in history, or in their locations, or their genres, rather than full-out full-boat anything-goes fantasies.

My mom in Seattle just sent me a cut-out newspaper article about a house that looked like the house I used to live in, and that I fixed up and sold.

So here is the point: That HORRID, NASTY house in Seattle cost $315,000 before fix-up! But my much-better-shape-still-fixer-upper in Grand Rapids only cost $72,500.

And mine eventually, recently sold for $135,000. And I made money, even after fix-up. That is between a third and half the cost of the Seattle ghost house, BEFORE fix-up!! Plus, mine was bigger!

Coastal hard-lifers, move to a different part of the USA. We have a first-world versus second-world dynamic now, within our own country, but you can take profit from it. And the cheaper part of the USA is a nicer, prettier place.

Curtis Granderson (Detroit Tigers CF) has 20 + 20 + 20 +20. 20 Double, 20 Triples, 20 Homers, 2o Steals.

He only is the third Major lEaguer ever to do this. The others were Willie Mays in 1957, and Frank Schulte in 1911.

Here's the analysis:

Willie Mays had many more homers and may more steals, but fewer triples and doubles than Granderson will have this season.

So, Willie Mays was a great fielding power hitter who was really fast. While Granderson is a great fielding fast leadoff guy with some power. Different sorts of ballplayers. Granderson is the only guy I ever have watched whose triples do not seem to be accidents. Mays is the best ballplayer I ever have watched.

All youze youguns who never watched Willie Mays, please start paying attention to Curtis Granderson. He is not the same kind of ballplayer as Willie Mays, but he may be on a similar level. Watch his career, please.

A. Interest rates still are low (compare especially to the mid/late 1970s).

B. Things are not all that great right now (compare to parts of 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s). Two major industries, auto and real estate, already are crippled. We probably will not fall much further.

W. Bush is trying to portray bringing American troops back to pre-surge levels as a reduction in troops. General Petraeus is trying not to acknowledge this fact, trying to stay technically honest, technically patriotic.

General Petraeus's retirement date is coming up. Do you remember how General Schwarzkopf and General Tommy Franks retired as soon as possible? General Pertraeus will do the same thing.

W. Bush's self-serving audacity is heart-stopping, heart-breaking, less-than-American. He too has a retirement date approaching. That is all he cares about.

This is the first great King Kaufman San Fancisco Era column!

1. On baseball: The Pirates stink, but enough of us remember the days when they wore squared-off hats, the days of Dave What's-His-Name, The Cobra... They will be back. Tigers fans can sympathize. And we Tigers fans have the Pirates' old manager now, doing great things. Eighteen years is not so long in the cosmic scheme.

2. Michigan Football: Ann Arbor Michigan, home of the maize & blue Michigan Wolverines, is a deeply divided place. Half of the town is suicidal over the Wolverines' two losses, and the other half kicks out much of the greatest contemporary rock & roll. To heck with the maize & blue Wolverines! Our music never loses.

It appears that Indian engineers could have avoided problems with Hindu fundamentalists if the engineers simply had not confronted the fundamentalists.

Fundamentalists spend most of their time worrying about their own congregations. So please just leave then to stew in their own millieaux, rather than prodding them toward our real world.

We never will convince them or shame them to reality. They have other motivations. Please, lull them back to their traditional dream state, and then cover them over with logic and love, until they sink beneath relevance and power.