Shortly after the Iron Curtain fell, Norman Mailer got the idea to go to Moscow and interview people who had known Lee and/or Marina Oswald during the time that Oswald was living in the U.S.S.R. This group of interviewees included KGB agents, relatives of Marina, Lee's co-workers, just about anyone who was still alive and willing to talk.

Mailer, merely by asking for it, was granted access to a vast lot of files and data that the KGB had compiled on the Oswalds, including transcripts of conversations the couple had that were recorded by hidden listening devices planted in their Moscow apartment.

The literary result was Oswald's Tale, a fabulous and fascinating work of art that transcends both fiction and journalism.

But here's my point: How many other writers, novelists, journalists(!?!-Hah!) had the idea to go to the former Soviet Union to research Marina and Lee Oswald? Why, none, of course. Zip. Zero.

Mr. Mailer's gift was that he had more brilliant ideas in a single morning than most people have in a lifetime.

His other gift was that he was absolutely fearless.

Droughts in the South may mean less water-boarding!

And by the way, it sounds like praying for rain is about as effective as voting republican . . .

You can scratch Rudy and all of the other bald candidates off of the "electable" list. Seriously. U.S. voters will not elect a bald man President. I'm not saying that's fair, I'm just saying.

The GOP knows this, of course, so it will either nominate Mitt Romney, or it will nominate John McCain and then try to convince the electorate that McCain has a full head of hair, even though our "lyin' eyes" tell us that he doesn't (and by the way, please ignore that unsightly bulge in his cheek).

Hillary's a wild card because she's female, and not so much because she's Hillary. I wish her gender wasn't an issue, but it will be if she gets the nomination.

When Liddy Dole ran for the GOP nomination in 2000, she ran as the anti-Hillary. That didn't work out too well for Liddy.

There are many anti-Hillary voters, but there is no anti-Hillary candidate--that is, there is no candidate who can win solely with an anti-Hillary platform. And yes, I readily acknowledge that I'm not the first to say that.

Youthful male enthusiasm, even if it's only skin-deep, wins every time in the U.S. Back in 2000, Al Gore still had some of his youthful looks, but he was, as he always will be, an "old soul." That contrast creeped out the shallow Americans who were, in turn, attracted to the infantile George W. Bush.

Barack Obama, if nominated, would beat any repub nominee hands-down. And he would do it for the same reasons that Bill Clinton did it in '92 and '96. The trick is for Obama to make a successful transition from being "Hillary's Nemesis" to "Bill's Younger Brother."

Trying to find a safe, profitable investment in the stock market is like trying to find a game at the carnival that's not rigged. No wonder all these obnoxious "stock market experts" sound like carnival barkers. "Hurry! Hurry! Step right up! Gimme all your money and I'll make you rich, rich, rich!"

True prosperity is having no debt and some extra cash in the bank because you didn't piss it all away at the carnival trying to win that big, pink teddy bear for "the little lady."

To paraphrase P.T. Barnum,"There's a rich guy born every minute."

In Ernest Hemingway's short story, "Hills Like White Elephants," a young couple traveling through Spain stops at a cantina for a drink. The following conversation ensues:

"The girl looked at the bead curtain. 'They've painted something on it,' she said. 'What does it say?'

'Anis del Toro. It's a drink.'

'Could we try it?'

The man called 'Listen' through the curtain. The woman came out from the bar.

'Four reales.' 'We want two Anis del Toro.'

'With water?'

'Do you want it with water?'

'I don't know,' the girl said. 'Is it good with water?'

'It's all right.'

'You want them with water?' asked the woman.

'Yes, with water.'

'It tastes like liquorice,' the girl said and put the glass down.

'That's the way with everything.'

'Yes,' said the girl. 'Everything tastes of liquorice. Especially all the things you've waited so long for, like absinthe.'"

Amen, Papa.

The Pope, in his annual Christmas sermon, really went out on a limb this year and called for "peace among all nations of the world."

"The internet? Are you kidding me? It's just a fad, a toy for the kids. NOBODY wants to get their news and commentary from the internet! EVERYBODY wants to read newspapers! Especially the New York Times! Especially now that Billy Crystal writes a column for it!"

It's a very powerful illusion, but an illusion, nonetheless.

The purpose of zen meditation is to free the meditator from all consciousness, but especially self-consciousness.

The first and last time I ever watched Hardball with Chris Matthews was the evening of the day of the Columbine massacre. Matthews opened the show by blaming Hillary for Columbine because of some paper she had allegedly written in college.

The mainstream media is still stuck in 1999.

Most of the rest of us have moved on.

The Federal Reserve isn't SUPPOSED to be political, but of course it is. Alan Greenspan, a diehard republican, raised interest rates when Clinton was President. He did this for purely political reasons--the main reason being a strong desire to bring down Clinton and the Democrats.

Greenspan was the Linda Tripp of the Fed.

Sheryl Crowe, that is.