It's a dirty weed, but I like it.

People enjoy doing it. It is addictive. It has no known alternative. It will never become obsolete.

No wonder Wall Street finds a lot to like about tobacco.

"I'm the decision maker"

Garry Wills got it right. The president is not the commander in chief of civilians. For the Constitution clearly states: “The president shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States.”

President Bush may well be the “decision maker”. But the American people and their elected representatives will still have a say in American involvement in Iraq.

Will Rogers with Chutzpah

Art Buchwald, who satirized the follies of the rich, the famous and the powerful for half a century as the most widely read newspaper humorist of his time, died this evening in Washington. He was 81.

Buchwald came to the realization at the age of six or seven that the world was mad. He spent the rest of his life recording it. His column would not split your sides, but they would make you smile. Avoiding exercise because he felt it was dangerous to his health, Buchwald gravitated toward big cigars and rich pastries.

Known in the hospice as The Man Who Wouldn’t Die, Art Buchwald left us with a beaming joyful smile upon his face.

“Godfather of Soul”

James Brown, the singer, songwriter, bandleader and dancer who indelibly transformed 20th-century music, died Monday, December 25, 2006 in Atlanta. He was 73. Brown died of congestive heart failure after being hospitalized for pneumonia.

Through the years, James Brown did not only call himself “the hardest working man in show business.” He also went by “Mr. Dynamite,” “Soul Brother No. 1,” “the Minister of Super Heavy Funk” and “the Godfather of Soul”.

President Gerald R. Ford

Former President Gerald R. Ford, who gently led the United States out of the tumultuous Watergate era but who lost his own bid for election after pardoning President Richard M. Nixon, died Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

He was 93, making him the oldest former president, surpassing Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004, by just over a month.

The quote that I associate with President Ford is his statement --- “You can disagree without being disagreeable.”