Random thoughts on the passing scene:

 Usually I like four-star hotels better than five-star hotels. The four-star hotels tend to be comfortable and attractive places with amenities, but without the pretentiousness and fussiness of five-star hotels.

 It is amazing how many problems are caused by the simple fact that somebody could not be bothered to listen.

 Why do we keep pretending that we know how to control child molesters after they are released from prison? How many more children must be killed before we face the plain reality that, if it is dangerous to let child molesters out of prison, then they should be kept in prison.

 Reading letters from liberals makes me fear that they are going to dislocate their shoulders from patting themselves on the back so much. The way they tell it, the reason they differ from others is that they are so much more compassionate, aware, concerned, nuanced, sophisticated and -- yes -- just plain smarter.

 The recent Supreme Court decision expanding government's power to seize private property gives added relevance to Steven Greenhut's book "Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain." If you think displaced homeowners actually get "just compensation" as the Constitution requires, this book should open your eyes to the painful reality.

 Now that Samatha Brown on the travel channel is overseas doing programs about outstanding hotels in Europe, I hope she will continue on to Asia and do a program on my favorite hotel in the world, the Shangri-la in Singapore.

 Will even the bloody terrorist attacks in London put a stop to the media's hand-wringing because they don't think we have been nice enough to some of the cut-throats who are locked up in Guantanamo? The media have never shown any such interest in how prisoners are treated anywhere else on the island of Cuba, such as in Castro's prisons.

 There have always been people without judgment but this is the first era in which being non-judgmental is considered good -- though how anything can be considered good if you are non-judgmental is another puzzle.

 The next time someone demands a timetable for the war in Iraq, ask them to name just one war -- anywhere -- that had such a thing. Continued...