Random thoughts on the passing scene:

Sometimes it seems as if everybody is trying to rip off his own little piece of America, until we are all torn apart.

A reader writes: "Liberals hold us individually responsible for nothing but collectively responsible for everything."

The last time I saw a Republican express outrage was 1991, when Clarence Thomas told the Senators what he thought of the smear tactics used against him. Before that, it was Ronald Reagan saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Before that, it was probably Teddy Roosevelt.

Too many people in positions of responsibility act as if these are just positions of opportunity -- for themselves. The ones who simply steal money probably do less harm than teachers who propagandize their students, media who slant the news or politicians who sell out their country's interests in order to get re-elected.

A reader wrote: "Have you ever noticed that opinion polls ask the opinions of people who have no expertise in the subject on which they are being polled and publish these opinions as if they were gospel truth instead of group ignorance?"

Judging by the polls, Republican voters' memories do not seem to be as short as Senator John McCain may have thought. Judging by press coverage, the media's memory does not seem to have been as long as he may have thought when he played to that gallery.

A sign of the times: A full-page ad for an Alaska cruise in the left-wing New York Review of Books says, "See Alaska's Glaciers Before They're Gone!" Shipmates listed include Ralph Nader and the editor of The Nation magazine.

The people who are scariest to me are the people who don't even know enough to realize how little they know.

A reader sent the following message, quoting his nephew: "Calling an illegal alien an 'undocumented worker' is like calling a drug dealer an 'unlicensed pharmacist.'"

Some of the biggest cases of mistaken identity are among intellectuals who have trouble remembering that they are not God. Continued...