On the eve of Florida’s primary, changes the playing field and mandates a serious revaluation.

Snowbirds returning to our island paradise undoubtedly know that things remain unsettled in the Middle East and that in Iraq the Shias and Sunnis are still killing each other because of a disagreement over the proper way to worship Allah.

History will show that whatever his flaws, President Richard Nixon, who resigned the presidency one step ahead of impeachment, can be credited with some pretty impressive accomplishments. On the international front, he opened up relations with China and signed the first nuclear arms pact with the Soviet Union.

Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Jay Leno, David Letterman and just about each and every comedian/pundit are in mourning this week. Herman Cain, the larger than life non-political, businessman candidate seeking the Republican nod for nomination to the presidency of the United States announced the “suspension” of his campaign.

Last week, in these pages, my erstwhile friend and fellow columnist, Tom Burgum, decried the existence of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, labeling it a chaotic conglomeration of “anarchists, communists, disillusioned students, the unemployed and the unemployable.”

In a classic film released several decades ago, actor Jack Nicholson delivered a powerful rendition of what can happen to normal administration operating under the best of intentions when the lunatics succeed in taking over the asylum

Republican candidate for president Herman Cain rocked the political establishment to its knees recently when a Florida straw poll designated him the winner over the two frontrunners, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Michigan Gov. Mitt Romney. Not only did Cain do the unexpected, but he did it handily, polling more votes than both his two opponents combined

Monday last was a bad, sad day for the town of Longboat Key. After 15 years of exemplary service, Bruce St. Denis, the affable hard-working town manager, was forced to resign by the conspiratorial antics of five members of the seven-member Town Commission

The wild roller coaster rides on Wall Street during the last several weeks were without precedent in American history. Not even the disastrous stock market crash of 1929, which signaled the onset of the Great Depression, provides a parallel to what is roiling the markets today

To paraphrase an old saying: With friends like these, who needs these SOBs? Pakistan has long been the spoiled brat-upstart, paranoid, irritating bully of its Central Asia neighborhood, creating border incursions with its larger neighbor, India, and fighting skirmishes over the disputed boundaries of Kashmir.