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I have spoken with the folks at The Press (301 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) and we're on for our meet-up in Wednesday, March 14, at 5 p.m.

We'll gather in the corner of the bar where there are chairs and sofas.

Some ground rules:
1. No sharp implements.
2. There'll be name tags for you to identify yourselves in whatever manner you prefer.
3. Some other members of the editorial staff will be there.
4. Blog all you want about what you see and hear.
5. If Skeet Club Savage shows up, I'll buy him a drink.

The folks at The Press will need a head count, so I'll ask one more time if you don't mind to RSVP via comments here.

Y'all come.

Sad news for those who expected a more compelling resolution of the Guilford College fight controversy.

It happened quietly, and with none of the students involved being dismissed from school.

Guilford handled this case gracefully and forthrightly, and refused to rush the process. The school kept its head even as so many others were losing theirs, seduced by their own distorted versions of what they think happened.

Saw "The Last King of Scotland" today. I didn't care for the some of the melodrama in the third act but Forrest Whitaker deserves every single accolade he gets as Idi Amin.

This week's column.

In a blistering public smackdown that shook and stirred the whole city, Florence Gatten took fellow City Council member T. Dianne Bellamy-Small to the rhetorical woodshed last week.

Well-coiffed, well-prepared and well-spoken, as always, Gatten upbraided Bellamy-Small in a Monday news conference as a "rogue council member" who needs to step down.

There's clearly no mystery as to how Gatten feels about Bellamy-Small. Nor is there much argument. Bellamy-Small's aloofness, volatile temper and brushes with rules and protocol have been well-documented. She can be brusque and off-putting. Her fellow council members find her nearly impossible to work with.

The latest episode is her apparent attempt to use her office to intimidate a police officer who pulled her for speeding.

Before that was her emotional eruption over an office space in city hall.

Before that was the leak of a consultant's report on the police department that was traced to her copy.

Before that was her refusal to participate in weekly council press conferences.
And before that was her tardiness with local tax payments.

Equally frustrating is Bellamy-Small's aversion to media. It's easier arranging an interview with a foreign head of state.

Still, Gatten's huffy denouncement was dramatic and overblown and drenched in self-righteousness. Whatever points Gatten might have earned in fortitude and candor she loses in sheer lack of statesmanship.

Let me make this clear; I seriously question City Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellany-Small's fitness for office.

But let's be fair; it's not because she is African American or because her district is.

I get that impression from some commenters relish pointing out that black voters elected her.

Sad to say, however, Guilford County has had its share of volatile elected officials, and the voters' mistakes have been equal opportunity gaffes.

Black voters elected Belvin Jessup and they keep electing Skip Alston.

But they didn't elect Billy Yow to the Board of Commissioners. Nor did they make other dubious choices such as Greensboro Councilman Bill Burckley or one of the weirdest choices of all, Commissioner Robert Moores.

This should not be about race.

I dropped by Tuesday to witness firsthand the shows of support for Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small.

The planned rally did not happen.

The show of support for her later at the council meeting consisted of a handful of speakers one of whom was her pastor, who conceded Bellamy-Small's tendency not to return phone calls.

Say what you will about the ACC Tournament belonging in Greensboro -- and it does.

Thursday's first round of action was one of the best I've ever seen.

OK, State over Duke in overtime was tense and well-played, but it wasn't a shocker.

But Maryland losing to Miami?

And if I'd told you a couple days ago that Wake Forest would beat Georgia Tech 114-112 in double-overtime you'd have wondered what I'd been drinking. And smoking.

It took two votes, reports the N&O (registration required), but the Durham City Council decided this week to install surveillance cameras in certain areas of the city to deter crime.

The N&O reports that the council wrestled with the specter of Big Brother versus the effect the cameras can have on would-be criminals thinking twice before defacing property, breaking and entering or accosting innocent people.

I'm a bit worried about extending the reach of Big Brother myself. There’s always a danger of such technology being abused to invade law-abiding citizens’ privacy. That concern was broached some months ago when the Greensboro City Council briefly considered such an approach.

Then I thought about the recent rash of robberies in the Battleground area and the idiots who defaced Bicentennial Park. I also thought about continuing problems with graffiti throughout the city.

Big Brother didn’t sound half as bad anymore.

This week's column.

A state lawmaker has proposed legislation that would encourage starry-eyed lovers to look before they leap.

The bill would create two pilot programs — one in Gaston County and the other in Guilford — that would provide premarital education to couples who want to be married by a magistrate. The pilot program would be voluntary and would allow the newlyweds-to-be a chance to reflect on whether they're truly ready to say "I do."

Guilford County was chosen, by the way, because a local nonprofit, the Family Life Council, already offers such training and could administer the program.

The Family Life Council's classes stress such basic but essential skills as communication and handling conflict.

Two good reasons to pass this bill : 1) The high divorce rate in North Carolina. And 2) you can get married in a magistrate's office almost as fast as you can order a Whopper with Cheese.
I know. Nearly 20 years ago I was married in a quickie ceremony by a Forsyth County magistrate.

Both my ex-wife and I would have done better to order a Whopper.

I wouldn't call Tolly Carr a friend. I would call him a good acquaintance.

The last time I saw him was while Christmas shopping in Sears at Friendly Center.

I congratulated him on his recent promotion to morning co-anchor of the WXII (Channel 12) morning news show. I had followed his career since he worked mornings at a Greensboro radio station WQMG (97.1 FM).

You really had to get up with the chickens, he told me of the 5 a.m. newscast at XII. He could slip in just before 7 a.m. and manage OK at QMG. No way that'd work at the TV station.

I've crossed paths with Tolly several times, including an ethics panel put on by one of his mentors, Denise Franklin, of Wake Forest University's NPR affiliate, WFDD.

I was impressed by his ascension through the ranks at WXII and his growth as a journalist, from a fledgling sports reporter to a news guy. He was obviously a hard worker. He'd do his morning shifts and return to help with Friday night football or basketball.

He had a natural ease in front of the camera and a very quick wit. He was so good with his co-workers that you actually believed these guys liked each other. Even Carr's brotherly pokes at WXII's wacky comedian/traffic reporter, Jennie Stencel, were gentle and never mean-spirited.

You've seen one awkward stab at Happy Talk on morning TV you’ve seen 'em all. But this was different. The banter wasn't forced, and Channel 12, sensing a good thing, began to aggressively promote its a.m. cast.

Now Carr's career at WXII seems all but over. A pickup truck Carr was driving ran off the street in Winston-Salem Sunday morning and struck and killed a 26-year-old pedestrian, Casey Ryan Bokhoven.

As everybody around here knows by now, Carr has been charged with driving while impaired. Police said he admitted to having had drinks earlier and said he smelled of alcohol.

It was hard watching his co-workers struggle through today's newscast with pained looks on their faces. This morning's "Big Story": "Anchor involved in fatal accident."

I told my journalism students today that Carr's case ought to be a lesson, a cautionary tale about the carelessness and consequences.

"Think about the next time you tell yourself, 'It won't happen to me." " I told them.

"How many of you could that have been?"

It can happen to any of us, including those of us who are more accustomed to reporting about people's mistakes.

I grieve for the young man who lost his life Sunday morning and I grieve for Tolly Carr.

I didn't say anything to my students about the abject foolishness and danger of drinking and driving. I didn't need to.

As the News & Record's Eric J. S. Townsend reports today, it could take a full month for test results on WXII morning anchor Tolly Carr's blood alcohol level from the SBI lab in Raleigh.

That seems criminal in and of itself.

While it is neither surprising nor unusual, the high interest in this case magnifies the sluggish turnaround.

The state lab has had continuing issues with volume and backlogs.

And it underscores the need for a proposed Triad crime lab that awaits legislative approval. The Triad Area Regional Crime Laboratory would have a staff of 12, and would open in April 2008.

Meanwhile police say Carr, who refused a Breathalyzer test, was intoxicated when his pickup truck ran off the road and killed 26-year-old Casey Bokhoven early Sunday morning.

We'll have to wait ... and then wait some more ... to see if they were right.

A reminder: We meet up at The Press (301 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) at 5 p.m. today. Come on by for good company and good conversation. We'll gather in the area near the sofas.

This came in Tuesday's e-mail from a former student, addressed to me and several other faculty at A&T:

I know I've only been out of A&T for just a few months now, but, oddly enough, it seems like so long ago, so, already, I feel compelled to go back and thank each of you individually, face-to-face.

Each of you brings so much to that department and to A&T as a whole, it's amazing. You each play such a significant role in the ultimate success of each student who comes your way ... and you carry that role out to the fullest extent every time!

The email goes on for five pages , to thank faculty members individually, in detail, for their help.

It made my day. And it made all the harried mornings trying to find a a parking space, then sprinting to an 8 o'clock class more than worthwhile.

In the midst of spring training -- and on the cusp of March Madness -- the current issue of Sports Illustrated offers a cover story on ... global warming. A package entitled "Sports and Global Warming: As the Planet Changes, So Do the Games We Play" tackles such issues as dwindling ski venues, the environmental cost of golf courses, the effects of warmer climates on outdoor practice routines and even the threat rising oceans pose for several waterfront football and baseball stadiums, all of which could be underwater by the year 2100.

The story opens:

The next time a ball game gets rained out during the September stretch run, you can curse the momentary worthlessness of those tickets in your pocket. Or you can wonder why it got rained out -- and ask yourself why practice had to be called off last summer on a day when there wasn't a cloud in the sky; and why that Gulf Coast wharf where you used to reel in mackerel and flounder no longer exists; and why it's been more than one winter since you pulled those titanium skis out of the garage.

All of which is changing the way we play and the sports we watch.
On the cover, a photo illustration of Marlins pitcher Dontrelle Willis, thigh-deep in water at Dolphins Stadium in Miami.

Thanks to all who came to our first blogger-commenter meet-up tonight. There was good food, good drink and good conversation. (I heartily recommend the tomato basil soup at The Press.)

As for the turnout, there was nary a female there. But the boys had a nice time out.

The award for farthest distance driven was Doug Johnson from near Danville, hands-down.

Even Skeet Club Savage was there.

The big question: Now that we've met one another, face to face, will we be nicer on the blogs?

Probably not, Ed Cone tells me, and I expect he's right.

Remember the old Warner Bros. cartoons in which the sheep dog and the wolf cordially punch in every day at a time clock, pummel each other all day, then cordially punch out? That's us, folks.

Now, tell me what you liked and you didn't like and we'll do it again.

We have heard from some of you that you've had problems posting comments to letters to the editor.

If that's the case, please let me know. We've noticed a decrease in the number of comments since we've made some technical changes to our blogs.

The more we can learn about how widespread the problem is (and to whom it's happening), the better and more quickly we hope to be able to fix it.

Thanks for your help and patience.

I fell asleep on the Carolina game last night. They were up 27 when I dozed off. They were up four when I awakened.

I managed to see most of the second half after that, but it wasn't easy. Yes, I'm complaining again.

One of my colleagues has pegged me as a "glass is half-empty" guy when discussing college basketball. For example, I'm always on a very good UNC team's case for sleepwalking (pardon the pun) through parts of games -- as in nearly blowing that 27-point lead last night to Eastern Kentucky.

But it's hard not to get a little perturbed about an East Coast game (in Winston-Salem, for goodness sakes) that's starts after 10 p.m. But the TV ratings gods must be obeyed.

Or the charade that a lot of college basketball is, with very few of the "student athletes" actually getting college degrees. (A current special edition of "Bob Costas Now" on HBO offers some disturbing insights on this shameful reality.)

Or the preponderance of beer advertising during the tournament even as new statistics report a rising problem in binge drinking on campuses.

But I'll still push a lot of these issues to the back of my mind this weekend, and cozy up in front of the set. And cheer like a madman anyway.

Vernon Robinson called the other day. The failed GOP challenger to Democrat Brad Miller in the 13th District can be so downright personable one-on-one, you forget (for a moment) he's the architect of such gleefully venomous campaign ads.

For the record, Robinson said, an AP report that he would not run again for elective office got it wrong. He never says never. .

I wouldn't believe him even if did say he'd never run again. Robinson seems undaunted by his track record in elections. Although he has won election only to a seat on the Winston-Salem City Council (which he also lost in a re-election bid) Robinson keeps on running for things.

He seems to like campaigning in much the same way some people like window shopping. The thrill is in the hunt.

Meanwhile, Robinson says he's content to concentrate on helping other Republicans leverage the Internet as a campaign -- a strategy he has used very, very effectively for himself.

This week's column.

Depending on the day of the week -- and the hour of the day -- Keith Holliday is running for re-election as mayor. Or not.

Holliday, the four-term incumbent, has not made up his mind on his political future. He was supposed to decide by March 15. Now he says he'll need until the end of the month.

"I can list 10 reasons why I shouldn't run for re-election on one page," he says. "But I can turn around and list 10 reasons I should run on another page."

If Holliday chooses not to seek another term, he'll be more sorely missed than you might expect. One of His Honor's most valuable gifts is his affable manner and his tendency to try, almost to a fault, to seek compromise and build consensus. What he may lack in charisma he makes up for in his earnestness, his endless patience and his relentlessly sunny disposition. He's a calming influence.

That trait has come in handy during an unusually tumultuous stretch at City Hall. From the silly drama over polygraph tests to the ongoing turmoil in the police department to the Truth and Reconciliation non-discussions, the council has staggered from one political briar patch into another.

It gets harder. There's still a new police chief to hire and stability and confidence to restore in the police department. There's still the challenge of competing for more jobs and more industry and sustaining the momentum from recent victories such as HondaJet. There are the results of the latest social capital survey in Greensboro, which finds disconcerting levels of distrust in both the police and local government. Then there's a pair of dueling divas on the council in Florence Gatten and Dianne Bellamy-Small.

Skip and Billy who?

Against that daunting backdrop, the next council may look markedly different from the one you see today.

Doug and I plan to attend the League of Women Voters lunch meeting Tuesday. There'll be a presentation about a proposed minimum wage increase in Greensboro (versus the recent increase in the state).

It's an interesting concept although I'm not even sure it's legal.

Look for a Malcolm Kenton column on the subject Wednesday and UNCG economist Andrew Brod's analysis Sunday.

We're also working on an editorial.

Hooters is coming to the Holy Land.

The U.S. restaurant chain will open its first branch in Israel this summer, in the city of Tel Aviv.

"I strongly believe that the Hooters concept is something that Israelis are looking for," Ofer Ahiraz, who owns the Hooters franchise planned for Israel, tells Reuters. "Hooters can suit the Israeli entertainment culture."

In my column two weeks ago, I supported the concept of counseling before marriage. A number of you disagreed, and challenged me to provide more statistics about marriage and divorce.

Here is at least some of that informaiton, provided by Rebecca Starnes, coordinator for Family Programs for the Family Life Council:

What is the divorce rate in Guilford County? Is it growing, holding steady or falling?-

... In general, ... the divorce rate is declining. But it is also worth noting that the marriage rates are also declining. Experts have suggested that fewer people are divorcing because fewer are marrying -- more couples are cohabiting. You might want to note, though, that Guilford County used to have a much higher divorce rate than the rest of N.C. We now have the same rate as the state -- an improvement. Just a note, the Guilford County Community Marriage Covenant was first signed in 1997.

Is there any empirical data that suggest counseling works?

Yes and no. Educational programs that teach couples to effectively manage conflict and communicate are helpful. Programs are most successful when couples receive support before they marry or before there are serious problems. Counseling can be very effective but it can also not work.

First, one study found that couples wait many years from when they first feel there might be problems until they actually seek counseling. During all of those years, problems grow and fester and counseling may be too late. Also, there are counselors who may use techniques that are not helpful -- such as focusing on individual happiness as the number one priority rather than on interpersonal connections (to see a write-up of this position, somewhat controversial, follow this link to an article on the Web site for the Coalition for Marriage, Family, and Couples Education

Can you tell me more about how the classes in Guilford County are structured and what is taught?

The Family Life Council’s Guilford County Marriage Resource Center offers several different programs on marriage. The two most common are "Couple Communication" and "8 Habits of a Successful Marriage." The "Couple Communication" program, groups of four to 10 couples, meets for four weeks and involves numerous activities, some videos, and discussion to teach the basics of effective communication and how to use these communication skills to solve conflicts. The "8 Habits of a Successful Marriage" is our most popular marriage program right now. This program is from the Franklin Covey organization and applies the "7 Habits of Effective People" to marriage. Couples meet in a group setting for three to eight weeks and go over habits that help build and maintain healthy marriages. The habits include things that increase cooperation and connection in the couple, improving conflict resolution, making the partner a priority and so forth.

With both programs, and actually any Family Life Council program, we take great care to create an atmosphere within the group that is effective for adult learning. People can share if they feel like it, silently listen if they prefer (some people enter afraid that we will call on them to discuss their most personal issues) We have activities to make points and increase interest.

To set the record straight about what seems to be a popular misconception around here:

Interim Police Chief Tim Bellamy is no more related to City Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small than I am to Rev. Nelson Johnson. Or Magic Johnson Or Lyndon Baines Johnson, for that matter.

Bellamy, the chief says he met Bellamy-Small, the councilwoman, only 10 years ago.

That's not to say the two may not be at least distantly related. They can trace their ancestry back to Horry County, S.C.But cousins? So far as Bellamy knows, they are not.

But reports of their being related persist.

City Councilwoman Sandy Carmany blogged in April 2006, in answer to an anonymous question about Small and Bellamy-Small: "Yes, Dianne told me they are cousins."

City Manager Mitch Johnson confirmed at a news conference today that Tim Bellamy is Greensboro's new police chief.

Read the News & Record's account here.

This is a good if not surprising choice. Bellamy has run the department well as interim chief under very trying circumstances.

Either Ohio State is a team of destiny or the luckiest group of underachievers in college basketball.

First, they escape a game they should have lost to Xavier, and avoid an obvious fragrant foul that should have been called -- but was not -- on their star freshman, Greg Oden.

Then they scramble back from a 20-point first-half deficit against Tennessee.

In both cases they struggled mightily against inferior teams but managed to win. But you gotta hand it to them, they're fun to watch.

As Jim Schlosser reports in today's paper, Norfolk Southern appears close to approving a plan to turn part of its downtown right-of-way into a park near the Southside community.

Given the railroad's typical aloofness in such matters, this is monumental news.

If the deal goes through as now seems likely, part of the deserted rail yard behind the Depot would be transformed from a weed-strewn blight into the new park.

Southside, which combines shops and residences in one phase, and which features restored and new single-family homes in another, already is an unqualified success.

New apartments are planned nearby. The park would complete the amazing renaissance there, which would not have happened without the involvement of city government.

This week's column.

Shaven-headed and plain-spoken, Tim Bellamy charmed a full house at the Central Library during his official coming out Thursday as the new chief of police in Greensboro.

Even the attorney for the man Bellamy succeeds, former Chief David Wray, who resigned under pressure last year, had kind things to say about the new boss.

"Tim's a good man," Locke Clifford said following a news conference announcing Bellamy's elevation from interim chief to chief.

"David Wray wishes him the very best."

As City Manager Mitchell Johnson said at last week's announcement, Bellamy appears to be "the right man at the right time for the Greensboro Police Department."

Yes, two other finalists for the job dropped out of the running.

Yes, the results of a long-awaited SBI investigation are pending and overdue and could thrust the department into deeper turmoil than it already has weathered since Wray's bitter ouster.
Yes, a more open and public selection process would have been preferable.

And yes, a "social capital" survey found low levels of trust in the Greensboro police, the lowest among all 21 cities who took the survey.

Add to that the similar euphoria that greeted Wray's naming as chief in the summer of 2003 — and that Wray, like Bellamy, had been a long-time veteran of the department — one might wonder if Thursday's wide smiles and standing ovation were misplaced.

Probably not. Unlike Wray, Bellamy has had a year-long audition for the job.

Having watched the interview of John and Elizabeth Edwards on "60 Minutes" and a touching profile of N.C. State coach Kay Yow's battle with cancer on ESPN over the weekend, I am more and more aware of the reason both women have chosen to live their lives as fully and as normally as possible while battling the disease.

Yow returned to coach the N.C. State women's basketball team this season after undergoing treatment for a recurrence of her breast cancer.

Edwards announced the reappearance of her own breast cancer in a news conference last week in which she and husband John Edwards also said John's presidential campaign will continue. The new cancer is treatable but not curable.

Never mind. The talk show callers were brutal Monday morning, huffing that John Edwards should end his campaign and spend time with his ailing wife.

I must admit initially expecting John Edwards to shutter his presidential bid, but after hearing the couple's news conference, I understood why he wouldn't. They want to live their lives. What would they do instead, sit around and mope?

I don't know what I would do if I were in a similar situation, but I might want to do whatever it is that matters most to me ... my passion in life.

That's why, I imagine, Kay Yow was coaching and John and Elizabeth Edwards are campaigning. (Elizabeth Edwards, in fact, has a book signing in Jamestown Wednesday.)

"I'd rather be doing this more than anything I know of," Yow told ESPN of her love for coaching.

Some legislators are getting cold feet about a statewide ban no smoking in most public places. Words such as "choice" and "smokers' rights" are wafting into the discussion.

Puh-lease.

The bottom line is that this is a public health issue, plain and simple. Secondhand smoke, inhaled and exhaled into someone elses' breathing space not only is disgusting ... it is dangerous.

In his usual eloquent and informed manner, David Wharton does not share our editorial board's enthusiasm for a planned park on the Norfolk Southern property near the Southside community.

And he raises some darned good points.

Wharton writes:

"Downtown Greensboro has plenty of park, but not enough people. Even during business hours (except at lunch) the sidewalks there do not really bustle, and in the mornings and evenings (except for night-life hours) it just doesn't have much real street life ... yet. And it never will if we keep using its small amount of available real estate for parks.

"A park at that location will be a disincentive for Southside and other southern-downtown residents to make the 5-minute stroll to the Center City Park, and if those people aren't walking back and forth down Elm Street, they won't be stopping at any businesses for casual purchases.

"A park at that location will suck users away from the Center City Park, probably causing both parks to be under-used.

"A park at that location will be expensive to buy, build, and maintain, and the city is already contributing significantly to the maintenance of the Center City Park.

"A general-use park at that location is as likely to be a magnet for crime as it is to enhance the neighborhood, and this could mar the success of the Southside neighborhood and of downtown development. Even if it just becomes a favored resting place for the harmless homeless (as seems likely to me), it will scare the suburbanites who visit the area and make the residents uncomfortable."

As an alternative Wharton proposes more housing in that spot, an intriguing idea, although it would be fairly close to active railroad tracks.

Of course, no one has offered to buy that land for more housing. And a park sure beats the weed-strewn eyesore that's there now. By a country mile.

I agree with David that downtown needs more people, but the demand for downtown housing may need time to catch up to the suddenly robust supply, with more on the way.

Also, I disagree that downtown has too many parks. It has too many parking lots.

This ain't Four Seasons Town Centre or Friendly Shopping. Put some buildings on those spots.

What a strange, sad news week.

My UNCG class was abuzz Monday night following Saturday's shooting in a dorm on campus.

My A&T class was abuzz Wednesday morning on the arrest of Sidney Lowe II, the son of the first-year N.C. State basketball coach, in connection with that shooting -- and an earlier home invasion on West Friendly Avenue..

My UNCG students (all but one of whom are female) expressed concerns about being on campus at night, especially before the time change.

It's not that the campus itself is unsafe, they say. It's that there's no practical way UNCG or A&T or any other campus can be completely insulated from surrounding communities.

As for the younger Lowe, police found a semiautomatic rifle in his home.

Several of my A&T students said they know Lowe, a fellow A&T student. They describe him (doesn't it often seem the case?) as an OK guy. But obviously also a troubled guy, however the charges against him play out.

Already we're playing Dr. Phil from a distance on how a kid from such a relatively privileged home could go so bad. Aha! Lowe obviously was too busy coaching other kids and not his own. Could be. But it's unfair and premature to even speculate.

Plus, I'm not sure the troubles of Lowe's son necessarily mean he's a bad parent. Or a negligent parent.

An email correspondent insists that anyone who opposes the war in Iraq is a traitor who is no more honorable than Benedict Arnold or Tokyo Rose ... or Jane Fonda.

We are supposed to support our president as commander in chief, period, he says.

Fair enough, I respond.

So, what if some president in the future decided to invade Sweden. Should we just march jauntily to Stockholm 'cause he or she as commander in chief wants us to?

His reply:

We ain't talking about Sweden here. You Liberals always want to change the subject. Although I might consider it a good move, since it would remove the source of those Yuppie Icon Volvos that clutter our streets and highways. :)

I don't argue that the intel regarding Iraq was not perfect, but we knew they had poison gas, they had used it on their own people. And we knew that they had a nuclear program, the Israelis struck it in l986.

And remember, Your Boy Clinton thought it necessary to bring military action, however wimpy it was, against Bosnia/Serbia and, remember, we ARE STILL THERE. We are also STILL THERE in Japan, Korea and Germany, so where is the hue and cry from your crowd to
withdraw from those foreign entanglements?

Now, addressing your hypothetical, if my Commander-in-Chief thought it necessary to invade Sweden, I would support that decision 100%. Remember my mantra, "My Country, right or wrong, but My Country".

I am sufficiently afraid now.

Speaking of my country, right or wrong ...

It was good to see the Tuskegee Airmen honored Thursday in Washington by President Bush and members of Congress.

Despite suffering the indignities of segregation and the belief among many white commanders that they were incapable of becoming combat pilots, the Airmen severed with distinction during World War II.

They were especially popular as bomber escorts because they defended the planes under their protection so ferociously.

One of the Airmen was my Air Force Junior ROTC instructor in high school, Lt. Col. Andrew Johnson Jr. (no relation). He was a demanding teacher with an understated but commanding presence. And he taught us as much about becoming young men as becoming navigators nd pilots.

Sadly, he did not live to see Thursday's ceremony.

Read more about the airmen here.