Brian Gongol

Some Japanese abodes are so small that the washing machine goes outside the house

More than ever, the US should be in the business of broadcasting freedom to the world. Unfortunately, that's not been national policy of late. We can hope, though, that the spread of online PDF newspapers can at least start to plug some of the gaps in news coverage to parts of the world under oppressive governments.

Anyone who doesn't pause once in a while to marvel at the changes since 1989 is really missing the big picture. The EU may be an overgrown bureaucracy, but to think of Romania and Bulgaria as aspirant free-market nations is revolutionary.

Unlike many products, auto insurance crosses virtually every age and other demographic category imaginable, so they run ads in all forms of media and target every imaginable audience. The present "caveman" commercial uses a song called "Remind Me" by a band called Royksopp. The music video is 180° from the Geico commercial, by the way.

A lost cat gets found and returned through a chain of five personal relationships: "Could it happen in your neighborhood? If not...why do you live there?" Something to consider when choosing where to live.

Public-sector retirees could be owed $1 trillion in promised benefits that no one has saved for

An unspecified terrorism threat has them on their toes. Meanwhile, little or nothing is still being done about the immediate threat to life and limb in Sudan.




Says the cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan strains the Army's budget and demands that Secretary Rumsfeld heed his warnings about the shortages. Most Americans probably don't want an under-funded Army. Retired generals are continuing to criticize the Bush Administration for the way they've conducted the war, and a British officer is very openly discussed the shortages of men and weapons in Afghanistan.

Carriers too afraid for their safety to enter some neighborhoods