Despite all the filters and parent blocking programs, currently the best way to protect your kids from all the horrible stuff out there on the Internet is to limit the technical capabilities of their computer. If, say, the instant messaging doesn't work too well, they're not going to use it too much, which means they'll have less opportunity to connect with "undesirable elements." This is only a stop-gap measure, as soon enough you'll have to upgrade out of computer obsolescence.  So here's an idea that I've been toying with, based on a worldwide growing movement of free wireless Internet access employed by community groups all over the world. You could call it a Kosher Internet.

When the going gets tough, as it got excruciatingly so on November 7th, the tough have a party.  You may recall that's a line from a famous movie.  But it won't be a Toga Party as John Belushi had in Animal House (the smooth seduction character of "Otter" in the movie, by the way, was based on my Sigma Nu fraternity brother at UCLA, Steve Deming).  It will be what the Mountain Men of the Old West called their gatherings:  a Rendezvous.  And what better place to have it in than Las Vegas? Here's how it's going to work. 

Yes, it's Sinatra Time - meaning, recall FS's lyrics in That's Life, take a while to feel like garbage over Americans electing people who hate their country to run Capitol Hill, then pick yourself up and get back in the race. Yes, this is not going to be easy.  I lived through the old joke this morning - waking up at dawn to survey the wreckage of yesterday, telling myself to cheer up as things could be worse.  So I cheered up and sure enough, things got disastrously worse when Bush threw Rummy to the wolves of the left - and announced the worst possible replacement. Bobby Gates' nickname at the CIA was The Little Prick.  He is a pompous, incompetent, squishy witless fool.  He is the total tool of the Jimmy Baker-Brent Scowcroft crowd that so horribly ran foreign affairs for GW's daddy.  To put such a man in charge of the Pentagon - the one bastion of pro-Americanism remaining in our foreign policy establishment - is an unmitigated catastrophe. Conservatives can get back in the race by blocking this awful nomination.  They did it with Harriet Miers, it can be done with Little Bobby. 

Version 7 of Microsoft's dominant Web browser packs in interface changes, many new features, and plenty of under-the-hood updates. It's available now from here. Soon it will be automatically installed with a windows update. It also arrived just days before version 2 of the up-and-coming Mozilla browser, Firefox.  Firefox 2 (which you download for free from this link) automatically updates your Firefox 1.51. So which new browser is your best bet?  I'll try here to give a comprehensive comparison.  Like Fox News, I'll report - then you decide.

Some of the Republicans likely to lose Tuesday -- like Rep. Don Sherwood in Pennsylvania's 10th district -- deserve to.  But when the public gets in a "throw the bums out" mood, some who get thrown out aren't bums. On July 26, 1945, less than two months after Germany's surrender, a British electorate weary of the demands of greatness replaced Winston Churchill as prime minister with  Clement Attlee, and Britain's swift decline as a world power began. The three GOP senators thought to be in the deepest kimchee are Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Mike DeWine of Ohio, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.  The republic would miss Mr. DeWine only a little, and Mr. Chafee not at all. Rick Santorum is another story.

The Jade Steps Chapter Twenty-Eight:  The Fate of Montezuma Cortez moved swiftly to commandeer the ships and supplies of Narvaez's fleet.  Under the command of Francisco de Lugo, the ships were brought to Villa Rica, everything of use brought ashore, and the great quantities of wine, bacon, flour, cassava bread and other perishables carefully stored. He also moved quickly to merge the men and commands of Narvaez's men with his own.  He detached Juan Velasquez de Leon and 120 men, 100 of whom were Narvaez men, to explore the coast to the north of Villa Rica and establish a colony near the river Panuco.  He directed Diego de Ordaz to lead the same sort of contingent south for a colony near the river Coatzacoalco. He placed Rodrigo Rangel in charge of Villa Rica, made sure Narvaez and Salvatierra were securely imprisoned there, and ordered Gonzalo de Sandoval to make all preparations for the remainder of the command to return to Tenochtitlan. Then everything changed when Malinali brought one of Narvaez's officers, Botello Puerto de Plata, to Cortez.  "Señor de Plata has disturbing news, my Captain," she told him.  Cortez had been hearing about him.  A hidalgo from Santander on the north coast of Castille, he had become a Latin scholar while studying in Rome, and had a reputation for being a prestidigitador, a magician who could predict the future. "Señor Cortez, I must warn you to leave here immediately," de Plata announced.  "The officer you left in command at Tenochtitlan, Pedro de Alvarado, and all your men there are in grave danger.  The Aztecs are making war upon them, they are attempting to climb into their quarters with ladders, and wish to kill them all.  You must return there quickly."

Franz Kafka couldn't make this up.  Ollie North is doing his best to see that his Sandinista foe, Daniel Ortega, responsible for the Communist tyranny in the 1980s that took so many lives of his (and my) Contra friends, will be elected president of Nicaragua this Sunday, November 5th. He's not doing it on purpose.  Just like Democrats who are so filled with Bush-hatred they will support anything that hurts Bush even if it hurts America, Ollie is so filled with State Department-hatred that it is blinding him to what he is doing. I know it's hard to believe - and that Foggy Bottom has gotten something right for once adds to the Kafkaesque weirdness. The story begins in 1997....