Wallace G. Smith

The shock and controversy surrounding the Vanity Fair bareback-in-a-sheet photo-shoot of popular fifteen-year-old television and singing star Miley Cyrus has been passionate and persistent. The voices criticizing Miss Cyrus' choice to be in such a photo have been loud and numerous.

Since early 2004, America has had two robotic rovers on the surface of Mars, exploring, analyzing, and sending back breathtaking pictures and data galore, helping us to learn about our celestial neighbor. Originally expected to be a mission of around three months, the two rovers – dubbed Spirit and Opportunity – have surprised one and all by continuing successfully now for more than four years.

Most states in the U.S. practice a programmed sequence of events to execute their most violent convicted criminals. There is an injection to anesthetize and take away pain and consciousness, a second injection to paralyze the body, and a third to stop the heart of the unconscious individual—a process designed very carefully to give the condemned offender an opportunity to die pain-free and with dignity, as one who had died in his sleep.

The big headline in the Financial Times on Wednesday, October 17, 2007, was "Investors flee US securities." It seems that "[f]oreign investors slashed their holdings of US securities by a record amount as the credit squeeze intensified." Apparently, faith in America as a good investment is diminishing.

The article quotes Alan Ruskin, chief investment strategist for RBS Greenwich Capital, as saying, "The bad news is that [the data] plainly show how vulnerable the dollar is to a continuation of the credit crunch-risk adverse environment."

Recent news has been abuzz about the sentencing of convicted kidnapper and child molester Michael Devlin. The horrific tales of his four-year imprisonment of one child and his related crimes have been told in courtroom after courtroom, as he has received multiple life sentences.