Shortly after Bernal resumed his post as look-out over the sandy dunes of the camp, he spotted five native men walking on the beach. With smiles and bows they approached, and their gestures made it clear they wanted to be taken into the camp. Bernal sent a messenger to bring Do񡠍arina and Aguilar to the tent of Captain Cortez, while Bernal took the five men to the Captain himself.

Bernal had never seen such men. While they cut their hair and wore their loincloths differently than the Mesheeka, it was their lip plugs that distinguished them. They all had a large hole in their lower lips, filled with heavy stone disks of turquoise or covered with thin sheets of gold ? so heavy that they pulled the lip down over the chin exposing the teeth and lower gums. Their ears lobes were also pierced with large holes also filled with turquoise or gold-covered stone disks ? but it was the hideous lip plugs that repelled Bernal.

"Lope Luzio, Lope Luzio!" they cried out as they bowed deeply to Cortez while rubbing dirt on their foreheads as a sign of supplication and respect.

Blueberries are healthier than bread, so why don't people eat more blueberries and less bread?

Perhaps it's because blueberries cost roughly 15 times more than bread (depending on the time of year) for the same number of calories. Blueberries are a labor-intensive crop and are costly to harvest (as are many healthy fruits and nuts), unlike wheat and corn.

There are those who want to increase the minimum wage, and there are those who want to further restrict the use of foreign, seasonal farmworkers. Both fail to think clearly about the consequences of such actions.

Let's do some clear thinking for them.

I was, of course, hoping to write a celebratory column today. We are in for some trouble over the next four years, and each of us should be aware of the reality facing us, and accepting of the circumstances. By accepting I do not mean that we like it, or that we make believe that it's just fine. I simply mean that the truth is the truth, and we all function better when we accept this fact of life.

In every area of life, there are things we have control over or influence on, and many more things that we do not. I have no control over what a debate moderator does, but I can ridicule the obvious bias; I have no control over how other people vote, but I can know my principles, speak my mind, and seek to build bridges of influence rather than repelling people with ad hominem attacks.

Today, so that we can remember our principles, and in so doing become stronger, more resilient, and more effective in maintaining our republic over time, I want to identify several of the principles that Obama has wrong, and that we have right.

What is happening to Dem presidential aspirant John Edwards - the Breck Boy - is too awesomely delicious not to quickly brief you on.

The National Enquirer is now running a story about Edwards cheating on his wife.  The Enquirer doesn't reveal her name or anything about her identity. 

Evidently she is Lisa Druck, the former girlfriend of novelist Jay McInerney who described her as "jaded, cocaine-addled, (and) sexually voracious."

Chapter Thirteen:  The Bromas

Upon reaching Villa Rica there was a welcome surprise: a ship had arrived from Cuba with a detachment of seventy soldiers, nine horses, and a goodly supply of arms, commanded by Cortez’s friend, Francisco “Pulido” de Saucedo. His nickname of Pulido – Dandy – came from his handsomeness and immaculate appearance. “I and my men have come to place ourselves at your command and seek our fortune with you!” he grandly declared to Cortez.

All rejoiced at the reinforcements, but when Dandy sat down with Cortez in private, the news was not so good. “Governor Diego Velasquez’s procuradore – representative – in Spain, Friar Benito Martin, has persuaded the Court in Seville to grant him a license for exploring this territory, with the profits going to him,” was the message. “Only one-tenth of any gold found goes to the Crown, not the Royal Fifth. You, of course, and those loyal to you, will get nothing.”

“My old enemy once again,” mused Cortez. He called in Alonzo Puertocarrero and his closest officers, had Dandy repeat the news, then said, “Gentlemen, the only solution is to petition the King directly. Here is what I suggest we do…”

I don't know about you, but I have been especially glad of my gas-fired central heating and hot water in the past few frigid weeks.

Gas really is rather special: it provides us here in Britain with 84 per cent of our domestic heat, 27 per cent of our electricity, much of the feedstock for our synthetic consumer products, and pretty well all of the nitrogen fertilizer that has fed the world and largely banished famine.

Although we import half of it, beneath Lancashire and Yorkshire, in the Bowland shale, lies one of the richest gas resources ever discovered, just 10 per cent of which would be enough to provide nearly 50 years of British needs.

The technology to get it out involves using water and sand to make cracks that are a millimeter wide in rocks that are a mile and a half down. A month's work leads to 25 years of gas flow from a quiet box of tricks that can be hidden behind a hedge.

No need to festoon the hills with permanent concrete bases for 400ft towers of steel trying to suck a sparse trickle of energy out of the wind on a cold, calm day.

Shale gas extraction is a process that has proved very safe and clean in the United States. It has had virtually no impact on groundwater, earthquakes or surface pollution anywhere. These are exaggerated myths constantly repeated by the wealthy multinational pressure groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, by wealthy fashion designers and their nimby friends in gin-and-jag country, and by Vladimir Putin and other Russians with an interest in expensive gas.

Yes, the world is a mess -- but there is a long-run solution.

Most countries, including those with the biggest economies, are plagued with slow growth and rising, unsustainable debt burdens. The slow growth is in large part a result of excessively large government sectors -- with taxes, regulations and spending far beyond the optimal.

And the rise in debt increases the pressure for more taxes, which slows growth even further and thus fuels the demand for even more government spending to take care of the growing numbers of those "left behind" (because of the lack of growth). This is an economic death spiral.

Citizens in many countries, including the United States, feel they have lost control of their own governments -- because they have.

They no longer think they are masters of their destinies. Large centralized government, by its nature, becomes uncaring at best, and brutal and oppressive at worst. The movement for secession in Scotland was a cry to regain control.

There are secession moments all through Europe, as well as the rest of the world. A few examples: