Ann Coulter. I admit this woman gets on my nerves sometimes with the outrageous things she can say. Her comments after 9/11 were over the top. But, given the gravity of the moment, they were almost understandable. But, NBC banning Ms. Coulter from the “Today Show” because of her comments about the biased media (NBC just proved her book to be factual) and scathing criticism of President-Elect Obama, in her new book “Guilty”, led to the decision to ban her from NBC. I'm curious how many people NBC banned for life for criticizing President Bush. I would daresay there are none. There is this thing called the 1st Amendment. It appears it does not apply to people who dare to criticize the annointed one, President-Elect Obama. Is it any wonder why so many people are terrified not of PE Obama, but of his cult members? NBC's unprecedented action deserves condemnation by PE Obama. If he truly believes in the 1st Amendment, he will come out and criticize NBC for their action. Love her or hate her, Ann Coulter's freedom of speech should be protected and defended.

Another holiday season has come and gone. I enjoy Christmas and New Year's Day. But, like a lot of people, I'm always glad when it's over. This year buying gifts hurt even more due to a terrible economy. But, thankfully, Christmas comes once a year. Back in the 80s, merchants tried to turn a theme of “Christmas in July” on July 25th. There were furniture stores who had Christmas trees decorated in the front of the store and all the other Christmas ornaments associated with this season. People caught onto what this was all about; more commercialization of a sacred Christian holiday. It failed eventually. I'm sure there are still some merchants who practice this Christmas in July travesty. But, they are few and far between.

You can always tell when people get new computers in my neighborhood. Christmas brought more computers into homes. How do I know? My cable download speed is cut in half since before Christmas. Ordinarily it is in the 5-6MB a second. Sometimes it .5-2MB a second. Comcast has assured me they are working to correct this problem. But, I'm not sure what they can do other than put new cabling down which would cost millions of dollars. That's the bad news. The good news for me, since I do computer maintenance on the side, is more work.

Finally, I was gratified to find out over the past week there are still honest people in this world. The ice maker in my freezer had stopped working. No ice and, for some reason, no cold water coming through the spout for cold water. I checked everything I could think of to check. Water valve was wide open in back of refrigerator/freezer. I put in a new water filter. I checked a couple more things and still no ice or water. I reluctantly called a refrigerator technician to check it out. I was already hurting financially from Christmas. But, I can't make it without ice when I need it and I am too spoiled by that ice maker to use ice trays now. The technician came and within five minutes he had the ice maker working and water coming out the spout! He said that a small chunk of ice had gotten between a sensor and ice maker that caused the problem. Expecting a huge bill, I asked him how much I owed him. He said, “I think a smile and a handshake will suffice. Let's keep the Christmas spirit going just a wee bit longer.” Damn, I couldn't stop thanking him for that. And, yes, I gave him a big smile and a handshake.