Yesterday we got up as high as 115 here in Gilbert. It was pretty miserable, I have to say. There was one other advisory I forgot to mention the other day when it gets as hot as it is: outdoor pet advisories, where people are not just told to keep their pets inside, but dog owners are advised not to take their furry friends on “walkies”: during the hours of 2 PM to 8 PM unless they have little doggiekin socks for their feet because of the heat of the concrete. I’ve actually seen dogs wearing them, they’ve got all kinds of colors and styles at Petsmart. File that under “world gone mad” category.

If you’ve never heard Ennio Morricone’s “Jill’s Theme” from Sergio Leone’s classic Once Upon A Time In The West you’re missing an incredible piece of music – if it doesn’t move you then you’ve got no heart or spirit. What amazes me about this piece is that it’s been done so many times by others, and it isn’t an easy piece of music to sing. It was originally sung by Italian soprano Edda dell’Orso) But to show you it can be done, check this version out and this one as well. Both are top notch, but I give Patricia Janeckova’s version the nod for it’s pure autheticity as originally done. She’s wonderful – makes me wonder why Charlotte Church never tried it.

Here’s an example of the liberal mindset I so much admire: valuing the lives of bees over that of unborn babies.

This is a truly tragic story for the people in Egypt – a country that imports more than half its food and an economy dependent on tourism allowing radical Islam to destroy it from within. Me, I’ve always wanted to do a boat trip down the Nile to see the desert and the pyramids, but like a lot of folks with the same dream, I know that’s something scratched off my “bucket list” for good. Hard to believe Egypt used to be such a vibrant and cosmopolitan culture; now, like everything else radical Islam touches it’s all going to sh**. Just don’t expect the mainstream media to cover it from that angle.

As a believer in personal liberty, I don’t have a problem with the Supreme Court throwing out the Defense of Marriage Act – I’ve always believed that marriage should be whatever the states want it to be defined as, and Christian institutions ought to be able to decide to whom the sacrament of Holy Matrimony shall be given. And while I think the Court did a huge disservice by punting on the California Proposition 8 decision and not upholding what the voters in California legally decided at the ballot box, I get that lesson as well: if you don’t want a detached bunch of politicians at your state capital imposing legislation you don’t approve of, work to vote them out and put in folks that do. Democracy is not a spectator sport, if you want change you have to want to work for it, and hard.