Congratulations toi the Boston Red Sox for a great regular season that surpassed everyone’s greatest hopes. Now it’s on to the post-season where the sky is the limit – as far as I’m concerned they’re playing with the house’s money.

Three’s been a lot of words written about Ted Cruz’s 21-hour marathon speech the other day, but Michael Walsh of National Review Online’s Corner Blog has it figured out right. The sands are shifting underneath the Washington political establishment, and it wouldn’t matter if it were Cruz or a frustrated Democrat – these well-entrenched pols don’t like their worlds rocked.

Here’s another great rendition of this old classic for no other reason than I liked this song from “O Brother, Where Art Thou” and the way Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch perform it.

How can something like the shopping mall massacre in Kenya not be met with more world-wide condemnation – and that includes Islamic governments?

And Kirsten Powers is right – why aren’t American churches more outspoken about what’s happening to their brothers and sisters all across the Middle East and Africa?

On Friday the pool officially dropped below 80, indicating the end of what has been a long and luxurious pool season. Tomorrow the new queen palms come in – it will be fascinating to watch how it all comes about with so little room to work with. There will be pictures, I promise.