ate California, it's cold and it's damp..." so goes the lyric from a song made evergreen by Frank Sinatra. It is cold  at the moment, and most everything is soaked; but you can't hate it. In a few days of everything from snow to drizzle, thunder and lightning, hail, mudslides and more, the sun will soon be illuminating the golden state and we will be, once more, focused on politics, unemployment, the future, wars and aid to Haiti. Actually a goodly percentage of the population is already chasing the clouds away and very much concerned with all the nation's ills and problems. But this Thursday, named by the greeks for the great god of thunder, is one of those days when everything that is supposed to stick together, comes apart, and everything which is intended to come apart, sticks together.

The President is looking noticeably older at the end of his first year as chief executive. For those who have grown disaffected by his performance i would say that it is too early to condemn him. I feel that his problem has come about by attempting too much change and reform and being faced with wars inherited and an economy left in horrible straights by George W.

Conan O'brien is out, soon to be back on screen, elsewhere. The settlement for his work, something like $40 million. We really do have some screwed up values. On the other hand, thinking as an agent, manager or lawyer, you are worth whatever you can get.  All happily for Jay Leno, who returns to the venue of his former triumphs.

Here's an e-mail received this morning from Gale in Denver, Colorado. "Michael, how do you react to the proposal to  utilize full body scanners at airports, as soon as the expensive equipment is ready"? She feels it's an invasion of our privacy and disgusting!

Gale, look at it this way, i'm awaiting the first woman to go through the test; be scanned with raised arms only to discover for the first time that she is pregnant! It's a boy! Maybe the procedure could be functional in ways not considered heretofore. Possibly when the airports are not busy, and your doctor is somewhere out there on the golf course, you could put yourself in front of the device and discover whether or not you are pregnant.

A message for the Rev. Pat Roberts. Pat Roberts, it is time to rinse your mouth out. I think the most ignorant, unkind and thoughtless statements of the week, were yours. What amazes me,  there are assuredly still people who agree with his warped and ignorant thinking.

The educator and cleric went public with the comment that the Haitian's misery stems from a pact with the devil.

He'll probably claim that his words were taken out of context by some screaming liberal. Fellow, you have been educated beyond your capacity to think.