Playing to the President, a high-ranking U.S. military commander in Iraq maintains that November is a better time to review the 'surge' progress, as more time is necessary to study 'trends.'  The only trend appears to be that the longer U.S. forces occupy Iraq, the more of our courageous people are dying!....Fighting terror?  The government will no longer ban most cigarette lighters from commercial airliners, noting that searching for them has been "a waste of time."  Kind of like having my 80-year-old mother remove her shoes, yet allowing muslims to keep their towels on their heads!....Worst inventions of our time:  the VCR - the new babysitter, both in schools and at home;  the Internet - unharnessed proliferation of fraud and sex crimes;  text messaging - along with cell-phone usage, created another extreme distraction for automobile drivers!....Arizona homebuilders are troubled by the present housing slump.  Evidently not so troubled that they care about the negative effects on consumers and commerce from their poor workmanship and lack of paying their sub-contractors!....And Bada Bing!  The Sopranos received 15 Emmy nominations, as it ended its 8-year, six season run.  The last season was highly anticipatory, but not very good - unless you enjoy watching violent deaths inflicted upon the long-running Italian characters.  I suppose this is what an angry American society has evolved into.  Can you imagine how differently the reactions would have been, if the victims had been Black, Jewish or Mexican?  Fuggedaboudit!