With 600 of THOSE coffee shops closing across the country -- some to cries of caffeine-deprived protest -- I guess I shouldn't quibble about the details.

Two of them in South Los Angeles got the hail-and-farewell treatment from the Los Angeles Times, because their opening had been regarded...

This is not a joke. How many Air Force generals does it take to choose upholstery?

At least four. At least that many ranking generals had a hand in choosing the decor of deluxe ''comfort capsules'' for themselves and their peers aboard military transport planes, so the brass don't have...

In an op-ed essay in today's Los Angeles Times, my colleague Ron Brownstein writes about Colorado's perhaps pivotal role in the presidential election equation, and he quotes sundry Coloradans on what's going into the making of their choices.

The one who got to me was a fellow who only offered...

Most Americans say they would have no problem voting for an African-American for president.

What about voting for a fat candidate for president? Would you?

[The obese William Howard Taft doesn't count -- he was president nearly a hundred years ago, when there was no YouTube, and prosperous...

The Third Amendment -- going, going ... ?

Nice work, Blackwater.

The Third Amendment says that "No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.''

Apart from...

Gordon Brown is telling Britons what mothers all over America tell their children -- at least they used to: clean your plate. There are children starving in [suffering nation du jour].

Your mother was right then, and she's right now. And so is Brown. You can't go wrong copying Mum.

What is it with us? We nail the small-time lawbreakers and put them away for decades -- but the big-time operators can get away with murder and their millions.

Max P. Sanders is a Minnesota college student who put his vote up for sale on eBay, starting bid $10, along...

John Adams was one of the stuffier characters of the Revolution, so it always tickles me that among his voluminous pronouncements and predictions, he got this big one -- the anniversary of the nation's independence -- wrong by 48 hours.

On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress declared American independence....

The signs read "Thank Our Veterans - Send Them to College.'' And when the emcee asked those in the audience who had once served in the armed forces of the United States to stand, they did:

Veterans like actors James Whitmore and David Hedison... and architect Frank Gehry... and writer...

The California State Supreme Court just overturned the ban on gay marriages.

I'm really happy for all my gay friends, but bottom line for me? It's going to cost a fortune in wedding presents.

Jimmy Carter's mom loooooved the Dodgers -- the Brooklyn Dodgers. The former president told me so when I interviewed him this week: "She adopted the Dodgers as her team because of them letting Jackie Robinson play," and she journeyed from Georgia to Brooklyn to see his first...

Fire up the carbon-neutral barbecue.

I'm all for what the skeptical are calling ''Franken-meat.'' PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is putting a million dollars where our mouths are: a big honking check to whoever can create marketable, affordable, realistic-tasting lab-grown chicken parts by the next...

The stars came out for a love of Larry McMurtry, just as 45 years ago McMurtry came out to Los Angeles, and kept coming back - for a love of books.

McMurtry won a Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove, one of his 40-plus books. Many of them have become films...

I don't know what you plan to do with your tax rebate, but I'd like to put mine to a good cause: buying the FCC a spine.

Tonight's Democratic presidential debate is sponsored by ABC, and as the New York Times pointed out, the network is treating it...

Hey there, Pennsylvania Democrats: are you sure you're old enough to vote? Because some of you are acting like two-year-olds.

A Franklin & Marshall College poll has found that if Barack Obama wins the nomination, 53% of Hillary Clinton's Pennsylvania voters would vote for him. Of the rest, 19% plan...

One good thing that's bound to come out of this financial market mess:

It will be a long time before anyone will seriously broach the subject of privatizing Social Security again.

... won't it?

Never underestimate the power of schadenfreude:

For the 400-point bump-up in the Dow, don't thank any clever federal money policies.

Thank Eliot Spitzer. A $200 billion bailout would cheer up anyone, but Wall Street was irrationally, exuberantly high-fiving itself over the downfall of a man who had...

Why do so many wives of famous men suck it up and stand grimly by, like a prop for the photo op, as the hubby spills his guilty guts for the cameras?

Silda Spitzer looked like she might have had a gun at her back, but there she was...

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ... who? The author, and who else? Publishers? Readers?

Margaret B. Jones, white/Native American foster child growing up with black family amid gangbangers in South LA, pens Love and Consequences, an acclaimed memoir. Now she's outed...

Have they really thought this through?

If Mike Huckabee and a 20-year-old Colorado woman get their way, a Colorado constitutional amendment would guarantee that every fertilized egg is a person.

There's all manner of astonishing possibilities here. For one thing, a fetus could...