"Highlighted by the passage of an on-time and balanced budget, ethics reform, a property tax cap, strengthened tenant protections and marriage equality, we began to restore the faith and trust in state government," wrote New York Senate Minority Leader John L. Sampson in one of a litany of pat-ourselves-on-the-back press releases issued by state leaders as New York's legislative session came to a close last month.

Mission accomplished?
Hardly.
Mission impossible?
Possibly.

A milestone in America's longest war passed quietly on Friday. Too quietly.

Listen my children nd you shall hear Of Palin's gaffe and Paul Revere, Who, on the 18th of April in seventy-five, Warned the redcoats of a Colonial drive, A reversal of history, this is clear.
- All apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Yes, I'm stuck on a garden theme. As the days warm and we spend more time outdoors, I become obsessed with our little green patch of land.

Mistakes are almost always made between the first-draft version of events and the fuller history that follows, but the inconsistencies that have come out of the administration regarding the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden are regrettable, all the same.

The “benefits” of anger are many.

An Editorial from Assemblyman Pete Lopez (R, C, I – Schoharie)

"I think there's something wrong with me. I just don't understand Christmas. I like getting presents, sending cards, decorating trees and all that. But instead of feeling happy, I feel sort of let down."--Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Christmas, 1965