I have not posted here since summer, though I have occasionally commented.

I am in Maui on vacation and enjoying myself tremendously. I am doing the bare minimum, mostly sitting by the pool and reading along with a bike down the volcano and a whale watch boat trip.--both wonderful.  I have read Tom Clancy's new "Dead or Alive: an dam re-reading Atlas Shrugged for the 4th time--both good conservative books.

"Dead or Alive," if you've read Clancy in the past, includes all the favorite Ryan and Rainbow characters, a cursory, (and negative) evaluation of the Obama/Kealty administrations  and a good positive ending. Bin Laden is dead and the country is headed in the right correct/right direction again. Feel-good fiction.

I read Atlas Shrugged pre-marriage, in ~1975; in 1985 shortly after my 2 kids were born; in 1995 in Georgia as a libertarian; and am reading it again, now on vacation after my kids have moved out and are starting their professional lives. It is a book that should be re-read during life's passages. The characters and philosophy are timeless. Rand was brilliant!

I have briefly seen some of the news coverage of the Repubs taking control of the House and look forward to caring again. Until then, I will occupy my time with conservative-leaning fiction.