When I traveled to Australia last year I registered online for an e-visa. The process was quick and easy and I obtained my authorization in less than 15 minutes and printed out the single page form on my own printer. Now the U.S.government has implemented a similar system, but instead of modernizing the application process … Read more
Bill Hogan, a freelance journalist from Falls Church, Virginia, was returning home to the U.S. from Germany last February when a customs agent at Dulles International Airport pulled him aside and said he had been chosen for “random inspection of electronic media.” The TSA kept his computer for about two weeks. Fortunately, it was a … Read more
I have long said that our values are out of whack in this country, that we covet material things to an unhealthy degree and spend needlessly in a futile attempt to feel better about ourselves. It seems I am not alone in this belief. Reverend Billy, along with his mock-religious Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, has … Read more
From the moment Barack Obama was declared President-elect, I began thinking about the possibility of attending his Inauguration. I searched the Internet and found dozens of sites offering tickets to the swearing in ceremony and the Inaugural parade. Prices ranged from a low of $516 and soared into the thousands. Nix that idea, I thought. … Read more
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not particularly a fan of cruises. The idea of being trapped on a ship for days, with nothing to see but endless expanses of water much of the time – well, that seems like a fate worse than death to me. But the other day I happened … Read more
