A couple of years ago, Rip Van Winkle awakened after 100 years of sleep to see what the world had become. As he rubbed his eyes, so the story goes, Van Winkle was amazed by the wondrous changes that had occurred during his century of somnolence.  Automobiles, airplanes, space ships, telephones, radio, television and the internet left him gasping with

Over the past several decades, I have had the pleasure (and occasional displeasure) of knowing many politicians.  Some were good, some were great, some were not so good, and some were outright bad; yet most of them reflected what their constituents wanted in their elected officials. I suppose that’s why I find it so ironic to see Governor Phil Bredesen’s