Last night, France escaped elimination from 2010 World Cup qualifying, sending Ireland home instead. In the last possible seconds of overtime, just before a shoot out would have become necessary, French team captain Thierry Henry forwarded a free kick to William Gallas, who headed it into the goal. Fantastic finish, right? Fantastic except for the fact that to keep the ball in play, Henry basically had to catch it. With his hand.

When a network goes from the top of the ratings world to the very bottom, generally there's a reason. Look no further than CNN's Wolf Blitzer's Twitter stream to see those reasons. From Wolf:

Laura showed up at my door today. Well actually, a UPS guy. But he handed over a copy of The Original of Laura, Vladimir Nabokov's final, unfinished, fragmentary novel.

I had never ordered a book pre-publication before, without waiting for the reviews or (more likely) for it to go into paperback. This was different. This was Nabokov -- his first "new" work in more than 30 years. And, obviously, his last. I had to have it.

In an odd turn of events, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron are giving away free copies of Origin of Species. No, this is not satire. What's the catch? Well, Comfort has added an introduction where he presumably explains why Darwin's theory is all nonsense.

So, the rollout of Sarah Palin's book has led to a flurry of speculation about whether she will someday run for President. That conversation, in itself, is evidence of how little the American political media listens to what it's saying.

Palin is an unpopular politician who badly botched her Vice-Presidential run. But on the other hand, she badly botched her Vice-Presidential run and is unpopular. She will never make a serious run for the White House, because she can't.

Here's how American politics can be swiftly summarized:

If I give you five dollars in exchange for consideration in your decision-making process in the voting booth, that's illegal.  If I give a member of Congress five-thousand dollars for the same purpose, that's politics.

Many Americans seem to be fond of a sort of ersatz independent politics, though for the most part these people are transparently partisan.  Glenn Beck claims he is independent.  Lou Dobbs calls himself Mr. Independent.  The list goes on.

It's been another busy week for perennial Fox News guest Patrick Byrne. The Overstock CEO has appeared with Neil Cavuto, bewailing potential CEO pay caps.

Joe Lieberman has spent a lot of time over the past few weeks making a spectacle of his disloyalty to the Democratic Party. He's gone out of his way to announce that he'll filibuster against the public option, preventing the majority that gives him his committee chairmanship from bringing their most important legislation to a vote. Then, as if it weren't already clear, Lieberman wanted make sure everyone knew he'd be stumping for some Republicans in 2010. Just in case, you know, anyone mistakenly thought he was loyal to the caucus that gives him his power in the Senate.

I like fiction as much as the next person, but I'm not going to read Going Rogue. I don't need to. You see, I know a little something about pathological liars. My bio-dad* is one.

Six months ago, I wrote a column decrying President Obama's compulsive bowing before foreign leaders and monarchs. After my editorial onslaught, the administration appeared to take note, and I thought that the matter resolved.

GQ Magazine's editors believe they know why Lou Dobbs left CNN: persecution.

As God had promised, Sarah gave birth to a son at the age of 91. She and Abraham were very happy. Abraham named the boy Isaac and cut off his foreskin.

All was well in the Abraham clan until Sarah remembered Abraham's bastard, Ishmael, and his slave-mother, Hagar. She said to her husband, "Drive away this slave together with her son. The son of this slave will not share the inheritance with my son Isaac!"

I don't subscribe to cable or satellite television.  The reason for this is that I basically see no value in it.  Pay television doesn't really seem to offer me much.  For one thing, it's rife with advertising content.  Why do I have to watch ads constantly when I'm paying for the service?  Furthermore, much of the content available to basic cable subscribers is now available for free on the Internet.

At first glance, Audrey Niffenegger's second novel seems to be a complete departure from her debut, The Time Traveler's Wife. It's mostly set in London and it follows a whole host of characters, none of whom, except for the ghost, have any supernatural powers. However, both novels ultimately struggle with the same two questions: 1) How final is death? and 2) How suffocating is life for those who won't leave the ones they love even if maybe they should?

I'm a freelancer and pay for my own health insurance. Since I'm (relatively) young and healthy, and since I rarely see a doctor more than once a year, I have a fairly inexpensive plan with a pretty high deductible.

Stupid question: If the House health care bill is adopted, shouldn't I opt for the cheapest plan that I can find?