You can run a red light*

* Johnny Lang "Live at Ryman's"

Many moons ago a teenager from Fargo, North Dakota captured the ears of rock critics, playing a blistering guitar. For years Johnny Lang played clubs accompanied by his parents. When I first heard him, I thought he was one of the most stunning rock guitar players I had heard. Still in his teens he recorded the album "Lie to Me" and then went in and out of the scene as his school required. I heard him here in Washington only a few years ago and he didn't disappoint but the audience was a drag, rich yuppies out for a night drinking. Sometimes his Stevie Wonder vocalizing gets in the way of his guitar but this white boy can rock. Live at Ryman's is album recorded in 2008 and only released now. Backed by his friends from Minneapolis, Lang lets loose with his standards from his past albums. There are only a few new songs but he has transformed his others. The guitar work on "Quitters Never Win" is just masterful. Sometimes I hear hints of another great rocker Stevie Ray Vaughn. Still only in his mid-20s, Lang is another reason why America is great. My son and I have gone up and down over the years about Johnny Lang. We've been disappointed by the production value and some of the material. But across the Plains, he just wrote me ,"Wow."

Another thing that made America great is Good Humor ice cream. Its celebrating its 90th anniversary. If you buy their toasted almond bar, you get a chance to win $10,000. Three down and I still get "try again".

Americans now believe for the first time in eons that American cars are the best. The Toyota and Honda recalls may have helped. Today, General Motors announced its paying back the government loans early and also hiring more workers in Detroit and Kansas. Imagine if the Republicans had gotten their way--16% of our economy would have vanished with no chance to recover.

The great Commonwealth of Virginia is trying to slip mandatory gun safety lessons into the grammar school curriculum. Naturally, the lessons are an NRA program.

Eleanor Holmes Norton , the DC representative in the House, pulled her DC voting bill after Republicans attached an NRA-written amendment that would have allowed people to openly carry assault rifles in the city, a city which currently has the highest murder per capita. Democrats had figured a tamer amendment would have been acceptable. Holmes refused to buy the insane language of the NRA.

Arizona is competing with Virginia for the most insane state. Arizona has passed in one chamber a "birther" bill, which would demand that presidential candidates--read Obama--would have to furnish birth certificates to justify their qualifying for the ballot. Then the Secretary of State would use his "discretion" to determine whether the candidate qualified.

The state also passed a law to require police to check on the immigration status of anyone they suspect of criminal behavior. Although this theoretically applies to anyone, it will be applied to the large Hispanic community in the state. The newly appointed Catholic bishop of Los Angeles said the bill encouraged "Nazi-like and Stalinist police tactics". And he's Opus Dei so he should know. John McCain supports the bill because "illegal immigrants are deliberately causing car accidents." Arizona Democrats are urging a national boycott of the state that is heavily dependent on tourism and the convention trade. The Southwest is beautiful so travel to New Mexico.

Polls are showing horse races in the California, Florida and Texas governor races. All three are held by Republicans.

Charlie Crist anounced today he would run for the Senate in Florida as an independent. Polls show he would win a three-way race against Meeks and Rubio by a slim margin. Marco Rubio is being investigated by both the FBI and IRS for his misuse of the Republican Party's credit cards.

Georgia has imitated Virginia by passing a "Mark of the Beast" law, which would prevent government agents from implanting electronic devices in your body. The key witness claimed agents of the military inserted beeping devices in and around her anus and vaginal areas. Her ID number has been sent around the internet and people can access these devices, which she finds annoying because the devices beep.

Glenn Beck, who is promising us all his Plan for America, says that God has been speaking to him. He prays and then selects bible passages and the Plan becomes clear. The Left has picked up on his direct communication with God but I picked up his explanation of how he reads the Bible like a Ouiji board or a horoscope. And why did I go to Harvard Divinity to study biblical hermaneutics when this is all you have to do? What if he stumbles on Leviticus' prohibition about eating shell fish and crustaceans? Will the Plan call for the death penalty of everyone that eats crab cakes and lobster? It is one way to eliminate the people around the Beltway.

When will Glenn Beck throw the Mormans under the bus and become a "born-again" Christian?

By the way, I have to disappoint everyone but there is literally no evidence whatsoever in any of the Bibles you choose for the Rapture. In fact,the Christian version of Hell itself was a fifth century creation. If you love the Book of Revelations, rent Ingmar Berman's The Seventh seal and if you like Hell read Dante's Inferno.

The Muslim Revolution website has threatened the producers of South Park because they created an episode making fun of the dispute of whether one can portray Muhammed. And, here, I have to disappoint everyone but yes you can and the Muslim world has repeatedly done so through centuries.

Pat Buchanan, the author of a recent revisionist history of World War II, which blames Churchill for causing the conflict, has re-entered the culture war sweepstakes with a column in Human Events. Pat is claiming that the tea parties represent an embryonic form of ethnonationalism, which brought such delightful results in the Balkans. He claims these people are not the guilty country club Republicans of yore but unapologetic whites, who embrace the great lost causes like the Confederacy and are linked to America's noble past. He says that Blacks are united now, but the Whites will soon become so.

I believe the tea party crowd are more like the Ghost Dances of the Plains Indians. A revivalist cult that marked the extinction of a culture.

And, yes, as Johnny Lang sings, "You can run a red light."