By Dale McFeatters

Star Parker

WASHINGTON -- Ideology matters again. The big development of recent years is the rise not only of great powers but also of the great-power autocracies of Russia and China. True realism about the international scene begins with understanding how this unanticipated shift will shape our world.

I detest Cinco de Mayo and what it has become.

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From the Washington Post, Thursday, May 1, 2008:

If the United States had a sensible energy policy, a higher federal excise tax on motor fuels would definitely be a part of it. Few measures would more efficiently accomplish more worthy goals -- strategic, social and environmental. The Congressional Budget Office has calculated that a 50-cents-per-gallon increase in gasoline taxes would contribute more than $300 billion to deficit reduction over five years, while reducing traffic congestion, dependence on Middle Eastern oil and greenhouse gases. Actually, the federal gas tax has been stuck at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, which means that, considering inflation, it has been shrinking for the past 15 years.

"I've noticed in those (nature) programs how the young males often leave the herd at an early age." -- Calvin and Hobbes, Feb. 17, 1991

Leslie H. Gelb