Ricardo Montalban is dead at 88. He is one of those actors who could do a variety of roles, and was considered one of the nicest guys in the business by his peers. Patrick McGoohan has also died. What is interesting about reading these two obituaries is to find that both men created one iconic television character (the mysterious Mr. Roarke, played by Montalban, in "Fantasy Island", and the mysterious Number 6, played by McGoohan, in the cult classic "The Prisoner"), and both men married actresses and remained married to the same woman for their entire lives. I suppose one could also point to another parallel, which is that each man played a top-notch villain in a big-budget movie, Montalban as Khan in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and McGoohan as King Edward I in "Braveheart".

As George W. Bush serves out his final days as President of the United States, most of the commentary about his Presidency has been negative. Here, though, is one piece which stands as a ringing defense of Mr. Bush.

Was the rapid increase in the price of oil, followed by the rapid decrease, due mostly to fluctuations in supply and demand? Or were they due to speculation? This piece from the CBS TV show 60 Minutes asserts that it was speculation which caused the price swings.