Graffiti is plain ugly, everybody knows that ... in fact, this week it's been talk of the town ... or at least the bloggers that inhabit the Napa Valley Register's Web site.

California has a seemingly endless number of fascinating nooks and crannies, places where human history touched down for just a second or where some natural feature is the only one of its kind — or spots where the natural and the historical came together to make a location memorable, like the James Dean Tree near Cholame, Captain Jack‘s Stronghold near Tule Lake or Scotty‘s Castle in Death Valley.

The alarm bells have been ringing for some months now. Napa Valley wines don’t compete well on price point or flavor profile today.

What you post is there for everyone to see, and it stays there for everyone to see.

The Summer Olympics started in Beijing on Friday, and I’m having some trouble getting excited about the spectacle this time around ... too many pro athletes, too many endorsement deals and too many sports that have passed their prime.

It’s still a long way from being fully cooked, but the fuzzy outline of a deal on the much-delayed, deficit-ridden California state budget is becoming visible as the deadline for placing measures on the November ballot draws near.

Dear editor, For more than 25 years I have heard the liberal mantra, “We should have $4 to $5 per gallon gas prices like they have in Europe to force conservation.”

Dear editor, I sit here and read another article on Johnny Apodaca. I then scroll down and read the posts that the bloggers on the Napa Valley Register Web site are writing. It makes me sick and outraged.

Dear editor, The 2008 Napa Town & Country Fair may now be behind us, but many who attended this event will have at least one or two special memories about their fair-going experience this year that will stay with them for many more to come; I can count myself among them.

Fareed Zakaria, one of the most insightful and interesting writers on issues of general political importance to Americans, has recently written a follow up book to his last one, "The Future of Freedom.” The new book is called, "The Post American World.” Both books are outstanding and I would recommend them to anyone.

Yesterday the proposed election for a transportation tax died a quiet death in the Board of Supervisors chambers. I was disappointed because I would like to see the roads fixed, and I do not believe they will be fixed without one in any reasonable time frame, but I agree it was the right decision. Taxpayers are scared right now for a lot of reasons, and I think the final blow was our Governor proposing the 1 percent state sales tax.

Proposition 8, the "Limit on Marriage, Constitutional Amendment," on the November ballot, calls for an amendment to the state constitution, declaring that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.