I have little doubt that critics (and perhaps even fans) of these columns are tiring of my weekly harangue over the sorry performance of Barack Obama. And just when I think I can spend a week actually thinking about something else on which to comment, he renders such fancy impossible by proposing yet another inane scheme for spending our great, great, great grandchildren's hard earned tax dollars. This week is no exception.

Australia's Julia Gillard barely squeaked into power. But her slim majority means that passing any legislation will be tricky.

According to Natural Resources Canada, expenditures on mining exploration in Canada fell 47% in 2009 over the prior year, breaking an 8-year streak of record spending.  But with gold and silver prices rising, the holdback in mine expenditures is about to turn the corner, which in the U.S. the same may be true.

Wrestling star Hulk Hogan was admitted to the Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla. on Monday complaining of back pain he says came from bending over to collect sea shells.  Hogan said spasms from his leg up to his hip finally forced him to face the pain and check himself into the hospital.

Set mostly in the desert, this tale of double and triple crosses involving an old miser (Ni Dahong) and his tarty young wife (Yan Ni) is replete with boisterously unfunny black slapstick.

'Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould' delves deeper into the influential pianist's elusive brilliance than any earlier documentary.