Rep. Gil Herbel, a Republican, said he initially thought the resolution referred to Sonny Bono, the former singer, Republican congressman and husband of Cher.

"When I saw the resolution, I was looking for Cher's name in there," Herbel said.

I realize Sonny Bono managed to get elected to congress, but he's been dead for 9 years. In the meantime, Bono has been the biggest rock star of the past 20 years, a frontliner for a variety of social issues, and a repeated nominee in the past few years for the Nobel Peace Prize (losing to Shirin Ebadi in 2002, Mohammed ElBaradei of the IAEA in 2005, and Muhammad Yunus for his microloan ideas in 2006).

Mr. Herbel? I realize North Dakota is pretty much the middle of nowhere, but living in a cave there is no better than living in a cave anywhere else.