We’ve all heard the saying, “what a difference a day makes.”  Well, in my case, I can only say what a difference a couple of weeks makes and, unfortunately, it’s not a good thing.

Maybe the bearings are shot.
Hundreds of dignitaries, diplomats, researchers and others with big brains and bigger titles gathered in Geneva on Oct. 21 for a gala wing-ding to formally celebrate the world’s biggest scientific gizmo, an atom smasher called the Large Hadron Collider.

A foreign student learns about Halloween.

In 2006, a majority of Americans found no reason to reelect Republicans, and they put Democrats in charge in Washington. Despite the disastrous consequences and a nine percent congressional approval rating, some people are considering voting for Democrats again.

Out of some 3,000 counties in this country, Prince William is proving to be very much a swing county in a swing state — two potentially electric scenarios so unlikely even four years ago that the mere suggestion of this county and the commonwealth going anywhere but for the GOP in a presidential race would be downright laughable.

Anyone desiring a preview of what the federal judiciary would look like under a Barack Obama administration need look no further than a narrow ruling by the Connecticut Supreme Court allowing same-sex “marriage.”

Recent polls have shown that Virginia — and Prince William County — are the epicenter of American politics right now. With less than two weeks to go before Election Day we have entered the exclusive classification of being a battleground state and county. 

The presidential election confounds me.
Exhibit A: North Carolina, which twice handed George W. Bush double-digit victories and last voted Democratic for president in 1976. Is it really a presidential toss up, as the polls say?

I don’t know how many of you watched the presidential debate on Wednesday night. I missed the first debate, but have watched the last two presidential and the vice presidential debates to try to learn more about the campaigns. 

With Nov. 4 approaching faster than a Wall Street downturn (then upturn, then downturn again, then…), there is precious little time remaining to pen a ridiculous, often hate-filled crackpot political letter to the editor packed with idiotic half truths and outright lies.

Abortion opponents want to end most abortions. That’s no surprise.  But abortion supporters often express the desire for abortion to be “rare.”

In Wednesday’s opinion column titled “Frederick’s six degrees of separation,” Alfred Biddlecomb suggests that the GOP is attempting to “link Obama with the Boogeyman.”

Year by year as we grow older (which certainly beats the alternative), I have grown less tolerant of things that I probably never gave a second thought to in the past.

The television was barely audible as I was cleaning up after dinner Monday night when a teaser from a cable news show caught my attention.

We are fortunate that the News & Messenger is willing to print opinion columns and letters that cover a wide range of topics, many controversial.

The first line I read of Joe Biden’s latest e-mail reminded me of my grandmother.
“The McCain campaign is on the ropes,” Biden wrote Wednesday.
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” my grandmother used to say.

What is furry, cute, meows and flies? NOTHING!!

Ever had “aromatic fig and cassis body butter applied after a warm, tension-releasing back compress?”

Simpson for president!

Sometimes politicians box themselves into little corners of self-imposed patterns of “acceptable behavior” that eventually could make it increasingly hard for them to break free of their own restrictions — even when they want to.

I have bad news and good news for you. The bad news is that you will die. The good news is that if you are reading this you still have time to get your affairs in order.

I am sure you’ve all seen the signs at gas stations here in Prince William County that say:  Gas $3.60 per gallon or $3.45, cash only.

Tim Kaine shows why Barack Obama is the reform candidate.

Allen says choose McCain for real change.

Normally, I pay little attention to who wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. With my English major days far behind me, I rarely seek out any book that “uncovers the precipice of everyday prattle in the quest for the melancholic soul of the female experience,” a description constructed entirely from the one-sentence blurbs about the last three winners at nobelprize.org.

The Democrats are succeeding where the “Socialist Party USA” and “Communist Party USA” have failed.

With the economy in turmoil, partly because of practices at companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it is as important as ever to ensure companies do business ethically. Rules and regulations are not enough — with bad leaders, businesses will break rules and subvert regulations. 

One of the key political facts of life that separate the House from the Senate in Congress are the brief two-year terms in the larger chamber.

Rep. Tom Davis, R-11th District, voted in favor of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package on Monday.

In spite of the anti-Hispanic policies that local elected officials have pushed during the past year, our community remains diverse and, for the most part, a desirable place to live. Contrary to the desires of the politicians, businesses, government offices and private individuals throughout Prince William County have made worthwhile efforts to ensure that everyone is welcome.