As a lipstick sunset painted the hills of the Piedmont, Joyce Tyree sold tickets to the junior varsity football game at Eastern View High School.

What began in January with Mike Huckabee’s “Christian Leader” ads in Iowa and subterranean attacks on Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith has further degenerated into false rumors about Barack Obama’s faith and ugly stories about a “witch-hunting” pastor who once blessed Sarah Palin.

I was waiting in line at the truck stop along with every other knucklehead swept up in the panic of the Great Southeastern Gas Shortage of Early Fall 2008 when my mind wandered, as it often does, and I flashed forward 30 or 40 years.

We truly have a crisis in this country now. To be more exact, in regards to the mortgage industry failure, what we are experiencing is a crisis of responsibility.

If it’s true the distance between Northern Virginia and Richmond is “about 100 years,” then it’s also probably true that both presidential campaigns have been forced to adopt a sort of two-state mentality as each side tries to carve out enough votes to put Virginia in their column by election night on Nov. 4.

I haven’t missed voting in a presidential election since turning 18 in 1986. My first presidential election was Bush vs. Dukakis two years later.

The conventions are over, the candidates have been chosen, the campaigning has intensified, and we have about two months to go after one of the longest campaigns for president in our history.

On Sept. 13, two 19-year-old thugs from Woodbridge decided they needed some pocket money and the best way to get it would be to abduct a defenseless woman who in all likelihood would have an ATM card.

The problem wasn’t that John McCain said “The fundamentals of the economy are strong” as Wall Street was imploding last week.

The old saying goes, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Well, Prince William County is seeing a lot of smoke this year and we need to put the fire out now.

I’ve talked about this election off and on for several columns. Now, with a little more than six weeks, I would say we’re into the homestretch.

Like millions of baby boomers, AARP turned 50 this year. Earlier this month the association launched its anniversary commemoration, “Life at 50,” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the plaudits of Buzz Aldrin, Richard Petty and Sally Field.

A warning to readers who are contemplating getting naked and unruly: You could be Tasered.

Tuesday night, House Democrats passed what Reuters called a “bill allowing offshore drilling.”  Don’t be fooled by the headlines. This bill is a last-ditch attempt to stop offshore drilling, while pretending to support drilling to insulate members of the Democratic caucus from the outrage of the American people.

Two weeks ago, I had just finished watching the last episodes of the final season of “Northern Exposure.” It was a worthy task that took more than a year of regular Netflix rentals to see all six seasons, and the closing credits of the final episode brought an end to “living” in a small town in Alaska.

Is it racist to question Sen. Barack Obama’s thin résumé?
Of course not.

This election is dead even, but the track ahead hides many potholes and pitfalls. One misstep or outside event — a factor that’s not even visible or predictable now — could determine the winner two months from now.

I can remember when flying was fun. I have always been enthusiastic about airplanes, and taking a trip on one was a big adventure.

Sex education in an Alaskan high school

Normally I don’t use my column for any partisan viewpoints so I won’t start now. I do apologize in advance if somehow my comments are misinterpreted as partisan because they are not meant to be.

During the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan, in a debate with President Jimmy Carter, famously suggested that voters answer a simple, but potent, question. 
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

It’s time some courageous person exposes the global epidemic of mass dog weddings.

Politics is not about right versus left. It is not about Republicans versus Democrats. It is not about liberal versus conservative.

“The Seven year itch” was the name of a play, produced in 1952, discussing the idea that men become unfaithful after seven years of marriage.

I can see it now. The end of civilization as we know it. (Not that that’s necessary a bad thing.)

As a former naval aviator, John McCain knows that of the four forces that act upon aircraft in flight, drag is the most troublesome. If drag is excessive, neither better wings nor an improved power plant will save the airplane. It will inevitably crash.

I’ve been listening to a three CD set of American music entitled Song of America. Produced in part by former Attorney General Janet Reno, it includes songs ranging from “Yankee Doodle” to Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?” which detail the historical and cultural changes throughout this country’s 232-year history.

Remember the Democratic National Convention? The Clintons and the Obamas, Invesco Field, the fireworks?

Ok I got it! The presidential campaign is coming down to change or at least that’s what both candidates are telling us. Change we can believe in vs. Change from the maverick.

Today, I’m on a soapbox. And any of you with children in the public schools can probably anticipate what my soapbox is: schools use too much paper.