Opinion

Conservatives can be forgiven for their apprehensiveness about what kind of federal governance is being empowered in coming weeks. And, their uneasiness may not abate until a Barack Obama presidency has settled in and calmed their nerves. Concerns...  Read Story.

Much has been said about the impact of the credit crisis on U.S. auto makers, and whether or not the government should assist the industry during this extraordinary financial turmoil. In these discussions, many critics simply ignore the substantial...  Read Story.

Among the many wonders to be expected from an Obama administration, if Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times is to be believed, is ending "the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life." He cited Adlai Stevenson, the suave and...  Read Story.

This could only happen in America. The insurance giant AIG that is more than a little responsible for the current economic crisis reportedly has decided to lay out $503 million of early deferred compensation to top employees so they won't abandon a ship...  Read Story.

I retrieve and open a large envelope from today's pile of mail. Inside is a press release announcing "Chik-fil-A Founder to Receive 2008 William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership." I discover that Chik-fil-A founder is 87-year-old Atlanta...  Read Story.

I usually hear from my distant cousin in Italy at Christmastime. The day after the election, though, an e-mail popped up. "Many greetings for Obama!!" Paolo's message read. Diann, an American friend who lives in England, e-mailed me a few days later. "I...  Read Story.

The moment president-elect Barack Obama and our new first lady began to shop around Washington, D.C., for a private school for daughters Malia and Sasha, proponents of school choice already had their eyebrows well prepared for elevation. Columnist Cal...  Read Story.

It wasn't too long ago that most Americans accepted the adage that what is good for General Motors is good for the nation. That symbolic concept of U.S. industrial might certainly has slipped dramatically over the last four decades, but at this moment...  Read Story.

President-elect Obama and his wife Michelle came to town and did what people with young children usually do before moving. They looked at their new house and then Mrs. Obama checked out the school choices for their two young daughters. The schools Mrs....  Read Story.

A heartless act Today I saw the dark side of man, again. My husband and I have put out donation cans for my brother-in-law Jeff Robison, who's dying from cancer. As my husband walked up to the door of the East Second Street Shell station, he noticed...  Read Story.

"I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky." -- Abraham Lincoln Which is how discerning conservatives felt while waiting to see if, in Election Day's second-most important voting, Kentuckians would grant a fifth term to Mitch McConnell,...  Read Story.

Editorial Recent news about the Big Three automakers is certainly eye-opening, and casts the existing discussion about what the government should do about their financial plight in a different light. The automakers are seeking billions in federal loans...  Read Story. (1 comment)

"Hitting a bullet with a bullet" is the way even proponents of anti-ballistic missile systems describe the extraordinary technical challenge. Yet there has been sustained pressure within the United States government for a half a century to build such...  Read Story.

I recommend to you an article on Politico.com that reports on the latest contretemps between the Obamas and the Clintons -- a tricky-track of a relationship if ever there was one. It describes a phone call from Michelle Obama soliciting advice from Sen....  Read Story.

On the same day that voters nationwide decisively elected a black man as president, voters in the state of Colorado narrowly voted that black people don't have a chance to make it in their state unless institutions discriminate on their behalf. ...  Read Story.

A mere two weeks have passed since Republican presidential candidate John McCain visited Defiance, but it may as well be two years. The excitement surrounding the visit -- as monumental as it was to the area's political history -- has long since faded....  Read Story.

The air is crisp, the sky bright blue, the leaves have passed their red-orange peak and are falling around the headstones of those who gave our nation their lives. As I am writing this column on Veterans Day 2008, the sacrifices of our fallen military...  Read Story.

The politically clever way to get special privileges is to call them "rights"-- especially "equal rights." Some local election campaigns in various states used that tactic this year, trying to get special privileges through affirmative action quotas or...  Read Story.

'Tolerance' is an admirable quality A roadside sign on the west side of Archbold read "Tolerant liberals stole my sign but they can't steal my vote." That's odd. Using the word "tolerant" facetiously reveals that the person(s) who placed this sign...  Read Story.

COLUMBUS -- So where do the Republicans go from here? That's the question state party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine discussed with reporters a couple of days after the GOP lost the presidency and half of the Statehouse. "When you lose the House majority,...  Read Story.