Many people, including some conservatives, have been very impressed with how brainy the president and his advisers are. But that is not quite as reassuring as it might seem.

When the old City Council bought the Arizona Chemical property following Hurricane Katrina at a fire sale price, it had been for sale for a couple of years with no takers.

When Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, some suggested that race played a factor in his success. People “wanted” to elect a black man president because of our history of slavery and the denial of civil rights for so many years to African-Americans. It is never “racism” to vote for someone because he is black. It is only racism to oppose the policies of a black Democrat.

AMMAN, Jordan — “We live in a quiet house in a noisy neighborhood.” Our tour guide’s assessment aptly sums up the difference between his native Jordan and other countries in the Middle East, a difference created almost 15 years ago when Jordan signed the historic peace treaty with Israel. If Jordan’s neighbor to the north, Syria, ever hopes to benefit from a reduced-noise level, it will have to make peace as well, and the Obama administration needs to play a key role in that effort.

There is simply no justification for the supervisors decision to so severely cut the funding of the Pearl River County Library system.

Seven months after taking office amidst a religious-like faith that he was the one (or even The One) we had been waiting for, President Barack Obama is beginning to resemble a shooting star.

The serious, and sometimes chilling, provisions of the medical care legislation that President Obama has been trying to rush through Congress are important enough for all of us to stop and think, even though his political strategy from the outset has been to prevent us from having time to stop and think about it.

“I hate to admit it, but I have reached a stage in my life that if I am walking down a dark street late at night and I see that the person behind me is white, I subconsciously feel relieved.” — Reverend Jesse Jackson

When Sonia Sotomayor was a law student, she told a professor that her career goal was to be a federal judge. But more than a decade later, when she was urged to apply for an opening on the district court in New York, her mentor and law partner at the time, David Botwinik, could not get her to complete the necessary paperwork.