“Just so you don't come off as a flaming Lib, would you please research and then write about how Barney Frank and the Welfare Party ‘shook down’ these lending institutions into making bad loans.” So read an e-mail request from a reader challenging me to expose the Liberal conspiracy behind our economic meltdown. And who can resist that kind of flattery?
 

Despite the candidates guide I wrote not too long ago, it seems there are some people who still have not decided who to vote for in the upcoming presidential election. So I’m here to help make their decision a little easier by offering them a simple quiz.

Breaking down the Thursday night debate.

The economy is spiraling toward the abyss, consumer prices are skyrocketing and our mood swings are fluttering like hummingbirds on speed. It is hard to put our concerns on hold and laugh a little

Oh, don't worry, we'll all line up again next year. We'll all slosh around this week and pretend to be mad and besprinkle whatever unfortunate schmucks happen to be in front of us at the copy machine with promises of change. We'll say, "No more!' We'll punch a few walls.

I’ve taken umbrage with some people who fault the homeowners who have taken out mortgages through a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac program for the current financial mess the country is in. I am one of those people.

On Main Street, the talk was of Wall Street. The cliche, in this case, was true.

Who won the debate? "Which debate?" you ask. You know, The Debate. That one where he said ABC, and his opponent said XYZ. The one where he talked facts, and she talked about "joe six-pack," "average American families" and "the maverick," whatever the heck that means.

If you knew someone was watching your backside at the fast-food counter, would you still order a Big Mac?

“Demon rum” is alive and well. Though Prohibition ended in 1933, still we persist in viewing alcohol not as something that can add a small pleasure to everyday life but as something inherently evil.

Take a look at the dysfunctional state of our national economy and ask yourself how we got here; there should be no surprises. We’ve been on a high-speed joy ride in an old wreck; now that the wheels are coming off, it’s time to assign blame.

Acknowledging that flaws in oversight had contributed to the global financial crisis, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission called for a voluntary redoubling of efforts in the voluntary supervision programs for Wall Street.

I met America’s future 43rd president in 1990. George W. Bush headed the Texas Rangers. I was a speechwriter to his father. One day we convened in the White House to talk baseball. Chewing tobacco, the cowboy-booted acorn had fallen a universe from the tree.

When one of those morning "news" shows recently featured a story about people using the Internet to get medical information on the same day that the New York Times dealt with that subject, I knew that this medical surfing had become an epidemic.

Some of my earliest memories involve voting, memories that have come to the forefront during this volatile and vital election year.