Guide to the Editorial Page

Only the editorials express the opinion of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. They almost always appear on the left side of the editorial page. The editorial writing staff includes Paul Greenberg, David Barham and Mike Masterson. The columnists—local and syndicatedexpress only their own opinions, as do the cartoonists whose work appears on this page.

EDITORIALS Two ton of fan mail

That’s what we get, we get two ton of . . .

IS IT just us or have the letter writers been taking their vitamins lately? And not the chewable Flintstone kind, either. But the big-boy, adult vitamins that taste nasty and come with calcium, fish oil and high-octane caffeine.

COLUMNISTS The myth of ’08 demolished

Sure, Election Day 2009 will scare moderate Democrats and make passage of Obamacare more difficult. Sure, it makes it easier for resurgent Republicans to raise money and recruit candidates for 2010.

Get smart

Baby Einstein videos were marketed with a promise many parents found irresistible : Park your kid in front of the television, and let us make him or her, if not a genius, then at least above average.

LETTERS

Significant reform lacking At the height of the Halloween season, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Kimberley Strassel, had a scary thought: Maybe all this talk about the public option is designed to set up a bogeyman so all the conversation will be about it and not all the other terrible details of this monstrous bit of legislation.

Elephant chomp

Every town would be wise borrow the page from Springdale’s play book that explains how to proactively enforce city codes.

Revitalizing the Delta

During the almost four years I served as one of the president’s two appointees to the Delta Regional Authority, I struggled when asked to give a simple explanation of what must happen for the Delta region to once more become a vital cog in this nation’s economic engine.

EDITORIALS In Fayetteville to stay

Good news about the arts center

Tune up all 76 trombones! Put a call into Annie! Break out the Sound of Music! Those awful rumors are officially laid to rest: The wicked witch is dead!

Here we go again

The ABCs of liquor permits

THERE’S A LOT of liquor in them thar hills. Wait. Let’s rephrase that. There’s plenty of liquor for sale in Northwest Arkansas as long as the state agrees.

Throwing away the key

Should a juvenile be sent to prison for life for a crime that doesn’t involve murder?

LETTERS

Enforce noise ordinances I was actually shocked to see the letter from the gentleman complaining about the unnecessary noise that is rapidly on the increase from unmuffled motorcycles, particularly “rolling thunder” Harley-Davidsons.

Hair-splitting over hate

Even if all the hate crime victims over the past 10 years stood up and applauded President Obama’s signing of the Matthew Shepard Act last week, which added new gender and sexual orientation categories to the federal statute, it wouldn’t equal the roar of an average Razorback football crowd.

Don’t keep the change

A customer walks into a local eatery an hour past rush hour bearing a hearty appetite and a good book.

A leader or figurehead?

Several bomb blasts accompanied Hillary Clinton’s recent trip to Pakistan. This was a wake-up call in more ways than one. The moment had come for Clinton to act more boldly as the nation’s top diplomat.

EDITORIALS Moderation in all things

The view the morning after election day

PLEASE, could we avoid all the usual talk about the great new wave that’s coming in American politics, about Tuesday’s “transcendent” and “astonishing” election results, and all the other over-the-top and under-the-bottom reactions? All that’s happened is that the political tide has just retreated a few inches down the beach.