editorials

Dec. 31 -- Water, water everywhere --if we’re smart: (ARN Editorial) Gov. George W. Bush is urging all Texans to resolve in 1999 to be "water smart" and practice common sense measures to conserve water by using it more efficiently. Toward that end, Bush has proclaimed Jan. 1 as "Water Smart Challenge Day."

Dec. 31 -- Lott, Barr tied with racist groups: (Molly Ivins) AUSTIN — If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make any noise? If something happens and it has nothing to do with Monica Lewinsky, will the media pay any attention?

Dec. 31 -- Let Clinton’s trial in the Senate begin: (Cal Thomas) Two Senate Democrats respected by most Republicans, Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, have been toying with the idea of censuring President Clinton following his impeachment by the House instead putting him through a Senate trial. Though it now appears the trial will begin as early as next week, censure is still considered a strong possibility.

Dec. 30 -- Repression in China is cause to speak out: (ARN Editorial) China is nearing its 50th anniversary as a Communist state, and while it has shed some of the vile and self-defeating practices excused by Marxist ideology as necessary for some future good, it continues in other ways to be a crude dictatorship unworthy of the respect of anyone holding to humane ideals.

Dec. 30 -- Staying an island: (ARN Editorial) Political wags have joked that given the choice of “none of the above” on the ballot, voters would take it. Earlier this month, the Puerto Ricans were, and they did.

Dec. 30 -- A year chock-full of ‘media’ culpas: (Ellen Goodman) BOSTON — As 1998 races breathlessly toward its demise, I approach my annual true confession column in a state of great humility. How can my meager assortment of mistakes, misstatements and errors measure up to the ones committed during this late and unlamented year of the Monica.

Dec. 30 -- Seeing the world in black and white: (Bob Greene) NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN, taking note of the huge national interest in the upcoming Senate trial of President Clinton, have announced that as a service to viewers, all coverage of the trial will be telecast in black and white.

Dec. 29 -- Crime’s falling caused by both effort and luck/Curbing criminality: (ARN Editorial) Americans these days are assaulting, robbing and raping each other at a lesser rate than at any time in almost a quarter of a century, according to a recent report from the Justice Department that also showed property crimes in decline.

Dec. 29 -- Holiday shopping up: (ARN Editorial) The American consumer, whose zeal for shopping was something to behold this past year, appeared to be slacking off just when needed most, during the Christmas season.

Dec. 29 -- Blown in the wind of public opinion: (George Will) WASHINGTON — Many cynics are really sentimentalists wallowing in their disappointments. Washington fancies itself hard-bitten but actually is easily unnerved, and as the impeachment spotlight shifts to the Senate, the city is reassuring itself by bathing the Senate in sentimentality.

Dec. 29 -- Giving more, giving better next year: (Bonnie Erbe) You won’t hear much about it in the mainstream press or in normal conversation among the ranks of economic mere mortals like you and me. But in the upper echelons of the economic stratosphere there is a huge to and fro about how to “do” philanthropy and to do it bigger, better and more inventively in the next millennium.

Dec. 28 -- Senate should proceed minus lobbying efforts: (ARN Editorial) Vice President Gore says President Clinton will not admit to lying under oath to secure a censure vote in the Senate, making it look like the White House once more thinks things are going its way and might be overplaying its hand.

Dec. 28 -- Economy ticks along: (ARN Editorial) If the holidays haven’t already perked you up, consider the news on the economic front.

Dec. 28 -- Why not put resources into peace? (Molly Ivins) AUSTIN — Peace on Earth. Good will toward men. It’s always easy to use Christmas as an ironic premise to examine just how bestial man’s inhumanity to man is at this particular yuletide — an exercise one can sum up by concluding it’s an insult to beasts to call it bestial.

Dec. 28 -- America hasn’t learned its lesson yet: (Cal Thomas) I have a dim recollection from my childhood days of being told I would have to endure one form of punishment or another until I had “learned my lesson.” My parents presumed, correctly, there were certain eternal lessons that would accrue some benefit to me if I took the time to learn them. Are there lessons we might learn from the political and moral machinations of the past six years?

Dec. 27 -- Octuplets raise questions about fertility drugs (ARN Editorial): A woman in Houston has given birth to eight children, and in this instance of multiple offspring resulting from use of a fertility drug, let's skip the hoopla. As a physician quoted in a press account notes, mothers can die when this happens. The infants can die. If they don't, many or all may go through life with incapacitating deformities. The medical costs associated with the births can be astronomical.

Dec. 27 -- Best wishes, Dennis (ARN Editorial): It's one of the most powerful positions in the U.S. government, third in succession to the presidency, and it's soon to be held by Dennis, uh, let's see, oh yes, Dennis Hastert.

Dec. 27 -- Finishing off this year of loathing (Morton Kondracke): The only day of 1998 that the U.S. Congress has any right to feel completely proud about is July 28, when it solemnly memorialized two Capitol Police officers, J.J. Chestnut and John Gibson, who gave their lives defending the institution from a crazed gunman.

Dec. 27 -- Senate might surprise us and convict: With the historic vote of the House of Representatives to impeach William Jefferson Clinton, the scene now shifts to the Senate. Acting as jurors in his trial, the 100 senators have the power to convict and remove him from office by a two-thirds vote (67 senators). It is a grim and gripping moment in our history. What will the Senate do?

Dec. 27 -- Country girl and magic of Robert Frost (Sharon Randall): I woke this morning as the sun was rising and the air was so cold I could see my breath.

Dec. 26 -- The death of an authentic American voice (ARN Editorial): William Gaddis died last week. He was not a household name. He was perhaps the greatest American novelist since Faulkner.

Dec. 26 -- Fly the silent skies? Maybe someday (Bob Greene): NEW ORLEANS -- Down through the history of mankind, some of the best ideas that have ever come along started out sounding like jokes.

Dec. 26 -- How much risk can a parent take? (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON -- Let us begin by giving this father the benefit of any doubt. It's that time of year after all. And he is by no means the only parent willing to make great sacrifices as a gift for a child.

Dec. 25 -- Merry Christmas: The spirit of Christmas remains joyous: The point of Christmas, it is said, has been buried by mounds of stuff, by all the material things people give each other. The spirit of Christmas, it is said, is stifled in even the heartiest soul by too much hassle, all the shopping, cooking, traveling, worrying.

Dec. 25 -- Christmas emerges amid commerce: (George Will) WASHINGTON — A sardonic British skeptic of the late 19th century suggested three words should be carved in stone over all church doors: “Important if true.” On Christmas Eve, at the end of the rarely stately and always arduous march that Americans make each year to the happiest holiday, it sometimes seems that they are supposed to celebrate Christmas as though they have agreed to forget what supposedly it means.

Dec. 25 -- Remembering ‘reason for the season’: (Joe Alcorta) Millions of people around the world are celebrating Christmas. A majority of Americans annually celebrate this special day.

Dec. 24 -- Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (Scripps Howard)The following editorial, among the most famous ever written, appeared in The New York Sun in 1897 and remains appropriate for this holiday season 101 years later.

Dec. 24 -- We don’t need help digging up dirt: (Molly Ivins) AUSTIN — In the words of the old Chinese curse, we live in interesting times. This affords us an opportunity to see who might be keeping his head while all about him are losing theirs, so let us take special note of those who have lost it completely.

Dec. 24 -- Slime machine brings on apocalypse: (Cal Thomas) In a week without precedent, in a city that has set a lot of precedents, the biggest story was Larry Flynt exposing himself as a Democrat. It says a lot about a party that makes the likes of Flynt and the impeached Bill Clinton feel at home.

Dec. 24 -- Founding Fathers foresaw problems: Federalist papers addressed difficulties of impeachment: (CARL P. LEUBSDORF) WASHINGTON — Throughout the year, many observers have rated the drive to impeach President Clinton as more partisan than the effort to impeach President Richard Nixon a quarter-century ago.

Dec. 23 -- Three cheers for the B-1s in Desert Fox: (ARN Editorial) The B-1B Lancer is no longer a question mark in the Air Force arsenal. It’s now a combat-tested veteran, and the United States knows for certain it can rely on it whenever our national security needs protecting.

Dec. 23 -- It’s colder in Fargo: (ARN Editorial) We don’t have to wonder anymore where winter’s been. It’s been saving up for this. Lows in the teens, piercing winds, freezing precipitation in the forecast — you’d think we were in Fargo, N.D.

Dec. 23 -- Holy Family resisting persecution: (Linda Chavez) Two thousand years ago, King Herod drove Jesus, Mary and Joseph from the peaceful shelter of their Bethlehem stable into Egypt, where they hid until it was safe to return to Israel. Today, Herod’s troops have been replaced by the ACLU and like-minded zealots, who wish to drive the Holy Family from every public square in America.

Dec. 23 -- What they’re doing on campus now: (Bob Greene) You think you’ve heard everything about all the wild ways younger Americans are coming up with to communicate? You think the dizzying pace of the back-and-forth between people all over the world has gotten just about as frenetic as can be?

Dec. 22 -- Fallout of vote by Stenholm hard to predict: (ARN Editorial) No wonder U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm was the last member of the House from Texas to decide whether he would vote to impeach President Bill Clinton. With the input from District 17 split about 50-50, Stenholm was left stranded without a clear mandate from his divided constituents and was forced to rely on his conscience as his only guide. It must have been a lonely, painful choice.

Dec. 22 -- Republicans acting like republicans: (George Will) WASHINGTON — The times may seem out of joint, but suddenly at least some names fit. Republicans are acting like republicans, Democrats like democrats.

Dec. 22 -- E-shopping not exactly ‘Gift of Magi’: (Ellen Goodman) BOSTON — It’s 3:30 p.m. and I have gone shopping. Actually, I haven’t “gone” anywhere. I am sitting at my desk, discovering what a mall would look like after a neutron bomb hit. All goods, no humans. I am shopping online.

Dec. 21 -- Long-range Iraqi strategy needed now: (ARN Editorial) The Iraq impasse is filled with “should haves.” In retrospect, the Clinton administration should have launched an air attack on Nov. 14 instead of accepting Saddam Hussein’s worthless promises, just as the Bush administration should have sustained the Gulf War until Saddam was out of power.

Dec. 21 -- Murderous chill in Iran: (ARN Editorial) In the last month, three writers critical of Iran’s hard-line theocracy and an opposition leader and his wife have been murdered.

Dec. 21 -- GOP puts principle over proportion: (Molly Ivins) AUSTIN — Much as I hate to talk about impeachment when we could be discussing something that matters, this entire brouhaha has reached such a brennschluss of idiocy that there is no ignoring it. In the hope of salvaging something useful from this unedifying mess, let us take note of the instructive moral here: This is what happens when one follows principle without proportion.

Dec. 21 -- Peace, peace, and there is no peace: (Cal Thomas) Let’s put the latest Middle East farce in a setting most Americans can understand. Imagine a national gathering of the wizards and grand dragons of the Ku Klux Klan.

Dec. 20 -- Impeachment won't end this sordid affair (ARN Editorial): And so it has come to pass that Bill Clinton is the second president in U.S. history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. It is a solemn occasion for America that we have come to this, for whatever reasons.

Dec. 20 -- Clinton drama: tragedy, no catharsis (Morton Kondracke): Some people are delighted that President Clinton has been impeached, including inveterate Clinton-haters who think Slick Willie is finally getting his comeuppance and some who doubted that politicians could ever buck the opinion polls.

Dec. 20 -- Kids may demand street-playing rights (Dale McFeatters): As if it didn't have enough problems, Washington is home to another ominous social development.

Dec. 20 -- The best gifts might not look so great at first (Sharon Randall): The best gift is like Christmas, sacrificial. It's an offering not only of love and awareness, but also a gift of oneself. And it may not look like much at first.

Dec. 19 -- Impeachment vote marks low point for U.S. (ARN Editorial): Whatever political party you prefer, whether you support Bill Clinton or don't, a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach the president of the United States is a sad and momentous event.

Dec. 19 -- A peculiar nostalgia for the movies (Bob Greene): I am admittedly as nostalgia-prone a person as you will ever find -- if the barometer changes this afternoon, I immediately become wistful about this morning's now-departed air pressure -- but I believe I have found a person who is even more nostalgic than I am.

Dec. 19 -- Lessons for a rapidly dividing nation (Rheta Grimsley Johnson): I read about the golfers and thought about the goats. Let me explain.

Dec. 19 -- No Case For Impeachment: From the beginning, our editorial concern in the Clinton-Lewinsky episode has been to see a sense of proportion maintained. "What's it worth to get Clinton?" we asked repeatedly, as Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr hauled in Monica Lewinsky's mother to put the squeeze on her daughter, as he subpoenaed Secret Service agents, as he challenged the posthumous validity of the lawyer-client privilege.

Dec. 18 -- GOP critics of attack increase partisanship (ARN Editorial): Whether U.S. airstrikes force Saddam Hussein to comply with U.N. weapons inspections remains to be seen, but two things are now clear. One, bombing Saddam was the right thing to do. Two, the nation has seen a new level of partisanship from congressional Republicans that will raise more questions about the motives behind their imminent impeachment of President Clinton.

Dec. 18 -- Paying heed to other, older woman (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON — Could we pause for a moment to pay attention to the other woman? The other other woman? The older other woman?

Dec. 18 -- Impeachment: hygiene for the regime (George Will): WASHINGTON — When Queen Caroline, consort of King George IV, was accused of adultery, one of her critics made a sardonic salute to some of her defenders: "God save the queen, and may all your wives be like her." A similar toast to Democrats opposed even to a Senate trial for President Clinton: And may all your presidents be like him.

Dec. 17 -- Puerto Ricans choose to keep the status quo: (ARN Editorial) Political wags have joked that given the choice of “none of the above” on the ballot, voters would take it. Sunday, the Puerto Ricans were, and they did.

Dec. 17 -- Impeachment vote marks low point for U.S.: (ARN Editorial) Whatever political party you prefer, whether you support Bill Clinton or don’t, a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach the president of the United States is a sad and momentous occasion.

Dec. 17 -- 'Moderates' cave in to GOP zealots: (Donald Kaul) It looks as though the impeachment of the president, barring last-minute miracles, will go forth. The hope that Republican "moderates" in the House would balk at voting to turn Bill Clinton out of office is fading fast.

Dec. 17 -- The moving finger writes for Clinton: (Cal Thomas) Commenting on the impeachment proceedings last Friday, President Clinton invoked the words of the Persian poet Omar Khayyam.

Dec. 16 -- Social Security: Clinton makes move toward privatization: (ARN Editorial) President Clinton has made a historic decision, one that should give his future biographers something to contemplate besides Monica Lewinsky and impeachment.

Dec. 16 -- Impeachment issue beyond debate: (Linda Chavez) There is no debating some issues: abortion, the death penalty, the Vietnam War. No amount of argument or evidence will persuade those who hold one view to change their minds to the opposite position.

Dec. 16 -- The lesson that is not being taught: (Bob Greene) DETROIT — The casinos are coming — three of them, according to current plans — and the money and jobs they will almost certainly bring to Detroit is the cause for great excitement. According to one estimate, the casinos will generate annual revenues of $1.2 billion.

Dec. 15 -- Congratulations to the world’s best cowboy: (ARN Editorial) The Big Country is the home of the best cowboy in the world. In the concluding 10th round of the 40th annual National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nev., on Sunday, Stephenville’s Ty Murray won his second professional bull riding world championship.

Dec. 15 -- A class act in Austin: (ARN Editorial) Ricky Williams, the University of Texas running back who won the Heisman Trophy Saturday as the year’s top college football player, has done more than bring honor to UT’s football program and put himself in the record books as Division I-A’s all-time leading rusher.

Dec. 15 -- Let’s just end this whole sorry mess: (Ellen Goodman) BOSTON — At this point, I have no more taste for defending Bill Clinton than I have for last year’s Christmas fruitcake. In fact, all the offerings on this toxic buffet of characters — Clinton, Starr and those side dishes Monica and Linda — are indigestible.

Dec. 15 -- Subverting Senate's advice, consent: (George Will) WASHINGTON — A year has passed since President Clinton accompanied his appointment of Bill Lann Lee as assistant attorney general for civil rights — as "acting" assistant attorney general in perpetuity — with that breezy acknowledgment: The appointment was not "entirely constitutional."

Dec. 14 -- Court affirms privacy rights for private cars: (ARN Editorial) If automobiles had existed in 1789, the framers of the Constitution almost certainly would have included them in the Fourth Amendment, the great right of Americans "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures."

Dec. 14 -- Myrtle shines on: (ARN Editorial) The narrow view from close at home is often at odds with the perspective from far away.

Dec. 14 -- House GOP playing Wile E. Coyote: (Donald Kaul) The impeachment hearings have been truly bizarre, strange even by Washington’s standards.

Dec. 14 -- Clinton exemplifies a sorry generation: (Cal Thomas) Since "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," as the Scripture says, the acknowledgment by President Clinton’s special counsel, Gregory Craig, that the president also has sinned is not news. Unfortunately, they don’t have altar calls in the House of Representatives or at the liberal Methodist church Clinton attends.

Dec. 13 -- Clinton guilty of betraying public's trust (ARN Editorial): The White House, whose impeachment defense of President Clinton sometimes seemed to trivialize the charges against him, got serious the other day when Charles Ruff addressed the House Judiciary Committee, arguing that the House should not vote to impeach and put the nation through the agony of a Senate trial.

Dec. 13 -- Solving the Social Security dilemma: The White House Conference on Social Security, held on Dec, 8 and 9, was President Clinton's attempt to draw attention to the fact that the Social Security program is in financial trouble and in need of reform.

Dec. 13 -- We need the Postmaster General back (Dale McFeatters): WASHINGTON -- Let's face it. Patronage, perks and boodle are inseparable from politics, always were, always will be.

Dec. 13 -- Tales of loss and recovery keep us alive (Sharon Randall): I was in a rush, trying to fit too many errands into too little time, when I ran into a woman whose daughter had gone to kindergarten with mine.

Dec. 12 -- Counsel law deserves to die when it expires (ARN Editorial): The nation's independent counsel law is so fundamentally flawed it should be allowed to die when it expires next June 30.

Dec. 12 -- Root for the home team (ARN Editorial): A new phenomenon has caught fire in Abilene -- although that might not be the most appropriate metaphor for describing the first-year success of the Abilene Aviators, the city's Western Professional Hockey League team.

Dec. 12 -- Tiptoeing through the stock market (Donald Kaul): Strange things are happening. There was a comedian in the '60s, Red Buttons, who used that phrase as his mantra on his television show. He's one of those people, you don't know whether he's dead or just hasn't had a hit in a while, but if he thought the '60s were strange, he should see the stock market right now.

Dec. 12 -- Let's all retire to the Fainting Room (Bob Greene): DEADWOOD, S.D. -- We all react with such supercharged and erratic emotions these days to crises both public and personal -- headline news out of Washington, unexpected changes in our own daily lives -- that it can't be healthy for us.

Dec. 11 -- BCS making travesty out of college football: (ARN Editorial) College football’s caretakers ought to be ashamed. More appropriately they ought to be replaced — immediately. And they ought to take that Bowl Championship Series monstrosity with them.

Dec. 11 -- How to deal with fraud and theft: The verdict on the Montana Freemen is in, and so is a lesson in how to deal with criminally minded anti-government groups.

Dec. 11 -- We don't have to go together to get together: (Ellen Goodman) BOSTON — It’s been 20-odd years since I first barged in on the unisex toilet issue — without even knocking.

Dec. 11 -- Law is only law if it treats like cases alike: (George Will) WASHINGTON — The Spanish judge who wants Britain to extradite Gen. Augusto Pinochet, former dictator of Chile, for trial concerning human rights violations, is practicing what is called "justice without borders." However, borders are akin to fences, and good fences make good neighbors. If international law ignores fences, will nations be more neighborly?

Dec. 10 -- Abilene taxpayers know when their potholes need patching: Voters are to be congratulated for approving almost $18 million in capital improvement bonds that will go a long way to make Abilene a better city in which to live, raise a family and grow old. It’s not always easy to choose public expense over self-interest, and local residents deserve three cheers for recognizing there are times when community services demand reinvestment for the greater good. Tuesday’s vote was one of those times.

Dec. 10 -- Thrills and chills tonight: A cold front is moving through — right on time for December’s Artwalk to celebrate the holiday season. Some of us might miss November’s moderate temperatures, but for others, cold weather just makes it easier to get in the Christmas spirit.

Dec. 10 -- Retirement for the Palestinians: (Cal Thomas) After repeatedly telling overburdened taxpayers there can be no tax cuts until “Social Security is saved,” the Clinton administration has pledged to spend an extra $400 million in aid for the Palestinians. This decision is flawed for at least two reasons.

Dec. 10 -- Meet 'God's Sugar Daddy' (Molly Ivins) AUSTIN — Dr. James Leininger is known as the Daddy Warbucks of Texas social conservatism — or, as the San Antonio Current recently called him, “God’s Sugar Daddy.”

Dec. 9 -- Social Security gathering may lead to policy: A White House conference this week on how to save Social Security is not so devoutly to be wished as a White House policy on saving Social Security, but it at least has the potential of leading to a policy.

Dec. 9 -- Public may vote 'no mas' on impeachment, but the President's still responsible: (Linda Chavez) According to the polls, most Americans would like members of Congress to pull a Roberto Duran on impeachment.

Dec. 9 -- The gift that lasts a lifetime: Karate?: (Bob Greene) Karate for Christmas. It’s going on all over the U.S. — people are purchasing karate lessons for loved ones. There will be an envelope under the tree on Christmas morning — and inside will be a note saying the centerpiece of the recipient’s 1999 will be karate.

Dec. 8 -- Abilene needs projects listed on ballot today (ARN Editorial) To judge from the mere handful of letters to the editor submitted on the topic, today’s city bond election has not generated much controversy — which may be in keeping with the design of the city officials who proposed the ballot’s five capital improvement projects and which may also bode well for their being passed.

Dec. 8 -- Afghanistan lives under gender apartheid: (Ellen Goodman) BOSTON — Zohra Rasekh spreads her snapshots before me as if she were a tourist and these were pictures she’d taken of the colorful natives. “This is a doctor,” she tells me, “and this is a teacher.”

Dec. 8 -- They're, like, learning to stick to it: (George Will) WELLINGTON, Fla. — It is 7:15 a.m., and even the sun seems sluggish as it struggles to rise. However, the day already resounds with the sound of swarms of people living the strenuous life, a sound that suggests the shape of America's future.

Dec. 7 -- Five-day week shocks lawmakers: (Dale McFeatters) In part because of his inefficiency as speaker -- essential work often did not get finished on deadline -- the House forced out Newt Gingrich and chose, as his successor, Bob Livingston. In an unfortunate comparison with Mussolini, it was said of Livingston that he would "make the trains run on time."

Dec. 7 -- Catching up on the worthy tidbits: (Molly Ivins) AUSTIN — Sometimes valuable little news nuggets get lost in the shuffle of big events. What with last month’s plebiscite, the departure of Newt Gingrich and the ritual blink-off with Saddam Hussein, I find I have overlooked several worthy tidbits.

Dec. 7 -- Vote that will always be remembered: (William A. Rusher) It seems almost certain that the House Judiciary Committee, about mid-December, will vote along straight party lines to report out one or more articles of impeachment against President Clinton. One article is virtually inevitable: that Clinton committed perjury — i.e., lied under oath — repeatedly in his deposition in the Paula Jones case, and again (once more, repeatedly) in his testimony before the Washington grand jury.

Dec. 6 -- White House renovations would create new problems (ARN Editorial): The White House -- and this is a difficult concept for the National Park Service to grasp -- is just fine as it is.

Dec. 6 -- Clinton's 81 answers could hurt him (Morton Kondracke): The post-Thanksgiving bird President Clinton threw to Congress just could fly back in his face if one or more wavering Republican is offended enough to vote for impeachment.

Dec. 6 -- Leading on Social Security too risky: WASHINGTON -- Somebody is going to have to go first with a proposal to overhaul Social Security financing to keep the system in funds after 2032. But President Clinton isn't volunteering, nor are the Republicans, who insist the White House should be in the lead.

Dec. 6 -- Home for the holidays is still the place to be (Sharon Randall): The day after Thanksgiving, I stood in my kitchen hip-deep in leftover gravy, thinking about my grandmother.

Dec. 5 -- Big oil merger will cost jobs for thousands (ARN Editorial): The gee-whiz figures are indeed astonishing: A merger between Exxon and Mobil would create the world's largest oil company, with 29 percent of the global market, and America's largest corporation, with combined revenues of $186 billion, $20 billion higher than No. 2 General Motors. The price: At least $77 billion.

Dec. 5 -- It's the onions, stupid (ARN Editorial): It was upsetting to most of the world when a Hindu nationalist party broke nuclear neutrality on the Indian subcontinent by setting off an underground bomb. It has now received an unexpected setback in state elections, however, and its hold on power is jeopardized.

Dec. 5 -- How to treat animals confuses us: We are confused about the proper way to treat animals. We eat them, wear their skins, hunt some, pet others, sacrifice millions of specially-bred rodents in laboratories every year. Some meats are from penned-in beasts, machine-slaughtered after an unenviable, cramped existence.

Dec. 5 -- Generation Grump, Generation Sun (Bob Greene): One of the most intriguing sentences I have read in a newspaper this year was written by Susan Chandler of the Chicago Tribune's business-news staff.

Dec. 4 -- House inquiry shouldn't get out of control (ARN Editorial): President Clinton's responses to 81 questions submitted to him by the House Judiciary Committee were slippery, legalistic and plagued by a bad case of selective amnesia.

Dec. 4 -- Dr. Jack casts himself as martyr (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON--What does Jack Kevorkian demand now? A court-assisted suicide?

Dec. 4 -- 54 'babies' receive a Christian burial (George Will): CHINO HILLS, Calif. -- Where Route 71 crosses over Payton Drive, at the bottom of the steeply sloping embankment, two boys, who were playing nearby, found the boxes. The boys bicycled home and said they had found boxes of "babies."

Dec. 3 -- Reinventing government? Mostly hype. (ARN Editorial) The Clinton administration has apparently found another excuse for expanding Medicare and Medicaid, even though the funding perplexities of those already-gargantuan programs are far from resolved — and even though the excuse does not quite add up.

Dec. 3 -- Congress should just say no (ARN Editorial) The Clinton administration has apparently found another excuse for expanding Medicare and Medicaid, even though the funding perplexities of those already-gargantuan programs are far from resolved — and even though the excuse does not quite add up.

Dec. 3 -- The effort to make West Texas cute: (Molly Ivins) MARATHON, MARFA, ALPINE, FORT DAVIS, ETC. — All those who love true West Texas naturally find the quaintification of the area somewhat painful. Not as painful as watching it dry up and blow away, however.

Dec. 3 -- If journalists believed like America: (Cal Thomas) As if contemporary journalism, with its rank and unarguable biases, had not already done enough to ruin its credibility in the eyes of many Americans, the industry is sinking deeper into denial with an incorrect diagnosis of why it is losing viewers and, in some cases, readers.

Dec. 2 -- District Court lifts library’s ban on explicit web sites: (Linda Chavez) Virginia’s Loudoun County, best known until now for its rolling hills and handsome horse farms, may soon be memorialized as the community where the constitutional right to view child pornography, bestiality and snuff films in a public library was first established, thanks to a federal court ruling last week.

Dec. 2 -- See the U.S.A.? What? And miss "The Terminator"?: (Bob Greene) BAY ST. LOUIS, MISS. -- With traffic jams, road rage, construction backups and the various other joys of life on the American highway these days, we seem light years removed from the era of "See the U.S.A, in your Chevrolet ..."

Dec. 2 -- How about reinventing the hype?: (ARN Editorial) As part of the Clinton administration’s "reinvention" of government, the Environmental Protection Agency promised to reduce all the unneeded supervisory positions it had on hand. And it did. Kind of. The EPA changed 1,238 titles to make them seem non-managerial. But the pay and the duties of all those people stayed the same.

Dec. 1 -- Pay attention to inattention, study warns (ARN Editorial): Attention Deficit Disorder defies conventional diagnosis and some scientists doubt it even exists. The condition is all symptoms and, as yet, no known cause.

Dec. 1 -- Water, water everywhere (ARN Editorial): The issue does not attract many bold headlines, but a growing water shortage around the globe is already of calamitous import for 1.3 billion people who lack enough to meet all their needs. Over the next quarter of a century, according to a press report, billions more could be similarly afflicted.

Dec. 1 -- Bush hoping to gain trust in Israel (Morton Kondracke): During his trip to Israel, Texas Gov. George W. Bush is likely to collect ammunition for attacking Clinton-Gore foreign policy when he launches his candidacy for president. The trip also should be useful in healing a raw spot in relations with the American Jewish community, although he'd have to change his name to ever be fully trusted.

Dec. 1 -- Keeping poor children on plantation (George Will): WASHINGTON - In its potential for social amelioration, the largest domestic event this autumn was nothing done by voters or elected officials. It was the Supreme Court's refusal to review the Wisconsin Supreme Court's ruling that Milwaukee's school choice program is constitutional. By such steps liberals are losing their protracted war against poor children.

Dec. 1 -- Tawdry affair that's none of our business (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - Excuse me? Uh, either I missed something, or everyone else did. I listened to Kenneth Starr testify before the House Judiciary Committee, and I thought the news - as in, what was new - was that Starr announced, rather casually, that he had cleared the Clintons of wrongdoing in Whitewater, Filegate and Travelgate. Did anyone else notice that? Has it been previously reported? Hello?

Dec. 1 -- Clinton: 81 direct questions, 81 evasive answers (Cal Thomas): Only Bill Clinton would respond to the direct question, "Do you admit or deny that you are the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America?" with the evasive answer, "The president is frequently referred to as the chief law enforcement officer, although nothing in the Constitution specifically designates the president as such."