editorials

Oct. 31 -- Bush deserves landslide win he's headed for (ARN Editorial): Despite asserting he's taking nothing for granted, Gov. George W. Bush is coasting to an easy re-election victory on Tuesday. He's earned it.

Oct. 31 -- John Glenn and the things that last (Bob Greene): HOUSTON -- The Astrodome is obsolete and John Glenn is not, which may be some of the best news to come out of an otherwise dismal American year.

Oct. 31 -- Plucking body politic from the mailbag (Joseph Spear): What's bugging the body politic? The mailbag knows.

Oct. 30 -- Halloween - it's not just for kids anymore (ARN Editorial): Halloween is no longer just for little kids and Druids. It is an economic event tracked by analysts. It is no longer trick or treat. It is all treat.

Oct. 30 -- The Eastland court (ARN Editorial): The job of the three judges on the 11th Court of Appeals in Eastland is not to try cases but to review the transcripts of cases tried in state district courts to see whether proper procedures have been followed.

Oct. 30 -- No right to be surprised at this murder (Ellen Goodman): The murder made Page One. I am told that we should be grateful for that. After all, the clinic attacks, the arsons, the foul-smelling acid assaults are routine enough to be relegated to Page Six or Ten. As for the harassment, the death threats, the stalking? They barely qualify as "news" anymore.

Oct. 30 -- Confronting the evil that was Hitler (George Will): WASHINGTON - Don't judge a book by its cover. But begin judging Ron Rosenbaum's book by its brilliant dust jacket, which features an old, grainy black-and-white photograph of a cherubic infant, less than a year old, dressed in a white gown with a ruffled collar, staring at the camera with wide, dark eyes, his delicate lips slightly parted, a look of mild curiosity on his round face. How did this small bundle of potentialities become Adolf Hitler?

Oct. 29 -- Treasurer gets most attention in county races (ARN Editorial): Of the four contested Taylor County races, the one that is the least political - county treasurer - seems to have become the most heated, judging from the number of letters to the editor the Abilene Reporter-News has received.

Oct. 29 -- Year of pitiful political commercials (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - What a commercially disgusting political year it is. Both sides lobbing stink bombs on the airwaves with unparalleled disregard for truth, probity or the mental health of the citizenry.

Oct. 29 -- Clinton calls Netanyahu 'despicable'? (Cal Thomas): News reports tell of President Clinton, seeing a "possible peace agreement" and its political dividends slipping away, saying to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "You're despicable."

Oct. 28 -- State Board affects schools, school taxes (ARN Editorial): Education is the keynote of this year's statewide campaign, with Gov. Bush calling education "by far the most important thing a state does." And Bush is hardly alone in sounding that theme. Turn from one top race to another, and you hear education from this candidate and that TV commercial. We're all for education.

Oct. 28 -- Judging by achievment, not color (Linda Chavez): For the first times since Californians enacted that state's controversial ban on racial and sex-based preference programs in 1996, voters will once again be asked on Tuesday whether they approve or disapprove of programs that confer special benefits on members of some racial minorities and women.

Oct. 28 -- A Southern highway, a midnight death (Bob Greene): SLIDELL, La. - "It was just a few miles from here," the man driving the van said. "On Highway 90." This part of Louisiana - barely south of the Mississippi border - doesn't often make the national news, but it did once. Jayne Mansfield died near here.

Oct. 27 -- Garza has skill to serve on oil, gas panel (ARN Editorial): If the Texas Democratic Party is encouraged by the emergence during this political campaign of a rising, young star in the person of comptroller candidate Paul Hobby, the state Republican Party has its counterpart in Tony Garza, who is running for the place on the Railroad Commission being vacated by Barry Williamson.

Oct. 27 -- Clarifying a TV ad (ARN Editorial): An editorial in Sunday's Abilene Reporter-News described a TV commercial that shows a hazardous waste truck creating a danger in traffic and blames U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm for approving a dump in far southwest Texas to permit such dangers to pass through here.

Oct. 27 -- A 'feisty' Boxer battles the turnout (Ellen Goodman): NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - On a Sunday morning that looks as it was produced and directed by the local bureau of tourism, Barbara Boxer enters a garden full of supporters, an oasis in the conservative desert of Orange County.

Oct. 27 -- GOP continues Congress' degradation (George Will): WASHINGTON - When in 1996 Congress ended wool and mohair subsidies, liberals said this proved they were serious about "reinventing" government, conservatives said it proved they were serious about shrinking government, and realists said the subsidies would be back. Some are back.

Oct. 26 -- Underwood's ideas, energy fit for Senate (ARN Editorial): Greg Underwood is on the right side of the issues in his campaign for the District 30 Texas Senate seat, and he also brings an energetic commitment to serve the people of this 36-county territory, which includes part of Abilene.

Oct. 26 -- Election letters crunch (ARN Editorial): We're trying to give readers a chance to speak out about the fall political campaign. But because of the volume of mail we've received, we can't guarantee that election letters received after 5 p.m. Wednesday will be printed before election day.

Oct. 26 -- Don't sneeze at chemical sensitivity (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - Let's talk peanut butter and jelly. According to an account in The New York Times, more and more schools are banning peanut butter, that childhood staple, because peanut allergies are apparently on the rise. In rare cases, the allergy is so severe it can kill, although there is an antidote.

Oct. 26 -- GOP still blames Franklin Roosevelt (Cal Thomas): RICHMOND, Va. - Gov. Jim Gilmore, who led a sweep of Virginia's top three offices a year ago for the first time since 1986 with a platform of cutting taxes, is sympathetic to the problems faced by the R

Oct. 25 -- Experience key factor for 17th District (ARN Editorial): The difference that counts in the race for U.S. representative from the 17th District is not party affiliation. It's experience.

Oct. 25 -- Elites are wrong on Clinton scandal (Morton Kondracke): The Monica Lewinsky scandal has hit high culture. Distinguished writers regard it not as a tale of tawdry sex and perjury, but of American freedom menaced by ayatollahs, McCarthyites and Salem witch hunters.

Oct. 25 -- Fooling some voters some of the time: An aide to Republican Sen. Lauch Faircloth of North Carolina put his foot in it the other day. Answering a question from a Greensboro audience as to why negative campaign ads are necessary, he allegedly insulted the intelligence of American voters.

Oct. 25 -- Her baby's birthday gets missed again (Sharon Randall): Today is my daughter's 24th birthday. I can say she's all grown up, but the words don't exactly roll off my tongue.

Oct. 24 -- Competence needed at top of state courts (ARN Editorial): Candidates for the top judicial posts in Texas have the lowest profiles of anyone on the ballot. It's difficult for them to raise money to travel and advertise, and so voters naturally have a harder time distinguishing one candidate from another and grasping the legal issues at stake than they do comprehending the differences between, say, George W. Bush and Garry Mauro.

Oct. 24 -- Hit brakes before warp speed arrives (Bob Greene): LAS VEGAS -- The quasi-official civic slogan here is "24/7," which is fine for this particular town.

Oct. 24 -- Just one, plain telephone, if you please (Rheta Grimsley Johnson): The man at the stadium-sized office-supply store should have pegged me as a difficult customer. I had been pacing the same aisle for 20 minutes.

Oct. 23 -- Hobby offers business skill, political savvy (ARN Editorial): One of the rising, young stars to emerge during this year's campaign is Paul Hobby, Democratic candidate for state comptroller. At 38, Hobby has already acquired the business expertise and political savvy to recommend him for this demanding state office. Plus, he has the kind of desire for public service that lives up to his well-known family name.

Oct. 23 -- Dewhurst and Combs (ARN Editorial): The Land Commission and the Agriculture Commission shouldn't suffer by losing longtime administrators who are running for other offices this year. Two well-qualified Texans are stepping forward to plug the gaps.

Oct. 23 -- Adoptees confronting right to know (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON -- The way Helen Hill sees it, her life as an adoptee has been part of a vast social experiment: "What happens if we seal away the true facts of people's birth?" What happens if adoptees don't know their biological parents?

Oct. 23 -- Judicial activism tempts conservatives (George Will): MADISON, Wis. -- Scott Southworth is a mild-mannered 26-year-old from the small Wisconsin town of New Lisbon. However, his lapel pin -- two tiny feet, symbol of the right-to-life movement -- announces he is a Christian conservative not bashful about announcing his convictions in an uncongenial setting.

Oct. 22 -- We don't need another goof on criminal court (ARN Editorial): Two years ago, Texas voters threw a perfectly good Democratic judge off the Court of Criminal Appeals in favor of an unqualified Republican, Steve Mansfield, who was such an embarrassment even to Republicans that they sought, in vain, to have the election's outcome overturned.

Oct. 22 -- To lobby Congress, be a Republican (Molly Ivins): You have to draw the line somewhere, and personally, I think House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and the House Republican leadership stepped way over it when they used their political offices to try to get a private citizen fired by a private organization because they don't like the man's politics.

Oct. 22 -- 'Peace' threatens Israel's very existence (Cal Thomas): When the Israeli delegation arrived at Maryland's Wye Plantation for "peace talks" with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and his friends in the Clinton administration, it walked into a trap.

Oct. 21 -- Cornyn has best grasp of role for attorney general (ARN Editorial): How Texans vote for attorney general will largely be determined by how they perceive the office.

Oct. 21 -- What's driving voters in this election? (Linda Chavez): A few weeks ago, some political analysts were predicting Republicans could gain as many as six Senate and 20 or more House seats in upcoming congressional elections. Now, less than two weeks to the election, many of these same experts are ready to throw in the towel on the GOP.

Oct. 21 -- Vacations taken between hard covers (Bob Greene): The sales receipt, tucked between page 36 and 37, says that I bought the book on April 14, 1997, at Marshall Field's on State Street in Chicago, and that I paid $26.10 for it. It even says what time I bought the book: 10:46 a.m.

Oct. 20 -- Perry would bring benefits for West Texas (ARN Editorial): With polls showing that the outcome of the Texas governor's race offers little suspense, attention statewide is more acutely focused on the contest for lieutenant governor between Republican Agriculture Commissioner Rick Perry and Democratic State Comptroller John Sharp.

Oct. 20 -- Tyson's shrinks down for the count (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON - At least they didn't crown him the Mental Health Poster Child. They just said Mike Tyson was "mentally fit to return to boxing." Whatever that means.

Oct. 20 -- California may lead GOP Senate gains (George Will): SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Republican drive for 60 senators - a filibuster-proof majority - might involve this possible carom shot: If Republican Matt Fong, California's treasurer, pulls well ahead of Sen. Barbara Boxer, that might help elect Republican senators in, say, Nevada, South Carolina and Kentucky.

Oct. 19 -- Underwood, Stenholm lead regional ballot (ARN Editorial): Early voting for the Nov. 3 election begins today and lasts through Oct. 30. For your consideration as you go to the polls, here are the Abilene Reporter-News editorial board's endorsements in contested area and Taylor County races. Some individual editorials will appear during the two weeks of early voting.

Oct. 19 -- Nation created by Gandhi still exists (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - I had heard of it, this essay by a female writer from India. If you read a lot, if you follow current affairs, if you have progressive politics, you would find mention of it here and there. The woman who won the Booker Prize last year, they said, has risked becoming a pariah in her own country by opposing India's nuclear tests.

Oct. 19 -- Some 'great women' leaders snubbed (Cal Thomas): 'Does your wife work?" the inquiring mind wanted to know. "All women work," I replied with my best '90s sensitivity. "They are compensated in different ways."

Oct. 18 -- Bush, Perry lead statewide ballot lineup (ARN Editorial): Early voting for the Nov. 3 election begins Monday and runs through Oct. 30. For your consideration, here are the Abilene Reporter-News editorial board's list of endorsements in contested statewide races. Endorsements for area and Taylor County contested races will be printed on Monday. Individual editorials will appear during the two weeks of early voting.

Oct. 18 -- '98 election won't be about Clinton (Morton Kondracke): Everyone who hoped, feared or predicted the Monica Lewinsky case would dominate the November election campaign may be proved wrong.

Oct. 18 -- Tired of Monica? Look to Louisiana (Dale McFeatters): Bill Clinton and Edwin Edwards have something in common: They both feel they are victims of an out-of-control, overzealous federal prosecutor. But there the resemblance between the president and the raffish ex-governor of Louisiana ends.

Oct. 18 -- Family thinks she's crazy but loves her still (Sharon Randall): They know I'm here for a few weeks not just to visit but to spend time alone at the lake, taking in the season.

Oct. 17 -- One day's work can make such a huge impact (ARN Editorial): Abilenians have a well-established track record of following up good intentions with concrete action. And on no other single day of the year is the impact of that follow-through more evident than on Make a Difference Day.

Oct. 17 -- Bailing out the IMF (ARN Editorial): In the end, Congress did the right thing and reached a deal to provide an additional $18 billion for the International Monetary Fund.

Oct. 17 -- Antidote for being angry all the time (Bob Greene): NEW ORLEANS -- 1998 is destined to go down in history as the year of the mess in Washington, although it will also be remembered as the year the singing cowboys died. The two are not as unconnected as some might think.

Oct. 17 -- Facts of life clear outside the Beltway (Rheta Grimsley Johnson): FISHTRAP HOLLOW, Miss. -- Last night at pink twilight I arrived to find my neighbor Danny Barnes knocking down the field of dead sunflowers behind the house in the hopes a few birds will discover the seed before the dove season ends.

Oct. 16 -- Relief in sight for downtown's worst problem (ARN Editorial): Downtown Abilene's biggest problem will soon be getting a major makeover.

Oct. 16 -- Got that number? (ARN Editorial): While many Texas consumers welcome the convenience of telemarketing, others prefer to exercise their option of not being bothered by unwanted calls at home.

Oct. 16 -- Giving at office gets new meaning (Ellen Goodman): WASHINGTON - Nancy Nearing gave at the office. And I do not mean the United Way. The 42-year-old Virginia mother of two gave a kidney. To her boss.

Oct. 16 -- Is one mugging worse than another? (George Will): WASHINGTON - Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten and left lashed to a fence near Laramie through a cold high plains night. He has died. His assailants should die: Wyoming has capital punishment for first-degree murder. Now, imagine the trouble they would be in if Wyoming were one of the 21 states with laws against "hate crimes" based on sexual orientation.

Oct. 15 -- Republicans near takeover of high court (ARN Editorial): Texas Supreme Court Justice Raul Gonzalez' announcement this month that he will retire at the end of the year sent shock waves through the Texas legal community - not simply that the state is losing a respected jurist, but that his retirement means Texas could see an all-Republican Supreme Court by January.

Oct. 15 -- World economy seeks sensible course (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - Have you heard the one about the young lefty who was distributing pamphlets on the streets of London?

Oct. 15 -- Bawling about Republican 'meanness' (Cal Thomas): Three weeks before the election, Democrats of the liberal persuasion are bawling about the "meanness" of Republicans in an attempt to divert attention from substantive arguments about important issues, such as impeachment.

Oct. 14 -- Abilene to host historic hockey game this week (ARN Editorial): For all that most folks in the Big Country knew until recently, "puck" was the name of an elfin character in a Shakespearean comedy, "offsides" was when the defense crossed the line of scrimmage before the football was snapped, and ice was something we put in our soft drinks.

Oct. 14 -- Thanks for reading this (ARN Editorial): The gentle tones of Southern hopsitality are not the sounds we associate with New York, but now the City, as those who live there call it, is really getting serious about overcoming its image as the rudeness capital of the country.

Oct. 14 -- Motherhood isn't what it used to be (Linda Chavez): 'What's happened to motherhood?" my friend asked at dinner the other night. The question seemed to come out of nowhere, as the seven of us - four women, three men, each married - had been discussing all manner of things: urban crime, the breakdown of discipline in the schools, the current impeachment mess.

Oct. 14 -- Soft music, sweaters and election day (Bob Greene): LAS VEGAS - As Election Day approaches in states and municipalities all across the United States, it has never been clearer that a drastic change is needed in the way political candidates are permitted to advertise themselves.

Oct. 13 -- Harassment adds to burden famillies face (ARN Editorial): The question of when life support should be removed from a patient is a painful and personal one, and Virginia Gov. James Gilmore has shown how the state can make it a whole lot worse.

Oct. 13 -- Among Roman ruins (ARN Editorial): Americans who believe impeachment is too cumbersome and time-consuming a process to change leaders in midstream may want to consider the case of Italy.

Oct. 13 -- Just have your voice mail call mine (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON - We are at lunch when my friend leans over the table to share his latest encounter with telephone technology. It all began with a voice mail message, which wasn't in itself so startling. But my friend was at his desk when the phone didn't ring.

Oct. 13 -- Human cactus seeks 6th Senate term (George Will): COLUMBIA, S.C. - Sen. Fritz Hollings, 76, a Democrat seeking a sixth full term, is a human cactus, which is endearing in an age of politicians who are offensively ingratiating.

Oct. 12 -- Suspension over toy gun is outlandish (ARN Editorial): Nine-year-old Brandon MacLean, fourth-grader and Boy Scout, may be expelled from his Virginia grade school for a year. He's already serving a 10-day suspension.

Oct. 12 -- Clown enters, stage left (ARN Editorial): If Watergate was Shakespearean tragedy, President Clinton's woes are Restoration farce with a randy noble and a bawdy wench.

Oct. 12 -- Nation caught between love, justice: DALLAS - If nothing else, the numbing episode that President Clinton has thrust the nation into has provided a fascinating interplay between love and justice.

Oct. 12 -- Impeachment: An outside perspective (Cal Thomas): Occasionally, in the heat of rhetorical battle, an outside voice can help clarify a contentious issue. Two such voices came to me last week. One was the voice of the House Judiciary Committee's chief Republican investigator, David P. Schippers.

Oct. 11 -- Bush shifts debate from cost to value (ARN Editorial): If anyone could make Texans happy about paying taxes, it's George W. Bush.

Oct. 11 -- Real economic woes loom ahead: WASHINGTON -- OK, class, if anybody's gone a week without hearing or telling a Monica & Bill joke, hold up your hand.

Oct. 11 -- Secret is out: Politics is fun and easy (Dale McFeatters): WASHINGTON -- Old conspiracies die hard.

Oct. 11 -- Speaking of stories, did you hear the one... (Sharon Randall): This is for some fifth graders in Monterey, Calif.

Oct. 10 -- House inquiry a duty made into necessity (ARN Editorial): When President Clinton learned a number of months ago that he was going to be questioned about Monica Lewinsky by Paula Jones' lawyers, he called Dick Morris to get political advice, was warned the truth could cost him dearly with the public and then decided to take another route, according to the Kenneth Starr report.

Oct. 10 -- Welcome Wagon grinds to a halt (Bob Greene): LAS VEGAS -- Throughout this bizarre news year of 1998, it has been said many times that all the coverage of the craziness in Washington would force other, less titillating, stories out of the newspapers and off the evening newscasts.

Oct. 10 -- Desperately seeking William Faulkner (Rheta Grimsley Johnson): RIPLEY, Miss. -- Count the stone books stacked behind the 8-foot effigy of Col. William Clark Falkner in the town cemetery, and you'll go blind.

Oct. 9 -- Stenholm vote best for these circumstances: (ARN Editorial): 'Aristos" is an ancient Greek word that means, roughly, "the best for a given situation."

Oct. 9 -- Golf, like midlife, is absolutely unfair (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON - When I turned 50, I discovered three essential facts of middle age: periodontia, bifocals and golf.

Oct. 9 -- Kosovo reveals NATO shortcomings (George Will): WASHINGTON - Sophisticated weaponry can serve, or even produce, simple-minded policy. We may yet see again how some marvels in the U.S. military inventory, cruise missiles, produce a retrograde policy that can properly be called high-tech isolationism.

Oct. 8 -- State's highest court moves to more openness (ARN Editorial): For most Texans, the state Supreme Court is an aloof, mysterious body. Made up of distant figures recognized not by their faces but by dehumanizing black robes, the Supreme Court conducts its business - whatever it is - not only behind a high, imposing bench, but also behind closed doors. We see the names on the ballot, but the people and their actions remain elusive.

Oct. 8 -- Cool stroll downtown (ARN Editorial): If you're looking for a way to escape all the TV talk about Bill and Monica, tonight's Artwalk offers a pleasing avenue.

Oct. 8 -- Character found in public record (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - Suppose, just suppose, that you have decided to run for county commissioner because you have a deep interest in sludge. You could be interested in sludge for many reasons - say, it had showed up in your backyard, for example.

Oct. 8 -- The corruption of the Secret Service (Cal Thomas): President Clinton is like a man with a bad cold - he tends to infect those with whom he comes in contact.

Oct. 7 -- Counties need to re-examine road systems (ARN Editorial): The image of the rough-hewn county commissioner perched on a road grader to supervise road maintenance in his neck of the woods might still be one that comes to mind for many Big Country residents.

Oct. 7 -- Free speech invoked to justify filth (Linda Chavez): If it's truly despicable, disgusting and otherwise indefensible, invoke the First Amendment to justify it. The "it" in question this time around is a new play by Terrence McNally, "Corpus Christi," which opens next week in New York.

Oct. 7 -- Glimpsing top of a distant mountain (Bob Greene): 'I just saw Doak Walker," my brother said on the phone that afternoon last January. "He'd parked his car and he was heading up the mountain. He told me you'd called him and the two of you had talked."

Oct. 6 -- Inquiry should be open, but no free-for-all (ARN Editorial): A formal impeachment inquiry by the House should not turn into some kind of free-for-all witch hunt in which everything and anything President Clinton may ever have done during his presidency is further investigated and debated.

Oct. 6 -- Boy and his dinosaur (ARN Editorial): Chris Wolfe is 8, in third grade, lives in Phoenix and has a dinosaur named after him. And not some chicken-sized dinosaur either, but a 500-pounder, 10 to 12 feet long, with an armored neck plate and three horns. Is that too cool or what?

Oct. 6 -- The intra-gender gap opens again (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON - So we part company. Again. Just a couple of weeks ago, I took some small comfort from the fact that this sex scandal had not opened up a gender gap. Since then, I've been reminded in no uncertain terms that it's opened up the intra-gender gap. Again.

Oct. 6 -- Clinton's smearing of Kenneth Starr: By now Bill Clinton's technique in dealing with people who need to be discredited so that he can be believed is all too familiar. He developed it in the rancorous local politics of Arkansas and brought it with him to Washington.

Oct. 5 -- Clinton merits applause over Mideast pact (ARN Editorial): The president is a man under suspicion these days, and when he arranges to conduct a Washington meeting of Mideast rivals in October, the guess of many is that he has really got his eye on the congressional elections in November.

Oct. 5 -- Past the planet barrier (ARN Editorial): Until 1954, no one had run a mile in four minutes. Then the mark was broken and ever since a stampede of athletes has run the mile in well under four minutes.

Oct. 5 -- Danger to State Board of Education (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - Election alert! Heads up, voters. There are some down-ballot races that could cause us major embarrassment, not to mention putting the public schools at risk.

Oct. 5 -- Israelis suffering from erosion of land (Cal Thomas): The picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat flanking President Clinton in the Oval Office makes one wonder what the president promised Netanyahu to get him to agree to the conditional turnover of an additional 13 percent of West Bank land.

Oct. 4 -- 'Team Bush' takes aim at ballot sweep (ARN Editorial): Gov. George W. Bush is poised not just to become the first governor in Texas history to claim successive four-year terms but to win re-election in record proportions. Polls show him leading Democrat Garry Mauro by a staggering 50 percentage points or more. The Bush "phenomenon" is quickly reaching full maturity.

Oct. 4 -- Searching for roots of impeachment: WASHINGTON -- Only in times of political and constitutional stress are Americans reminded of the first Earl of Suffolk's dubious role in history. The minister to England's King Richard II was the first official to be impeached.

Oct. 4 -- Clinton fortunate in choice of enemies (Joseph Spear): Rarely has a politician as controversial as Bill Clinton been blessed with such a nasty, sorry, low-down array of enemies.

Oct. 4 -- Cat people, dog people, needing love (Sharon Randall): The clerk at the check-out stand glanced at my arm.

Oct. 3 -- McGwire puts cap on notable baseball season (ARN Editorial): After Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run in the last game of the season in his home ballpark in St. Louis, he unabashedly pronounced himself in awe of himself. Join the crowd, fellow. This nation is in awe of you.

Oct. 3 -- Wise move by the Fed (ARN Editorial): The Federal Reserve, which has done a masterful job under Chairman Alan Greenspan of keeping money tight and inflation under control, demonstrated the other day that it realizes it has a different kind of problem at the moment.

Oct. 3 -- Sosa, McGwire teach by example (Linda Chavez): Just in case you thought this year's remarkable home-run contest between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa was about baseball, think again. The race was a metaphor for race -- at least, that's what no less an authority than ABC's Cokie Roberts implied on the Sunday morning news show "This Week."

Oct. 3 -- Reason for being here in the first place (Bob Greene): CHILTON, WIS. -- I remember, early in the story of the Rogers children, going back to my hotel after a day of court testimony.

Oct. 2 -- Abilene wants to hear those whistles blow (ARN Editorial): Having found new uses for its old railroad depot, Abilene now is bargaining to help pay for a station master and a new office to handle rail passenger traffic, which the city hasn't seen for more than 30 years.

Oct. 2 -- The modern remedy: In October 1918, Dr. David Smith of the Texas Tech University Health Science Center reminds us, the flu cost 195,000 Americans their lives. That epidemic was a lesson in public health for the country, and the most effective weapon we have learned is prevention.

Oct. 2 -- Relax, parents, it's not all your fault (Ellen Goodman): BOSTON -- Chalk this up as the Great Parenting Paradox of our era.

Oct. 2 -- Giuliani most successful conservative (George Will): NEW YORK -- Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who says he has given "no thought yet" to national aspirations, is campaigning for Republican candidates in Iowa, New Hampshire (those are the first two states he mentions; he is such a tease), South Carolina, California, Florida and elsewhere. This stirs speculation there might be a national role for him in 2000, even though:

Oct. 1 -- Fall election is about Texas, not Washington (ARN Editorial): The view from inside the Washington, D.C., Beltway isn't always the view from out here in the real world. Take the November elections, for instance.

Oct. 1 -- Republicans blinded by obsessions (Molly Ivins): AUSTIN - Some smart-aleck aide in the White House said to Newsday the other day, "If we got Netanyahu and Arafat coming here and shaking hands on a deal for an Israeli pullout, the question is, will we get a 'Wag the Dog' interpretation?"

Oct. 1 -- Breadbasket Ukraine now basket case (Cal Thomas): As Americans worry about a wild stock market that is still thousands of points higher than it was at the beginning of the decade, many citizens of Ukraine, once Russia's breadbasket during the days of the Soviet Union, now find themselves becoming basket cases.