Your four-door hamster wheel

   The grave tone of the TV reporter conveyed end-of-the-world stuff. Brace yourselves, Americans. Events in Iraq likely would cause a jump in gasoline prices.    To which a grave listener would reply: “This is news?”    Whether it’s instability overseas or America’s accelerator-foot summer itch, something always is causing gasoline prices to jump.    …

Comparing two insurgencies

   They have set their sights on the capital. And by now, who would doubt their designs?    Key districts are in their clutches. Their latest stunning victory causes jaws to drop. But why the surprise? God is on their side. Infidels, prepare to fall.     Believe what they say as they pull down the…

The VA’s one big problem

   Eric Shinseki is a stand-up individual: Willing to serve two combat tours in Vietnam. Later, as Army chief of staff, willing to publicly differ with his bosses when the Bush administration soft-pedaled the personnel needs of occupying Iraq.    Having stepped up at the apex of his career to lead the embattled Department of…

A little campus outrage

   The first thing that occurs to an observer is that this is a mismatch in weight classes. The big-gutted officers fit in the sumo category. The college students? They fit in the stringy category.    Stringy but strong-willed, they stand tall — even as they get riot-batoned in their torsos, cuffed and dragged away.…

You’re 13; so decide already

    CBS’s unsung “Trophy Wife” is one of few sitcoms true to its “com.” In part, this is because it allows the children in its cast to be childish.    In one episode, gangly teen Warren, prodded to try out for a sport, announces he’s achieved “Jackie Robinson” status by joining the girls’ field hockey…