EDITORIALS : It’s a boy

War? Not a great thing. - Monday, October 6, 2008

Payday lender packs it in

Advance America, the largest payday loan provider in Arkansas, announced Tuesday it will close stores in the state because of Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s threat of lawsuits over highinterest loans. - Monday, October 6, 2008

The Palin rebound

DAVID BROOKS The New York Times

There are some moments when members of a political movement come together as one, sharing the same thoughts, feeling the same emotions, breathing the same shallow breaths. One of those occasions occurred Thursday night when Republicans around the country crouched nervously behind their sofas, glimpsed out tentatively at their flat screens and gripped their beverages tightly as Sarah Palin walked onto the debate stage at Washington University in St. Louis. - Sunday, October 5, 2008

A time to plan Celebrate National Planning Month

Do you know all the organizations and causes that have chosen October as their month for recognition ? - Sunday, October 5, 2008

Murderous malaria

For most people in the West, malaria is one of those diseases they only think about when an epidemic results in a death toll that grabs the headlines. - Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Rundown : United our libraries should stand

DAVE PEROZEK

It might be time to take another stab at uniting Benton County’s libraries. - Sunday, October 5, 2008

Right Turn : The blame game

CAL THOMAS

When Speaker Nancy Pelosi took to the floor of the House on Monday to blame Republicans for the financial turmoil and charge them with a laissez-fare attitude toward regulation, it seemed like a calculated effort to shift attention and accountability from what Democrats have done to create the current conditions. Fortunately, we have YouTube, so Democrats can run from their records, but they can’t hide. - Sunday, October 5, 2008

ACORN, Obama and the mortgage mess

MONA CHAREN

The financial markets were teetering on the edge of an abyss two weeks ago. The secretary of the Treasury was literally on his knees begging the speaker of the House not to sabotage the bailout bill. - Sunday, October 5, 2008

LETTERS

Where have the savings gone? - Sunday, October 5, 2008

EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

Voters are paying attention Those who fear that democracy is losing its vigor in the modern West should have been reassured by the first debate between the U.S. presidential candidates. Not because of anything that emerged from the debate itself, for it revealed almost nothing that was not already known about the two candidates and their views. But because, if polls are any guide, American voters are beginning to show a real shift in their allegiance. And that shift seems to be based not on what the candidates had to say to each other, or on what spin doctors had to say about it, but on the voters’ own assessment of what is happening in their country. ... The Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, has long performed well in estimates of the national popular vote: he reportedly leads his Republican rival, John McCain, by an average of 5 percent across all polls. But Sen. Obama has struggled to win enough support in the states he is likely to need to win to secure an electoral-college majority. - Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Rockwood Files : Dirty laundry: Writer spills secrets of the home office

GWEN ROCKWOOD

It’s just another typical day at the office. As I type these words, I can hear my office mates down the hall. They’re searching for the bubblegumflavored toothpaste, opening drawers and cabinets, and coming up empty. “Mom, where’s the toothpaste?” So I stop my work mid-sentence and jog down the hall to hand them the tube of toothpaste that was right there in the top drawer the whole time. - Sunday, October 5, 2008

The New York Times : McCain’s suspension bridge to nowhere

FRANK RICH

What we learned last month is that the man who always puts his “country first” will take the country down with him if that’s what it takes to get to the White House. - Sunday, October 5, 2008

ALL THUMBS

Ernest Hemingway

Appearing each Saturday, “All Thumbs” is The Benton County Daily Record’s take on the people, events and issues deserving a “thumbs up” for a noteworthy accomplishment or good deed or a “thumbs down” for magnificent failure or just general stupidity. Thumbs up to Bella Vista for recently being ranked one of America’s Top 10 Best Healthy Places to Retire by U.S. News & World Report. - Saturday, October 4, 2008

An amicus brief for Neville

PAT BUCHANAN

On Sept. 30, 1938, 70 years ago, Neville Chamberlain visited Adolf Hitler’s apartment in Munich, got his signature on a three-sentence declaration and flew home to Heston Aerodrome. - Saturday, October 4, 2008

LETTERS

Remembering the bad old days There are not many of us left who remember the Great Depression of the 1930s. My parents were sharecroppers on a dry-bean farm. Thirtyfive miles east of Colorado Springs, they gave one third of the beans they raised for rent. They were hard times. My parents worked hard to feed us, but if someone needed a home, they took them in. - Saturday, October 4, 2008

Breaking China : The bottomless national credit card

DOUG OLIVER

In the ongoing debate about federal bailouts for the financial sector, one phrase keeps cropping up — U.S. taxpayers should not get stuck with the bill. An even more loathsome scenario would be passing the cost to our children or grandchildren. - Friday, October 3, 2008

EDITORIALS : The cost to teach

For the first time in a long time (we’re talking the days when women were required to be single to keep their jobs), Arkansas has a code of conduct for its educators. - Friday, October 3, 2008

OTHER OPINIONS : Newman did it his way

Paul Newman died last Friday of cancer. He was 83. - Friday, October 3, 2008

LETTERS

Country seems to be spinning out of control It’s only a personal opinion, but I am afraid to read the newspaper or watch the news. Every day, something worse has happened to our nation. It doesn’t matter where we place blame. The fact is it is happening, and we the people not only have a right to panic, but we need to do something. - Friday, October 3, 2008

EDITORIALS : A Prison Problem

More bars in more places. - Thursday, October 2, 2008

LETTERS

Police chief must enforce the laws Since when can the Bella Vista chief of police unilaterally decide not to enforce certain laws? Where do the City Council and mayor come in? I guess they must serve at the pleasure of Chief Jim Wozniak, not the other way around. - Thursday, October 2, 2008

Foreign Affairs : Green the bailout

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Many things make me weep about the current economic crisis, but none more than this brief economic history: In the 19th century, America had a railroad boom, bubble and bust. Some people made money; many lost money. But even when that bubble burst, it left America with an infrastructure of railroads that made transcontinental travel and shipping dramatically easier and cheaper. - Thursday, October 2, 2008

Debate Had Substance

On Friday night, they got it right. At their first debate, John McCain and Barack Obama reminded the nation that two fine candidates are running for president, both of them smart, informed and passionate — everything those silly attack ads would have you believe they are not. - Thursday, October 2, 2008

EDITORIALS : Fixing No. 5

As Rogers Mayor Steve Womack observed last week, the reconstruction of Fire Station No. 5 is similar to the proposal being floated in Washington to rescue the mortgage industry. - Wednesday, October 1, 2008

LETTERS

Ready for a real change Aren’t Republicans the ones who have been in control for 20 of the last 28 years, including the last eight years? Weren’t the best years for most Americans, and not just the rich, the eight years that President Clinton was in office? - Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Pica Pole : Family welcomes visitor to front porch

KENT MARTS

In the past few weeks, the Marts household routine has been modified by a visitor. - Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Limit Gas Exports to Iran

For decades, the world’s top objective in the Middle East has been to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. … As hopes of a peace deal have faded, a huge threat to stability and peace in the Middle East has materialized in the nuclear ambitions of Iran. Every credible source believes Tehran, ruled by Islamist radicals who deny the Holocaust and openly declare Israel should be wiped off the map, is well on its way to producing a nuclear weapon. - Wednesday, October 1, 2008

EDITORIALS : The Ups and Downs of Assessing

“Don’t look at me” is essentially the answer Benton County Assessor Bill Moutray has given to residents’ questions about the strangely high property values his office has handed down to taxpayers this year. He reiterated that message while speaking at a meeting of the Benton County Republican Men on Friday. - Tuesday, September 30, 2008

LETTERS

Drilling in Alaska means little for us Thanks, but no thanks. We’ve heard Palin repeat that often enough. We all know she was for the Bridge to Nowhere until it became an embarrassment, but she still kept the bridge money, which she so conveniently forgot to mention. We should also know that Alaska received more earmarks per citizen than any other state. Should she become vice president, it makes you wonder how she could convince Congress that Alaska still needs earmarks when other states don’t. - Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Liberties : Obama missed ‘Code Red’ opportunity

MAUREEN DOWD

OXFORD, Miss. — The first debate seemed like the perfect moment for Barack Obama to re-enact the Code Red courtroom scene from “A Few Good Men,” to slide under John McCain’s skin and irritate until he goaded McCain into doing exactly what he really wanted to do: tell off the whippersnapper who’d never bled for his country. - Tuesday, September 30, 2008