By Taylor Armerding
CNHI News Service

School is in, and bullying is out.

How do we know? The Massachusetts Legislature tells us so:

"The governor shall annually issue a proclamation setting apart the fourth Wednesday in January as No Name Calling Day ..."

A lame joke, you think? I wish. I'd like to hear such a proclamation read at halftime of a Celtic-Lakers game, after everybody has had a few beers.

But it's not. This is straight from the Massachusetts Statehouse website. It is essentially the opening line of the new, anti-bullying law that is blanketing the state's schools.

By Stephen Dick
CNHI News Service

Many comparisons have linked President Obama to President Franklin Roosevelt. But Obama more channels the presidency of Lyndon Johnson who not only gave us the civil rights law and Medicare but launched a war on poverty.

By Dr. E. Kirsten Peters
CNHI News Service

The disaster in the Gulf has been plenty grim. I don’t envy paymaster Kenneth Feinberg who has now taken over BP’s $20 billion compensation fund.

Feinberg is no stranger to trying to compensate those who have lost much, including the families affected by September 11th and a somewhat lower-profile project to compensate victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech.

By Zachary Hubbard
CNHI News Service

Thank God there are still a few common-sense public servants in the U.S. government. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates is one of them.

By Don McNay
CNHI News Service

"Another day older and deeper in debt"
- Merle Travis

"Flounder: You (expletive) up -- you trusted us."

- Otter in the movie Animal House.

Let's face it, we screwed up.

In the decade before 2008, the financial world was like a presidential inauguration ball.

On Inauguration Day, there is a ball where only the closest insiders and Washington power players get invited.

There are also a lot of parties around town, so just about everybody in Washington feels like they were part of the event.