Organizations representing Virginia Beach firefighters and police are entitled to their opinions against extending Norfolk's light rail. They're entitled to worry about the costs of a project that will be measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars, at least some of it paid for with local taxes.

It's sad that it has come to this, but Norfolk School Board's decision to take parents to court to force them to take a role in discipline and supervision of their children is long overdue. Most parents support their children's education and help teachers accomplish it. Most students want to learn and exhibit appropriate conduct while in school.

Civil libertarian John Whitehead drew gasps from the audience as he surveyed the parlous state of American freedoms last week during his turn at the Distinguished Speakers series at Farmington County Club.

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LOS ANGELES--Hate speech is a form of vandalism. It defaces the environment, and, like a broken window, if left untended it signals to other hoodlums that the coast is clear to do more damage. But unlike the proverbial broken window, which urban police departments and criminologists urge us to repair to maintain the aura of social order, no one seems in a hurry to nip hate speech in the bud. Since ill-fated attempts by several universities to regulate hate speech in the 1980s and '90s, any discussion of reining in racist taunts degrades into charges of political correctness, ending abruptly with invocation of the First Amendment. America's future…

WASHINGTON--Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen hit close to many American homes with her comment that Ann Romney, stay-at-home mother of five boys, "had never worked a day in her life." The broadside didn't just hit a presidential candidate's wife, but also a wide swath of Middle America moms. It turns out the typical stay-at-home mom doesn't live next door to the Desperate Housewives in a four-bedroom house on Wisteria Lane. Instead, as the New York Times reported after the Rosen-Romney dustup, 65 percent of stay-at-home, married mothers of children under 18 live in a household with an annual income below $75,000....

NEARLY EVERYONE reading this paper is part of what we've all become aware of as "the 99 percent," thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement of last year. A group of residents in the Fredericksburg area has been meeting recently to talk about whether the increasing economic inequality affecting our lives is something we should just accept--as we apparently are all too willing to do. We thought we would share a little of our stories, hoping that those who read this will see that they have similar stories. I'm part of the 99 percent. We have two cars--11 and 20 years old. We carry thousands of dollars in debt to pay for our son in college, and every month we send a check to help out a parent. Rather than replace the lawn mower that broke down on us last year, I borrow my neighbor's. We have to be very frugal and it's hard to see why people whose…

'Equalized' tax rates? Don't make me laugh I have to chuckle when I read articles and letters about equalized real-estate tax rates and lower personal-property taxes in Spotsylvania....

Jamie Radtke is a 'real' conservative In the June primary, three Republicans will be asking for your vote for the U.S. Senate. Jamie Radtke and Bob Marshall are conservatives; George Allen claims to be....

A CERTAIN presidential candidate, one of his critics observed, is a dangerous radical, with no respect for Christianity and western values. To make matters worse, opponents say this candidate is more sympathetic to international governments than to the nation he is trying to lead. Who is being discussed here? Perhaps Barack Obama, portrayed by his adversaries as a Muslim and a foreigner who has nothing in common with ordinary Americans and their values? In fact, these objections were raised by the president of Yale University when he contemplated the terrifying prospect of Thomas Jefferson being elected president in 1800....