Wallace G. Smith

With mid-term elections drawing near, politics at its "best" has been on display. One of the most heated and passionate races has not been between two people, but between two views on a contentious issue: embryonic stem cell research and what many call "cloning."

The world has watched with interest (and, perhaps, apprehension) as Pope Benedict XVI has undertaken his first excursion to a Muslim nation. The common thought has been that the Vatican had large stakes riding on the visit and that the pope had to tread carefully.

The weather that we have experienced so far this winter has me harkening back to our first Missouri snowfall, last winter. Being Texans, it was a big deal to us, and since it was a very mild winter last year, it was the only accumulating snowfall that we had as a family.

Public comments that spark outrage in the Muslim world are nothing new. But when the comments come from the spiritual leader of more than one billion Catholics, the world sits up and takes notice – as well it should.

I was reading the comics today (not as much fun as it was when I was a kid, to be sure, but still a pleasant diversion in the morning) and one of the comic strips caught my eye.