When used as a noun, the word debate means, “A discussion involving opposing points of view.” Using such a definition, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are engaging in something other than debate.

There are events in most of our lives that offer opportunities for us to change our ways. The strike by television writers affords one such opportunity.

This will probably kill his career, but I rise to praise Sen. Joe Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut.

Like the war on terrorism, progress in the immigration war is also mixed.

A federal judge in San Francisco has temporarily prevented the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration from using mismatched Social Security data to penalize employers who hire illegal aliens.

Just in time for Halloween comes House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel — henceforth known as Count Rangula — with a bill that would suck more blood from the American taxpayers.

A federal judge in Dallas declared a mistrial in the case of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) when a jury was unable to reach a verdict on 197 counts brought by the government that accused the Muslim charity of funding terrorism.

This is a two-part column. Part one is what you might expect from a politically conservative person who believes “global warming” is a secular religion and that Al Gore deserved the Nobel Peace Prize as much as Yasser Arafat, Le Duc Tho and a myriad of other low-wattage lights, which is to say not at all. The second part may surprise my liberal friends.

Whatever else his critics say of him, no one can fault President Bush for failing to go the extra mile in his efforts to show that neither he, nor the United States, is opposed to the Islamic faith, or to Muslim nations.

Dr. Esam Omeish resigned as a member of the Virginia Commission on Immigration after his anti-Israel remarks in support of "the jihad way" were posted on YouTube. He told a news conference that jihad has nothing to do with violence, but instead is about inner struggles leading to spiritual triumph. We've heard this before. Such explanations are presented after a terrorist act or a radical is exposed. Radicals also have been known to lie, especially to "infidels."

I would not be as bothered by Columbia University’s decision to host Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if Columbia and other universities had a consistent policy toward those they invite to speak and the rules applied equally to conservatives and liberals; to totalitarian dictators and to advocates for freedom and tolerance.

“If you can read this, thank a teacher,” says the bumper sticker on the car in front of me. But literacy is more than the ability to read a bumper sticker. It also includes the accumulation of basic knowledge combined with a way of thinking that allows an individual to lead a life that is personally productive and contributes to America’s health and welfare.

There is no photograph of Satan, so we must improvise with what we have: Osama bin Laden.

Looking like a Middle East version of a bad “Just for Men” beard dye commercial, OBL has resurfaced to deliver another rambling address to America.

DUBLIN, Ireland - Britain’s version of Elvis week reached its crescendo Friday with a memorial service marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

“There’ll Always Be an England” - popular World War II song.

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND — Perhaps there will not always be an England. An exodus unprecedented in modern times, coupled with a record influx of foreigners, is threatening to erode the character of the land of William Shakespeare and overpowering monarchs, a land that served as the cradle for much of American thought, law and culture.

George Orwell, call your office. You can add to your list of opposites (“war is peace,” “ignorance is strength” and “freedom is slavery”) a new one. It is the emerging plan of congressional Democrats, joined by at least one Democratic presidential candidate: “losing is winning.”

PORTSTEWART, NORTHERN IRELAND — Britain’s New Labour, despite criticism from Prime Minister Gordon Brown of a government that has grown too fast and costs too much, has been quietly planning a vast expansion of government.

In every child’s life there comes a time when childhood fantasies are shattered and he or she is forced to accept reality — there is no Santa Claus or tooth fairy; parents don’t always mean it when they promise to stay married until parted by death.

The last (but unfortunately not the final) “debate” among Republican presidential candidates aired Sunday at 10:30 a.m. EDT in the apparent hope that no one would watch. Few did. But among those who watched, or who read the transcript, ideology once again seemed to take precedence over something the voters might consider of greater importance in next year’s election. That something is competence.

First, the disclaimer: I appear on Fox News Channel, one of Rupert Murdoch’s media properties, as a paid contributor. I received neither instructions, nor promises of benefits, in exchange for what I am about to write. We now rejoin our regularly scheduled column.

In the reporting and commentary that preceded Sunday’s Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony for San Diego’s Tony Gwynn and Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr., one ESPN sports journalist observed: “They did it the right way.”

Credit CNN with trying to shake things up in an otherwise dull, exasperating and too-long campaign season with its YouTube Democratic presidential "debate" Monday night. There was a good deal of silliness, like Sen. Chris Dodd claiming he has white hair because he's a hardworking senator (what does that make senators with dark hair, dyed hair or no hair?).

PORTSTEWART, NORTHERN IRELAND — The release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the final book in the Harry Potter series, has momentarily diverted the public’s attention from certain realities: The weather, which normally depresses during winter months when there is less sunlight, has been crying unmercifully on Britain, bringing what the Daily Telegraph calls “chaos and misery” as homes are flooded, flights are canceled, or delayed, and train and subway service is disrupted.

Senate Democrats, who had announced an all-nighter Tuesday to reiterate their anti-war positions, packed it in shortly before midnight, surrendering to a greater desire for a few hours sleep. Only a handful of stalwart senators kept the Senate — technically — in session. We know that Senate Democrats don’t have the staying power to win the war in Iraq, but can’t they even make it through the night without some shuteye?

“All we are saying is give peace a chance,” says John Lennon’s anti-war protest song.

But though President Bush’s recent remarks to the Greater Cleveland Partnership may have borrowed a page from Lennon’s songbook, they sang quite a different tune to a pro-war beat. All Bush is saying is give Gen. David Petraeus a chance.

Some unknown author once said, “Everybody should believe in something; I believe I’ll have another drink.”

Democratic senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took a less cynical and more substantive approach to faith in a recent interview with The New York Times. The quality and depth of one’s relationship with God should be personal and beyond the judgment of others, unless one is running for president and chooses to talk about it as part of a campaign plan to win the election.

If you believe the Bush presidency is a failure, what then?

Do you delight in whacking him like a piñata for the next 18 months with your only objective a Democratic blowout victory in the 2008 election?

Washington, Indiana — It's a long way from Washington, D.C., to Washington, Ind., where my father was born a century ago next January and where I am attending a Thomas family reunion. On the drive from Indianapolis, one passes towns that could fill a Norman Rockwell album. My favorite is named Freedom because, though the town has only a single flashing caution light, it displays many flags. If I don't slow down, I will miss both.

Every night around 11 o’clock my wife reluctantly relinquishes the remote control so that I can select the local newscast we will watch. The scene is familiar to millions of people for whom the TV remote can sometimes cause marital friction and spark a battle for the power to determine what others watch.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was never really a Republican; neither was he really a Democrat, the political party he previously left. From DINO (Democrat in name only), he became a RINO (Republican in name only) and now I guess one might call him, what, an UNO (unaffiliated in name only)?

The Bush administration’s announced goal for Israel and the “Palestinian people” has been two states, living side by side in peace. The administration is two-thirds there. There are now two states — one in Gaza, headed by the militant Hamas organization, which shot its way to power; and another in the West Bank headed by accused Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas. Unfortunately for Israel, there is no peace, which should not surprise those who have been predicting exactly what is now coming to pass.