In a burst of clear thinking, the national Democratic Party in 2007 permitted just four states — New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina — to hold their presidential nominating contests before Feb. 5, 2008.

Lately I’ve been told that I live in my own little world. That the way I view stuff is totally different than the way most people do.

A few weeks ago, a gentleman attending our church’s Men’s Prayer Breakfast asked me, “What can we, as the men of the church, do to make your life easier?”

Ideas have consequences. Inaction has consequences. For the past several years, I’ve chronicled the Left’s escalating war on military recruiters — and the apathetic, weak-kneed response to it. The anti-recruiter thugs on college campuses and in liberal enclaves have thrived thanks to a combination of public indifference, law enforcement fecklessness and left-wing ideological apologism.

The joke’s on the jokesters — the late-night comics punching away at John McCain for the unforgivable offense of having attained his three score and 10. (For kids, that’s a reference to a really, really old book called the Bible, and a “score,” guys, is 20.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Preparing to hear oral arguments Tuesday on the extent of gun rights guaranteed by the Constitution’s Second Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court has before it a brief signed by Vice President Cheney opposing the Bush administration’s stance. Even more remarkably, Cheney is faithfully reflecting the views of President George W. Bush.

What was he thinking of? That was the first question that came to mind when the story of New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s involvement with a prostitution ring was reported in the media.

One of the many mandates of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 calls for oil companies to increase the amount of ethanol mixed with gasoline. President Bush said, during his 2006 State of the Union address, “America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.” Let’s look at some of the “wonders” of ethanol as a replacement for gasoline.

The results of legal questions on two separate issues directly affecting the physical health of countless Americans were reported late last week.

This is the kind of goody-two-shoes friends I have: Whenever Karen, Patti or Susan has a story to tell that involves someone cussing, they will not repeat the word. They spell it out. Unless it’s really bad and then they will only give me the first letter of the word.

The campaign manager for Sen. Barack Obama has a point. David Plouffe wants Hillary Clinton to release her income tax returns for the last several years and couple that with a speedier process for releasing papers from the Clinton White House years. That’s so voters will be able to judge whether Mrs. Clinton’s claims of experience are justified by what she says she did as a virtual “co-president.”

As we enter March, our work at the Capitol continues. While we did many good things this [past] week, I was disappointed when the largest tax cut in the history of the state failed by 10 votes to receive the necessary two-thirds vote to be placed on the ballot as a constitutional amendment in November.

The Senate was preparing for Crossover Day this [past] week, which is the last day we can pass a Senate bill over to the House.

By Dr. Harold Brown

Our culture makes the simplest problems complex and the simplest solutions expensive. None seem simpler than the cause of obesity and its cure, but nutritionists, psychologists, government and popular culture have made its cure both a complex science and mystical mission.

For more than two centuries, the political left has been preoccupied with the fate of criminals, often while ignoring or downplaying the fate of the victims of those criminals.

By Rich Lynch

With the Supreme Court’s decision to examine the constitutionality of D.C.’s gun ban, the nation once again turns to an intense examination of the wording of the Second Amendment.

By Dr. Marvin Folkertsma

They swoon, they faint, they genuflect, they take pictures, scribble notes, cheer until their voices sound like Darth Vader with a cold, and clap until their fingers explode from their hands like short bursts from an assault rifle. And those are just the reporters. Alright, maybe reporters don’t act that way at a Barack Obama rally — of course, who knows what they’re thinking? In the meantime, the rest of the crowd bellows its enthusiasm for change.

In 1954, two girls were born into very different Southern families. One, a white girl, lived in a middle-class, rural Virginia home, while the other arrived to an unwed mother in poor, rural Mississippi.

In these last few weeks of winter weather (one hopes) we began noticing the uptick of birds at the feeders. There have been some birds on our deck and at the feeders all winter, but we occasionally see a real influx to the neighborhood.

A little over a week ago, all Starbucks stores everywhere closed for three hours, from 5:30 to 8:30 at night.

Why did they close down? In the words of CEO Howard Schultz, Starbucks shut down to open up and own up to its “first love.” Starbucks shut down to rediscover and rededicate the company to the “love, passion, and commitment” of the coffee experience.

Thank you very much. It’s great to be here.

You know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. We are going to do things differently and expect a different result. And if we don’t do things differently, well, the results we get, well, they’ll be the results we deserve. Thank you.

Writing in 1954, Lionel Trilling said that most conservatives do not “express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.”

What sauce do you eat with crow? That’s the question asked by yours truly and an unhealthy majority of my fellow travelers on the press bus who could not resist speculating the fallout from Hillary Clinton’s losing the Texas or Ohio primary.

It seems a little boy was praying the Lord’s Prayer and got to a certain point and said, “Forgive us our trash buckets as we forgive those who put trash in our buckets.” Actually, for a small child, that’s pretty good theology.

We may not know precisely, we Americans, what we want the next president to do about energy prices. What we shouldn’t want him — or her — to do is as plain as a gasoline pump primed to deliver at 3-bucks-plus per gallon.

LOS ANGELES — As one group attempts to use California public schools as laboratories to assist children in “coming out” with their nontraditional sexual orientation, another is urging parents to come out from these schools and educate their children with their values at home or in private schools.

We were cold, hungry, and miserable. When the night closed in, fat rain drops pounded us mercilessly, as if to punish us for the worry we were undoubtedly causing our parents. The wind howled like a stricken soul as we clung to our perch. We hung on so the wind and rain would not sweep us away as we chased any thoughts of sleep from our minds, knowing if we slept, we’d surely fall and die.

William F. Buckley Jr., champion of individualism versus collectivism, antagonist of government run amok and constant critic of the nanny-state course America has been steering for far too long, died last week.

The Peachtree City Council acted responsibly when it deferred action on the proposed $1.1 million renovation of the police station. The building has dangerous moisture intrusion and is in need of costly repair. The Police Department staff has already moved to temporary rented housing in anticipation of the repairs.

After early church and Sunday School, Mama and I had hurried to the grocery store. An older friend was ailing badly with the flu, so I told Mama I’d made him some quick homemade chicken soup and she could make the cornbread muffins. Then, I’d run it over to him.