Do you know the story of the Incredible Disappearing Border Fence? It’s an object lesson in gesture politics and homeland insecurity. It’s a tale of hollow rhetoric, meaningless legislation and bipartisan betrayal. And in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, it’s a helpful learning tool as you assess the promises of immigration enforcement converts now running for president.

A Stone Soup cartoon saved from several years ago:

Two women at the water fountain, co-workers, bemoaning how much there is to do at Christmas: decorating, shopping, wrapping, writing cards, baking cookies, all the social events and children’s pageants.

As we wait patiently for the Republican version of a local platform, thoughts turn to just what the Republicans bring to local government in Fayette County.

Why should Major League Baseball (MLB) be immune to the cultural depravity that has touched every area of public life — from politics to religion, from corporate life to personal relationships?

Given the decision-making power of Santa Claus on the matter of gifts, my children make sure they leave Mr. Claus some seriously good cookies on Christmas Eve. However, most children don’t know that there is much more to the real Saint Nick than toys and cookies. In addition to being generous, the jolly fellow could easily be considered the patron saint of purity.

At a Thanksgiving luncheon, I was holding my 18-month-old nephew, Tripp, as I visited tables to speak to folks. I stopped and greeted a friend, patting him on his back. Tripp watched quietly then leaned down, stretching out his little arm and patted Billy, too, in that awkward, uncoordinated way that babies have.

In a recent radio interview I was asked the hypothetical question: “If you had to choose between candidate A who did not profess to be a Christian but had extensive political experience and candidate B who was a devout Christian but only had limited political experience, who would you vote for?”

“Hurry up and wait!” is the sardonic phrase a lot of us use to describe the phenomenon of having to rush to get someplace on time only to have to wait before whatever event it is comes to pass. In the past 10 years, I’ve come to think of the season of Advent illustrating that very phenomenon.

For the past year, Hillary Clinton’s Democratic presidential nomination has seemed inevitable. She raised more money than any presidential candidate in history. She performed well in an endless series of debates. She carved out careful positions on difficult issues, protecting her left flank while not alienating moderates. She used her husband to woo crowds and raise money, while never letting him overshadow her on the hustings.

Our catastrophe-obsessed traditional media calls it the subprime mortgage “crisis” or “meltdown.” Here’s what happened:

Here’s what many parents and grandparents do not understand: The Internet is profoundly changing the behavior of American children and stunting their emotional growth. Many 8-year-olds are now exposed to things that 13-year-olds didn’t know just a decade ago.

Shoeless Joe Jackson was the only man to bat .382 in his last season in the major leagues. After that he was banned for life for his role in the “black sox scandal,” the deliberate throwing of the 1919 World Series.

One might call the annual Christmas Bird Count, sponsored by the National Audubon Society, a kind of bellwether for the environment of the Western Hemisphere.

I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. This family has been one of the most difficult to track I have ever encountered. The main reason is the lack of records in Pike County but there's no use crying about it. They should be there but, for whatever reason, they aren't there and that's that. When that happens you have to get very creative in your research methods and think of other ways - many off the beaten path and possibly unorthodox - to reach your goal. This is going to take a lot more time than I have right now. What I want to do this week is wrap up what little information I have been able to gather, record it here, and set it aside for later.

Some time back, I was counseling with a gentleman who was having troubles with the lady in his life. In exasperation, he finally said, “They are insane!”

Every Democrat running for president thinks anti-illegal immigration activists are all racists and xenophobes. Do we really need a Republican nominee for president who thinks the same way?

Right. Yes. Mitt Romney, if elected our president, “will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest.” Nor should any candidate “become the spokesman for his faith.” Yes, naturally.

WASHINGTON — David Axelrod, the seasoned Chicago Democratic political operative who is chief strategist for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, was taken by surprise in the last minute of CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Dec. 2. Howard Wolfson, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s spokesman, accused Obama of running a “slush fund.” In fact, the Clinton campaign was spreading that story privately months ago.

My job was to move the rock. I knew it was because that’s what Big Brother James told me to do. At 8 years old, I always did what he said, because big brothers are always right. He never would do or say anything to get his little brothers into trouble. I was so naive back then.

Philadelphia — The last six weeks have not been Hillary Clinton’s best. Ever since her first bad debate performance of 2007 in this city in late October, she has spent most of the time on the defensive — forced to answer questions about her own positions, her husband’s statements and her campaign’s tactics. She has seen her lead in national polls shrink and in some Iowa surveys disappear completely.

Books are good gifts to receive and even better gifts to give because you can get books without half the hassles involved in buying many other kinds of gifts. You can easily buy books from the Internet and avoid the mob scenes at the shopping malls.

Last May, firefighters at a Baltimore, Md., fire station came under scrutiny for displaying a deer with an afro wig, gold tooth, gold chain and a cigarette hanging from its mouth.

Atheists are the only people who appear to have been offended by Mitt Romney’s speech about his Mormon faith. Judging by the reaction contained in some newspaper columns, editorials and letters to the editor, atheists are said to have felt “excluded” by Romney’s failure to acknowledge that tolerance of the anti-religious is part of America’s tradition.

What does it take for a student to be successful in college? That is a question I ask myself every fall as a college professor teaching many first-year college students. Every student in my class has successfully completed high school but not every student will enjoy the same success in college.

Renewed public discourse about the advisability of lowering the legal drinking age, largely fueled by former Middlebury College President John M. McCardell, Jr., has opened a different front in the war on substance use and abuse among young people.

“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”

Christmas never comes to me without a childhood memory that, in turn, throws its arms around another memory and brings it tagging along.

As dawn breaks tentatively and one can begin to identify the world outside the bedroom doors, the late sleeper already has choices to make: Go back to sleep? Burrow into the pillows and take a chance on getting enough air to live? Watch the trees begin to take individual forms?

A couple of years ago our church began to work with a ministry that came in and helped us to strengthen our leadership and clearly define our mission and core values. This ministry was headed up by a passionate minister of the gospel named Larry Easton. Larry and I had many discussions about what church is really about. It’s a subject that I believe many people wonder about. Why go to church? What is it really all about? Is it simply tradition that has been passed down by our forefathers, or is it something that is designed by God? If it is designed by God, then it should take top priority in our much too busy lives.

President Bush seemed at a loss for words this week when he was asked during a press conference if he would use his influence to help a Saudi rape victim who has drawn international attention. The young woman was raped 14 times by seven men and now faces her own imprisonment and 200 lashes in a sentence imposed by a Saudi court.